iPhone OS 4 hands-on (updated with video!)

Okay, so we're currently holding our breath while the developer preview of iPhone OS 4 installs on our 3GS -- a process that seems to be, uh, not going so well, but we wanted to share these quick shots we took from the simulator in the meantime. The dock is now 3D, like the one in Snow Leopard and on the iPad, multitasking works just like you'd expect -- you can swipe left and right to see more open apps -- and the Game Center app is present, although not functional. There's also Events and Faces in the Photos app, which you'd expect after the iPad version got them. We've got our fingers crossed that our latest restore attempt is going to work, so check back in a few for a video walkthrough, but hit the gallery below in the meantime!

Update: Wonder of wonders, we actually got the bugger working! We're doing video right now, let us know what you want to see -- and check out some on-device shots below.



Okay, so we've been playing with iPhone OS 4 for a while now and here's what we've learned:

* It's pretty stable, especially compared to other developer editions of the iPhone OS we've messed around with. We haven't had any crashes so far, and things seem mostly to be working. Find My iPhone doesn't work, and iTunes 9.1 doesn't know about folders and will delete any you've set up, but nothing major is broken, at least as far as we can tell.
* The multitasking system works as described, but without any apps that support it it's hard to test -- we'll see if we can cajole a copy of Pandora or TomTom to play with. Steve might say task managers are a sign of failure, but you can certainly delete icons from the switcher -- just long press on them and a minus arrow pops up.
* Bluetooth keyboards are going to be the next great iPhone accessory gold rush. Been jonesing for a million-dollar idea? Here you go: slider keyboard case with built-in extended battery. We prefer our royalties in cash, please.
* We couldn't get threaded messages to work in Mail, but we're sure we're doing something wrong -- we've never really gotten along with iPhone Mail.
* The zoom control on the camera is pretty slick, and there's okayish macro. Tap-to-focus in the video mode is also a nice addition.
* Spell check works just like the iPad, as do cut/copy/paste hardware keyboard shortcuts. Still no way to bring up the soft keyboard from the device when it's paired, though, which is annoying if you walk away -- you have to remember to turn off Bluetooth, which will undoubtedly confuse someone.
* Faces and Events in Photos are just like the iPad -- they're just fancy folders. The actual face-detection happens on your machine, and things are just sorted on the phone.
* Setting up a Gmail account also prompts you to sync calendars and notes -- hallelujah!
* Game Center is a barren wasteland right now, since no apps support it -- we managed to log in and discover that we have no friends and no one has requested to be our friend. Suitably humbled, we logged out.
* We didn't have any major problems running our OS 3.0 apps, and we didn't see any new ads or anything.
* And that it, really -- without third party app support a lot of these features won't come into play just yet. Without them, it's just a nice iteration of the iPhone OS -- what else do you want to know?

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iPhone OS 4 unveiled, adds multitasking, shipping this summer

Just a bit more than a year after we first laid eyes on iPhone OS 3.0, Apple is back with the latest big revision of the OS that powers the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. iPhone OS 4 is shipping this summer (iPad in the fall), and the developer preview will be out today. iPhone 3GS and new-gen iPod touch will get all the features, but some features won't make it to the iPhone 3G, original iPhone, and older iPod touches. The biggest new feature is multitasking, which Apple says is going to be the "best" implementation in the smartphone space, though it's obviously not the first. App switching is activated by double tapping the home button, which pulls up a "dock" of currently running apps, and Apple claims it can do this without hurting battery life or performance for the front app. Unfortunately, this multitasking won't be available for devices older than the 3GS and new iPod touch. Multitasking is just one of seven different new "tentpole" features, including Game Center, enhanced Mail, and more...

Notable new features for users ("tentpoles" are in bold):

* Multitasking.
* Spell check (like on the iPad).
* Bluetooth keyboard support (again, on the iPad).
* User-defined wallpaper (a jailbreak favorite).
* Tap to focus when recording video, just like with photos, and a 5x digital zoom for the camera.
* Playlist creation and nested playlists.
* App folders for sorting apps! You can even put an app folder in the dock.
* Enhanced Mail! You can have a merged inbox view, switch between inboxes quickly, and sync to more than one Exchange account. There's also threaded messaging (at last!) and in-app attachment viewing.
* iBooks, just like on iPad, only smaller. You can wirelessly sync books between platforms, a la Kindle.
* Enterprise features, including remote device management and wireless app distribution.
* Game Center. It's like Xbox Live, but for iPhone games. Includes achievements, leaderboards, and match making. It will be available as a "developer preview," and out for consumers later this year.

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Developers are getting plenty of new tricks too:

* New SDK, available today.
* 1,500 new APIs.
* Background audio (think Pandora).
* Background VoIP (think Skype).
* Background location data, both with live GPS for backgrounded turn-by-turn, and cell tower-based for lower power draw.
* Local notifications. Like push notifications, but sends a notification straight from the app without needing a push notification server, perfect for an alarm, for instance.
* Fast app switching. Saves the state of an app and resumes it from where you left off, without dwelling in memory.
* iAd. Apple says it's for keeping "free apps free." The ads keep you in the app, while also taking over the screen and adding interactivity -- using HTML 5 for video -- up to simple gaming in-ad. Apple will offer a 60 / 40 split on revenue, and users can even buy apps straight from an ad.
* In-app SMS.
* Map overlays.
* Quick look for previewing documents.
* Photo Library access.
* Calendar access.
* Full access to the camera.
* Video playback and capture.
* Date and address "data detectors."
* Automated testing and performance / power analysis (the same tools Apple uses).

