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iPhone 4.0 OS Screen shots: custom wallpaper, folders, multitasking, and more!
And they keep coming in! TUAW reader Tom has sent us screen shots showing iPhone OS 4.0's ability to support custom wallpaper (and the new dock style), an open and closed Apps folder containing four apps, multitasking, and a new Calculator icon. Check out all the screen shots in the gallery below! %Gallery-90080%
iPhone OS 4.0: No multitasking for iPhone 3G and second gen iPod touch
While Apple will be serving up a hearty meal with iPhone OS 4.0, not all iPhones and iPod touches will be able to offer up the full experience. Only the iPhone 3GS and third generation iPod touch will be capable of handling all seven features highlighted at the event today (multitasking, folders, mail enhancements, iBooks, better enterprise features, Game Center, and iAd). While the iPhone 3G and second generation iPod touch "will run many [of these] things...there are some things they won't run," according to Steve Jobs at the event. The most notable of these things is multitasking, which Apple said the iPhone 3G and second generation iPod touch just can't handle (of course, we know they can on jailbroken units, but Apple didn't acknowledge that possibility). There was no mention of the first generation iPhone and iPod touch, with the implication being that if you want multitasking on the iPhone, it's 3GS only... or perhaps some new hardware that might be announced later this year. As one who balked at the iPhone 3GS -- both because I didn't qualify for AT&T's upgrade price and because I don't find its features compelling enough to justify a purchase -- this certainly shortens my purchase cycle. There are probably many in the same boat. While I was going to purchase the next generation iPhone anyway, I'm now contemplating upgrading to an iPhone 3GS or better.
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.
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 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!
iPhone OS 4.0: Multitasking, finally, hooray!
The demand for iPhone OS multitasking is nothing new. People have been looking for ways to do more than one thing at once on their iPhones for some time. For example, let's say you're chatting on IRC in one application, and you want to hop out to check a Web page. Should you have to disconnect from your IRC session just so you can sneak into Safari? Maybe you want to listen to Pandora radio while shopping at the App Store. Should you have to stop the Pandora music? People multitask, and now the iPhone OS can too. Starting with the upcoming 4.0 firmware, the iPhone OS will (finally!) allow users to do more than one task at once. As Steve demonstrated today, iPhone OS 4.0 lets you switch tasks by double-clicking the home button. A dock-like bar appears at the bottom of the screen, showing you a list of running applications. Typically with multitasking, the more processes that you run, the more burden you'll place on battery life. The application would have to page into and out of memory a lot more, and as a result, less memory and processor power will be available on a per-app basis. It's a trade-off. For me, and I'm sure for many others, it's a trade-off we're willing to make in order to cash in to the associate benefits. However, it seems that we may not have to fear: Apple says they have found a way around all of these caveats. How, you ask? They are providing background services to applications, allowing the app to stream music, provide notifications, or do other tasks without compromising performance. What about you? Is this a feature that you're going to be taking advantage of? Would you rather swap it out for better battery life and app performance? Let us know in the comments.
iPhone OS 4 detailed: multitasking confirmed
Apple's iPhone OS 4 event is happening now (go play along at home with Engadget's liveblog!) and Mr. Jobs just announced support for what has to be the most requested feature on the platform: multitasking. While Jobs admitted that Apple wasn't "the first to the party" he did suggest that "we're gonna be the best." Apple's solution involves pulling a "Dock"-like bar from the bottom of the screen with a double-press of the Home button. That Dock features all currently running apps. To illustrate the functionality, Jobs used a game, Tap Tap Revenge. "Now I want to go to eBay -- I go right to where I left off in the apps," Jobs said. "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." But it's not all about games, of course -- Apple also demoed music-streaming app Pandora playing in the background regardless of app (take note, Last.FM on Xbox 360!) and Skype, available to take calls in the background. Update: And, just as some of you feared, this particular enhancement will not work on iPhone 3G or earlier. "We are releasing it for end users for iPhone and iPod Touch ... for the 3GS and iPod Touch 3rd Gen," Jobs said. "And, for iPhone 3G and iPod Touch 2nd Gen, they will run many things ... but there are some things they won't run, like multitasking." So there you have it. While your iPhone 3G or 2nd-gen Touch may run many other components of OS 4 (Game Center?), it won't be running them at the same time.
