iPhone OS 4.0: Multitasking, Enterprise, and Folder Thoughts

Oh my goodness, where do I start on iPhone OS 4.0? I’m sure you guys already know about the features. You’re obsessed with multitasking and perhaps a little concerned about iAds. But what’s really captivating is just how much this will change mobile productivity. I want to focus on what the next iPhone OS will deliver you, how it compares to the competitors’ current methods, and how it will change the way you use your iPhone for your daily activities. Read more

iPhone OS 4.0, Coming to the iPad This Fall

You won’t be able to install the iPhone OS 4.0 on your iPad this summer. No, you’ll have to wait some more months, because Apple has announced it will be available this fall.

While I can understand that the iPad has just been released and they’re badly working on the iPhone version right now, before the keynote started I was hoping there would be a contemporary release for both the devices. Turns out we’ll have to wait instead, and keep our iPads without multitasking. (Well, until jailbreak will come).

All in all, like I said in the live chat today, I expect Apple to change the name of iPhone OS to, at least, iPad OS for the new device.

iPhone OS 4.0 First Look: Digital Zoom

Camera app now comes with a 5x digital zoom. The interface is very basic, and once you hold your finger on the screen a slider will appear. Once you’ve taken a picture you can of course copy, delete and share it, and - that’s new - rotate it. Nice.

Screenshot beyond the break.

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iPhone Multitasking: Explained

Multitasking is the most important feature of iPhone OS 4.0, the one that will allow you to run multiple applications at the same time. Basically what every iPhone user has been dreaming of for ages now. The implementation still needs some serious optimizations though.

Take a look at the screenshots after the break.

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iBooks on the iPhone: Does It Work With MobileMe?

Apple has announced iBooks for iPhone, and while I don’t think I’me ever going to read a book on my iPhone, we’re fine with it. Thing is, Apple also announced they’re going to bring wireless syncing between devices running iBooks (iPad and iPhone), allowing you to read something at home on your iPad, go outside, fire up iBooks on your iPhone and start reading again back from where you were on the first device.

It sounds cool, but how does it actually work? First, I thought of MobileMe, constantly pushing reading status to the cloud and syncing back to our devices as we fire up iBooks again. But then again, this would require a 24/7 active internet connection, which is not always possible on something like the wifi only iPad. Also, it would require iBooks and MobileMe to really push statuses every single second, and that might be a problem for data usage.

So what’s gonna happen? I fear we’re headed towards a local wifi system again, but I’m betting on MobileMe. I think it can be the perfect platform for this, and Apple has the chance to finally find a good usage for it. I guess we’ll know more about the whole MobileMe in a few weeks.

No, You Won’t Be Able to Multitask On Your iPhone 3G

If you have an iPhone 3G, or a second gen iPod Touch, I’m really sorry for you guys. You won’t be able to use the new multitasking feature of iPhone OS 4.0 with them. Actually Steve Jobs mentioned that these devices will be able to do “many things”, but multitasking won’t be one of them. Clearly we know that they can indeed run backgrounding apps with jailbreak extensions, but Apple doesn’t seem to care about it. Also, no mentioned about first gen iPhones and iPods.

Anyway, I bet the jailbreak community will come up with new solutions and enable multitasking (which is there in the firmware) even for these devices. Until that time, you might want to upgrade to a 3GS. Or perhaps the new models that will come out this summer.