Today, Apple hosted a special ‘Sneak Preview’ presentation of the next generation iPhone Software.
“iPhone OS 4 is the fourth major release of the world’s most advanced mobile operating system,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re delivering over 100 new features, including multitasking, folders, a unified inbox, deeper Enterprise support, and an iPhone version of our iBooks reader and online iBookstore.”
During the keynote, Steve Jobs shared the stage with Scott Forstall, Senior VP of iPhone Software. Forstall hit on the key background APIs that allows iPhone OS 4 to handle the load of multitasking, and while the technology is there, I just don’t feel impressed by the idea or its execution. I hope this is a switchable function of the OS, but I doubt that it will be.
I personally don’t see the need for multitasking on the iPhone. It just doesn’t appeal to me. According to an after-keynote Q&A session, there isn’t a way to officially ‘close’ the app.
Question: How do you close applications when multitasking?
Answer: You don’t have to. The user just uses things and doesn’t ever have to worry about it. – Forstall~ Credit: Engadget (link)
In addition to Multitasking, Apple is adding “Folders” to the iPhone experience. This can be a great feature, or a horrible execution. It all depends on how the user base accepts it. I like the idea behind it, but I wish it used a different method for creating icons for the home screen. One of the nice features is that the creation of “Folders” will automatically be named by the category from the App Store. So selecting two or more games into a folder will automatically label the folder “Games.” I assume that combining Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn would create a “Social Networking” folder, and so on.
IBooks was one of the other, less exciting, and mostly expected feature for the new mobile OS. Jobs didn’t seem as enthusiastic about putting the iBookstore and app onto the iPhone and iPod touch as he was when he unveiled the iPad earlier this year. I personally don’t see the iPhone version of the app and store to be all that successful, and it shouldn’t be. IBooks was created for the iPad, and it should stay there. Helps drive the iPad for sales.
Apple also announced better Mail organization. One of the new features is a unified inbox, where Mail will pull all e-mail from all accounts into one screen. I’m not a big fan of this mainly because I like to keep my inboxes separated, but the updated version does include a “Fast Inbox Switching”. Like Multitasking, I hope the unified inbox is a switchable feature in the Settings menu that I can turn off.
Jobs went into great lengths to discuss and demonstrate the iAd feature of the OS. IAd is a built-in advertising system that seems like its going to be powered by HTML5 (Still no Flash – Praise the Lord!) and is going to be interactive. I like the idea and concept of IAd, but like the iPhone’s larger sibling, iPad, I find the name kinda silly and a little stupid. With iAd, Apple will host the ads and keep 40% of revenue, which seems a little greedy to me, but Jobs said it was “the industry standard” and I don’t know much about the advertising industry.
IPhone OS 4.0 only supports iPhone 3GS and 3G (so first generation owners either go without, or upgrade), and only supports the 3rd and 2nd Generation iPod Touch users). I understand software is only as useable as the hardware allows, but there are some features (like Home Screen wallpaper that Jobs seemed giddy about) that could be ported over to a special iPhone 2G version)
Overall, the 4th Generation of the iPhone’s OS is going to take smartphone computing to the next level and keep the hardware maker at the top of the market, but there needs to be more than mobile advertising, and unclose-able applications that’ll intrigue me. I’ll more than likely upgrade my current iPhone 3G to the new OS, but I am due for a new iPhone, so unless one of the hidden features is wireless printing, camera flash, and a snappier processor (Apple’s A4 chip anyone?) I don’t see the point (again) to upgrade the hardware. The 3G I have now does everything I need to satisfy my “mobile smartphone experience” and I certainly don’t want to be bomb-barded with unnecessary advertisements while using my apps.
Apple’s Press Release: Apple Previews iPhone OS 4
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