What's in the iPhone 4.0?
Willkommen, Besucher von spiegel.de. Möchten Sie ein Übersetzung? Hier drucken. Well, we didn't really expect this to come so soon after the iPad release, but sure enough, Apple is going to show us the iPhone 4.0 operating system this Thursday. That doesn't give us a lot of time for speculation, but I'm sure we'll squeeze it in. As per our reader expectations, various rumors and leaks, and other random news and scuttlebutt, what can we expect to see in a new iPhone OS? Multitasking. Yup. If Apple's going to answer the naysayers, this is when it will happen. Of course, it will be done Apple's way (as we've heard, the new OS will probably still rely on notifications for most apps, and incorporate more of an "app-switching" idea rather than full multitasking), but the iPhone 4.0 will likely be able to run more than one third-party app at a time. A new home screen. This one's probably a little more of a guess, since Apple didn't mix up the home screen, even for its historic iPad. Though, since the iPhone is a smartphone, and since this is one of the most vocal complaints we've heard from actual users of the iPhone, a new screen of information would be very welcome. Better app management. With iPad and iPhone apps now out there, we've all got a lot of apps to deal with. From the longtime idea of "stacks" for apps, to the ability to remove official apps, to app gestures and navigation, the iPhone needs a better way to browse through apps, and it's likely that we'll see it this week. Landscape mode/switch. This one's a shot in the dark from me, but when you play with the iPad, one of the first things you notice is that it's able to adapt to any kind of usage situation; even when you turn it on the home screen, the icons adjust to the way that you want to use it, rather than the other way around. What else can we tell you? With just a few days to speculate, that's probably a good start. We've waited a lot longer than three days to hear about a new Apple product before, but three days has never seemed so long.
iPad apps: defining experiences from the first wave
There are now over 1,348 approved apps for the iPad. That's on top of the 150,000 iPad-compatible iPhone programs already available in the App Store. When Apple's tablet PC launches, just hours from now, it will have a software library greater than that of any handheld in history -- not counting the occasional UMPC. That said, the vast majority of even those 1,348 iPad apps are not original. They were designed for the iPhone, a device with a comparatively pokey processor and a tiny screen, and most have just been tweaked slightly, upped in price and given an "HD" suffix -- as if that somehow justified the increased cost. Besides, we've seen the amazing potential programs have on iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and webOS when given access to a touchscreen, always-on data connection, GPS, cloud storage and WiFi -- but where are the apps that truly define iPad? What will take advantage of its extra headroom, new UI paradigms and multitouch real estate? Caught between netbook and smartphone, what does the iPad do that the iPhone cannot? After spending hours digging through the web and new iPad section of the App Store, we believe we have a number of reasonably compelling answers. Update: Now includes Wormhole Remote, TweetDeck, SkyGrid, Touchgrind HD, GoToMeeting, SplitBrowser, iDisplay, Geometry Wars and Drawing Pad.
Rumor: Apple's iPhone 4.0 to support multitasking, Expose-like interface
Rumors are flying hot and heavy about a new update coming to the iPhone this summer. AppleInsider has another big rumored feature: Multitasking. According to their sources, Apple will finally introduce third-party multitasking on the new iPhone. Of course, they're doing it the way that they want to and utilizing an Expose-like interface. Two presses on the Home button will supposedly bring up a list of icons, or names of the apps currently running, and then the user will be able to choose from those. Notifications won't go away; AI says that Apple is still concerned about battery life and network performance, so whenever it's possible to keep an app alive simply with notifications, they'll advocate that solution rather than running it in the background all of the time. However, it's also noted that jailbreaking is currently the only way for a third-party to multitask on an iPhone, and the company hopes to end a lot of piracy and jailbreak concerns by providing an official solution. This isn't the first time we've heard rumors about a multitasking system like this, and it probably won't be the last. Once the iPad is out of the way, it's very likely that we'll next see the iPhone updated, and it would be a smart move to finally allow users to run more than one app at a time.
