On Thursday, Apple announced the newest version of the Mac operating system, OS X 10.8. The newest version is being called ‘OS X Mountain Lion’, up from the current OS X Lion running on Mac computers. Apple has made a preview version of OS X 10.8 available to registered developers and will release the final version, with over 100 new features later this summer.

The release will likely be in late August, as usual, and will begin to ship with MacBooks and iMacs during the initial education sales and beginning of the school year, when Mac sales typically increase. SVP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller commented on the release, saying:

The Mac is on a roll, growing faster than the PC for 23 straight quarters, and with Mountain Lion things get even better. The developer preview of Mountain Lion comes just seven months after the incredibly successful release of Lion and sets a rapid pace of development for the world’s most advanced personal computer operating system.

Apple launched OS X 10.7 Lion during their “Back to the Mac” event, bringing a number of iOS features back to the Mac in order to blur the lines between the two devices. With OS X Mountain Lion, Apple is pushing iOS integration to a whole new level, integrating a number of apps, including Messages (replacing iChat), Reminders, Notes as well as Game Center and Twitter integration.

Apple has also incorporated Notification Center from iOS 5, allowing the Mac to keep track of all notifications in one place. Prior to this integration, users would have to rely on third-party software like Growl for notifications. The Cupertino-based company has even brought over AirPlay mirroring, allowing users to mirror their Mac screen on their HDTV through the Apple TV.

The developer preview of Mountain Lion features the all new Messages app which replaces iChat® and allows you to send unlimited messages, high-quality photos and videos directly from your Mac to another Mac or iOS device. Messages will continue to support AIM, Jabber, Yahoo! Messenger and Google Talk. Starting today Lion users can download a beta of Messages from www.apple.com, and the final version will be available with Mountain Lion. Reminders and Notes help you create and track your to-dos across all your devices. Game Center lets you personalize your Mac gaming experience, find new games and challenge friends to play live multiplayer games, whether they’re on a Mac, iPhone®, iPad or iPod touch®.

It is very likely that if Apple were to release a television set, the mirror system would be more integrated between iOS and Mac devices. Apple has even went as far as to rename Mac OS X to just OS X, like they did from iPhone OS to iOS.

By integrating iCloud deeper into the Mac platform Apple is blurring the difference between iOS and OS X. The company is challenging the very basic traditional ways of computing and embarking on a new territory of true Cloud computing.

The store attendant gleefully told me that iPhone 4’s are sold out across the world. His smile dropped a little as I pulled my own iPhone 4 from my pocket. I was of no further interest to him so he moved on to the next customer.

His pricing for the devices does tend to reflect the supply chain news that we are hearing for Apple’s latest hot products.

iPhone 4 supplies are expected to be constrained until sometime in August. But analysts still expect Apple to sell over 10 Million units by then. By year end the same analysts are suggesting that Apple will sell 40 Million of more iPhones.

But Apples manufacturing partners are operating as fast as they possibly can simply to keep up with demand for the latest iPhone, as well as the the previous generation iPhone 3GS which is also still selling in large numbers.

The iPad supply chain seems to be under less pressure now. And that makes sense as it is now where the iPhone supply chain will be in August / September in terms of throughput stability.

Estimates for iPad sales in the June Quarter are now slightly up at 3.5 Million units. And the end of year estimate is for around 10 Million iPads in total.

Manufacturers involved in the production of the iPad for Apple in Taiwan seem on target to deliver 2 million units in July, and through each subsequent month for the foreseeable future.

The number of WiFi only and 3G units sold to date seems to be fairly evenly split, at 58% of sales going to 3G and 42% to WiFi.

Have you got your iPad or your iPhone 4 yet? Or are you still waiting? Let us know in the comments..

[AppleInsider] ]]> https://touchreviews.net/iphone-4-supplies-constrained-ipads-shipping-quantities/feed/ 0 https://touchreviews.net/ios4-free-download-apple-iphone-ipod-touch/ https://touchreviews.net/ios4-free-download-apple-iphone-ipod-touch/#comments Mon, 21 Jun 2010 14:41:03 +0000 https://touchreviews.net/?p=7471 Read More]]> Quick reminder for all you iPhone & iPod Touch users out there. Regardless of whether you have a new iPhone 4 on order, or better still in a FedEx plane, or van, heading towards you, you will be able to download iOS4 for FREE today from Apple for your existing iPhone / iPod Touch.

Heck, even if you don’t have an iPhone 4 on the way you can still download iOS4 for your existing device!

This is what Apple had to say on June 7, 2010 about iOS4 :

iOS 4 software will be available on June 21 as a free software update via iTunes¨ 9.2 or later for iPhone and iPod touch customers.

Keep refreshing your browser, or rather iTunes!

Also, those lucky people waiting for an iPhone 4 can expect iOS4 to be pre-installed when the device arrives.

Do let us know how your upgrade went in the comments.

It was with interest then this week with which I observed an interesting trend. Steve Jobs made a very telling statement during his interview at D8:

Well let first say we have two platforms we support. One is open and uncontrolled — that’s HTML5. We support HTML5. We have the best support for it of anyone in the world. We then support a curated platform which is the app store. It is the most vital app community on any platform. How do we curate this? It’s a bunch of people, and they come into work every day. We have a few rules: has to do what it’s advertised to do, it has to not crash, it can’t use private APIs. And those are the three biggest reasons we reject apps. But we approve 95% of all the apps that are submitted every week.

