Apple updates its key iPhone OS, iTunes and iPod products during its Sep 9 “annual iPod event”. Here is a quick summary:

iPhone OS

• Version 3.1 is out today free for iPhone and iPod touch with OS 3.0.

• App Store app will include a new Genius feature that will recommend apps based on your past purchase.

• Over 30,000 ringtones from 4 major music labels now available for $1.29 each.

iTunes 9

• iTunes 9 is released today and has a “beautiful new look” that makes exploring the vast music, movies, TV shows, apps, games easier.

• New Genius Mixes feature that plays endless mixes of songs from your iTunes library that are great together.

• New options to select what you want to sync for your music, based on playlists, genres, artists etc.

• App Management - arrange your iPhone home screens and move apps around using iTunes.

• Home sharing: allow you to copy your music, TV shows etc for up to 5 computers in your home.

• iTunes LP - digitizes the era before CD with lyrics, liner notes, essays, photos and video together with music album.

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Facebook has submitted the latest major revision of its iPhone app to iTunes App Store for review and approval. There are lots of improvement and new features in version 3, check out the video:

Follow Facebook engineer @joehewitt where he twits about the development of the Facebook iPhone app.

There are more than 50,000 apps in Apple’s App Store, many doubt if it is still possible to make money developing apps for the iPhone and iPod touch. If you are exploring programming for the iPhone as an option, the following frequently asked questions by beginners might be useful to you.

1. What kind of app can be run on iPhone?

You can develop native app to run on iPhone, or you can develop web app that runs on mobile Safari browser on the iPhone. In general, iPhone app refer to the native app. iPhone native app is the only app you can sell on iTunes App Store.

Native iPhone apps are by far the dominant apps on the iPhone with native iPhone touch interface and experience. Many vendor develops native iPhone app for their website, such as Facebook, MySpace and NY Times. On the other hand, popular web apps customize for iPhone include GMail and Flickr.

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iPhone keyboard’s Auto-Correction feature is time-saver and great help for people who are not used to touch typing. iPhone suggests word as you type when the word is not in the keyboard dictionary. You tap the “X” next to a suggested word to reject the correction, and iPhone will add your word into the keyboard dictionary. Your word will then not show up for correction again.

In due course, you have high probability of messing up the keyboard dictionary. For example if you spell “dont” without an apostrophe and reject the suggested correction for a few times, iPhone keyboard will add “dont” into the keyboard dictionary and will not suggest correction for you subsequently.

To erase all the words you added to the keyboard dictionary:

Settings > General > Reset > Reset Keyboard Dictionary

Select “Reset Dictionary” to clear your words and reset the keyboard dictionary to factory default.

After being in beta for several months, Wikipedia mobile site is [officially launched] by Wikimedia last week.

At the moment, the Mobile site supports iPhone, Kindle, Android, and Palm Pre. And we fully support both English and German. There are other working languages, but they haven’t been fully translated yet. Our goal is to grow slowly and do it really well. We are starting out simple with limited support in order to test the usability and the platform’s stability. So far, things are looking good.

To access it from Safari browser on your iPhone: Wikepedia Mobile Site.

If you are looking for native iPhone app to view Wikipedia, the following are two free apps for your consideration. Both URL links are iTunes store link:

• Wikiamo

• Wikipanion

Skype has released the first update to Skype for iPhone since its debut on the App Store on March 31.

New in this release:

• send low cost SMS messages using Skype credit

• ability to access Skype voicemail from your iPhone

• improved dialing help when making call

• additional localization languages: Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish and Traditional Chinese.

Adobe, in its Q2 FY2009 Financial Results presentation (under Section 13 titled ‘Platform’), highlighted that Flash Player 10 for smartphone will be available in beta for developer at Adobe MAX conference in October.

Google Android, Nokia Symbian OS, Windows Mobile and the new Palm webOS will be among the first devices to support web browsing with the newest Flash Player.

Apple iPhone and RIM Blackberry are the two notable names missing. But do we really need Flash Player on iPhone? It has been over two years of iPhone without Flash and we certainly do not miss it. Flash Player is good to have provided it does not jeopardize the overall performance and responsiveness of iPhone. What do you think?

One of the first major iPhone app that supports Apple’s new Push Notification service hits the App Store: AOL Instant Messenger (AIM).

• When the new AIM first starts up, it asks if you would like to receive push notifications.

• Since this is the first push notification app on our iPhone, a new “Notifications” item appeared in the Settings app after we run AIM. Find out the basics on push notifications.

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While we wait for iPhone apps with push notification feature, Apple has published a support article explaining the basics about iPhone’s push notification service:

iPhone OS 3.0: About Apple Push Notification Service

Last Modified: June 19, 2009 Article: HT3576

Summary This article explains the basics about Apple Push Notification Service and where to get additional information.

Products Affected iPhone, iPod touch, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G S, iPod touch (2nd generation)

• If the Settings > Notifications menu does not appear on your device, you don’t have an application installed that supports notifications.

• You need to open an application at least once to get any notifications from that app.

• When the iPod touch screen is on and has a Wi-Fi connection, push notifications are received at any time. If the iPod touch screen is asleep, it will check every 15 minutes for a notification.

• If you want to disable notifications from an application, turn off all notifications for that application in Settings > Notifications.

• When you restore a backup to a different iPhone or iPod touch, apps will need to be opened again to get notifications.

Additional Information Apple Push Notification Service requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later and a connection to the Internet, either via a cellular data network or Wi-Fi, and at least one application that supports notifications.

For additional information, see the iPhone User Guide, the iPod touch User Guide, or www.apple.com/iphone/appstore.

iPhone OS 3.0 is recommended upgrade for all existing iPhone and iPod touch. All the new features and enhanements are well worth the effort of upgrading the firmware via iTunes.

Apple has given you one good reason to upgrade, iPhone OS 3.0 addressed 38 security vulnerabilities in earlier firmwares. Read Apple’s support document on the security updates in iPhone OS 3.0.