Apr
8
iPhone OS 4 Announced Today, Download It In SDK Now
It’s not any sort of secret that Apple unveiled the new 4th generation iPhone operating system today. This will be the new OS powering iPhones, iPods and the recently released iPad. Of course, like all things Apple, this is just the tease… the developer preview as some call it… iPhone OS 4 won’t ship out until at least this summer and not until fall for the iPad.
So what’s the biggest new feature that OS 4 has and none of the others have? Multi-tasking. “We’re not the first to this party, but we’re gonna be the best. Just like cut and paste,” says Steve Jobs. Yeah, what does that mean, exactly? I wondered the same thing when I tried to get the scoop from a friend (unfortunately, I was unable to check out the event as it occurred).
Multi-tasking, cut to the skinny of it, brings in better capabilities to run multiple programs. The iPhone OS 4 utilizes a dock for applications that are running. This makes it easy to jump from program to program… multi-task. Jobs speaks of an example:
I’m gonna launch mail, this has a URL — so I jump to safari — so I want to go back to mail… I double click the home button and a window raises that shows me all the apps that are running. Now I want to go to ebay — I go right to where I left off in the apps, now I want to play a game — now I want to play a game, Tap Tap Revenge, it keeps me where I was. Again, the game stops, let me go back and look at mail. And again, I can go home anytime I want. Boom I’m home. Make sense? Really simple UI, puts all the apps at the bottom that are running…
Other capabilities in regards to multi-tasking include:
- running Pandora in the background (music won’t stop when you switch apps)
- VoIP for Skype-ing (stay logged on, even while using other apps)
- Push notifications now will be “Local notifications” (no longer need to use Apple servers)
- Task completion (continue a task, such as uploading photos to Flickr, in the background while doing other things)
- Fast app switching (save the current state you are at with one app, switch to another, return to the same state for previous app)
Moving on… so what other cool features were mentioned in the preview today? Here are a couple of my picks…
Folders
Rather than flipping through page onto page for an individual application you are looking to launch… consolidate a logically grouped bunch of applications into a folder — less flipping through pages. Will, say, 2,000 apps be enough? OS 4 allows you to have over 2,000 apps on your iPhone now…
Unified Inbox
All your mail in one place, with the addition of multiple Exchange accounts. ‘Nuff said (sorry to sound thug-like, but the occasion called for it…)!
If you are interested in reading more, Engadget has a live blog from the events held earlier today; they also have a video preview. The Business Insider has a quick and simple slide show explaining the seven features highlighted by Apple. Or if you are just looking to recap every single moment of today’s iPhone OS 4 developer preview, watch the entire event at Apple.
Oh, yes, developers can download the SDK (software developer kit) version of iPhone OS 4 already. Check that out here: iPhone Dev Center.
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