iPhone OS 4.0 Roundup

Apple recently announced their upcoming iPhone OS 4.0 (yeah, I know, this post is a bit late) and there are some big changes coming. The OS will be available this summer for iPhone and iPod Touch devices, and later in the fall for iPads. Note: not all older iPhone and iPod Touch devices will be able to upgrade to the new OS, and I’ve come across some rumors that iPads will only getting one free OS upgrade, to OS 4.0. (More on that later.)

The following is a quick summary of information about iPhone OS 4.0 from Gdgt, who live-blogged the Apple event. There are 7 “tent-poles,” as Apple put it, for the new OS:

1. Multitasking, including allowing location apps in background & local notifications. Note that there’s always been multi-tasking on the iPhone OS, just not for 3rd party apps. Apple claims to have found a way to offer up the appropriate interface and abilities without draining battery life.
2. Folders. So now you can finally organize your iPhone apps into logical groups, and as a result be able to add even more apps to your device. It’s just too bad us iPad owners have to wait for this feature. I’m far more likely to want extreme amounts of functionality on an iPad. By the way, if you can wait for folders to add ridiculous amounts of apps, there’s a way to exceed the 9 or 11 page limit on iPhone (depending on which iPhone OS you’re currently running) without jailbreaking the phone. It works for my iPhone 3GS running OS 3.1.3.
3. Enhanced email, in the form of an unified universal inbox, which gives an aggregation of messages from multiple providers. Without trying this I’d say it’s no big deal, since there are many reasons to keep messages separated. I mean, that’s why you created multiple email accounts in the first place, right? However, I’m willing to be convinced. It is supposedly an oft-requested feature.
4. iBooks. The way this works is a via free app that looks like a bookshelf, and to which you can download free and paid digital books. Some people say it’s Apple’s challenge to Amazon’s kindle. I’m not a big fan of reading long-form content on screens, but the fact is, it’s far easier to do so on an iPad than on a standard computer monitor or laptop screen.
5. Enterprise features, including email and data encryption, SSL VPN support, multiple Exchange accounts. Yawn. This really is a concession towards enterprise and probably not of interest to most individuals outside of work.
6. Game Center, which is a social network for mobile gamers. Wow, look out gaming device companies. I think.
7. iAd mobile advertising, which allows free apps to earn ad revenues (60% take for developers) with interactive and video content (programmatic access, too). Steve Jobs said that 60% is “industry standard.” Actually, 70% is far more standard, and some networks even offer 80% to publishers. Apple, don’t forget all the mobile device sales that you’ll get thanks to all those great free apps. Well hopefully paid apps will not be allowed to take advantage of iAds.

Other points of note: 1500 new APIs. Wow, it’s just going to get harder to learn what you need to know to become an iPhone OS developer. I suggest focusing on a specialty or three, and learning everything you can about those. Write sample code, learn the ins and outs of specific APIs. If you’re planning to be an independent developer, team up with other devs with overlapping specialties.

What do you you think? If your existing iPhone or iPod Touch cannot upgrade to OS 4.0, are these features enough that you’d upgrade to the new devices rumored to be announced in June?

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