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iPhone OS 4.0 spotlight lets you directly search web, Wikipedia
Apple did quite a bit today bringing its iPhone OS up to feature parity (and sometimes beyond) when compared with other modern smartphone platforms, and here's one piece not discussed today that we've been long wanting: web and Wikipedia search directly from Spotlight. WebOS and Windows Phone 7 have had it since inception, and Android's had it since Donut, and we're pretty happy to say that our OS 4.0-equipped iPhone is now also among the ranks, just 13 months after it first got a search bar. There you have it, folks, iPhone Spotlight is now useful. [Thanks, Randy]
iPhone OS 4 keynote video now online
Sure, you devoured every word of the liveblog (or perhaps just casually refreshed throughout the day, who are we to judge), but if you want to see the Steve Jobs-delivered iPhone OS 4 keynote with your own two eyes, the streaming video is now online. Multitask your way on over!
iPhone OS 4 hands-on (updated with video!)
Okay, so we're currently holding our breath while the developer preview of iPhone OS 4 installs on our 3GS -- a process that seems to be, uh, not going so well, but we wanted to share these quick shots we took from the simulator in the meantime. The dock is now 3D, like the one in Snow Leopard and on the iPad, multitasking works just like you'd expect -- you can swipe left and right to see more open apps -- and the Game Center app is present, although not functional. There's also Events and Faces in the Photos app, which you'd expect after the iPad version got them. We've got our fingers crossed that our latest restore attempt is going to work, so check back in a few for a video walkthrough, but hit the gallery below in the meantime! Update: Wonder of wonders, we actually got the bugger working! We're doing video right now, let us know what you want to see -- and check out some on-device shots below. Update 2: Video time! We also added some impressions, it's all after the break. %Gallery-90076% %Gallery-90083%
iPhone 4.0 OS: Now with iAds
Today at the iPhone 4.0 preview event, Apple announced that one of the new features coming in 4.0 is the iAd network. According to Steve, an average iPhone user is on their phone using apps about half an hour a day. So at one ad every three minutes, that's 10 ads on each device each day, and with almost ten million devices out there, Apple claims they'll be serving a billion ad opportunities every day. And yet this isn't the huge news about iAds. Here is what makes it a big deal: Apple built the network and is offering it up to developers to use how they'd like, with 60% of the revenue made on those ads going to developers themselves. That's up a bit from the standard "Apple gets a 30% cut" rule of thumb, but more than half seems more than fair. Apple hosts and sells the ads, and developers take home over half the revenue. The ad demonstrated live actually looked cool: they showed off little Toy Story 3 ad at the bottom of a news app. Tap the ad, and it comes up with some options (a character list, sounds from each character, etc) and even a game to play, including an option to buy a game from right within the ad. Steve even asked if anyone had seen anything like this before, and among the gathered press, he got silence in response. Currently, the most educated of guesses is that the AdKit API will be a developer source as well as an iTunes source (iTunes sources are where the App Store and Music Store get their content.) After the event in the Q&A session, Steve said they attempted to buy AdMob and got sniped by Google, so they bought Quattro and are trying very hard to come up to speed on what web advertising is like, presumably so they can change it. As long as they aren't trying to get me to refinance my mortgage or whiten my teeth, I'm looking forward to the future of advertising on the iPhone.
Jobs: If you see a stylus or a task manager, 'they blew it'
Steve Jobs is never one to mince words when taking questions from the press, and he just made it very clear how he feels about other platforms during the iPhone OS 4 event when asked about task management: Q: How do you close applications when multitasking? A: (Scott Forstall) You don't have to. The user just uses things and doesn't ever have to worry about it. A: (Steve Jobs) 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. Yeah, that pretty much sums up the Apple Way, but hey -- tell us how you really feel, Steve.
iPhone SDK 4 beta now available for download
Got your iPhone developer credentials handy? Then you'll want to head straight on over to the iPhone Dev Center, where you can now download the iPhone SDK 4 beta and get a taste of what everyone else will see this summer (or fall). And don't worry too much if you're not among the lucky iPhone devs, we've got you covered on all the details of iPhone OS 4 right here.
