iPhone OS 4.0 Unveiled
We know we don't have many iPhone members here, but this is newsworthy anyway, especially since its all about competition in the smartphone world. Apple unveiled iPhone OS 4.0 today with some interesting features. First of all, the iPhone 4.0 will be shipping this summer with a developer preview to come later today. The iPhone 3GS will be upgradeable and will get all of the new features.
We all knew this was coming, but the iPhone will finally have multitasking. Its really late to this game, but according to Apple, it'll be the "best" implementation of it on any device to date.
Feature List:
- Multitasking.
- Spell check (like on the iPad).
- Bluetooth keyboard support (again, on the iPad).
- User-defined wallpaper (a jailbreak favorite).
- Tap to focus when recording video, just like with photos, and a 5x digital zoom for the camera.
- Playlist creation and nested playlists.
- App folders for sorting apps! You can even put an app folder in the dock.
- Enhanced Mail! You can have a merged inbox view, switch between inboxes quickly, and sync to more than one Exchange account. There's also threaded messaging (at last!) and in-app attachment viewing.
- iBooks, just like on iPad, only smaller. You can wirelessly sync books between platforms, a la Kindle.
- Enterprise features, including remote device management and wireless app distribution.
- Game Center. It's like Xbox Live, but for iPhone games. Includes achievements, leaderboards, and match making. It will be available as a "developer preview," and out for consumers later this year.
For Developers:
- 1,500 new APIs.
- Full access to the camera.
- Date and address "data detectors."
- Background audio (think Pandora).
- Background VoIP (think Skype).
- Background location data, both with live GPS for backgrounded turn-by-turn, and cell tower-based for lower power draw.
- Local notifications. Like push notifications, but sends a notification straight from the app without needing a push notification server, perfect for an alarm, for instance.
- Fast app switching. Saves the state of an app and resumes it from where you left off, without dwelling in memory.
- iAd. Apple says it's for keeping "free apps free." The ads keep you in the app, while also taking over the screen and adding interactivity -- using HTML 5 for video -- up to simple gaming in-ad. Apple will offer a 60 / 40 split on revenue, and users can even buy apps straight from an ad.
Source: Engadget
UPDATE: Download the iPhone SDK 4 here!
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Haters gonna hate. LOL
haha jethro… man, those features don’t look good at all IMO.. the only GREAT thing i’d say is the 1500 new APIs… i wish the pre kept adding APIs in huge amounts
O, and html5 (pre already sports it of course
)
@syanni85 – Really? WOW! Pre is awesome! HTML5 FTW! Flash is a memory and a CPU hog. See the JooJoo LOL.
i wouldn’t say flash is THAT bad tho.. cuz the flash based online games will def be fun
The long awaited multitasking looks well implemented. Much like what has been planned for multitasking in WP7 which I think is brilliant!
@syanni85 – Oh U havn’t seen the HTML5 games yet. U’ll be shocked. Quake II baby!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyfu4OwjUEI&feature=player_embedded
that does look sweet! I don’t think the pre supports html5 GAMING yet unless someone could make a game strictly using the keyboard. So far, its implemented but far from perfected. I can get an html5 video to play liquid smooth, with a few glitches the browser has while scrolling…
Its just funny how when Microsoft releases the “saved state” multitasking WinMo power users moan and cry but Apple releases essentially the same multitasking and its a “nice addition.”
I definitely see Microsoft combating this by initial release or a very quick first OTA update. I just want to see Microsoft do the “fast app switching” using a double tap of the home key.
@murani – I think you fail to realize the point of the complaining. The iPhone was a newly created device so there wasn’t any initial expectations as to what it use to have but was later removed. Windows Mobile phones had many–MANY features over the iPhone that have been taken away from us. Then they go and attempt to create a product that clearly looks like a clone but then leaves these critical features sets out that the iPhone has or is getting. So your not comparing “Apples to Apples” when Jobs removes copy and paste from the iPhone in OS5 for example then Apple people can rightly complain. Microsoft completely dropped the ball with WP7 in it’s current form. Everything that made this OS unique has been removed making this a toy and not a Pocket PC, it’s more of a Pocket iPhone!
@testacon – Fair enough re: comparing apples to apples. The question I love to pose to members and posters on sites like this is what percentage of the market even knows what multitasking and other features are? The iPhone has sold 50 million units without multitasking and other features that WinMo has had for years.
Marketing, simple user experience and phones that work is what sells units. Not to power users but for 90% of the market it sure is.
I actually did a study over a week asking everyone I came in contact what they value in their phone and only 3 people out of 100+ said multitasking. Most people said 1) easy to text, 2) able to brows the internet and 3)apps and games.
When i’m responding to posts from my power user mindset but from the view the average consumer has.
I’ve always hated the iPhone, but some of these new features in 4.0 are the things it has lacked in the past that made me not want it. It’s getting better for sure, but I still wouldnt get one until it comes to Verizon, and I would also like it to have a larger WVGA screen and a better camera.
@breakmyfootoff -I wonder what the iPhone G4 will look like. I know it won’t change much in terms of form factor but i’m thinking it will have a front facing camera and probably go up to a 3.7 to 3.8 inch screen.
Now get it off of AT&T and it will be even better.
wtf @ Iphone 3GS, I better be able to put this on my 3G (once it is jailbroken and the baseband is unlocked)
@Syanni85 – “man, those features don’t look good at all IMO”
uh. What? They are adding in a whole slew of features that jailbroken iphones used which made the os better. Also a bunch of features to make sure the user experience keeps of with the android operating system. Nearly everything they’ve added has lowered the walls on the garden and been direct responses to consumer complaints and or third party usage. Maybe you need to look again? I dunno.
@orangekid
The 3g really has too little ram to be able to handle most of this stuff correctly. I have a jailbroken 3g with OVER HALF of the above listed features added in via third party apps (where do you thing apple gets their ides? lol. They are great copycats). Apple has always been very strict on not over-stuffing their hardware so that it always feels as fast as possible. (unlike winmo and android who consistently put over-performing software on under-performing hardware.) If you want these features then I suggest you go ahead and scoot around rockapp and cydia to dig up the relevant 3rd party equivalents. Just be aware: My 3g with all this on it crawls to a halt with 5-7mb ram free when i open more than a single browser page or two. (the 3gs runs it all with flying colors though.)
microsoft take note!
apple is finally catching up to everyone else!!
they are using saved state now? bunch of losers can’t come up with anything new and apple users are like “wooooooooooooooooooow”..
crackheads!