Barring the push functionality, the main features I was interested in was MMS support – not everyone I know has an iPhone to receive email photos, but can receive MMS messages – and the much-requested cut and paste functionality.

MMS messages now exist as part of the new Messages application – what was originally the SMS application. Sending an MMS message is as simple as a normal text message, with the addition of attaching a photo from your image library. The images appear in the iChat-style bubbles of the Messages application, and selecting the photo shows the full-size photo. It’s a great way of sending something a little more immediate than an email, and doesn’t seem like the functionality was just shoved in.

The Internet Massive kept blabbering on about cut-and-paste ever since the iPhone was released, and I never considered it to be a must have feature. I found it difficult to imagine times where I would need it. However, as I’ve been using the iPhone as a business phone there have been many times where it would have saved quite a bit of hassle. Apple’s implementation of cut-and-paste works very well, and the UI is as slick as one would expect: simply select where you want to start cutting, and select the area you want to copy:

Once you’ve copied the the text (or image) you repeat the process to paste. You can now also paste up to 5 images into an email.

Minor enhancements I’ve also found useful include multiple-speed scrubbing in the iPod application, Spotlight support for searching emails, and a much enhanced Application Store.

There’s a few other enhancements which lots of people were requesting, but I’ve not found so useful – landscape email support (I can type perfectly well in portrait mode), voice memos, and internet tethering. I’m also confused by the new Note synchronisation support: it only syncs when tethered to iTunes, but doesn’t sync over-the-air via MobileMe. This is a disappointing oversight, but overall the 3.0 OS release is decent. I’ve not been blown away by it so far, but hopefully once the push-enabled applications start getting approved I’ll be a little more impressed.

I’m now joining ShipServ as Senior Technical Architect, and will be spending the next 6 months or so designing and prototyping their next-generation platform. The team there has some fantastic ideas about how to grow the business from both strategic and technical viewpoints, and I look forward to contributing to both areas. We’ll be looking at semantic extraction and searching, machine learning, as well as trendy areas such as location based services. I’m looking forward to it!

The Open Platform is an example of an API done well, and I’m very keen to see try fitting this into some of the work we’re doing at Imagini with our VisualDNA Platform. The idea of recommending content from a massive pool of providers – be they products, articles, videos, or photos – based on a user’s VisualDNA, or their similarity to another user’s VisualDNA, is quite appealing.

There are already some fine examples and proofs of concept out there, and I can only hope that the web community firmly utilises the potential.

Rather than the turtle style that the original, and its multiple add-on packs, encourages, Dawn Of War II focuses on managing up to 4 squads of specialist Blood Raven Space Marines. Each squad has a hero unit who can be incapacitated, but revived. As the game progresses each hero unit gains levels and abilities, as well as new armour, equipment, and accessories. It’s a refreshing change from having to upgrade tech levels for each new mission in the game.

I have yet to try multiplayer but have heard mixed opinions so far. Hopefully by the time I get around to finishing off the campaign (and maybe even again with the co-op option), there’ll be enough patches out to provide a decent balance.

My first listen prompted a very loud “WTF”, and thought that Timbaland’s RnB production had butchered one of the greatest rock singers of all time. But, I listened to it again this morning, and it’s a bit of a grower. There’s certainly some catchy tunes in there, and Cornell’s voice is still superb. I think I’ll save final judgment until I see how the album comes across live.

Despite having less-than-stellar combat controls, the parkour-esque free-running around these incredible looking environments has sapped away several hours of my time. Some criticism has been placed on the Elika-save mechanism, where you effectively cannot die. However, it’s effectively a checkpoint mechanism that saves on load times and frustration. I find it works.

The only details I can find on one of the artists involves a mysterious Patrick, who can been seen demonstrating his talents in three speed drawings of the main characters. Here’s hoping to a sequel that sticks to the same style, but improves on the combat.

I tested both SIP (with a free account from Voipstunt) and Skype calls, and whilst the quality isn’t amazing it’s perfectly usable. Using Fring for MSN, etc. was also perfectly fine, although I’m sure there’ll be some much-needed interface tweaks in the next release.

My only main gripe with the software is that it takes 5 minutes for the Skype contact list to load. It’s also currently impossible to use the keypad to generate touch tones, so there’s no menu system navigation.

Sadly, Fring will only run over WiFi, as AT&T’s deal with Apple no doubt barred Apple from allowing VOIP clients to run over 3G or EDGE connections.

Given that I’m used to the rather excellent Monmouth Coffee shop in Covent Garden for my morning brew, they’ve got a lot to live up to, but I’m looking forward to trying it.

Apple sorted the problems out, and gave everyone a 30-day extension to their trial periods. However, yesterday I had more problems accessing .me. My iPhone wouldn’t sync, Mail.app couldn’t connect, and when I logged in to the webmail interface I was presented with a blank screen. Apple even went to post a trouble ticket about the problem, but disabled their discussion boards which were undoubtedly getting filled with complaints about the poor quality of service. They claim that only 1% of users were affected, but I find this hard to believe given their previous problems.

Apart from these shenanigans, Apple also screwed up the UK billing and extended everyone’s trial periods by another 30 days.

I want to like .me. I set up a .mac account a few days before it launched so I could get the name I wanted and beat the queues. I wanted to use the Push functionality of the iPhone 2.0 software, as well as online contact and calendar syncing (which itself is buggy). At the current level of service, however, I think I could see myself heading back towards GMail. If only they offered a push service!