Whats new about the new iPhone OS 4?

Written by News Ferret Monday, 10 May 2010 00:00 in Around The Web

iPhone OS 4

Apple has announced the new iPhone OS 4. So what is there to look forward to? The most useful will be multitasking and folders, but continue reading for a breakdown of iPhone OS 4 features, limitations, and what’s missing in this latest iPhone update.

Multitasking

iPhone Multitasking

The new multitasking update in iPhone OS 4.0 will make it possible to run serveral applications at one time and also to have applications running in the background. This has been a major limitation for such services as Skype, Audio apps such as Pandora, and other services including location based program. You can now have Skype on while listening to your music and looking at where need to go. The increase in usefulness will be dramatic.

No Multitasking for 3G Users

Perhaps not surprisingly, Apple is shamelessly leaving the multitasking feature from iPhone 3G update. They say the 3G’s hardware would not be able to handle multitasking, which is utter ******** (insert your own word), considering jailbroken 3G iPhones can multitask just fine.

Clearly, Apple’s intention is to make 3G users buy the latest iPhone model. That’s call it planned obsolescence, imposing an artificial limit on the iPhone 3G so that you consider it obsolete and buy a 3GS or the next generation iPhone at full price. This practice may be good for sales, but it is wasteful and unfairly costs you money.

Add to this that the original iPhone will not be supported at all by iPhone OS 4 and there is no fun for all the family. Shameless is really the only word for it.

Folders

iPhone App Folders

The folders update is a much anticipated feature of iPhone 4.0. With the level iPhone apps on phone probably reaching several pages, it will be great to be able to group apps together in a more organized fashion. To create a folder, all it takes is dragging one app onto the other.

iPhone OS 4 Feature List

In all, the iPhone 4.0 OS will include 7 major feature updates:

- Multitasking

- Folders

- A unified mailbox

- iBooks

- Game Center a social gaming network

- Broader Enterprise support

- The new iAd mobile advertising system

What’s missing?

Although the iPhone 4.0 update adds over 100 new user features, there are a couple of areas we were hoping to see that were not discussed at the OS 4 unveiling.

Better Notifications

iPhone is lacking a streamlined notifications system. For example, if you get a notification now, it disappears forever after you view or close it. When a new notification pops up before you’ve read the previous one, the first notification disappears. The iPhone needs a better notifications system so that, you can refer back to your notifications and see them in a list.

Better App Interaction

Another useful future would be the ability to change the default apps that my iPhone uses under certain circumstances. Lets say I want to be able to tell my iPhone to open the TomTom navigation app instead of the Google Maps app when I click a hyperlinked address. Or perhaps to share an image from my Photos album via the Facebook app as oppossed to Flicr. This is certainly be a feature for power users, but it would be great to have the option.

Let me know your thoughts and comments.

iPhone OS 4: What Do You Think of the Latest iPhone Update? is a post from Apple iPhone Review.