Apple offers a sneak peek at new software for iPhone, iPod Touch

APPLE is adding more than 100 new features for its iPhone and iPod touch via a software update due out later this year.

The tweaks include many features iPhone users have long lobbied for, and some that are an interesting surprise.

Here are some of the top features to look out for in the new software:

- The ability to cut, copy and paste text.
- Rotate keyboard applications from portrait mode to landscape mode.
- Send photos, locations and audio information over the mobile network via MMS.
- Spotlight, a single application that allows users to search for information in Apple's mail, calendar and music applications
- Shake the phone to shuffle between songs
- Record and share voice mail

Some of the more unusual upgrades came in the form of new features for application developers.

Separately, Apple introduced more than 1000 APIs, or software hooks, that developers can use to add new capabilities to their applications, including:

- Selling content (such as a book or a new level for a game) from within an application

- Automatically discovering other applications running on nearby devices using Bluetooth. This will allow gamers, for example, to square off against other players.
- Pairing up applications with hardware – for example, turning an iPhone into an equalizer for a set of speakers.
- Embedding Google's map service into an application and building turn-by-turn directions using data collected by the device.
- Push notification service, allowing developers to ping a user with an audio or text cue when, for example, they get a new text message.

Source