While some saw this as an obvious dig at those that say Apple’s application submissions system is arbitrary and closed, I see something else buried in that statement. Steve wants to go back to the future of web apps. He would like nothing better to see growth in the viable web apps available for the iPhone OS ecosystem. Apple has even gone so far as to create a showcase of HTML 5 web applications which we wrote about yesterday. Why would Apple want to push developers towards an ecosystem they can’t control? I would propose a twofold answer to that question.

The first answer is somewhat cynical. Apple has every interest in promoting technologies that support its position against Flash. HTML 5 and web applications have the ability to replace everything developers currently do with Flash. A growth in web applications could be the body blow required to finally knock it out. While any web page can now be placed as a shortcut on the Home Screen of an iPhone OS-based device, purpose-built web apps created using Apple-supported technologies would raise that capability to a new level. Fully functional, web-based applications that don’t require Flash will fundamentally change public opinion about the usefulness of the technology. Anyone that has used the Google Voice application written using HTML 5 knows that it appears and functions just as if it was a native application. There isn’t a bit of Flash in it. Now imagine if thousands of such examples existed.

The second answer is about where Apple sees the future opportunity. Google announced at their I/O conference they would be opening a web apps store later this year. This app store would allow developers to submit their web applications to a central store where users would purchase access to them. The only requirement for use would be an HTML 5-compliant browser like Chrome, Safari, or the upcoming IE 9. It isn’t much of a leap to see Apple has an eye on similar revenue streams. There is a whole pool of web developers out there that could be tapped to develop applications for the iPhone. These applications would be cross platform, runnable on any iPhone OS device, and future-proof against upgrades. An uncurated web apps store could be a shining example Apple would hold up against their critics. It would deflect criticism and turn them a tidy little profit. Who could ask for anything more?

Does Apple’s current emphasis on web apps signal a return to some of the original intentions for the iPhone or a cynical redirection of criticism? Would you be willing to use more web apps on your iPhone OS device? Does the origin of an app (native code versus web apps) matter to you? Leave us your thoughts in the comments section.

Poll Question

Cast your vote!

Check out the demo version (HTML5) of iPhone game Hand of Greed ($.99) here.

It appears the war between Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) has escalated and to some it may seem that Apple has chosen the nuclear option. According to reports originating on TechCrunch, Apple is currently in talks to expand the breadth and availability of Microsoft services in iPhone OS 4.0. Traditional foes during the original Silicon Valley wars, increasingly Apple has taken a pragmatic, “enemy of my enemy” approach in Silicon Valley War 2.0. How ironic would it be if Microsoft, who once famously injected a 150 million life saving dollars into Apple, was in turn saved by their former nemesis?

Reports earlier this year suggested that Apple and Microsoft had been in talks to include Bing as an iPhone search option or replace Google entirely. If Apple is serious about ridding their operating system of Google-branded products, Microsoft and their Bing division certainly have the services to do it. Bing provides replacements for basic web search, image and video search, news, maps, and visual search. In some cases these products are more highly regarded than similar offerings from Google. Although we shouldn’t expect a wholesale expulsion of Google from the iPhone OS immediately, it certainly sets the stage for further moves if these first ones are successful. Microsoft has hungered for a way to get more eyeballs on Bing and the iPhone ecosystem is certainly prime real estate. Bing already offers a very popular iPhone application, it wouldn’t take much for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Apple to work together to integrate these services into the operating system. This integration could be as simple as letting a user choose which services they want right up to the eventual end game of wholesale Google replacement.

These negotiations with Microsoft demonstrate the incredible acumen with which Apple manages their products. Talking to Microsoft serves two primary purposes. First, Apple gives a company desperate for a foothold in the mobile space a chance for success. Apple is very good at selecting partners who are in need of the boost inclusion provides. Originally it was the music industry with the iPod and iTunes. After that it was the print industry with the iPad. Now Apple recognizes that partnering with Microsoft puts them in a position of power to deal for the services they need. When the iPhone was introduced in 2007, Google was in a similar situation. They wanted and needed a foothold in mobile that Apple was happy to provide. Now that Google has shown its desire to go an independent route, Apple is more than happy to move away from them.

Secondly, it gives Apple options. They can choose to use a contract with Microsoft as leverage with Google or as their exit strategy. If Apple isn’t quite ready to cut the cord with Google they could use an agreement with Microsoft to gain concessions from the search giant. Rumors have circulated about how much Google is paying Apple for relatively exclusivity on the iPhone platform but no hard numbers have ever been revealed. With Bing in their back pocket, Apple could sting their former friends in Mountain View with demands for more money or other concessions to maintain that exclusivity, or at least primacy, in the operating system. By the same token, Apple may well have decided the end has come for their partnership with Google and be readying a phased exit strategy. They’ll gradually introduce Bing-based services into 4.0 and subsequent releases until all traces of Google have been removed. It may be hard to see the break up happen but it may be time and best for both companies to go their separate ways.

What do you think of the Apple – Microsoft negotiations? Will the inclusion of Microsoft services help or hinder the iPhone OS? Do you Google or Bing? We’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on the subject.

