Apple Inc. unveiled the third version of the iPhone operating system, adding long-requested features such as a cut-and-paste function and giving software developers new ways to make money on their applications.

IPhone developers will be able to sell additional content, such as video-game levels or subscriptions, Scott Forstall, a senior vice president in charge of iPhone software, said at an event today at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California. They also will have the ability to automatically update, or “push,” new versions to customers, he said.

Apple will give a sneak preview of the new iPhone OS 3.0 to invite-only media at their Cupertino premises. The preview event will take place at Apple's Town Hall on March 17 at 10 AM Pacific Standard Time.

Speculations abound on the web that Apple will introduce much-requested features (by consumers) in the iPhone 3.0 OS. However, it looks like a development build preview version, which might be publicly shown off to developers at the Worldwide Developers Conference 2009.

What the iPhone OS 3.0 Update Might Really Mean (Melissa J. Perenson)

File this under random musings du jour. All the fuss about Apple's forthcoming iPhone OS 3.0 got me thinking. And in so thinking, I began to extrapolate. What if Apple is trying to beat Android to market with a mobile companion/Internet device/mini-notebook-like gadget?

Apple's iPhone has wowed most of the globe — but not Japan, where the handset is selling so poorly it's being offered for free.

What's wrong with the iPhone, from a Japanese perspective? Almost everything: the high monthly data plans that go with it, its paucity of features, the low-quality camera, the unfashionable design and the fact that it's not Japanese.

In an effort to boost business, Japanese carrier SoftBank this week launched the "iPhone for Everybody" campaign, which gives away the 8-GB model of the iPhone 3G if customers agree to a two-year contract.

"The pricing has been completely out of whack with market reality," said Global Crown Research analyst Tero Kuittinen in regard to Apple's iPhone prices internationally. "I think they [Apple and its partners overseas] are in the process of adjusting to local conditions."