Apple’s Announcement of the iPhone OS 4.0
Apple’s Announcement of the iPhone OS 4.0
Apple has unveiled its new iPhone OS 4 with a ton of new features including a ‘smart’ multitasking, iBooks and an ad networks – that’s only the highlights.
Multitasking
To limit battery draining by apps running in the background, like it is happening with Android phones, Apple has limited the number of operating system (OS) services that apps can access in the background to seven: Audio, VoIP, Location, Push Notifications, Local Notifications, Task Completion, Fast App Switching. Fast App Switching allows to freeze the apps and to restore them quickly when you switch back, thus avoid a complete reload. That should be called multi-mono-task, maybe? Local Notifications can be sent directly from apps on the iPhone without requiring an external server like today’s Notifications (it’s easier for developers). If a status update happens in an app running in the background, you will receive a notification. On the Voice over-IP side (VOIP), you will be able to continue a conversation over VoIP (Skype for example) while checking other applications (Calendar…). The Location Services power consumption is limited by switching from GPS (accurate to 3 meters) to cell towers (accurate to 200m or so). An icon on the main screen tells the user which mode the phone is in, clever! The addition of App Folders with drag and drop is great: now I will be able to organize my apps better (games, news…).
(Via UberGizmo, the Gadgets News Blog.)
