iPhone OS 4.0 Reaction Round-Up
Well, that was quite an iPhone OS presentation, huh? A number of things
announced today about OS 4.0 had already been out there in the rumor
mill (multitasking and some sort of something with iAd), but nothing is
quite like seeing the real thing.If you noticed a sluggishness
on the web today, that's because everyone was glued to the presentation,
refreshing and refreshing their favorite live blogging and opining away
on Twitter. As always when there's big news, come here first. Mac|Life
knows what you're after.Our first link is to our very own iPhone
OS 4.0 collection of articles, news, and reactions. If we wrote about
it today, this is where you will find it all. But
let's say you want a few of our most popular stories from the day and
you don't want to scroll through every single last one of them looking
for it? Well, all right, all right, hold your horses. We've got that
too.- Multitasking Confirmed for iPhone OS 4.0 - Yes, yes, and
yes, the question everyone's been asking for what seems like forever.
Multitasking comes to the iPhone and iPad. And the implementation is
sweet and simple, just what you'd expect. -
iBooks: Take Them Wherever You May Go - Turns out it isn't just the
iPad that'll be getting iBooks, and Apple's decided to emulate the best
thing about the Kindle app, syncing your last page read among all your
iBooks loaded devices. Sweet.-
Unified Inboxes: Finally, A Better Way to View Mail with Your iPhone -
With an eye toward ever simplifying the user experience, Apple wants to
take your five mailboxes and all the back and forth tapping and turn
them into one nice big mailbox. We're not so sure about this one. We
love the idea of less screen tapping, but we have things separate for a
reason.-
Our Best Photos from the iPhone OS 4.0 Event - We sent a crack
photographer out to the iPhone OS 4.0 event and came back with this
gallery of shots. Granted, not the world's best seats, but with a screen
the size Steve was standing in front of, there wasn't a chance we'd
miss a thing.-
Game Center: Get a Little More "Pew Pew" Out of your iPhone - There had
been news of Apple looking to get into the social media game in a big
way. Turns out, that just happens to be one of the tentpoles we kept
hearing about today. Ready to broadcast to all your gamer friends just
how well you were doing in Bejewled? -
10 Things We Want in iPhone OS 4.0 - Our list of wants and dreams
written before the big event. How'd we do? Not too shabby. -
Folders and Custom Backgrounds Will Be Included in iPhone OS 4 - Here's
one that answers one of the questions in the the article above.-
Live Blog: iPhone OS 4.0 Event - And lastly, relive the memories of
refreshing and refreshing and refreshing our Live Blog. No, really, no
refreshing necessary.All
right, all right, there's a whole world out there that isn't just
Mac|Life (though we know you love us best), and it turns out they had
some interesting things to say about the big Keynote as well. For
starters, Apple.com would be a good place to start.- Apple OS 4
Event - Watch Steven and the gang as they roll out the new OS in
QuickTime and MPEG-4 glory. Relive Steve's poor showing in Tap Tap
Revenge. Drool over the new GUI designs. -
iPhone OS 4.0 SDK is Live - Okay, okay, you've enjoyed the video, now
get your butt on over to the Developer end of things and sign up. Get
that dream app you've always had in the back of your mind out onto the
screen and into the hands of millions.But
let's see what everyone else is going on about.Camera zoom on
the iPhone sounds pretty sweet and it's nestled there in the SDK. Check
out the screenshots 9to5Mac is sporting. While it seems to be more of
a cropping of the visual frame rather than a legitimate zoom per se,
we're wondering now about those new model iPhones that should be coming
out soon....And
you'll have a few more picture editing options as well by the looks of
this screenshot also from 9to5 Mac. Make it a wall paper, rotate it,
assign directly to a contact.Will
the iPhone OS 4.0 really allow camera flash? According to AppleInsider,
developers noticed a bit in the frameset that included references to AVCaptureDevice.hasFlash,
AVCaptureDevice.flashMode, and AVCaptureDevice.hasTorch. So
at least you'll be getting some kind of flash on your iPhone.Because
you won't be getting Adobe's Flash on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch,
not even in developer's creations. Apple has decided to up the ante on
how much they hate Flash by including a clause in the new SDK agreement
that bans the use of private APIs, including Adobe's. At least, that's
how Daring Fireball's John Gruber reads it, according to macnn.comOkay,
so not even Flash-designed games. But you might just be getting more
than one line on your iPhone. Wait a second. What's that? Once again,
head on over to 9to5Mac for a screenshot of the About screen in the
OS 4.0 and scratch your head over the addition of the "Line" field. (They've got lots of screenshot goodness there tonight.)Or
as an even tastier possibility, check out this tidbit from AppleInsider
about iChatAgent being a new background process. According to their
source, the code even includes the strings "front facing" and "back
facing." Additional front facing camera in the new hardware anyone?In
more screenshot goodness, TUAW has an example of what the new
spellcheck feature will look like. Imagine the Copy & Paste toolbar
that appears...ah, heck, just go have a look. It's pretty.TUAW
also talks up iAd, which we have to say we're kind of of two minds
about. We don't mind pretty ads so much and plenty of our free apps have
them, we're just leery of how far these new interactive ads will go and
worry about launching them all the time with our fat fingers.And
while we're going to get some of this sweet OS 4.0 lovin going on with
our 3G model, we're not going to get everything, including the
awesomeness that is multitasking. At this point, that's the only
specific thing we hear we're getting screwed out of...but isn't that
enough? Okay,
related to the last link, this is a hard one for some of us. With our
older model 3G iPhones, we didn't want to admit that maybe our babies
just aren't up to multitasking. No, we'd rather accuse Apple of
conspiring to force us into a hardware upgrade. Electronista sets us
straight and humbles us in the process. We're so sorry, 3G iPhone! We
still love you!We're
sure there will be more screenshots and hidden nooks and crannies out
there leaked to the web for our enjoyment. Today is just about over, but
tomorrow is another day, and tomorrow will bring with it all kinds of
new things to anticipate the summer release. Meanwhile, why
can't we iPhone users get a little of that OS 3.2 that iPad buyers have
been enjoying the last few days? A little something fresh to tide us
over until OS 4.0 ships? If we had to guess, we'd say we'll get it after
the 3G iPads have had a few days to mob the Apple servers for apps apps
apps. Hopefully.
http://www.maclife.com/article/news/iphone_os_40_reaction_roundup
