iPhone OS 4 unveiled, adds multitasking, shipping this summer
By Paul Miller 
posted April 8th 2010 1:43PM
posted April 8th 2010 1:43PM
Notable new features for users ("tentpoles" are in bold):
- 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.
Developers are getting plenty of new tricks too:
- New SDK, available today.
- 1,500 new APIs.
- 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.
- In-app SMS.
- Map overlays.
- Quick look for previewing documents.
- Photo Library access.
- Calendar access.
- Full access to the camera.
- Video playback and capture.
- Date and address "data detectors."
- Automated testing and performance / power analysis (the same tools Apple uses).
Make sure to check out the iPhone OS 4.0 liveblog to see how it all went down!
Oh are my hopes high.
@RocoLumine my bank balance is not, i hope my 3gs will not be obsolete!
@RocoLumine Sounds a lot like Android now... welcome to the party Apple!
@RocoLumine Sounds like they have a winner on their hands. Apple has removed just about every single drawback the first gen iPhone had. The only thing missing is the ability to play other video formats, such as DIVX... but that will likely never happen.
@RocoLumine
Sorry to thread-jack....
Why am I only getting 10 comments per page now?
@RocoLumine
"Fast app switching"
am i the only 1 who read that as flash app switching ?
@RocoLumine
This stuff looks promising. I was considering jailbreaking my iPhone... But this pretty much negates the need.
@jdm28690
great job apple, can't wait for this
@ENGADGET
UGH! No Multiple User support. What a letdown. While not important to the iPhone, this is a must have feature for the iPad. You simply cannot share the device with anyone without Multiple User support, otherwise everyone would share the same email, bookmarks, music, movies, apps, and other files. Makes it hard to let friends use it when the visit it your home, let alone take it on a vacation for the family to use. I would like my wife to be able to log in with her own files, apps, and settings. Obviously the same goes for my kids. Come on Apple!
@RocoLumine jailbreak > any OS version apple pumps out
os4 will be awesome, when the hax come
@Gigaflop That's exactly what I was thinking. It's like Android's little brother, but in Apple's own little base camp. Personally, I hate Apple, but I do have to give kudos for Jobs finally getting a grip on most of what his consumer base wants and delivering. Good day for Apple users, says I!
@Gigaflop Here here. That's exactly what I thought. Except Google is innovating so fast, they are going to leave Apple in the dust again. In a year Android has left Apple playing the catchup game.
@RocoLumine
adPHONE
nuff said
@KidRobotXXIV I agree. I don't like a lot of what they are doing (including the 60/40 split for ad revenue... Can you put your own ads in there, or are you restricted to using their service?), but this looks quite nice. I just hate how they show "new" ideas to the public and declare them as innovations when everyone else has been doing them for years. Call it what it is, you didn't like how it was implemented so you figured out a way that you liked. But to call multitasking or folders innovations is a simple lie... But my feelings here are half "Well, it's about time" and "Wow, that's cool" (the video focus mainly)... As far as the developer's changes, nothing new (well, in the grand scheme of things... APIs change all the time and evolve, but there doesn't look like anything groundbreaking with the exception of the multitasking)...
@RocoLumine
It seems more like the pause and resume for a lot of the apps except certain ones (skype, pandora, etc) from WP7.
@abedinthehouse Well, it's a 4 stage vs MS's 2 stage. With Win7, start and resume (and pause and stop) are the same since the program leaves memory once it exits. Here (and on Android) they are discrete steps. So an application can do something in the background while the front end is paused...
One thing, without a notification bar like android, is there a way to share app state (a music player is playing, or a file is being downloaded in the background) without manual intervention by the user (such as double tapping home)?
@GabrielB
Meh, I've used Android and it just seemed like a less polished attempt at reproducing what I have on my iPhone. I'm sure others' experience is different, but after using Android for a little while, it felt great to get back to the feel of my iPhone.
@ircmaxell
"Q: How do you close applications when multitasking? A: (Scott) You don't have to. The user just uses things and doesn't ever have to worry about it. (Steve) It's like we said on the iPad, if you see a stylus, they blew it. In multitasking, if you see a task manager... they blew it. Users shouldn't ever have to think about it."
If that does not sound like WP7 than stop me now. Neither have task managers, both have stop and resume functions, both can run stuff on the background while the front end is paused on certain apps. (WP7 can do this contrary to what you said, two quick example is loading sites on the background or listening to music)
This isnt the true multitasking us geeks have been waiting for...
@RocoLumine
Ok, so release date is not until this summer. Let's get that 3.1.3 jailbreak out, Geohot!
@tbonez You can't share your iPad, it isn't called the usPad.. lol.. Buy each person in your family one!
@tbonez
That would be a good idea for the iPad, seeing how computers allow it, but I think apple wants individuals to just go out and get an iPad for themselves instead of sharing one device. I honestly don't see it being added as a function until Apple is comfortable enough with their iPad market saturation to let people start sharing..
