iPhone OS 3 (''stylized as iPhone OS 3.0'') is the third major release of the

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

mobile operating system A mobile operating system is an operating system used for smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as laptops are "mobile", the operating systems used on the ...

developed by

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...

, succeeding iPhone OS 2. It was announced on March 17, 2009, and was released on June 17, 2009. It was succeeded by iOS 4 on June 21, 2010, dropping the "iPhone OS" naming convention. iPhone OS 3 added a system-wide "cut, copy, and paste" feature, allowing users to more easily move content. It also introduced Spotlight, a search indexing feature designed to help users locate specific information on their device, such as contacts, email messages or apps. The home screen was expanded to let users add up to 11 pages, showcasing a total of 180 apps. The Messages app received support for MMS, while the Camera app received support for video recording on the

iPhone 3GS The iPhone 3GS, stylized as , is a smartphone that was developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the List of iPhone models, third generation of the iPhone and the successor to the iPhone 3G. It was unveiled on June 8, 2009 at the Apple Worldw ...

, and a new "Voice Memos" app let users record their voice. In-app purchase capability was added to third-party applications as well. iPhone OS 3 is the last version of iOS that supports the

first-generation iPhone The first-generation iPhone is the first smartphone developed and marketed by Apple Inc. After years of rumors and speculation, it was officially announced on January 9, 2007, and was released in the United States on June 29, 2007. Develo ...

and first-generation iPod Touch as its successor, iOS 4, drops support for both models.

Default apps

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

App Store An app store, also called an app marketplace or app catalog, is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not i ...

Text Text may refer to: Written word * Text (literary theory) In literary theory, a text is any object that can be "read", whether this object is a work of literature, a street sign, an arrangement of buildings on a city block, or styles of clothi ...

Calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A calendar date, date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is ...

* Photos *

Camera A camera is an instrument used to capture and store images and videos, either digitally via an electronic image sensor, or chemically via a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. As a pivotal technology in the fields of photograp ...

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Stocks Stocks are feet and hand restraining devices that were used as a form of corporal punishment and public humiliation. The use of stocks is seen as early as Ancient Greece, where they are described as being in use in Solon's law code. The law de ...

Maps A map is a symbolic depiction of interrelationships, commonly spatial, between things within a space. A map may be annotated with text and graphics. Like any graphic, a map may be fixed to paper or other durable media, or may be displayed on ...

Weather Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloud cover, cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmo ...

Clock A clock or chronometer is a device that measures and displays time. The clock is one of the oldest Invention, human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month, a ...

Calculator An electronic calculator is typically a portable electronic device used to perform calculations, ranging from basic arithmetic to complex mathematics. The first solid-state electronic calculator was created in the early 1960s. Pocket-si ...

Notes Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened versi ...

* Settings

Default dock

* Phone *

Mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letter (message), letters, and parcel (package), parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid ...

Safari A safari (; originally ) is an overland journey to observe wildlife, wild animals, especially in East Africa. The so-called big five game, "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, African leopard, leopard, rhinoceros, African elephant, elep ...

* iPod/Music

System features

Cut, copy, or paste

iPhone OS 3 introduced a "cut, copy, and paste" bubble dialog when users press and hold text. The "paste" button would incorporate anything stored in the device's clipboard into the marked area.

Spotlight

Spotlight is a system-wide indexing and search feature, aiming to help users search their device for specific contacts, email messages, calendar appointments, multimedia files, apps and more. It is accessed by swiping to the right from the home screen.

Home screen

iPhone OS 3 expanded the maximum number of pages on the home screen to 11, for a total number of 180 apps.

Find My iPhone

Users with subscriptions to

MobileMe MobileMe (branded iTools between 2000 and 2002; .Mac until 2008) is a discontinued subscription business model, subscription-based collection of online services and software offered by Apple Inc. All services were gradually transitioned to and e ...

were able to remotely track, lock, and erase their iPhones if lost.

App features

Messages

The Messages app received native support for the

Multimedia Messaging Service Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) is a standard way to send messages that include multimedia content to and from a mobile phone over a cellular network. Users and providers may refer to such a message as a PXT, a picture message, or a multimedia ...

(MMS), allowing users to send and receive messages that also contain pictures, contacts, locations, voice recordings, and video messages.

Camera and Photos

The Camera app introduced video recording for the iPhone 3GS. The Photos app featured a new copy button and the ability to delete multiple photos at once.

Cost

Upgrading to iPhone OS 3 was free for iPhone. Upgrading to iPhone OS 3 originally cost iPod Touch users $9.95; updating to 3.1.x from 2.x cost only $4.95. iPhone OS 3 was the last major version of iOS for which there was a charge for

iPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and formerly marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a po ...

users to upgrade. Starting with iOS 4, iOS upgrades became free for all users, including users of the iPod Touch, as the

Sarbanes–Oxley Act The Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 is a United States federal law that mandates certain practices in financial record keeping and reporting for corporations. The act, , also known as the "Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protectio ...

was revised to allow software upgrades for free with hardware that is not subscription-based.

Supported devices

All devices that supported iPhone OS 1 and 2 support iPhone OS 3; however, only the iPhone 3GS supports video recording.

iPhone

iPhone (1st generation) The first-generation iPhone is the first smartphone developed and marketed by Apple Inc. After years of rumors and speculation, it was officially announced on January 9, 2007, and was released in the United States on June 29, 2007. Devel ...

iPhone 3G The iPhone 3G is a smartphone developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the List of iPhone models, second generation of iPhone, successor to the IPhone (1st generation), original iPhone, and was introduced on June 9, 2008, at the WWDC#2008, W ...

iPod Touch

* iPod Touch (1st generation) * iPod Touch (2nd generation) * iPod Touch (3rd generation)

iPad

iPad (1st generation) The first-generation iPad (; ) (retrospectively referred to unofficially as the iPad 1 or original iPad) is a tablet computer designed and marketed by Apple Inc. as the first device in the iPad lineup of tablet computers. It features an Appl ...

Version history

References

External links

* {{Apple *3 2009 software Products introduced in 2009 Mobile operating systems Proprietary operating systems