Steve Jobs just announced the new features in iPhone OS 4 coming soon for iPhone 3GS, 3G, Ipod Touch 3rd & 2nd and Apple iPad (Fall). Here are my quick notes from following the live blogs.
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Multitasking
Very simple – just double tap home button to bring up a dock with running apps. Fast app switching.
How is it done?
Apple is opening up 7 services to 3rd party apps to achieve this
- Background audio (Pandora, etc.)
- Voice over IP (Skype, etc.)
- Background location (TomTom, FourSquare, etc..)
- Push notifications
- Local notofications
- Task completion (Flickr uploads, etc..)
- Fast app switching
Jailbreak app that did some of this – Backgrounder -
Folders
Just drag a game app on another game app to make a game folder. It automatically names the folder based on category or you can rename it. You can create as many as you want and also have a folder in the dock.
Number of apps you can see in your iPhone has been increased from 180 to 2,160 apps! Yay for reviewers like me. -
Enhanced Mail
Mail app gets some serious makeover.
- Unified inbox
- Threaded messages
- Open attachments with an app from App Store
- Multiple Exchange accounts including Exchange 2010
- Fast inbox switching -
iBooks
iBooks on iPhone! Buy your book once and enjoy it in on any device.
- Delightful ebook reader
- iBookstore
- Buy once, read anywhere
- Sync page and bookmarks
- Free Winnie the Pooh -
Enterprise Features
iPhone is ready for the enterprise. Yes, go tell your boss.
- Better data protection
- Mobile device management
- Wireless app distribution
- Multiple Exchange accounts
- Exchange Server 2010
- SSL VPN support -
Game Center
I feel bad for OpenFeint and others. Apple has it’s own Gaming social network now.
- Invite friends to play
- Matchmaking
- Leaderboards
- Achievements -
iAd
Google Ads are gonna so look like oldschool with iAd.
- Ads deliver Emotion + interactivity
- Ads keep you in your apps (no switching to Safari)
- Built into iPhone OS
- Apple sells & hosts the ads
- 60% revenues to developers
Besides this there are tons of new iPhone OS APIs and around 100 new user features.
Update: A few more features I missed to add
- Bluetooth keyboards
- 5x digital zoom
- Tap to focus in Video
Developer preview is being released today!
Supported devices
- iPhone 3GS
- iPod Touch – 3rd Gen
- iPhone 3G (with some limitations but no multitasking)
- iPod Touch – 2nd gen (with some limitations but no multitasking)
- Apple iPad – in Fall
Looks like most of the iPhone OS 4 came true especially with some sort of multitasking support, mail and folders. I was a bit let down with the lack of better push notifications interface and it is probably made worse with local notifications support throwing more messages at us.
Other than that, I would say this is a pretty serious update and a worthy one to wait eagerly for. We will keep you posted as developers dig deep into this developer preview and unearth gems and hints at the next iPhone (HD?) device coming in June.
[image credit: Engadget live blog]
