iPhone becomes perfect « The BEST Apple Hardware and Software Reviews

Written By Editor April 9th, 2010

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Apple have finally added that little extra ’spit polish finish’ to the iPhone to make it the planet’s most awesome device ever!

No one can complain a drop about the iPhone lacking feature ‘x’ or ‘y’, because with the upcoming OS 4.0 update this summer (and fall for the iPad), the iPhone will get pretty much every bell and whistle going. Here’s a round-up of some of the newest and more noteworthy features!

There are seven new, ‘tentpole’ features and a hundred lesser – but still useful elements as well as myriads of new refinements for developers to get their geeky mitts on.

1)Multitasking

This has been one of the biggest put-offs for would be iPhoners, that is the lack of multi-tasking. Even Casio watches and freezers can multi-task these days, with Apple stating ‘concerns with battery life’ as the reason they never shipped such capabilities. Now though, the boffins at Apple have cracked it and multi-tasking will work in line with the typical Apple ’simplicity’ mentality. (Ed: Apparently there are no significant performance hits either!)

This photo from Gizmodo shows the new Multi-tasking, which is accessed by pressing the home button twice. There are 6 states to multi-tasking:

Background Audio

Audio for apps will be playable as background music – just like the current set-up with the built in iPod. This should be good for anyone who uses Spotify or Pandora as you’ll get playback controls even on the lock screen (awesome!). Hopefully this also means that such apps will get access to the headphone controls too for skipping and pausing play.

Voice-over-IP services

Skype has been pretty limited in it’s iPhone app up and until now, as you can only receive and make calls if the app is ‘open’. Now, running in the background, users will be able to receive VOIP calls – potentially creating a revolution within this industry – apps can even have custom notification sounds!

Background location

Location based apps will be constantly aware of your co-oridnates – even when the app is closed. Applications such as TomTom benefit – meaning you can check out your emails whilst TomTom tracks you (hopefully you’ve pulled over at this moment). TomTom can keep running unobtrusively, providing alerts via the background audio subset and make sure you make the turn!

Push notification / Local notications

Push notification is making a jump from a cloud only, Apple server powered feature – to a local and cloud based element. Local notifications can be generated via an application, for example TomTom could alert you if you’ve missed a turn or a music app could alert you to the fact your play list has run its course.

Task completion

If one app is busy downloading or uploading a file, you can now switch away from this app to another and it will continue what it’s doing.

Fast app switching

Switching apps wont be the lengthy process it is now! Exiting an app to check your email, for example, currently means exiting the foreground app, closing it, opening mail, reading, closing that, then rebooting (and in some cases) waiting for the original app to start from fresh. in OS 4.0, Apps will enter a sleep state, but when accessed via the dock tray, awake at your beckon in a flash!

So that’s multi-taskng in OS 4.0. (I feel like Steve). Here’s a video to demo multi-tasking:

2) Folders

Neat freaks and collectomani-apps rejoice! You’ll never fill up your iPhone home screen or be stuck searching for an app again, as the dock supports folder based semantics. You can drag apps on top of each other to create folders and OS 4.0 automagically (as Jonny Ives might say) ‘intelligently names’ the folder. 4.0 supports up to 180 folders with 12 apps per folder or 2160 apps (isn’t that like every App going?). Hopefully there will be some way of renaming these folders too.

3) Improved Mail

Unified Inbox, lets users view all of configured mail accounts under one inbox. You can also now switch quickly switch in boxes, organize messages in a threaded view and ‘Open with’ files, i.e. open a specialist file format with it’s related app, all from Mail.

4) iBooks for iPhone and iPod touch

All iPhone models will now have access to the iBooks app, as will the iPod touch line. Current page will be synced across devices (from iPhone to iPad one would assume is possible). To top it all off, you’ll get a free Winnie the Pooh book.

5) New Enterprise Features

There’s some new (boring enterprisey stuff). Here’s what Appleinsider said about these business targeted features:

Data Protection: Security enhancements in iPhone OS 4 protect email messages and attachments stored on iPhone 3GS by using the device passcode as an encryption key. New data protection APIs can be used for custom and commercial apps so that business-critical information is protected even if a device is compromised.

Mobile Device ManagementDeploying and managing large iPhone fleets will be even easier with iPhone OS 4. New Mobile Device Management APIs can be integrated with third-party solutions to wirelessly configure and update settings, monitor compliance with corporate policies, and even wipe or lock managed iPhone devices.

