Macworld has been burning the midnight oil to update their iPhone Superguide to cover the new iPhone OS 3.0 and iPhone 3GS, and after only a few weeks, they've given us a thoroughly revised edition, the "Macworld iPhone & iPod touch Superguide, Third Edition." In its 172 pages, you'll find carefully organized, detailed information, all completely updated for the iPhone OS 3.0 and the iPhone 3GS (though it also covers older iPhone models and the iPod touch). It's free for everyone who already has the second edition, so please contact us if you haven't already received email with a download link.

Because this is a third edition, it has a good amount of breadth and depth, covering the hardware, the many settings, the various built-in apps, syncing, problem solving, third-party apps, and third-party hardware add-ons. Lots of minor iPhone OS 3.0 and iPhone 3GS features are covered, along with the following major changes:

• The long-awaited Cut, Copy, and Paste
• Spotlight searching for apps, contacts, email messages, song names, and more
• Using your voice to place calls and control the iPod app (3GS only)
• Recording video in the Camera app (3GS only)
• Find My iPhone (requires MobileMe)

The iPhone is interesting from a documentation standpoint, because it's quite simple and generally obvious, but as soon as you want to go beyond the basics, it can become quite difficult to figure out how to do much of anything. That's where general-purpose books like the "Macworld iPhone & iPod touch Superguide" come in - they provide the foundation you need to make sure you're not just stumbling around only the parts of the interface you can see easily. Ted Landau is working on revising our "Take Control of Your iPhone" as well, but since that book goes into quite a lot more depth and includes hard-won troubleshooting information, it's going to take Ted longer to finish.

—Posted by Adam Engst on July 10, 2009