iPhone OS 4.0 Announced
Innovation of any kind by any company is a good thing for all of us. So even if you are one of the unlucky few that do not possess an iPhone [||,] keep reading.
Today Apple announced the newest version of the operating system that runs our precious iPhone’s, version 4.0 coming this summer. Here is a rundown of the new features to be included:
- Multitasking
- iBooks (like the iPad only smaller)
- Game Center (Social gaming, like Xbox Live but for iPhone)
- Merged Email Boxes and threaded messages
- App Folders
- Custom Wallpaper
- Tap to focus Video and 5x Zoom
- Playlist creation and nesting
There are more features but these are the ones most of us will be interested in. The 3G and 2nd Gen iPhones will run most of these except multitasking, however the 3Gs and 3rd Gen iPod touch will work with all of these features. Another bit of exciting news for those who already possess or have their eyes on an iPad; the features that the iPad doesn’t have, namely multitasking, are coming to the iPad in the fall.
This announcement, while not unexpected is very good news for us all. For one thing it crosses off one of the gripes that geeks such as myself have had with the iPhone and iPad, no multitasking. It also goes to show that Apple is not sitting idly by counting their cash. With continued pressure on Google, Microsoft and other manufacturers of smartphones and tablets they are proving once and for all that they are the leaders of innovation and provide a user experience that others are striving to duplicate.
That being said, I am grateful for competing platforms such as Google: Android, as without them many of the most exciting innovations we have seen recently may not have come to fruition.
For details and photos about the Apple Live event, check out Ars Technica’s liveblog coverage at the link below.
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/04/iphone-os-4-special-event-cupertino-liveblog.ars
For detailed information about the features themselves, visit the official Apple site.
http://www.apple.com/iphone/preview-iphone-os/
