Apple's new iPhone 3.0 operating system has been out for a little more than a week, and many early reviews are positive.

I, like thousands of others, installed the free update on the first day, and I've had a very smooth upgrade experience.

iPod Touch users can upgrade to the new operating system for $10.

There are more than 100 new features. Here are some of the more popular additions:

Cut, copy, paste. Apple's long-awaited cut, copy and paste commands are overdue but welcome. I can't tell you how many times I've been e-mailed directions or a URL for a Web page that I've wanted to paste into a text message. Now that's possible.

Spotlight search. Before iPhone 3.0, search was limited to contacts in your address book.

Now the iPhone can search calendars, notes, iPod songs, podcasts and video, and e-mail headers (to, from, subject) but not message content.

My favorite feature of Spotlight is the ability to look up a contact or launch an application by typing the first few letters of the name.

MMS/Tethering. There were some cheers in the crowd at the Worldwide Developer Conference keynote when MMS (sending pictures, video or sound files to another phone) and tethering (using the phone to connect your computer to the Internet) were announced.

The tethering connection can be done via USB or Bluetooth.

Those cheers were quickly followed by gasps and some boos when the crowd found out that AT&T had no immediate plans to offer either feature. But AT&T has announced it will offer MMS later this summer and will offer tethering in the future.

Find My iPhone. This is a great feature that I've used twice already. If you're a MobileMe subscriber, you can turn on the ability to locate your phone over the Internet.

There's a Find My iPhone section on your MobileMe preference page where you can see your iPhone's location on a map (using the 3G and 3GS phones' GPS.)

If your phone is lost, you can send a text message that will appear on the phone's screen and send a command to make the phone sound an alarm for two minutes even if the phone's sound is on mute.

As a last resort, you can send a command to remotely wipe the personal data on your phone.

Navigation (turn by turn). When the iPhone 3G was introduced last year with GPS, users assumed a turn-by-turn application would be soon released.

It has taken a year, but GPS navigation system maker TomTom showed off its app at the 2009 WWDC keynote.

TomTom and any other GPS app maker will provide their own maps.

Wifi autologin. The new operating system remembers your login credentials for public hot spots like those at Starbucks, so you automatically log in on subsequent visits.

Push notification. Applications have the ability to push a notification to your phone on top of any application you're using.

Apple announced this feature a long time ago, and it's just now available. There are not many applications out yet that include push notifications, but expect a barrage in the near future.

Of course there are tons of other features. You can find a more comprehensive list at www.apple.com /iphone/softwareupdate.

I can't think of a reason for iPhone owners not to take advantage of this upgrade.