Apple's free iPhone OS 4.0 software upgrade, unveiled by chief executive Steve Jobs at an Apple developer event today and due this winter, delivers the long-coveted ability to run more than one software program at once.Such "multitasking" (alrea
Apple's free iPhone OS 4.0 software upgrade, unveiled by chief executive Steve Jobs at an Apple developer event today and due this winter, delivers the long-coveted ability to run more than one software program at once.
Such "multitasking" (already available for users of RIM BlackBerry, Google Android and high-end Nokia phones) has long been top of iPhone users wish-list, now that other original iPhone deficiency, such as the lack of cut-and-paste and laptop tethering, have been addressed by previous OS upgrades.
Apple's recently released iPad, which conspicously lacked multitasking is due to get a similar upgrade later this year, Apple says.
A raft of more than 100 new features in iPhone OS 4.0 includes:
- iAd, a new mobile advertising platform that will compete with Google Ad Words
- better support for gaming
- the ability to support multiple Microsoft Exchange email accounts
- better enterprise security, and
- support for iBookstore, the book, newspaper and magazine download service formerly tied to iPad.
Notably, iAd is designed to run on the open standard HTML 5, not Adobe Flash. Neither iPhone nor iPad support flash.
Not everybody is 100% happy, however.
Craig Scoggie, head of Symantec's Australia and New Zealand operation, said he appreciated iPhone's lack of multi-tasking - at least to the degree that a virus or malware could not run in the background (because, indeed, no second program could run beyond whatever you were using in the foreground).
Others see possible performance issues.
Tech blogger Ben Gracewood tweeted "I've become a multitasking atheist. I don't want it on my device. Can I opt out?"
The iPhone OS 4 upgrade also features a new Game Centre feature, designed to make it easier to access iPhone games, or engage with other gamers online.
In Auckland recently to promote his company's expanding army of app development partners, Apple rep John Marx said iPhone games had become a major focus for partners such as EA.
Mr Marx said that while cartridges for hand-held platforms such as Nintendo DS and Sony PSP could run to $70 or $80, iPhone versions of many games cost less than $10.
The Apple rep also demo'd the iPod Touch's support for wi-fi based games that allow a group in nearby proximity to play each other at a multiplayer title.