@Gigaflop
Sounds like Android 1.5 to me, thank goodness I have 2.1
@abedinthehouse .. okay I will stop you because you're wrong. Simple scenario.
Pandora on WP7 will stop playing when you switch to a different app. In the past iPhone would do, now it doesn't.
That is what people mean by multitasking.
@tbonez
you want a device that can browse the internet for your family....a macbook?
@abedinthehouse
But you CAN close apps while multitasking. When you double-tap and bring up the list of "running" apps, you can tap hold on one to get a minus sign that will let you close it.
And yes, I'm a developer using the 4.0 beta.
@taligent .. okay I will stop you because you are wrong.
WP7S came up with this backgrounded audio/web loading/voip idea. iPhone OS 4.0 just stole it and ran with it and you swallowed it up as an 'innovation'.
@RocoLumine I just hope that the multitasking will be released on the older iPhones as an update (even it looks impossible coming from the announcement). I guess we just need to see it this summer. iPhone OS 4 reactions - http://bit.ly/iphone-os-4-0-impressions
@Hex You still won't find things like calendarpro, lockinfo, grip and proswitcher. the new "non-task manager" task manager is cool and all, but proswitcher is way cooler. plus you can change how it's activated.
@ebgolfin
You, sir, are a plain idiot. Android is the future, apple os is communisme.
@RocoLumine Well, your iPhone 3GS is compatible! The only ones not compatible are the iPod Touch 2nd gen and below as well as iPhone 3G and below. :((((((((((((((((( Stupid hardware problems... (well, Apple says you can run MOST of the features.... just not the multitasking... WHICH WAS THE DEALBREAKER...) :((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((
@kiezel Both are the future.
fanboys take note: this is why you need market competition. it's not the Highlander.
@Gigaflop
Android and it's Google Machine can die.
@tbonez tthats like making the iphone with differen users....its not that type of hardware....its a one man show....just make folders with her apps and yours and make individual playlists....but it was never EVER meant for more than one person....
@tbonez Is that the next stupid thing to whine about??? Buy something else, not made by apple and STFU.
@GabrielB "Hear, hear"
@tbonez absolutely, this is a must have. Hopefully it is one of the features that have yet to be mentioned, along with widgets on at least the lock screen.
@vqro You sir need to graduate high school and quit trying to be 1337 by telling people to STFU. Go sit in your little corner where your Steve Jobs idol commands your worship, and stay there and think about what you have done, then go outside and attempt to socialize in the real world.
@tbonez I can see the need for it (on the iPod Touch XL at least), but Apple wants EVERYONE in your family to have ONE iPhone/iPod Touch XL per person. Multi-users isn't even supported in Android, WinMob, or WebOS. Something that mobile is targeted at being single user oriented, so it's not needed on phones or small devices (PMPs and such). But until they add multi-user support to the iPod Touch XL, quit emailing your girlfriends or just check your email on your iPhone, or whatever you are using, or just quit doing things that you have to hide. As for the kids, I'd just get them an Archos 5 and load it up with a bunch of movies and music, then just kick back, it'll save you from a shattered 9.whatever inch screen and headaches later on.
@sys3175 Hahhahahahah "it isn't called the usPad" lmfao. Soo true.
@RocoLumine mine too i am always exited for apple to improve even if it does take them longer they always get it right
@Hex
I can give you every reason in the world to jailbreak iPhone OS 4.0.
The stuff you can do by jail-breaking, even compared to 4.0, is way out of Apple's vision still. Video wallpaper, video ringtones, themes (with different icons, docks, etc.), SBsettings (which is THE most vaulable feature in jailbreaking I believe. Look up SBsettings if you don't already know what it does. It is outstanding.
@tbonez
Why do you need multiple user support?! That's a portable gadget not a desk computer that you share at home with your family.
@tbonez
Multiple accounts? U Hiding something? ha !
If it's work stuff, just buy another iPad for family purposes dude. You can afford it.
@hollis Widgets? No, not in this update. Apple has to have something 'innovative' for OS 5.0
@etrnldrk
Your telling other people to grow up? Have you looked at your icon lately?
@tbonez although that is something i do not need that is a great idea
@RocoLumine
Gr8 so much new features i just love the way Apple disguises people :
1.Multitasking - Right or Wrong way nokia doing it from years now
2.This the best user can set wallpaper of their own choice next
feature would be user can watch the video of their own choice on apple iPhone.
3.iAd try n make more more revenue in the name of developer.
4.Gr8 now u can create ur own playlists this is what we call a smartphone.
5. Game Centre some thing look similar to Nokia's N-Gage
I don't know why engadget shownig such creepy features as new developments.
Well, I'd say that rules out a release for first-gen devices.
Screw you, Steve Jobs.
@Dr Blight
hahaha your damn right it does
I don't understand why people get upset about this, being, not supporting old technology. Trying to support old technology all the time just holds back progress. It's not a good idea to always design for the lowest common denominator.