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Loads of good stuff announced today for the iPhone OS 3.0. Engadget has the details.

Apple is, unsurprisingly, not going to stand still and let Google Android and Palm WebOS get the upper hand on features. They pretty much went down the wish list of features for the update and checked of every one of them: copy/paste, push notifications, better Bluetooth support, and so on. Pretty much the only feature left out is background apps which Apple again dissed as a large source of battery drain.

Flash is also still a no-show, but that’s not a surprise, nor something I think Apple plans on addressing anytime soon. In any case, I still don’t think Flash would be any good on any phone device at this time.

Consumers get it this summer… I can’t wait.

1. Instapaper – Synergizes web reading between the phone and your computer through ‘the cloud.’
2. Evernote – Synchronizes notes between the phone and the computer through ‘the cloud.’
3. Delivery Status Touch – Tracks orders/packages/deliveries, gets information through ‘the cloud.’
4. Air Sharing – Allows you to copy all sorts of files to the phone over WiFi for viewing and reference without any network access
5. Now Playing – The best way to look up movie times and reviews. Uses phone location data to find theaters around you.

A note about the cloud:

Cloud synchronization is a key theme for many great mobile apps, because, with a persistent internet connection, the iPhone is a revolutionary tool to connect your life when you’re out and about with your life on your computer. This is vitally important to mobile computing because no one wants to enter much information on a little device, but we want that information quickly accessible when we’re out and about. Synching with the could is already working magic for the first 3 apps above (they wouldn’t be on any top list without this feature), and you’ll be seeing it all over the place over the next year (for example, iWork.com).

Apple Announces Last Year of Christmas:

Apple today announced that this is the last year for Christmas. Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, spoke at a joint press conference held with Santa Claus at the North Pole this morning.

(Via DF.)

Apple PR:

Apple today announced that this year is the last year the company will exhibit at Macworld Expo. Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will deliver the opening keynote for this year’s Macworld Conference & Expo, and it will be Apple’s last keynote at the show.

This is a huge black eye for IDG which runs the Expo. There used to be two Macworld Expos each year, one on the East Coast (Boston or New York) in the summer and one in San Francisco in the winter. The East Coast show shriveled up and died after Apple withdrew from the show (to refocus on WWDC and other smaller press events they had more direct control over). I have a hard time believing that the San Francisco show is destined for anything else now that Apple is out. Hell, Steve couldn’t even be bothered to show up this year, and Adobe, Belkin, Seagate, and others have already pulled out.

It’s a sad day for Expo fans.

Apple has an excellent video on the behind-the-scenes design process of the new MacBook.

The bits about the machining process were especially interesting to me because of my mechanical engineering background. I can only hope to someday design something so amazing.

(Via DF.)