Multitasking comes to iPhone OS 4.0 -- but not to the iPhone 3G
You heard that right, people -- iPhone OS 4 just brought multitasking to the platform! Apple says they've figured out how to implement third party multitasking without hurting performance or battery life, and they're demoing it now -- you just double click the home button and see a list of your apps, and you can just tap to switch between apps. The system actually runs the services apps need in the background -- the apps don't need to do them individually, so it's not a "true" multitasking system, but it seems plenty effective. There are seven services: background audio, which allows you to use the standard pop-over iPod controls, Voice over IP, which can receive calls in the background, location services for GPS and social networking (there's an indicator if any service is tracking you), updated push notifications with local notifications, task completion so you can finish things like uploads in the background, and fast app switching, which lets apps sleep and resume instantly. Notably missing? Anything for managing a conversation, like IM or Twitter, which is a big omission. Win some, lose some, we suppose. Update: Here's a big "lose some" -- only the iPhone 3GS and 3rd generation (late 2009) iPod touch will support multitasking. The iPhone 3G and below won't -- Steve says the hardware doesn't support it. Sad face. %Gallery-90050% Developing... Make sure to check out the ongoing iPhone OS 4.0 liveblog!
iPhone OS 4 not coming to the iPad until the fall
All that great stuff we just heard about iPhone OS 4: multitasking, tentpoles, app folders, Game Center, iAd -- okay, maybe you weren't all that excited about iAd -- seemed destined to hit the iPad this summer. Surely, right? Instead, rather than finishing with his usual "one more thing" flourish today, Steve Jobs just left a stunned audience with the terse statement that Apple will be "bringing OS 4 to the iPad this fall." That's like... a whole different season from the new operating system's release. Why Steve, why?
iPhone OS 4 unveiled, adds multitasking, shipping this summer
Just a bit more than a year after we first laid eyes on iPhone OS 3.0, Apple is back with the latest big revision of the OS that powers the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. iPhone OS 4 is shipping this summer (iPad in the fall), and the developer preview will be out today. iPhone 3GS and new-gen iPod touch will get all the features, but some features won't make it to the iPhone 3G, original iPhone, and older iPod touches. The biggest new feature is multitasking, which Apple says is going to be the "best" implementation in the smartphone space, though it's obviously not the first. App switching is activated by double tapping the home button, which pulls up a "dock" of currently running apps, and Apple claims it can do this without hurting battery life or performance for the front app. Unfortunately, this multitasking won't be available for devices older than the 3GS and new iPod touch. Multitasking is just one of seven different new "tentpole" features, including Game Center, enhanced Mail, and more... 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). %Gallery-90056% %Gallery-90057% %Gallery-90058% Make sure to check out the iPhone OS 4.0 liveblog to see how it all went down!
Live from Apple's iPhone OS 4 event!
We're on the ground outside of Apple's iPhone OS 4 event, awaiting the doorbuster stampede we hope to be a part of soon. Keep it tuned here, and check back at the times below for the official start! 07:00AM - Hawaii 10:00AM - Pacific 11:00AM - Mountain 12:00PM - Central 01:00PM - Eastern 06:00PM - London 07:00PM - Paris 09:00PM - Moscow
Apple to announce iAd / AdKit mobile ad platform on Thursday?
Here's an interesting little rumor that seems all too plausible: Peter Kafka at All Things Digital says sources are telling him Apple will announce a new mobile ad network based on its Quattro Wireless acquisition on Thursday at its iPhone OS 4 event, a report that jibes completely with what we learned about the iAd / AdKit framework present in the iPhone OS just last week. Kafka also says that Google will undoubtedly cheer the move on, since it's trying to convince the FTC to approve its $750m AdMob acquisition -- the presence of a formidable competitor like Apple in the mobile ad space makes the buyout seem more like healthy business and less like "evil monopoly that owns every ad on the internet and is stalking innocents for their flesh with Google Buzz." Our guess is that Apple will give developers a standard way to place ads in their apps using a new OS service and split the revenue 70/30, just like paid apps in the App Store, but that's just a shot in the dark -- we'll see what happens on Thursday.
Three flavors of iPhone OS 4.x showing up in developer's analytics?
Speaking of iPhone OS 4, check this out: PixelCUBE Studios, which currently holds the #1 spot on iTunes' list of free iPhone app downloads with The Impossible Test, noticed something rather curious in its usage stats. See, PixelCUBE uses Pinch Media to dredge up analytics, and a quick check of the OS versions its users are running (pictured left) shows that not one, not two, but three distinct flavors of OS 4 have turned up: 4.0, 4.0.1, and 4.1. It's not unusual for Apple (or any major software developer, really) to have different teams working on multiple version milestones at the same time, so we don't doubt that this could be real; then again, this is easy enough to spoof in a world where enterprising devs and fun-loving miscreants are bending iPhones to their every whim with creative hacks and lightning-quick jailbreaks. Anyone up for a careful daily sweep of BART trains until we get to the bottom of this?
Apple holding iPhone OS 4 event, April 8th!
