Apple Iphone Gets Multi-tasking

[peter991]

Apple iPhone gets multi-tasking

Apple unveils version 4.0 of iPhone OS

More than 100 new features

Multi-tasking among them

THE new operating system for Apple's iPhone will allow multi-tasking, letting users run more than one program at a time, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs says.

"We weren't the first to this party but we're going to be the best,'' Jobs said today at an event at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California, to unveil version 4.0 of the iPhone operating system.

Jobs said iPhone OS 4.0 includes more than 100 new features, chief among them multitasking, which devotees of the smartphone have been clamouring for.

Explaining the delay in bringing multitasking to the iPhone, Jobs said Apple was concerned about slowing down other features or quickly draining the battery.

Apple has figured out "how to avoid those things'', he said.

Other new features include the ability to create playlists on the phone, the addition of a 5X digital zoom to the camera and the ability to use Bluetooth keyboards.

A spell check function was also added to the phone and users now can buy an application and gift it to someone directly through their iPhone.

Jobs said Apple had sold more than 50 million iPhones to date. If you include the iPod Touch, the number shoots up to 85 million, he said.

Jobs also released the latest sales figures for the iPad tablet computer.

He said Apple had sold 450,000 iPads as of today and 600,000 electronic books have been downloaded for the device.

"We're making them as fast as we can,'' Jobs said.

"Evidently we can't make enough of them yet so we are going to have to try harder.''

The Apple chief executive also said iPad owners have downloaded 3.5 million applications to the device as of today.

Apple sold more than 300,000 iPads on Saturday, its first day of availability in the US.

Peter

Question: Can the existing iPhones be upgraded to version 4.0 or do you need to buy a NEW iPhone ???

[bkkmick]

I have an iPhone 3G and it appears like only the 3G will get multi-tasking. What a load of <deleted>. According to this Guardian Blog.

[britmaveric]

I pleased about 3GS getting the new features. Well done Apple, not to piss off those that just bought it in the last year or so!

[bkkmick]

Brit: "Ring the bell, I'm on the bus". Having said that, when the 4G/HD comes out then my Mrs. will get my 3G and I'll move on.

[britmaveric]

Brit: "Ring the bell, I'm on the bus". Having said that, when the 4G/HD comes out then my Mrs. will get my 3G and I'll move on.

Lucky - I'll wait another year or so and jump at the 5GS model. hehehe

[peter991]

Multitasking release gives iAd developers grip on iPhone, iPad users

iPhone, iPad now able to multitask

Jobs announces pop-up ads for apps

One billion ads per day rolled out

WAS Apple's announcement the iPhone was now about to multitask just a giant smokescreen for the fact its apps will now carry ads?

Because it seems that in announcing the new operating system for Apple's mobile platforms, boss Steve Jobs gave with one hand while taking away with the other.

All the excitement over multitasking served to overwhelm the fact that iPhone and iPad users' beloved apps will now be plastered with ads.

One billion of them, in fact. Per day.

At exactly the same time US regulators threatened to block Google's proposed acquisition of mobile advertising

firm AdMob - which Apple wanted to buy - Jobs released details of Apple's compensatory acquisition of Quattro Wireless.

At last night's launch, Jobs told the crowd Google was off the mark with its Android mobile OS, claiming users now spent "all their time in apps", not searching on mobile devices.

But searching isn't Android's strong point - multitasking is, and it's the reason Google's tilt into mobile devices is gaining momentum, particularly with the release of the Motorola Droid, which sold 250,000 units in its first week on sale in the US.

So while multitasking isn't exactly new to mobile devices, advertising is.

Well, good advertising is, according to Jobs, who said the current model "sucks".

TheRegister reports Jobs spent a lot of time explaining how Apple would make ads better, telling developers that their apps would now carry iAds that "combine the interactivity of standard web ads with the emotion provided by television ads".

The iAds would be embedded in applications, and therefore won't close the app, popping up in a separate window that can be closed with an "x" button and reveal the app behind it in the the state it was left.

Now that's multitasking for you.

And while Jobs promised Apple had no plans to become a "worldwide ad agency", he then went on to promise the crowd at the OS 4.0 launch that Apple could garner "one billion ad impressions per day by the end of the year".

His maths? An average user spending 30 minutes a day inside apps, receiving an iAd every three minutes on 100 million devices equals one billion ads a day.

Sixty per cent of the cash raised would go to the advertisers, 40 per cent would remain with Apple.

And obviously, as with apps from its store, Apple will have to approve all ads before they host them.