If an official declaration of war was necessary, it was presented this week at the Google I/O conference. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) are at war and all of the afternoon coffee breaks between Steve and Eric aren’t going to change that. As the technology world moves from the desktop to the mobile world, the long truce that held between these two rivals dissolved as Microsoft moved to a place of importance but relative irrelevance. So now that the guns are blazing in round two of the Battle of Silicon Valley, who will eventually win the conflict? Will it be Apple with their superior user experience, vertically integrated products, and developed ecosystem? Will it be Google with its clout, emergent systems, and open standards? In fact, neither will be the winner or the loser. The real winner will be you and I, the consumers that use the products and services of both companies.

It is a generally accepted axiom of commercial and economic theory that competition breeds innovation. It is, in fact, the central underpinning of the free market system. When the iPhone and associated operating system came on the scene in 2007 it had no competitor, it had no comparison. It was utterly and truly a new thing, formed entirely to bring a new experience to the cell phone. There was WAP web browsing before the iPhone, there were even limited Java-based applications. The iPhone was born from the realization that consumers would be interested in using a true smart phone as a mini-computer instead of just a phone and limited entertainment device. Apple took that initial lead they grabbed by going in another direction and parlayed it into an environment they slowly iterated to add new features as they became comfortable with them. By the time the iPhone 3G came out in 2008 Apple was firmly astride the mobile market with a dominance and lead no one could question.

But a funny thing happened on the way to world domination, Google showed up. When the Android operating system was announced in 2007 it signaled a move by Google into the mobile space. Google wanted a share of the emergent market Apple had discovered with the iPhone they had announced earlier that year. At the time Android presented little threat to the iPhone OS. It was seen as a configuration heavy, geek friendly operating system while the iPhone OS was geared towards a managed, consumer friendly experience. Between 2007 and 2009 the iPhone OS grabbed a large share of the smart phone market, partially due to its innovative design and partially due to the lack of a viable alternative. When the Motorola Droid was launched in October of 2009 with Android OS 2.0, serious competition for the iPhone finally landed. In the interceding time since then, the innovation and competition coming out of both companies has heated up.

I don’t think it comes as any surprise that I am generally a fan of the iPhone, the iPhone OS, and the whole ecosystem Apple has grown around it. It’s my opinion that it presents the best integrated user experience. I would be the first one to admit however that with the inception of Android 2.0 Google has started to right the ship. As a consumer in the iPhone ecosystem I don’t view this as necessarily a bad thing and neither should you. Good competition breeds innovation and innovation ultimately benefits the consumer. While I wouldn’t advise Apple to start rushing features and services into their products merely to participate in a “me-too” race with Google, I might suggest that taking the competition into consideration might be a good idea. I think they’ve done that already with the inclusion of video conferencing, a front facing camera, and multitasking to the upcoming iPhone 4G / HD. In evaluating the competition and consumer demand, Apple has added features to the product they are comfortable with and that advance the product that much more. Competition spurred the innovation but the innovation wasn’t simply a move to imitate something the competition already had. That’s an important point. As I mentioned yesterday, Google’s Froyo announcement at I/O seemed intent on introducing features that were picked from a shopping list of things the iPhone OS didn’t have. The things Apple is bringing to the table in the new iPhone 4G and iPhone operating system may have been spurred by the competition from Android, but they are not simply extensions of what Android already offers.

The good news is this war will have a winner; you, the consumer. Much like an earlier war between Apple and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) produced improved versions of both Windows and Mac OS, this new conflict will ultimately breed innovations and improvements in the mobile market. I, for one, can’t wait to see what happens.

Do you think this newfound competition in the mobile space will ultimately benefit the consumer? Does either Apple or Google really have the clout to truly beat the other? Leave us your thoughts in the comments section.

Someone once told me imitation was the sincerest form of flattery. I’m sure you’ve heard similar advice. I don’t think Eric Schmidt and the leadership at Google have been offered that old axiom though. If you were keeping an eye on the announcements coming out of the Google I/O conference this week you noticed they all had a similar theme; all were a reaction or move against a similar Apple offering. It seems Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is intent on flattering Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in as many ways as possible in the next year.

MacRumors provides a good rundown of how Google’s announcements line up with current Apple offerings. If you don’t believe Google sees Apple as its direct competition, reading the article will convince you otherwise. Of particular note to iPhone owners are that three of the four major Google announcements are moves against the current iPhone OS environment. Interestingly enough, Google didn’t frame these announcements in terms of their individual strengths and uniqueness but instead in terms of their differentiation from the iPhone OS. Granted, they didn’t directly juxtapose the two architectures but the implication was there. I’ve said in a few different articles that it feels like a mistake for a company to form their product from a list of things the competition doesn’t have. Yet, that seems to be what Google has done.