Yes folks -- the world is turning upside down. Apple has announced an iPhone OS 4 event on April 8th at 10AM PT for a "sneak peek of the next generation of iPhone OS software." So if you're wondering about the future of the platform... your answers will appear sooner than you think. The team collectively dropped an "OMG" when we saw this news, as it's pretty unusual to see such a big event coming from Apple right on the heels of something like the iPad launch. Of course we'll be there -- at Apple's Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino -- live and direct, providing the liveblogging coverage you know and love.
Apple rumor twofer: Expose-like multitasking in iPhone OS 4.0, international iPad launch on April 24th
We're not quite at the height of Apple frenzy, but looking at the bell curve, we're only a standard deviation or two from its zenith (we imagine the fever pitch will be in tandem with Saturday's iPad launch, if history and human nature tells us anything). Of course, that doesn't stop the rumor mill from amping up production, and so on with the show! First on the docket, remember last month's discovery of multitasking comments in the iPhone SDK 3.2 beta? Well, AppleInsider's apparently got it on word from its network of sources that OS 4.0 will in fact include multitasking, with app switching purportedly done by double-tapping the home button and selecting the appropriate active app icon. If you ask us, that sounds similar in function to command / tab switching, but the people claiming to be in the know liken it more to Expose for OS X. Taking a step back to focus on the actual hardware for a moment, iPad in Canada is hearing that local Apple store employees have been told April 24th is a "black out period," meaning no one is allowed to take that day off. That usually coincides with major product launch, and we did hear the international iPad debut would be late April, but Apple's yet to make its non-US plans concrete. It is the last Saturday of the month, however, and perhaps it'll coincide with the other countries as well. As always, none of this is confirmed and shouldn't be taken as gospel in any way, shape, or form. We can't stop you from getting your hopes up, but don't blame us if those dreams get shattered by a sucker punch of reality.
More suggestions of multitasking in iPhone OS 4.0
Developers have found further evidence of multitasking support for 3rd party iPhone apps in the latest beta (3.2 beta 4) of the iPhone SDK, and suggest that it will become a reality this summer. 9to5 Mac reports on a new line found deep within the latest iPhone SDK. Specifically, SpringBoard.js has a reference to a "multitasking dialog box" that did not appear in version 3.1.3 of the SDK; it seems that it's new to version 3.2. Of course, there's no assurance that this refers to 3rd party support for multitasking, but it is new. Additionally, Appleinsider's souces with "proven track records" state that Apple has developed "a full-on solution" for 3rd-party multitasking which will be a part of iPhone OS 4.0. No specifics were given on how it will be pulled off or how it will address the two main concerns: battery life and security. Let's assume that Apple's plan addresses the security issue, but battery life still presents a problem, one that was supposedly addressed by Push Notifications. Apple's remote notification service allows applications to offload polling processes to web servers. By keeping the update algorithms working off the device, the iPhone's battery is spared. Certainly the iPhone itself must take on the task of keeping all of those apps up and running. It should also be noted that iPhone OS does not use a paged memory model. That means, multi-tasking applications must compete for the same memory space, making it more likely that apps will receive memory warnings and even crash when they use too much memory. That's not an issue in the one-app-at-a-time space, but a real problem with multitasking Of course, the iPhone OS is already fully capable of multitasking. In order for non-Apple apps to participate, Apple must lift the current restrictions within the OS. That's something the company won't do until the iPhone engineers have devised the best and safest method. As for iPhone OS 4.0, Appleinsider notes that it's got "a ways to go." Hopefully we'll have an answer in July.
Next week's Apple event to be iLife / iPhone OS 4.0 / tablet trifecta?
We're realistically no closer to knowing the outcome of next week's Apple event than we were a week, a year, or a decade ago, but rumors are obviously congealing around the mythical tablet that users, fans, and media have all but willed into existence recently -- and our buddy Clayton Morris says that's indeed a part of the story. Morris reports having spoken with a source at Apple this morning -- prior to the company's invites going out, interestingly -- who said that the event would focus on a new version of iLife, iPhone OS 4.0, and naturally, the tablet. Loosely speaking, you can see how these would all tie together pretty nicely: the seemingly "creative" theme of Apple's invite rolls into a new version of iLife, and the announcement of a tablet could have implications for how a suite of artsy tools gets used. Rumblings that the tablet is underpinned by a new version of iPhone OS have gone back months, so that would give Apple impetus to tease it at the same time the tablet's shown off -- sans new iPhone hardware, possibly, which the company has done before. It's also possible that Apple will open source its entire catalog of software and shut down, buy an island nation, or do nothing at all -- but in fairness, there's an awful lot of logic to what Clayton's saying here. We'll know soon enough.