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Multitasking comes to iPhone OS 4.0 -- but not to the iPhone 3G

You heard that right, people -- iPhone OS 4 just brought multitasking to the platform! Apple says they've figured out how to implement third party multitasking without hurting performance or battery life, and they're demoing it now -- you just double click the home button and see a list of your apps, and you can just tap to switch between apps. The system actually runs the services apps need in the background -- the apps don't need to do them individually, so it's not a "true" multitasking system, but it seems plenty effective. There are seven services: background audio, which allows you to use the standard pop-over iPod controls, Voice over IP, which can receive calls in the background, location services for GPS and social networking (there's an indicator if any service is tracking you), updated push notifications with local notifications, task completion so you can finish things like uploads in the background, and fast app switching, which lets apps sleep and resume instantly. Notably missing? Anything for managing a conversation, like IM or Twitter, which is a big omission. Win some, lose some, we suppose.

Update: Here's a big "lose some" -- only the iPhone 3GS and 3rd generation (late 2009) iPod touch will support multitasking. The iPhone 3G and below won't -- Steve says the hardware doesn't support it. Sad face.

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iPhone OS 4.0 spotlight lets you directly search web, Wikipedia

Apple did quite a bit today bringing its iPhone OS up to feature parity (and sometimes beyond) when compared with other modern smartphone platforms, and here's one piece not discussed today that we've been long wanting: web and Wikipedia search directly from Spotlight. WebOS and Windows Phone 7 have had it since inception, and Android's had it since Donut, and we're pretty happy to say that our OS 4.0-equipped iPhone is now also among the ranks, just 13 months after it first got a search bar. There you have it, folks, iPhone Spotlight is now useful.

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iPad 'Spirit' jailbreak demonstrated by MuscleNerd, now it really is magical (video)

You better believe it when notorious iPhone jailbreaker MuscleNerd -- a well-respected member of the iPhone Dev-Team -- declares root access on an iPad. According to this fella's tweets, this new hack is a port of Comex's "Spirit" jailbreak that exploits a bug found on both iPhone OS 3.1.3 and the iPad's 3.2. No downloads are offered right at this moment, but it shouldn't be long before we can throw in all sorts of wild apps and widgets as we wish. Video after the break.


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Apple's iPhone lockdown: apps must be written in one of three languages, Adobe in the hurt locker

Apple's already got a veritable novella describing things you can't do with the iPhone as a developer -- create apps that execute their own code is the biggie, obviously, blocking technologies Flash and Java in the absence of a loophole -- but it seems they've locked down the ecosystem just a little further today with the release of the iPhone OS 4 beta SDK. Check out this snippet from the developer's agreement:

Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).

What does that mean, exactly? Well, it means that technologies like Adobe's iPhone compiler in Flash CS5 won't be allowed, simply because the source code of the app that you're writing isn't in a language Apple's comfortable with. The compiler had been seen as a potential boon for Flash devs that had already been blocked out of the iPhone ecosystem for lack of a true Flash player, but Apple's found a way to block even this workaround -- technically you don't need to be using Apple's own tools, but you've got be using one of three variants of a single programming language. It's hard to say why Apple cares, exactly, but we suspect that the company would have to analyze your app pretty closely to detect variances in how the compiler produced your machine code in order to determine that you'd violated the rule.

This could be a blow to publishers -- Condé Nast included -- who'd been banking on Adobe Air to lead the digital push, since those guys presumably won't be able to bring their issues to the iPhone (and, more importantly, the iPad) without violating the terms of Apple's agreement. Protectionism is a core element of the iPhone's success, in Apple's view -- but ultimately, this might come out as a decision that's difficult to defend, unnecessarily sours publishers to the platform, and turns Flash devs' heads just a little grayer than they already were.

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iChat video with front facing camera evidence mounts in iPhone OS 4

Of the 1,500 or so new developer APIs and over 100 new user features mentioned by Steve and Co. yesterday, only a handful were covered in any detail. As usual, Apple was careful not to reveal anything about the next generation iPhone hardware expected to launch this summer. Fortunately we can spelunk the iPhone OS 4 SDK developer preview for hints of what's to come. TUAW found a new "iChatAgent" process running on OS 4 devices -- purpose, unknown -- but surely an indicator that Apple's finally set to launch a mobile iChat app. The fact that Apple hasn't already is one of those great iPhone / iPad / iPod touch mysteries. We've also peeled back the SDK to find evidence supporting those rumors of a front-facing camera (AVCaptureDevicePositionFront), flash (AVCaptureFlashModeOn/Off/auto), and torch/flashlight (AVCaptureTorchModeOn/Off/Auto) all declared in the AVCaptureDevice.h. Who cares, right? Front-facing video cameras have been implemented on a variety of mobile devices for years. Trouble is, how many people actually use them to video conference? And if Apple's late contribution to copy and paste can be used as a guide for setting expectations (and it can), then we expect Apple's iChat implementation to be done with the same grace and ease of use -- something that should have its carrier partners a bit worried if it's allowed to function over 3G data.

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iPad UI gets ported to the iPhone and iPod touch

At this particular point, 50-something days away from the earliest iPad deliveries, we doubt too many people are up in arms about the iPad's ability to act as a jumbo iPhone. On the other hand, if we told you you can take pretty much the entire iPad experience and distill it down to your iPhone OS device, well you'd probably care a lot more, wouldn't you? To get that extra 3D flavor to your UI, including the fetching iBooks shelf and other iPad-specific touches, you'll need a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch, access to the Cydia app store, and the manpower to click past the break for the full instructional video. Come on, you know you want to.



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