The most prominent of those announcements was Android 2.2, the so-called Froyo build. Froyo is a further evolution of Android which, in a lot of ways, is a very innovative platform. Unfortunately it also suffers from some very apparent flaws; some of which aren’t even in the operating system itself. The two major announcements around Froyo are the ability for a phone to act as a wireless access point and Flash 10.1 support. On the surface these seem like important divergences from the iPhone OS but if you look under the surface you see they are reactionary moves. Google’s sudden belief it needs to fully support Flash? Well if you don’t get the back story on that you have some catching up on the news to do. The wireless access point mode is an interesting idea but really this is Google taking a feature from the “Things iPhone OS Doesn’t Have” list. Tethering is something iPhone OS has supported since version 3 but something AT&T has famously blocked due to alleged concerns about the load on their data network. The mobile AP feature is an obvious dig at the lack of tethering support. It’s an interesting feature but it distracts from the underlying problems still inherent in the Android system.

Unlike iPhone OS, Android is a horribly fractured operating system. There are currently at least four major versions of the product with a fifth on the way when Froyo comes out. People on the lower versions of the OS have little or no hope of a direct OTA update of their product which is dependent on both the abilities of their hardware and the willingness of the mobile carrier to allow it to happen. Google’s attempt to strong arm its Android partners into unification with the Nexus One and Android 2.1 failed; something signaled by Google’s withdrawal from direct to market selling of the Nexus One. In short, Android suffers not only from strong competition externally but internal divisions as well. Google can use Android to imitate iPhone OS and add features Apple isn’t ready, or prepared, to include all they want; as long as their own house is in disarray they will never make a concerted push against Apple.

I read a good book last week I think sums up Apple’s view on all of this attempted one-upmanship coming out of Mountain View. The book was REWORK by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, the founders of 37Signals. It’s an excellent business philosophy book and I would encourage you to read it as well. The part of the book germane to this discussion is where they discuss what to do about the competition. To briefly paraphrase their thoughts (and with my apologies for doing so to Jason and David), they say who cares what the competition is doing. You need to focus on making your product the best it can be in accordance with your vision for it. People should love your product for what it offers them. If they don’t love your product then you shouldn’t go into endlessly recursion chasing the competition’s feature set, that’s a fool’s game. Apple has never made an attempt to chase the Android feature set, or the feature set of any other product. Apple has a solid vision for their product and the will to follow it through. Some people love Apple for this and some hate it. At the end of the day though Steve Jobs gets to go home knowing he’s making what he wants, not something dictated by a distant second place rival jumping up and down to be noticed in a crowd.

What do you think? Will Google’s run at Apple and the iPhone OS increase their market share or just give the reputation of a “me-too” competitor? Will Apple’s single-mindedness cost them customer base in the end? Let us know in the comments section.

We will of course keep you updated on what people discover in the new SDK in coming days / weeks.

So far it seems that developers have found some swanky new wallpapers for the new iPhone OS, and also some tell tale dialog changes which seem to suggest AT&T customers may finally be getting tethering.

Of course there is no detail of the costs that may well be incurred for activating that service. It’s likely that AT&T feel more comfortable doing this now that they have technology in place for the iPad which limits video download quality over 3G. Expect that to be put in place for the iPhone also.

Are you excited to finally be perhaps be getting Tethering for your iPhone? Let us know in the comments.

First Apple bought PA Semi and was then rumored to have purchased Intrinsity. Google recently purchased Agnilux. Now rumors are circulating Apple has it’s eyes on the biggest prize of all, ARM. Various news sites around the Internet, including Engadget and TUAW, are reporting a proposed deal around $8 Billion USD that would see the Cupertino giant acquire one of the biggest prizes in the mobile processor space.

To understand the magnitude of such a deal, you need to understand what purchasing ARM would mean. ARM Holdings, as the company is formally known, designs and manufactures processors and systems on a chip for many of the large companies in the mobile space. It either directly creates or licenses its designs to Microsoft, Nokia, Apple, and a host of other top corporations. ARM processors run the iPhone and iPad as well as the mobile devices of some of Apple’s key competitors.

It’s easy to see then that Apple’s motivation in buying ARM would be twofold. First, they would acquire the largest single manufacturer of mobile processors in the world. They could ensure a long term supply of processors for their iPad, iPhone, and any future mobile device platforms. They would no longer be beholden to an outside organisation for a key component. With the design know-how brought in-house, they could also dictate the design and function of future processors. If there’s anything Apple strives for, it is control over every aspect of the product development process. As TUAW points out in their article:

Last January, Apple COO Tim Cook stated, ‘We believe we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products we make.’

The second motivation may be a tad bit more Machiavellian. By purchasing ARM, Apple puts itself in control of the fates of the mobile processors of their competition. While they would probably never dare to completely cut off their competition, they would certainly place themselves in a position where Apple benefited the most from the expertise and capabilities of ARM. And of course, they would be happy to make a profit off the backs of Microsoft and Nokia.

What do you think of an Apple-owned ARM? Would they become an unstoppable juggernaut by controlling every aspect of the design and manufacturing process of their devices? Do you think Apple should be allowed to purchase and consolidate a company like ARM? Leave us a comment and let us know.

The interesting thing is that this year the ban is in June. Which signals that perhaps the iPhone 4G will launch a little earlier than its previously expected debut of July.

The Apple WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference) is rumored to be set for June 28th through July 2 this year. This information comes from a “Corporate Event” booking having been spotted in the Moscone Center Calandar. This is the normal “code” for the booking, and has proved reliable in previous years. Based on those dates many people assumed that new hardware and the new iPhone OS would debut there. But Apple does not always wait until the developer conference to release pivotal items. It is a developer conference after all, and does not always deliver important new hardware announcements.