Wireless App Distribution iPhone OS 4 enables enterprises to securely host and wirelessly distribute in-house apps to employees over Wi-Fi and 3G. Apps can be updated without requiring users to connect to their computers.

Improved Mail & Exchange Support iPhone OS 4 allows users to set up multiple Exchange ActiveSync accounts and now works with Exchange Server 2010. With the new unified inbox feature, users can see messages from all their email accounts conveniently displayed in a single inbox, or they can quickly switch between inboxes to see messages from any single account. If users receive an attachment that they want to save or edit, Mail now lets you open attachments with compatible apps from the App Store.

SSL VPN Support
SSL VPN support in iPhone OS 4 gives users another way to securely access enterprise resources. These new protocols can even be leveraged to connect seamlessly to a corporate network via VPN on Demand. Forthcoming apps from Juniper and Cisco will support SSL VPN on iPhone.

6) Game Center

Back to fun and cool stuff, the iPhone will get a ‘game center’, connecting all 50,000 or so game titles on the App store to a ’social gaming network’ with features to invite other players, have cloud based leader boards and track game achievements – like the PS3 network or XBOX Live (big shot at the big guys).

7) iAd

The seventh major feature is iAd, a rich HTML ad network tied into the OS for developers to tap into, and receive 60% of advertising revenue.

Appleinsider explains further on the subject:

Described as “a new form of mobile advertising designed by Apple to deliver the interaction and emotion currently lacking in the mobile space,” iAd is conceived to be a way for users to explore rich content ads right within the app that is presenting it, and without being dumped into a web browser.

HTML5 content (no Flash)

Jobs said ad content would all be rendered in standard HTML5, and could be developed using any tools the ad agency wanted to use. Ads have access to much of the same APIs as apps, including Location Services and some level of accelerometer access. Asked about the prospects of Flash and Java for iPhone 4, Jobs said, “uh, no.”

Apple demonstrated an HTML5 ad for Toy Story 3. The ad allows user to view characters, videos, posters and downloads, play sound clips, and even play a self-contained game within the ad. The user can then leave the interactive ad and return to the app they were previously using.

Jobs also confirmed Apple had tried to buy Admob before Google stomped on that deal (possibly also getting stomped on by the FTC for anti-competition reasons). Apple later bought competitors, Quattro Wireless.

The other stuff

Some of the smaller, but still awesome, enhancements on offer:

File & delete Mail search results
Search SMS/MMS messages (Didn’t even realize we hadn’t got that yet)
Web search suggestions (handy, saves typing)
Choose image size in Mail messages (also very handy)
Bluetooth keyboards (YESSSSSSSSSSSS!)
CalDav invitations
Larger fonts for Mail, SMS & alerts
Cell data only setting
Spell check (aswell as suggestive spelling?)
Persistent Wi-Fi
Gift Apps (cool, will be good for reviewers too probably)
Birthday calendar
Recent Web searches
Create Playlists (finally!)
Top Hit in search
5x digital zoom (Good update)
Nested Playlists
CardDav
Tap to focus video
Upload workouts to Nike+
Places in Photos
iPod Out
Home screen wallpaper (Just like the iPad, totally will be using a snow leopard starry background here though)
Wake on wireless (possibly handy for stuff like Log Me In oh, wait that’s the other way round, must be for accessing externally)

Availability

Developers can preview 4.0 today, the release date hasn’t been announced other than ’shipping this summer’. All features will work on the 3GS and 3G iPod touch – indicating that a new model is 100% likely.

The 2008 iPhone 3G and 2G iPod touch will receive a lot of the updates, but will not get multitasking, as they lack the 3GS’ boost in ram and computing power. The iPad will get 4.0 in fall, as this presumably requires further tweaking for the size difference and also UI alterations.

iPhone 4.0

This leads us to thinking forward to the next-gen iPhone. Some of the above indicate perhaps further enhancements may be shipped on this device, for example, it’s likely the new device will receive a 5MP+ camera. Another potential new accessory, an iPhone enabled keyboard dock (or at least compatibility with the iPad keyboard). Perhaps BlueTooth will be opened up a little more, to allow file-sharing and more. We’re looking forward to the new iPhone very much!

Some awesome updates yesterday. What’s your favorite though? For us, probably changing the home screen background or bluetooth keyboards (replacing laptops all over the world). Never mind multi-tasking…..