Yes indeed, the much anticipated release of details of iPhone 4.0 came today from Steve Jobs as Apple Kool-aid drinking journalists, developers and the like gathered as requested to listen to “The Steve preach the next coming errr what’s coming next. As we all expected, multi-tasking will come at 4.0 (indeed a no brainer I would have thought at 2.0) … imagine, now you can run two apps simultaneously on the iPhone!
Multitasking services include:
- Background audio – Allows your app to play audio continuously. So customers can listen to your app while they surf the web, play games, and more.
- Voice over iP – Your VoIP apps can now be even better. Users can now receive VoIP calls and have conversations while using another app. Your users can even receive calls when their phones are locked in their pocket.
- Background location – Navigation apps can now continue to guide users who are listening to their iPods, or using other apps. iPhone OS 4 also provides a new and battery efficient way to monitor location when users move between cell towers. This is a great way for your social networking apps to keep track of users and their friends’ locations.
- Push notifications – Receive alerts from your remote servers even when your app isn’t running.
- Local notifications – Your app can now alert users of scheduled events and alarms in the background, no servers required.
- Task finishing – If your app is in mid-task when your customer leaves it, the app can now keep running to finish the task.
- Fast app switching – All developers should take advantage of this. This will allow users to leave your app and come right back to where they were when they left – no more having to reload the app.
Folders is another new concept, enabling users to stack their apps in folders that are ordered logically like Games, Travel, Social etc… another good idea as swiping pages until you run out of space is getting to be a bit old. Running navigation in the background will be a welcomed addition and apparently Voip services in the background will also come at 4.0. Finally, Apple will take aim at Google Ads with what’s being called iAd, a solution giving developers and advertising agencies a way to create in-app advertisements. According to Apple, developers can look forward to some 1500+ API improvements in the SDK See more about iPhone 4.0 via Cnet
See also more coverage on RWW & Business Week – Look for iPhone 4.0 to come this summer – See http://www.apple.com/iphone/preview-iphone-os/ or jump HERE for the iPhone 4 Beta SDK