Nothing is set in stone, and this is all rumor at the moment. But with Apple releasing the iPhone 4.0 OS as a Developer preview much earlier than perviously expected perhaps Apple’s schedules for the rest of the year are set to similarly surprise us.

What’s your guess? Let us know in the comments

This “feature” has been a controversial facet of the iPhone OS for some time. With a lot of developers feeling that the score people gave to their apps when deleting them may be arbitrary at best, and possibly vindictive at worst. So I doubt it will be missed by people with apps to sell.

It possibly will not be missed by users either, who may have even vented their frustration at another step to go through when removing an app, against the app they were deleting. In any case rating an app when you delete it, for any reason, is probably not the best time to do it – for anybody concerned. I am sure Apple have seen this in their own metrics.

It’s clear to see the “Rate on Delete” does not really work if you scroll through top apps in the App Store. Even supremely popular apps like “Tap Tap Revenge 3″ have almost the same number of 1 star ratings as they do 5 star ratings. And both the 1 and 5 star ratings are an order of magnitude larger than any intermediate scores. Very clearly not representative.

What’s your view on “Rate on Delete”? Will you miss it? Or was it an additional step in app removal you found tiresome?

Let us know in the comments.

If you missed our live coverage here, you can read our event roudup here.

You can also download the iPhone OS 4 Keynote Event here

The major enhancement for gamers was the introduction of GameCentere which integrates social gaming, friend invites, matchmaking, leaderboards and achievements.

Multitasking, Enhanced Mail and folders will make common tasks on iPhone easier and more efficient.

iPhone OS 4.0 will be available this summer for the iPhone and iPod Touch and in the fall for the iPad. The iPad, iPhone 3GS, and 3rd generation iPod touch will be able to support all of the new features. The iPhone 3G and 2nd generation iPod touch will run most features but multitasking will not be supported.

Apple did not say anything about the price for the upgrade for iPod touch users and they might offer this as a free upgrade so that they can get maximum people adopt the iAd platform.

Apple has certainly been on a streak lately. The public release of the iPad has been a complete success and now the details of the much anticipated iPhone OS 4.0. The new operating system has been the main object of speculation and rumor since the unveiling of the Apple tablet in January. Today’s announcement finally threw back the curtain and gave us all a vision of the future of the iPhone and iPad platforms. While the tech media machine discerned and speculated most of the features beforehand, there were still a few surprises no one saw coming.

Let’s review the seven main features of the announcement:

• Multitasking

This was the big feature everyone has been waiting for. While it remains to be seen whether this is true multitasking in the sense that the application runs in the background or is preserved in some kind of frozen state, this feature should enhance the iPhone experience greatly. What we do know is multitasking will support audio, VoIP, location and navigation applications running in the background. In addition to this multitasking will include enhanced push notifications, local notifications, task completion, and fast app switching.

• Folders

One of the main complaints about the iPhone user interface is the endless succession of home screens full of icons. The Folders feature allows a user to create a pile of icons that appear as a folder on their home screen. Tapping the folder provides access to all of the apps in the folder.

• Enhanced mail

iPhone OS 4.0 will enhance the native Mail app in several significant ways. The most significant is a unified inbox. All of a user’s e-mail can now be delivered to one location. On the e-mail side, messages can now be organized by thread and attachments opened with an external app identified for that purpose or file extension.

• iBooks for iPhone

Apple will bring the iBooks application to the iPhone.

• Enterprise

iPhone OS 4.0 will bring a number of enhancements relevant to Enterprise users. They include increased data protection, mobile device management, wireless app distribution, multiple Exchange accounts, Exchange Server 2010 support and SSL VPN support.

• GameCenter

This was an enhancement no one saw coming. GameCenter provides an Xbox Live type interface for iPhone gaming. It integrates social gaming, friend invites, matchmaking, leaderboards and achievements. It will be interesting to see how developers use this enhancement and how much it cuts into the business of applications like OpenFeint.

• iAd

iAd is Apple’s entry into mobile advertising. While this may seem like a rather mundane enhancement, iAd will feature rich, in-app interactive and video advertisements. The advertisements demoed at the presentation seemed more like applications than static ads. Apple will sell and host the ads and split revenue 60/40 in favor of developers.

Multitasking was easily the most exciting and interesting announcement. The single criticism most used against the operating system is now gone and if Apple is prepared to release it, you know it has been tested and works extremely well. It may not be the full, preemptive multitasking users are familiar with from a desktop computer paradigm but I think it will be enough to make users happy without running into the problems encountered on mobile platforms like Android.

The move to version 4.0 seems like more of a major upgrade than the move to version 3.0 a year ago. I think this has a lot to do with the fact the iPhone OS now supports a major device in the iPad. I think it’s also indicative of Apple’s vision for the future, a vision where the iPhone OS and its ancestors are the future of Apple computing. Sure, Mac OS will always exist as a full operating system, but as Apple shifts focus from computers to consumer electronics the iPhone OS represents the lightweight operating system required to make such a change. Version 4.0 will be available in the summer for the iPhone and iPod Touch and in the fall for the iPad. The iPad, iPhone 3GS, and 3rd generation Touch will be able to run all of the new features. The iPhone 3G and 2nd generation Touch will run most features but notably multitasking will not be available. No word on pricing as of yet.

