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Engadget Daily: Instagram's Hyperlapse, messaging's mission impossible and more!
Today, we look at Instagram's new video sharing app called Hyperlapse, imagine a world with a truly unified inbox, prepare for school with the 10 best tablets available, and more! Read on for Engadget's news highlights from the last 24 hours.
iPhone OS 4.0: Enterprise Features
Apple has posted an outline of what it believes to be the key enterprise features of iPhone OS 4.0. Third-party multitasking, enhanced security and mobile device management are among the marquee features. As a former IT director, I'm drawn in by mobile device management (MDM). Setting up individual pieces of hardware is a time-consuming hassle. New MDM APIs let developers integrate features like wireless configuration and update, remote wipes and policy compliance (no games, please!) into their apps. Additionally, wireless app distribution lets managers then install those apps over Wi-Fi and 3G. Apple also touts the unified email inbox and SSL VPN support along with pre-existing features like Exchange support. Still, there will be users who feel that the iPhone is a plaything when compared to the all-business Blackberry. May they enjoy their plastic QWERTY keyboards and multi-tasking prowess for years to come.
iPhone OS 4.0: Unified inbox, threaded messaging and more
Apple announced today that the iPhone's Mail application is going to receive several new features as part of the iPhone OS 4.0 software to be released later this year (summer for iPhone/iPod touch and fall for iPad). The first big feature is the unified inbox. Finally, it will be possible to read all of your unread messages in one "pane" without having to navigate forwards/backwards between the many accounts on your device. As someone with 5 email accounts that I regularly check, this is a huge win. Multiple Exchange accounts means I can finally have both my work email (Exchange) and my personal email (Gmail) take advantage of Push functionality. Previously users were limited to using one Exchange account and unlimited IMAP accounts. This limitation has been removed. And there was much rejoicing. Additionally, fast inbox switching means it is easy and quick to focus in on a single mail account. Threaded messaging is another feature that has been asked for by many. If you have ever used Gmail's web client, then you are familiar with how this works. Essentially, messages that pertain to a single "chain" of emails (based on subject line) are grouped together. This greatly reduces a cluttered-feeling inbox and I recommend checking it out on your Mac using Mail.app by enabling the Threaded Messaging view. Now that the iPhone and iPad have become / are becoming huge winners in the productivity space, this next feature is going to be a welcome addition as well. The ability to open attachments with third-party apps is a great idea that I've only recently begun to feel as a regular need. I think this really helps to push the iPad towards true laptop-replacement status. That's all we've got so far on the new features in Mail coming with iPhone OS 4.0. Stay tuned as we continue to cover this monumental update to Apple's mobile operating platform.