iPad app previews aplenty all across the Web
We're seeing tons and tons of news about iPad apps dropping now, and we're still a few days away from launch. In addition to our own coverage, here's a bunch of the other previews we've seen popping up around the community: This iVerse Comics app looks excellent, and it's one of the first universal binaries we've seen -- one purchase will get you the app on both your iPhone and your iPad. In-app purchase content will cross over as well. Flickr won't have an official app yet (as far as we know), but Flickr Photos will let you browse through Flickr on the iPad right away. Sonasaurus Rex is a looping/music app that will be available on day one. iTap will have a VNC client available for the iPad right away. Of course, no iPad will be complete with out the Star Trek-inspired IPADD app. The iPhone music app RJDJ is releasing both an iPad app and a Mac app to complement its handheld version. DashApp is designed to bring just a little bit of web multitasking to Apple's less-than-multitasking friendly device. Design Brief will help you collect information about new design clients (if you happen to be a designer, or just want random information about people) by using the iPad onsite. Dashboard App recreates Apple's Dashboard unofficially on the iPad. Globetrotters looks like a fun bit of party gaming. Can you imagine something like this becoming a killer app? Talk about revolutionary. We've seen private previews of the Box.net and Bento apps for iPad, and should be showing more in the next few days. And finally, even though I believe we'd heard about it before, Harbor Master for the iPad is officially confirmed as well. See what I mean? That's a lot of apps! Stay tuned -- we've also got our own exclusive coverage coming up over the next few days, but we'll continue to update you on what we see showing up out there in iPad-land.
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.
Entelligence: Mobile multitasking is mostly a myth
Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide. The idea of multitasking on mobile devices has been a hot topic for years. It's been debated since the early days of smartphones, when devices such as the Treo based on Palm OS could not handle more than one task at a time, while handsets based on the Windows Mobile platform had the capability. The issue reached a crescendo with the release of the iPhone (and more recently with the iPad) and lack of multitasking capability for third party apps. This week it's come up once again, with news from MIX10 that Microsoft would not support multitasking for third party apps on Windows Phone 7 Series, at least initially.
Survey finds people eager to 'work on the go' with iPad, we wonder what line of 'work' they're in
So, give this a listen -- a survey from the lairs of Sybase has found that among smartphone-owning respondents, some 52.3 percent of them "would use a tablet device such as the Apple iPad is for working on the go." We fully understand that this phrase leaves open the possibility of using tablets not Designed in Cupertino, but the mere fact that it's highlighted gave us pause. We're still trying to figure out how exactly Apple's forthcoming tablet is going to fit between our daily laptop and workhorse-of-a-smartphone, and without a major overhaul of the iPhone OS, we definitely can't visualize ourselves using it for "work." 'Course, maybe they're into something that doesn't require the use of multiple applications at once, and maybe the dearth of a real keyboard isn't much of a productivity killer, but we're just not sold on the iPad being a bona fide work machine as-is. So, what say you? Are you one of those 52.3 percenters? Or do you relate more with the vocal minority?
Nielsen data: you're probably watching too much teevee
Nielsen's just released some zingers (also known as statistics) for you to chew on while you listen to a YouTube clip (something about Obamacare) drone on in another tab, tell your significant other to "hold on" and track your Domino's pizza in a completely different tab. The annual Three Screens report, as it's called, has some choice data on American habits, such as the fact that television consumption (average number of hours watched per day) has increased to nearly 35 hours per week per person. What else can we glean from this treasure chest of minutiae? Well, about 59 percent of Americans now multitask in front of the teevee with their laptops for an average of three and a half hours a month. A final interesting tidbit here -- flying in the face of popular wisdom, it seems that the older you are, the more television you're likely to watch -- so keep your eye on your great Aunt Dot, folks: it's possible she might be addicted to Gossip Girl. Hit the source link if you want to download the entire report (it's a PDF).