What are your thoughts on today’s announcements? Did Apple fill some of the major gaps in the iPhone OS? Would you be compelled to buy a product that runs the new operating system? Are you encouraged by Apple’s vision of the future based on the new OS? Leave us a comment and let us know.

You can read our complete  live coverage here.

With less than a week after a major product launch Apple’s announcement of iPhone OS 4.0 event was quite unexpected. Apple will give us a sneak peek into the future of iPhone OS later today. The event will be live at Apple’s Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino.

There have been many rumors suggesting different features which could possibly be announced today. The iPhone has been often criticized for not supporting multitasking for third party apps and iPhone OS 4.0 might add this highly anticipated feature. The next generation of iPhone OS could also support Apple’s new mobile Ad network (iAds?)

Apple ‘future of iPhone OS’ Event will begin on Thursday, April 8th at 10AM PT. We will start broadcasting the Live feed by 9:00AM.

Bookmark and share this page as we bring you the all-in-one live feed from all popular news sources. We will be updating you with the latest images and features of iPhone OS 4.0 and all other announcements.

No need to refresh the page!

Don’t miss this event, check your time zone:

07:00AM – Hawaii
10:00AM – Pacific
11:00AM – Mountain
12:00PM – Central
01:00PM – Eastern
06:00PM – London
07:00PM – Paris

