iPhone OS 4.0 Preview - Summary

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The event was quick - just 1 hour. Steve Jobs did most of the talking, with Forstall coming in for the more nerdier parts of the presentation. It started off with the usual stats:
<ul>
<li>450,000 iPads sold so far</li>
<li>Over 600,000 iBooks sold and over 3.5m iPad app</li>
<li>4 billion apps downloaded overall</li>
<li>iPhone has 64% of US mobile browser usage</li>
<li>Apple has sold over 50 million iPhones - add the iPod touch an it's 85 million iPhone OS devices</li>
</ul>
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The main event was Steve Jobs and Scott Forstall explaining seven "tentpole" features of iPhone:

<strong>Multitasking</strong> - "We weren't the first to this party but we're gonna be the best" &amp; "We're providing seven multitaking services as APIs to developers."

It's a bit complex and not your mum's multi-tasking like on the Blackberry or Android. The way it works is that applications don't run in the background, but there are APIs which enable background tasks that applications can tap in to. The tasks Apple deems as useful to run in the background or simultaneously are:
<ol>
<li>Background audio - (e.g: Pandora)</li>
<li>VOIP - (e.g: Skype) - "When you lock the phone you can still receive Skype calls."</li>
<li>Background location -(e.g: TomTom/Loopt)</li>
<li>Push notifications - the same push notifications we have now</li>
<li>Local notifications - push notifications on your local device instead of a server (e.g: reminders, without needing net access)</li>
<li>Task completion - <em>"The example is given as Flickr’s file upload. So you can continue to upload photos in the background even if you switch away from it."</em></li>
<li>Fast App switching - All of the state is stored and preserved instantly, the app no longer uses resources. So the app quits and doesn't use any power, but when you load it again, the app picks up instantly where it's left off. Some developers do this already in their apps, but now Apple has formalised it and made it easy for any developer to slide in to their app.</li>
</ol>
<strong>Folders</strong> - you can group apps in a folder. Put that folder in the dock too if you want. Makes sorting out all those home screens a lot easier.

<strong>Enhanced Mail</strong> - unified inbox, multiple Exchange accounts, threaded conversations, be able to use 3rd party apps to open attachments.

<strong>iBooks for iPhone &amp; iPod touch</strong> - wireless page syncing and bookmarks between devices. Store and app looks just like the iPad version, but iPhone size.

<strong>Enterprise features</strong> - API for better data encryption, mobile device management, wireless app distribution via their own servers, SSL VPN (Juniper &amp; Cisco), Exchange 2010 support.

<strong>Gaming Social Network</strong> - achievements, matchmaking, leaderboards - pretty much Xbox Live &amp; the PSN, but by Apple. An interesting move and not discussed for very long at this event.

<strong>iAds</strong> - mobile advertising. <em>"What some of them are starting to do is put mobile ads in their apps… and most of this advertising sucks. We want to help developers make money with ads so they can keep their free ads free."</em> - <em>"Because iAd is in the OS itself, we’ve figured out how to do interactive and video content without ever taking you out of your app!"*<span style="font-style: normal;">Apple sells &amp; hosts the ads - 60/40 split, built-in to the OS, doesn't quit the app, is HTML5.</span></em>

<strong>Developer preview out today</strong> - end user release in Summer (our Winter - June to August). Only the latest iPod touch (3rd gen) and iPhone 3GS get multi-tasking. Other iPhones will get some features, but not everything because the hardware just can't run it. iPad will get iPhone OS 4.0 in Fall (i.e: our Spring - September to November)
<h2>What do you guys think of the announcements of iPhone OS 4.0? Discuss it on the forums!</h2>