| 2010.05.30 |
Mac|Life offered some insights into the
new iPhone OS 4 in their June, 2010 issue. Here are the hightlights:- Multi-tasking for third party apps.
Location-aware apps can track your whereabouts in the background. Also, fast app switching will store and restore each app's state.
- App Folders will allow you to sort your icons into folders by dropping one app's icon over another's; you'll be able to store
all of your photo-associated apps in one folder, your chat-associated apps in another, etc. Another way to think about it: instead of having
screen real estate for 180 apps (11 pages x 16 app icons per page, plus 4 apps on the dock), you'll now effective have space for 2,160.
- Upgraded E-Mail Support. A unified inbox will give you all your messages from various accounts into a single view;
support for multiple Exchange accounts has been added (plus support for Exchange Server 2010 and Jupiter and Cisco SSL VPNs), as well as the ability
to organize messages in a thread view (á la Gmail); and third-party apps will be able to open e-mail attachments.
- Bluetooth
keyboard support has also been added (good thing, too, considering a I bought one for my iPad)
- Zoom capability for
the camera is coming as well.
But with the good, we must also take the bad: The iPhone 3G and the second-gen
iPod Touch will be able to run OS 4, but won't be able to take advantage of the mulitasking features. By the way, it should come as no
surprise to most that OS 4 will not support Adobe Flash.
Infinite Loop reported this week that Apple has stopped shipping the iPhone 3G to
AT&T stores, and cites others' reports that Apple has ceased taking orders for the 3G, and that Wal-Mart has cut the price on the 3GS; they
further speculate a release for the iPhone 4 could be as early as this summer. Personally, I'm not entirely comfortable with the 3G,
a device I depend upon so greatly, now at its end of life. I may have to do some succession planning here.
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