• 12:21 PM: Touch_Reviews The event has not started yet. Stay tuned! Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com
• 12:27 PM: Touch_Reviews All comments are being moderated. It may take up-to 30 seconds for your comment to show up.
• 12:29 PM: Chris I hope is gonna be worth it
• 12:31 PM: Touch_Reviews Will Apple preview multitasking capabilities in iPhone OS 4.0 event today?
• 12:36 PM: maddviper I’m aware of the video issue, but is audio recording permited?
• 12:37 PM: Touch_Reviews @maddvyper If we find an audio feed we’ll update here. This is an all-in-one feed. We are following all top news sources to bring you the latest.
• 12:38 PM: daimonck Whan can the new os be ready for download . If it’s so happens as we hope
• 12:38 PM: random1988 wad time will the event start if i’m in Australia?
• 12:40 PM: Touch_Reviews @daimonck iPhone OS 4.0 might be available for download in May/June
• 12:41 PM: Chris Last year the iPhone came out around 1month after the os was annonced, does that means that a new iPhone will be available around May?
• 12:42 PM: Danny The Even Should Start at 1:30 in Adelaide australia to answer your question
• 12:43 PM: Touch_Reviews @Chris There have been many rumors about iPhone 4G. There might not be any announcement about new hardware today. We can expect new hardware in July/August
• 12:45 PM: Blake When can we download 4。0
• 12:46 PM: random1988 is tat 1:30am or pm?
• 12:46 PM: Smatts Is there any vague possibility that Steve will mention the MacBook Pro’s at the event?? I’ve been waiting for ages.
• 12:47 PM: Kenbee When start?
• 12:47 PM: Touch_Reviews @Smatts Apple usually does not make hardware and software announcements on the same day
• 12:48 PM: nat2961 Will apple change something with the txting notifications making it easier to reply to txt msges rather than having to exist out of the app your in and launch the SMS app?
• 12:49 PM: Touch_Reviews @nat2961 Apple will certainly announce many enhancements to the current iPhone OS.
• 12:49 PM: Touch_Reviews @Kenbee 07:00AM – Hawaii
  10:00AM – Pacific
  11:00AM – Mountain
  12:00PM – Central
  01:00PM – Eastern
  06:00PM – London
  07:00PM – Paris
  09:00PM – Moscow
• 12:50 PM: Mo Can we watch the event live or we can only read about it
• 12:51 PM: Touch_Reviews @Mo We will bring you images and all major announcements. No video/audio feed available at this moment
• 12:51 PM: cfarnan7328 I hope we get an iphone release date
• 12:51 PM: Kratos83 What devices will the new OS work on?
• 12:52 PM: Touch_Reviews @Kratos83 It is possible that iPhone OS 4.0 will support only the new devices. iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 3G
• 12:52 PM: Touch_Reviews @cfarnan7328 Apple might not make any hardware announcements.
• 12:52 PM: Mo can we expect release date for ipad 3G and ipad in UK?
• 12:53 PM: Touch_Reviews Hit the share button and invite your followers and friends to the live feed.
• 12:53 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 12:54 PM: karl Just say Verizon. Nothing else matters
• 12:54 PM: Smatts I’m not enjoying this iPhone app, no refresh or bookmark buttons plus the adds are annoying, oh.. That reminds me, apple will probably launch an iAd service too :/
• 12:54 PM: Ganja hey guys try to keep this live feed about the iphone os 4.0 only, that is what the event is about am i right?
• 12:55 PM: Kratos83 I have an itouch 8g that was released last year. I’m running the current OS. Can I still get 4.0.?
• 12:56 PM: Mo its apple so there will be a buzz about all their products
• 12:56 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 12:57 PM: Mo is the same guy who gave the ipad announcement doing this one
• 12:58 PM: Touch_Reviews Post your iPhone OS 4.0 predictions in the comments.
• 1:00 PM: Touch_Reviews Jason Chen:
  I see one Apple security guy that’s ripped, but one that’s 5 foot 2 and about 60 years old. There’s obviously no uniformity in their hiring practices.
• 1:04 PM: ThatEccentricGuy its either gona be steve jobs or phill schiller, im putting my money on phill
• 1:05 PM: Touch_Reviews @ThatEccentricGuy iPhone OS 4.0 is a major announcement. We might see Steve Jobs too
• 1:06 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 1:07 PM: Mo whos taking these photos
• 1:07 PM: ThatEccentricGuy true, but he’s missed big announcments before, granted most of them were due to the health issues but who knows
• 1:07 PM: Touch_Reviews @Mo Jason Chen from Gizmodo
• 1:08 PM: Mo he seems bored lol
• 1:09 PM: Touch_Reviews Apple may restrict the number apps you can run in the background (battery issues?)
• 1:10 PM: Touch_Reviews Will Apple announce the new mobile ad network today?
• 1:10 PM: ThatEccentricGuy id say they’d limit them to a point where the performance would not be too slow
• 1:11 PM: iAwesome i think we’ll see multitasking like flipping through “cards” kinda like palm but better.. more simpler. might only see it on ipad though.. i’m so excited either way!
• 1:11 PM: Mo why are apple anit-flash?
• 1:12 PM: Touch_Reviews @Mo Apple feels HTML5 will fill the gap. Flash causes performance issues on a mobile device.
• 1:13 PM: Maniacmook Are they going to do live web streaming?
• 1:13 PM: iAwesome cuz flash drains battery like crazy.. and is a RAM whore.. plus most flash content on the web can’t be manipulated by finger gestures.. and videos are being changed to html5 code.. and who really cares about ads..
• 1:13 PM: Mo flash works perfect on my omnia
• 1:14 PM: Touch_Reviews @Maniacmook Live video feed is not available at this moment. Apple will post the keynote later today.
• 1:14 PM: Mo i think its a ploy by apple to make companies make tailored apps for the iphone
• 1:14 PM: iAwesome and if they were to update content for multi-touch friendliness why not change to html5 while they’re at it.. not that big a deal.
• 1:15 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 1:16 PM: iAwesome whether its native apps, html5 upgrading, or whatever there is almost always a workaround to flash that requires minimal effort on the part of the user.. so that’s why i think apple and others dont really care to see flash go..
• 1:17 PM: Touch_Reviews We will be publishing a round up after the event is over.
• 1:17 PM: Plucas Good luck guys! Hello from Cancun!
• 1:17 PM: Maniacmook @Touch_Reviews thats sad. Guess it will give me something to look forward to when i get out of work.
• 1:18 PM: Dave Anxious in Seattle…
• 1:18 PM: daniel Will there be a video feed on here or only text updates ?
• 1:18 PM: Touch_Reviews @daniel Text and images
• 1:20 PM: LJ Still waiting for the Bluetooth keyboard for iPhone setting to come out
• 1:20 PM: daniel I’ve got my fingers crossed for a word on the iPad launch date here in the UK, plus pricing
• 1:20 PM: Mo me too daniel but it looks like its 24th of April statring at £399
• 1:21 PM: iAwesome excited in miami
• 1:21 PM: daniel doubt bluetooth keyboard for iPhone is on the cards, too small a device in my opinion
• 1:23 PM: Touch_Reviews Event will go live soon! About 40 minutes left
