iPhone

Multitasking, the feature that has been the absolute top of every iPhone user's want list --which, by proxy became a major marketing point for both Android and webOS -- has made its way to iPhone OS 4.

"We figured out how to implement multitasking for third party apps and avoid those things [battery life and lag]. So that's what took so long," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs this morning.

American business history almost certainly will recall Apple as one of the most successful marketers ever. With iPhone, the company has performed a remarkable magic trick: Making the late-starting mobile seem ready to take over the world. But the hard reality of facts -- not the torrent of glowing emotions coming from American and European financial analysts, journalists or Mac loyalists -- show something else. Apple's smartphone is by no means the roaring success everyone here claims it to be.

Let me preface by reminding that I'm on record as calling Microsoft's mobile strategy a train wreck and asserting that the cell phone is poised to replace the PC. I've also called Apple's mobile platform -- iPhone, iPod touch and App Store -- as leading contender to become the next-generation computing platform.

As AT&T promised, iPhone 3G and 3G S users today gained the ability to send Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) messages.

To enable MMS, users must first have iPhone OS 3.1 installed, and then the AT&T carrier update v5.5 which is installed through iTunes. Once the update is in place, phones must be rebooted, and then the Messages app will feature a camera icon in the lower left corner, which triggers multimedia messages to be sent.

The creative end of the music industry is drawing ever closer to a nexus: a point where composing, recording, distributing and publicizing music meets. You could be holding it in your pocket right now, and it's not the same point of convergence sold by the ounce that drove the industry in the past. It's the ubiquitous, lionized, and oh-so-lucrative iPhone.

Recording

According a statement from Apple today, between Friday's launch of the iPhone 3GS and Sunday evening, its third full day on the market, more than one million units were sold, and six million customers downloaded the iPhone 3.0 software.

Apple's ailing but soon-to-be-returning CEO Steve Jobs said, "Customers are voting, and the iPhone is winning. With over 50,000 applications available from Apple's revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever."

After a lengthy presentation about the free iPhone 3.0 update (which will cost $9.95 for iPod touch users on June 17) and software support from third party companies such as Line6, Planet Waves, Zipcar, ngmoco:), gameloft, Pasco, and TomTom; Apple unveiled its show-closing announcement, the iPhone 3G S, "the fastest iPhone ever made."

The unit will differ from the previous iPhone generations in that it will support 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, include an Autofocus 3 Megapixel camera with a 30 fps video mode, an internal magnetic compass, improved battery life, and hardware encryption and come in 16 GB and 32 GB varieties for $199 and $299 respectively. Outwardly, the device looks identical to its predecessors, and offers a similar 3.5" multi-touchscreen, volume rocker, sleep/wake, and single home button.

The iPhone's operating system has secured the fourth-largest share of the global smarphone OS market, and has been increasing fourfold annually. While it has won the hearts of many, it has done so despite a prominent lack of certain built-in functions. The "Top 8" of these absent features are: MMS support, Adobe Flash support, video recording, Bluetooth modem tethering, push notifications, SMS forwarding, background applications, and -- an old favorite among the Mac faithful -- cut-and-paste.

While cut-and-paste functionality, and roughly four of the top eight needed functions were indeed added, they were piled under no less than a dozen other new abilities intended to advance videogaming on iPhone.

Next Tuesday in Cupertino, California, Apple will unveil iPhone software version 3.0, according to an invitation received by the Apple faithful today.

Apple's popular mobile phone is currently on OS version 2.2.1 (Build 5H11), which was an incremental update pushed out in the first weeks of 2009. The last major update -- one that would warrant its own event, like the one scheduled for next week -- was version 2.0, when the 3G iPhone was released.

The leading US electronics retailer will begin selling the hit phone on September 7 in 970 stores, including all the stores where Apple has launched its "mini-store" pilot program.

Best Buy said it would sell iPhones through its Best Buy Mobile shops that it has begun to open across a little over a dozen cities nationwide. Those smaller versions of the bigger retailer focus primarily on mobile phone sales.

In an internal e-mail sent Monday afternoon by Steve Jobs and subsequently leaked across the Internet, the Apple CEO laments the launch of the service and shakes up management to prevent it from happening again.

The biggest change announced in the e-mail, as first revealed by Jacqui Cheng of Ars Technica, would be the promotion of Eddy Cue to vice president of Internet Services. Having previously headed up the company's successful iTunes division and the new App Store, Cue's responsibilities would now expand to Mobile Me.

Today, Apple announced the iPhone's opening weekend figures, claiming it had passed the one million sales mark on Sunday, and that 10 million apps were downloaded in the same three-day period.

One by one on Friday, not individual AT&T stores, but entire cities, reported selling out of the device. By mid-morning, Chicago AT&T stores reported total liquidation. By noon, all of New York City's had sold out.

Despite Apple's official Web page continuing to state its iPhone 2.0 firmware is "coming soon," iPhone users everywhere have already discovered its existence, thanks in large part to MacRumors.com. Build 5A347 is directly available from this link, as an unofficial release.

With Apple's new iPhone App Store launching today, users need the iPhone 2.0 firmware to be able to take advantage of it. And how can they do that unless it's available? -- thus, the unofficial release of the firmware.

Confirming months of speculation, Apple has announced that it will begin shipping two 3G versions of the iPhone. A 16 GB version will feature your choice of black or white backing, and will sell for $299 through AT&T.

To raucous applause, Apple CEO Steve Jobs debuted the 3G model of the iPhone, which he said is thinner than the previous version while sporting all metal buttons and a black plastic backing, much like the rumored specs had shown.

Despite the rumors, AT&T's CFO said Thursday that no pricing has been set for the upcoming 3G iPhone, which is expected to be announced next month at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference. Rick Lindner, speaking at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in New York, said that no decisions had been made on pricing or availability.

Lindner's comments follow a Gizmodo report on Tuesday that claimed the launch date for the 3G iPhone as June 9. Previous rumors also speculated that pricing of the device would fall from $299 to $199. AT&T has only said that it expects the new model to arrive in the coming months, but Lindner noted it's entirely up to Apple.

Apple has filed for a patent which brings instant messaging to the iPhone and other touchscreen devices it produces.

The patent's abstract describes the application as follows: "One aspect of the invention involves a graphical user interface (GUI) on a portable electronic device with a touch screen display. The GUI has a set of messages exchanged between a user of the device and another person."