Windows Phone 7 Series multitasking: the real deal
We've definitely learned a ton about Windows Phone 7 Series here at MIX, but getting the full picture on multitasking has been difficult, since the OS isn't ready, no one has final hardware, and the emulator seems to behave differently than actual devices and Microsoft's descriptions. So let's set the record straight on multitasking: it's not going to happen, at least not in the traditional way. Not only have we directly confirmed this with Microsoft executives several times, but the developer sessions here are totally clear on the matter -- you don't tell 1000+ devs that they should expect their apps to be killed whenever the user switches away from them if you don't mean it. Now, that's not to say that the OS can't do multitasking: first-party apps like the Zune player and IE can run in the background, and third-party apps are actually left running in a suspended state (Microsoft calls it "dehydrated") as long as the system doesn't need any additional resources. If the user cycles back to an app, it's resumed ("rehydrated") and life continues merrily along, but if the user opens other apps and the system needs additional resources, the app is killed without any indication or remorse. If that sounds familiar, it's because it's basically a single-tasking riff on Android and Windows Mobile 6, both of which also purport to intelligently manage multiple running applications like this, and both of which usually find themselves greatly improved with manual task managers. We'll have to see if Windows Phone 7 Series can do a better job once it ships -- we have a feeling it will -- and later down the line we'll see if Microsoft decides to extend multitasking to third-party apps. But for now, just know that you're not going to be running Pandora in the background while you do other tasks on a 7 Series device -- it is a question we have specifically asked, and the answer, unfortunately, is no. P.S. Still don't believe us? Hear it for yourself directly from Microsoft's Todd Brix:
iPhone SDK 3.2 showing first hints of multitasking for third-party apps?
Naturally, we need to first disclaim this noise by saying that rumors of third-party multitasking capability in the iPhone are as old as the iPhone SDK itself. That said, it's hard to ignore a new reference to a "multitasking dialog box" buried deep within the iPhone SDK 3.2 beta that -- while not new to beta 4 specifically -- we're told didn't exist in 3.1.3. Now, the wildest possible speculation would have us believing that this is the very first by-product of a new multitasking system for developers that's being developed for the platform, presumably destined for an appearance in OS 4.0 when it's introduced along with new hardware this summer -- but it's just as likely that Apple will continue to keep the iPhone's multitasking capability to itself, a function it uses liberally among the phone and music apps, just to name a couple. For what it's worth, AppleInsider is citing a tipster claiming that Apple's got a "full-on solution" to multitasking that would properly address its main concern -- battery life issues -- for release this year, so maybe we'll be able to chuck those awful push notifications before we know it. Now if you'll excuse us, we'll be over here in the corner running a few dozen apps on our Pre Plus.
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.
Symbian^3 officially announced, previewed on video
The time has finally come for us to see Symbian's milestone shift toward finger-friendly operation in motion. Firstly, to allay any fears that it'd lack all the modern amenities, we'll note that kinetic scrolling, swiping, and pinch-to-zoom are all present and accounted for, while a "visual multi-tasking" option allows you to see the open applications in an interface not a million miles away from the Pre's card implementation. Customization is also a big deal in the new UI, with multiple Home Screen pages available, accompanied by a litany of widgets you can add and manage. The media player application looks like a homage (read: copy) of Apple's Cover Flow UI, right down to the album covers flipping around to reveal the track listing. We're not complaining, we consider that a very intelligent and pleasing way to browse through music. Go check out the moving picture show after the break.
iPhone OS 3.2 supports video calling, file downloads, SMS and...multitasking?
Engadget has just confirmed with "extremely trusted sources" that iPhone OS 3.2 contains rudimentary support for video calling, which could explain that mysterious space at the top of the iPad's leaked pictures they received. Engadget's sources said there are hooks to accept and decline a video conference, flip a video feed (which suggests a front-facing camera) and -- most importantly -- run the video call in either full screen mode or in just a portion of the screen. Video calling in just part of the screen (the other part left open for other apps) would be indicative of some basic type of multitasking. Engadget also confirms that "iPhone OS 3.2 supports file downloads and local storage in the browser, which means you'll be able to pull files off the web and use them in other apps, and there's at least the beginnings of SMS support buried within the code." While our sister site is quick to point out that it's not sure if any of the code will ever be implemented, they're starting to get the feeling that Apple didn't tell everything there is to know about their latest creation...
