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Apple Announces iPhone OS 3.1 And iTunes 9

Today in San Francisco, Apple made several music-related announcements, some of which concerned the iPhone. iPhone OS 3.1, which will be available today, offers several new features for the iPhone. iTunes 9 will finally offer a much-sought-after feature -- the ability to manage iPhone applications within iTunes itself.

Today's Apple event centered mostly around iTunes and changes to the iTunes Music Store, but Apple made sure to sneak in some great new features for iPhone users.

First and foremost, iPhone/iPod Touch OS 3.1 brings several new features. The first of which will give iPhone users the ability to turn on Apple's Genius feature within the Apps Store. With the feature enabled, the Apps Store will recommend applications for users based on what they've already downloaded from the Apps Store. Apple was sure to point out that the iPhone Apps Store now has some 75,000 application, and has pushed out some 1.8 billion downloads.

Another new feature for the iPhone is ringtones. Apple is now selling ringtones from the iTunes Music Store for the cost of $1.29. Apple said that over 30,000 ringtones are available from the four major music labels.

Apple also announced iTunes 9. The biggest feature for iPhone users to take note of is the new ability to manage iPhone applications directly within iTunes. Previously, iPhone users who had applications spread across multiple home screens had to use a tedious drag-and-drop method to arrange the positioning of apps. Now, with a new dashboard built into iTunes 9, iPhone users can arrange the applications in a much-easier way.

Apple also said that it has improved syncing between iTunes and Apple devices.

iPhone OS 3.1 will be available later today.

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