iPhone OS 3.0 Is Near. Is It A Mac In Your Pocket?

Though we venture out now and again, Mac360 is about the Mac. Mostly. We poke at Windows from time to time. And silly tech journalists. And we mention the iPod, iTunes Store, and even the iPhone from time to time.

After all, isn’t the iPhone almost a Mac in your pocket? So, Apple plans to tell us more about iPhone OS S 3.0 in just a matter of days. Let the speculating begin. Here’s my list of what I want Apple to stuff into iPhone 3.0 to make it more like a Mac.

The media invitations point to a March 17th event where Apple promises a sneak peak at iPhone 3.0 software. The invitation actually says, “Get an advance preview of what we’re building.”

Uh oh. Building? Yes, as in, it’s not fully baked yet, but we’re going to waft some of delicious aroma so you’ll be totally delirious with Kool-Aid Fever™ by the time we ship the next iPhones “later this year.”

You see what’s happening, right? Apple is about to tell us die hard Apple fans, and future Apple customers, and tech media prognosticators, what’s coming down the pike. And it’s all about software.

What? Software? Yes, that’s what the iPhone is really all about. Sure, it’d be nice to have a removable battery, or slot where you could stick in an additional 32 gig flash chip. But Apple won’t talk about such things.

Yes, we all want a camera that’s better than the iPhone, or a faster CPU, or more storage. But that’s hardware, and Apple won’t talk much about iPhone hardware for awhile. Why? That might put a damper on current iPhone sales, huh?

What we’ll get is a software treat, a not-quite-fully-baked cake of new features, most of which will be available to iPhone 1G and iPhone 3G users. Apple will save the hardware surprises for the next new iPhone model.

So, what’s coming? Copy and paste. Seriously. It’s been missing since the beginning of the iPhone craze, everyone who writes about Apple and Macs and iPhones wants it, and, you know Apple—they always give us what we want (unless it’s not what they want to give us).

New iPhone-ish hardware announced months ahead would steal sales from the here and now so Apple will focus on delivering features we wanted all along but didn’t know we wanted them.

Copy and paste is a natch, so is full motion video recording capability. Maybe. Also on my list is turn-by-turn GPS navigation via Google Maps or whatever app Apple decides to use.

What of the clamor for VoIP? You know, like Skype, only on your iPhone, and with iChat instead of some other brand name? I’d go for that, too. How about some tethering software which would allow your laptop to use your iPhone 3G internet connection to connect to the internet?

Let’s vote on that one, OK? How about this? Maybe have iPhone 3.0 software run more than one application or utility at a time, making it easy and fast to switch back and forth? I’d like that.

How about iWork for iPhone? Someone has to beat Microsoft to the punch and who better than our favorite Cupertino, CA Mac maker?

Remember Push Notification? Nobody notified iPhone users that it was available when promised last fall because it was promised but not delivered. Maybe Apple has some kind of ultra cool push notification ready to go (almost a year later).

That’s my partial list of what I think Apple needs to do to iPhone OS 3.0 to make it more like a Mac in my pocket. What’s on your list?