The new operating system will be generally available this summer, and free to all iPhone users Apple closed the Town Hall by announcing that a beta of iPhone 3.0 will be available today to all developers in the iPhone program. General availability is slated for this summer. Apple said the upgrade will be free to all iPhone users (1G and 3G) and will cost $9.95 for the iPod Touch.More details about the OS emerged in the latter half of the two-hour session. All Apple applications will run in landscape mode with the big keyboard. iPhone 3.0 will support tethering, so you’ll be able to use the phone to provide 3G Internet access to your PC or Mac.[ For the full rundown on Apple’s new iPhone 3.0 OS, see InfoWorld’s special report ] iPhone 3.0 will bring search capability to iTunes and Notes. You’ll be able to sync Notes with iTunes, and shuffle iTunes playlists by shaking. Safari will gain autofill and anti-phishing capabilities, and parental controls will be extended to media. There will be support for YouTube accounts, auto-login to Wi-Fi networks, and Multimedia Message Service, though the latter will not support video. Push notify, which can alert you by sound or pop-up text message, will present a view button that launches the appropriate app. In addition to the 100 or so new features for end-users, there will be two new games, including a pet simulator and a first-person shooter that will let you buy new weapons and levels and even call a friend for help through notify. I’ll have more on the new user features, example apps shown during the Town Hall, and the new capabilities for developers in a summary post later this afternoon. Software Development