The iPhone OS 4 developer preview event is over. Apple talked about 7 main features that make the iPhone OS 4 what it is. Most of the main “in-demand” features have been built in to this latest OS. iPhone users will get this in Summer this year and the iPad users will get their version in Fall this year. All features are fully supported on the iPhone 3GS and the 3rd generation iPod Touch. iPhone 3G and the 2nd generation iPod Touch will have no multitasking. The original iPhone is now obsolete.
Multitasking
Image Courtesy of Gizmodo
This has been the main gripe against the iPhone for a long time now and we finally have it built in. Multitasking is supported through 7 different background API’s that Apple will be giving to developers to work with. These are — Audio, VoIP, Background Location, Push Notification, Local Notification, Task Completion and Fast App switching. There’s a detailed post about it here.
Folders
Folders allow you to organize your apps into groups. Folder creation is automatic. Drag one App on top of another and you have a folder. Folder naming will be as per the categories of the apps in it. All 180 slots can have folders. With 12 apps to each folder, you can now hold 2160 apps on your iPhone. Folders can be placed on the homescreen (of course!) and on the dock.
Enhanced Mail App
The iPhone OS 4 has upgrade the mail app to have an unified inbox with fast inbox switching. You can now have more than on exchange account as well. Attachments can now be opened with third-party apps (a la the iPad I presume) and there’s also threaded email support like the Mail app on the OS X.
iBooks Support
Nothing new to report here. All the features of the iBooks and the iBooks Store will be available. Bookmarks and current pages will be synced wireless with the iPad. You won’t miss a thing. Also, you will only be buying the book once. The publishers haven’t gotten that greedy yet, thankfully.
Enterprise Features
There are a lot of new enterprise features and this is probably the first time they have put this much emphasize on it. Other than the extra exchange account support you also have better data encryption with email and attachment encryption plus in app data encryption. There’s also mobile device management, SSL VPN Support and wireless App distribution.
Game Center
This is a social gaming network with features similar to comparable services like XBOX Live. There will be matchmaking, achievements and leader boards. They want all the game makers to support this on their games and it will be coming out later this year. there are about “50,000 games and entertainment” titles on the App Store according to Apple and that is why they have decided that this is a big part of people’s lives. Another leap for the iPhone towards becoming a dominant gaming platform.
iAd
[Image courtesy of Gizmodo
The final thing on the agenda was the iAd. Rumors were abound days in advance and it is true — that is exactly what they are calling it. It is essentially a way to deliver ads within the app so that the user is not yanked away from the app and left wondering what just happened.
All ads will be HTML5 and they will be focusses as much on emotional tug as on interactivity, thus combining the impact of both. The ads can have sound clips, games, videos and almost anything. In the demos, a Target ad had a custom dorm room maker, a Nike had a custom shoe maker, both had store locators and a Disney Toy Story 3 ad had a theatre locator, wallpapers, videos, characters with audio bites and more. Basically anything you can think of building with HTML5 can be done.
Apple will sell and serve all ads. The split will be 60-40 with the larger portion going to developers. This will be opt in of course and Apple said that the approval for ads will be light handed.
