Author: Michael Evans
Apple's iPhone OS 4.0 event got underway at 10 am Pacific Time, presented by no less than Steve Jobs. Here's a quick review of the presentation of the new operating system courtesy of Engadget's live feed.
First a bit of background:
iPad sales
- Sold 450,000 iPads to today
- 600,000 iBooks downloaded so far
- 3.5 million iPad apps downloaded
- 3,500 iPad apps in App Store
iPhone progress
- 50 million iPhones sold
- 85 million iPhone+iPod touch combined
Now to the meat:
iPhone OS 4.0 shipping this Autumn, developer preview today
New framework called Accelerate for hardware accelerated math functions
100 new user features including
-
- Spell check
- Gift apps
- Create playlists
- 5x digital zoom
- Places in photos
- Home screen wallpaper
Bluetooth keyboard connection
Multitasking – "going to be the best" without taking a battery hit
-
- Home button accesses dock-like list of running apps
- Background audio and VOIP – stay connected to Skype while accessing other applications
- Background location – TomTom in background while using other apps
- Location apps – status indicator to show something asking for your location
- Push notifications, local notifications
- Task completion (such as uploading data) in background
- Fast app switching – saving state of apps for later instant restart
Folders
-
- Move apps into folders, multi-app folders appear in dock
- Unlimited folders, can now see 2,000 apps on phone instead of 180
Unified Mailbox
-
- Multiple Exchange accounts
- Fast inbox switching
- Threaded messages
- Open attachments with apps
iBooks
-
- Similar to iBooks on iPad
- Wireless sync between platforms, sync pages and bookmarks
Features for Enterprise
-
- Better data protection
- Mobile device management
- Wireless app distribution
- Exchange Server 2010, multiple accounts
- SSL VPN support
Game Centre
-
- 50,000 game titles in App Store (Nintendo DS = 4,300)
- Social gaming network
- Friend invitations
- Matchmaking
- Leaderboards
- Achievements
iAd interactive advertisements
-
- Mobile advertising, better than ads in apps
- Clicking on ad keeps you within application
- More emotion and interactivity in ads
- Built into iPhone OS
