iPhone OS 4.0 - What's new?

This isn't the 4th-gen iPhone. I'm sure Apple has got some more things that they've not shown us yet. But here's my recap of what's new from the latest Apple event. This is from the perspective of someone who thinks the iPhone OS platform is a bit inadequate compared to Android and Windows Mobile.

Multitasking
Great! Everyone saw this one coming since it long overdue. It's not multitasking in the traditional sense (as with Windows Mobile 6.x or desktop OS's). I may be wrong but it seems to be that applications can now instruct the OS to run specific services that are allowed to run in the background without the application itself being active. These services are the following:

Background audio
Nothing new here. This just means you can play music in the background which you can do since the 1st-gen of the OS.

VOIP
This is useful. You can make and receive calls in the background with applications like Skype.

Location services
I'm guessing this means you can keep your navigation application in the background while still keeping your connection to GPS. But if so, I can foresee a lot of people forgetting to exit the application and the GPS will quickly drain the battery. I'll need more information on this...

Notifications (push and local)
Push notifications are nothing new. I'm guessing local notifications are just notifications that originate from your applications. For example, a popup for a calendar reminder. I'm sure there's more to this so we'll see how applications can utilize this service.

Task Completion
Applications can now complete what they're doing even when you leave them prematurely. I guess this is similiar to what happens after you tap "install" in the App Store. The application continues to be downloaded and installed even when you do other things.

Fast app switching
It actually sounds very much like the technique used by Windows Phone 7 or Android. Applications don't actually close when you go away from them. They just stay in a suspended state that doesn't use up system resources. When you navigate back to the suspended application, the OS reallocates the system resources back to it and you resume where you left off.

Spell check
Self explanatory. It's a feature that's good to have but it's not going to raise any eyebrows.

Bluetooth keyboard support
Ported from iPad.

Tap to focus when recording video
I'm surprised it wasn't there in the first place.

Folders
You can now organize your application icons into folders. Perhaps you can have one for games, one for productivity, etc. You won't have to swipe through pages and pages of icons just to find the one you need. Nothing revolutionary here. Android has this functionality. Windows Mobile has had it since the beginning.

Wallpaper
Up to now, you can only change the iPhone OS's lockscreen wallpaper. Now you can customize the background of your application launcher screen. Again, nothing extraordinary since this feature is one of those should-have-been-there-in-the-first-place things.

Unified inbox
Apple deserves credit for this. All your emails from multiple inboxes are consolidated into one. No doubt usefule for those who manage multiple accounts.

iBooks
Ported from iPad.

Enterprise
Features remote device management and wireless application distribution. Should be good for businesses. Probably a nonfactor for regular consumers.

GameKit
Since the iPhone OS is a pretty significant gaming platform, this is a good idea. You can now have leaderboards and match-making. We'll need to see how this gets implemented.

iAd
Tapping on advertisements no longer will kick you out of the active application and open the browser.


Personally, out of all that, the only thing that impresses me is the multitasking and the unified inbox. Even so, Engadget has pointed out a major omission. There's no background service for managing a conversation like IM or Twitter. This is actually my main purpose for using multitasking on my smartphone! But then perhaps this is where the "local notifications" service comes into play.

We'll need to see what else Steve Jobs have up his sleeve come this summer at the 4th-gen iPhone launch and how everything gels together. It's going to get interesting...