Apple CEO Steve Jobs this week previewed the company’s upcoming iPhone 4.0 operating system – “the future of the iPhone OS,” which will by fall also run on the iPad.
The most hoped for function in 4.0 was multitasking, and it’s there. Users will be able to run several applications simultaneously such as listening to online radio while handling e-mail or buying media from iTunes without interrupting the playback. A double-click of the home button exits the user out of the app he’s running and gives him a list of running tasks such as e-mail or the Skype VoIP phone service. When the user goes back to the app he was running, such as a game, he resumes exactly where he left off.
“It really changes the way you use the iPhone,” Jobs said. “You bounce apps with tremendous fluidity.” Jobs said the multitasking capability would not degrade the performance of the app that users are running in the foreground and would not be a severe drain the battery. “We were not the first to this [multitasking] party, but we will be the best,” Jobs said.
The current version is for developers to build applications with.
IPhone 4.0 will be available to users sometime this summer with some restrictions; the iPhone 3GS and third-generation iPod touch should be able to run all the features. The iPhone 3G and second-generation iPod touch will only support some features and will not be able to run multitasking.
iPhone 4 will be available for the iPad sometime this fall. Many of the features such as the ability to work with Bluetooth keyboards are currently available on the iPad, which runs iPhone OS 3.2. There are more than 100 new features for users including playlist creation, 5x digital zoom for the camera, tap-to-focus for video, the ability to change the wallpaper on the home screen, better spell-checking and support for Bluetooth keyboards.
In addition to multitasking, Apple highlighted these new functions:
– Folders for the home screen where users can store multiple apps that are similar, such as games or news sources.
– A unified mailbox lets users see all incoming mail from multiple accounts.
– iPhones and iPod Touches can also be used to buy from the iBookstore. Users can synch the same book between an iPhone and iPad so they can start reading the same page they were on the other device.
– A social-gaming network called Game Center may prove to be a competitor to Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network.
– iAd is Apple’s advertising network for the iPhone OS. Developers will be able to embed video and interactive ads in their apps so that when a user clicks on an ad, he is not taken to a Web page and out of the app. It’s based on HTML5. Jobs said Apple did it to help developers make money on their apps so they could keep them free.
Having one operating system for all three products gives Apple an advantage when attracting third-party apps. An app can be written once and run on all three devices. Apple rival Microsoft currently needs three versions of Windows for portable devices:
– Windows Mobile 6, a new version of which is reportedly to be on a phone that Verizon Wireless and others will soon launch.
– Windows Phone 7, which will become Microsoft’s “standard” offering once it’s released.
– Windows 7 for netbooks that have Intel’s Atom microprocessor.
Nokia, the world’s largest maker of mobile phones, and Intel recently announced an agreement to develop an operating system called MeeGo for devices with Atom processors. Nokia has also backed the Symbian OS. Google is pushing its Android OS for mobile devices.