
The addition of multitasking to iPhone OS 4.0 may be the feature most people are excited about, but it's not the only thing Apple CEO Steve Jobs decided to unveil on stage today.
You can view the details on multitasking right here.
iPhone OS 4.0 will also introduce the concept of Folders, allowing users to sort and categorize the potentially hundreds of applications currently filling up home screen after home screen on their iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Folders act like the Stacks feature in OS X. Each Folder is created by simply holding down on a single application and stacking them on top of each other. The device will attempt to automatically categorize them by application type (i.e. games), but users are free to change the naming on their own (for example: first-person shooter games). This should clean up some home screens!
Folders can appear on the home screen or be dragged onto the interace dock. The added customization of folders has also lifted the application limit from 180 to 2,160. That's, uh, a lot. I don't have that many!
Enhanced Mail is something iPhone and iPod Touch users have been waiting ages for.
iPad owners have been given a glimpse at what an improved version of the Mail application is like, but iPhone OS 4.0 introduces some major, long-needed changes to the service. For one, a unified inbox. Most users have a work and personal e-mail linked to their device and now the interface supports a single inbox, including threading e-mails, rather than having them separate. You can also switch between inboxes quickly, open attachments via outside applications and, if you need it, add multiple Exchange-based accounts onto one device.
The addition of iBooks is about what you'd expect: a smaller version of iBooks for iPhone and iPod Touch. Nothing too flashy there, but most agree Apple needs a much larger selection of books.
Today's demos were shown on an iPhone, but the features should come to iPad and iPod Touch, too.
Have something to share? Sitting on a news tip? E-mail me. You can also follow me on Twitter.




Comments are Closed
Comments
Displaying 1–5 of 5
ww2_honor
Finally! I can get practically unlimited apps lol. I have around 96 right now on my iTouch 32GB and thought I was going to have to delete some that I rarely use but since the limit is being raised to a practically impossible number I think I'll be fine.
tokz_21
@kanaye
there are still some apps i would use for my jb iphone. winterboard and some emulators like sega and nes. there are much more to name but these are still a few i would still need my jb iphone for.
I would reply to your thread but g4's site never lets me reply to threads, just post it in new one's for some reason, no matter what browser i use.
radion_null
If only we could get landscape home screen and custome sounds for teh slide bar and the keyboard. But hey, multitasking will win me over for quite a while once it is out.
cmdluke
cool. i like the folders. does anyone know if you can import your own books to the ibooks app?
Kanaye
I've been reading the liveblogging session of engadget and iPhone OS 4.0 is nothing short of amazing. Most features are late, as usual, but I trust Apple to get them right.
I'm also questioning myself if I should jailbreak my phone with this update - most features that I relied on jailbreaking to do are included.
Displaying 1–5 of 5