• 1:24 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 1:26 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 1:26 PM: LJ then theres the tethering from att. doubtful if it will ever be available
• 1:26 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 1:27 PM: firstEncounter Why was my comment about a jailbroken feature rejected? Jailbreaking is not a bad thing in any way and is perfectly legal.
• 1:28 PM: Touch_Reviews @firstEncounter The delay might be due to server issue.
• 1:31 PM: firstEncounter Ah okay, sorry
• 1:31 PM: daniel Jailbreak legal ? I thought Apple opposed this ?
• 1:31 PM: ThatEccentricGuy @danie they just dont want you to do it
• 1:32 PM: firstEncounter @daniel Apple doesn’t make the law.
• 1:33 PM: daniel But isn’t jailbreaking an Apple product go against their TOS and therefore make this illegal ?
• 1:33 PM: Touch_Reviews What will Apple call their new mobile ad network? iAds?
• 1:34 PM: firstEncounter New mobile ad network? I haven’t heard of that…
• 1:34 PM: firstEncounter @daniel No. It just voids the warranty.
• 1:35 PM: teampoop mobile ad network = iCash
• 1:35 PM: Mo do invited guests ask questions after the announcement
• 1:35 PM: Vertical If you violate TOS, then you just don’t get warranty support, etc from the company
• 1:35 PM: Touch_Reviews @firstEncounter You can read about the new ad network here touchreviews.net
• 1:35 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 1:37 PM: guest iFood!
• 1:37 PM: djbattaglia
• 1:37 PM: Vertical I’m hoping for the small things today… like SMS custom tones (the 6 included sounds are SO annoying now). There are lots of small tweeks they could add today that would really make the OS allot nicer to use. Of course Multi-Tasking, etc would be nice as well
• 1:37 PM: djbattaglia check out my setup i wont miss a thing from live coverage lol 6 windows open twitpic.com
• 1:37 PM: teacherstar1 any chance iphone is coming to verizon?
• 1:37 PM: Dave Mobile Ads are going to suck…
• 1:37 PM: teacherstar1 any chance iphone is coming to verizon?
• 1:37 PM: jeff touchreviews will have a live stream right?
• 1:38 PM: Touch_Reviews @jeff Live feed (text and images) no video feed available as yet
• 1:39 PM: Touch_Reviews @djbattaglia That’s amazing!
• 1:39 PM: LJ @teacherstar1 possibly. i bet this summer
• 1:39 PM: mark iphone verizon?
• 1:39 PM: teampoop @Vertical right on about the SMS tones.. Also would be nice if groups could have their own ring tones, not just single contacts
• 1:39 PM: Dave Unless they introduce a nuclear power unit, multitasking is going to be hard to pull off. Unless you don’t care about battery life…
• 1:41 PM: Err0xx Espose Multitasking would have virtually no impact on battery life. Read the speculations about how it will be implemented.
• 1:43 PM: Vertical Yeah, like I said, there are tons of small things they could add that would make things so much nicer. No clue why they’ve left allot of it out to this point. I mean custom SMS tones would be no different than custom ringtones, and they have that avaliable. And yes, it would be awesome to assign contacts to groups by editing the contact and to edit groups on the groups screen adding custom SMS tones, etc. There a TON of little things they could add that would make me very happy today Either way, im sure the update will be a great addition
• 1:43 PM: Dave Expose sucks…
• 1:43 PM: Err0xx Espose Multitasking would have virtually no impact on battery life. Read the speculations about how it will be implemented.
• 1:43 PM: djbattaglia yea im so stoked lol
• 1:43 PM: Randulo can u be logged in on web and app at the same time?
• 1:44 PM: firstEncounter Well, the thing is, you don’t HAVE to use the multitasking. So many people seem to be opposed to it because of battery issues, but what they don’t know is Safari and Mail already run in the background.
• 1:44 PM: Randulo the app isn’t working for me, “can’t reach server” same wifi as the Mini which has no problem
• 1:45 PM: Err0xx I personally *love* Expose and i can see how it would be VERY useful on the iPhone OS system on iPad/iPhone. Plus it’s power-efficiency wouldn’t destroy battery life. Personally, I don’t really care about multitasking, honestly. I’m fine with the super-fast OS the way it is now.
• 1:45 PM: Vertical Yeah, the app isnt working for me either.
• 1:45 PM: Neri same thing for me..app isn’t working
• 1:45 PM: Mo Any idea how long this announcement will be?
• 1:45 PM: Randulo @Vertical thanks, I’m releived
• 1:46 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 1:47 PM: LJ @Mo hour and a half tops
• 1:48 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 1:48 PM: Vertical They usually take like an hour or so.
• 1:48 PM: Dave Multitasking should be run through the chip, not faked through software…
• 1:48 PM: Sergio Davila @Dave Totally Disagree expose is the best thing about using a Mac OS X
• 1:50 PM: ThatEccentricGuy 10 mins!
• 1:50 PM: Err0xx And totally agree with you Sergio, Expose is wonderful.
• 1:51 PM: daniel i never use expose tbh
• 1:53 PM: Err0xx Why run through the chip? Less power efficeient when software multi-tasking does basically the same thing. Sounds like you WANT to kill battery life..
• 1:53 PM: Randulo since everyone is expressing themselves, I don’t care about multitasking or Flash, but I am “worried” about the iPad reflective screen. It looks really bad in most of the non-Apple demo videos
• 1:53 PM: djbattaglia apple told everyone there not alowed to take pics
• 1:53 PM: Touch_Reviews Still not in! Looks like this could start a little late…
• 1:54 PM: Dave It’s all about speed, sounds like you want slow.
• 1:58 PM: Touch_Reviews Okay — we’re in and in our seats. And… Phoenix is on the sound system. Go figure!
• 1:58 PM: Dave Let it go, lets get to the show.
• 1:58 PM: ThatEccentricGuy wooo
• 1:59 PM: guest under a minute
• 1:59 PM: Dx Seriously, why all wants multitasking?
• 1:59 PM: LJ @djbattaglia awe dang
• 1:59 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 1:59 PM: Touch_Reviews Now something a little funkier. This music is revealing nothing about what might be in store… unless Apple is trying to tell us that the new iPhone OS will be similar to someone’s schizophrenic iTunes playlist. That could be cool.
• 2:00 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:00 PM: ThatEccentricGuy i wish i could go to one of those
• 2:00 PM: Touch_Reviews Readers share the link to this live feed!
• 2:01 PM: Touch_Reviews Now something a little funkier. This music is revealing nothing about what might be in store… unless Apple is trying to tell us that the new iPhone OS will be similar to someone’s schizophrenic iTunes playlist. That could be cool.
• 2:01 PM: jeff y r none of my comments being posted here?
• 2:04 PM: Dx Apple should start doing their keynotes in a public channel
• 2:06 PM: Touch_Reviews Jobs is out!
• 2:06 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:06 PM: Touch_Reviews Jobs is out!
• 2:07 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:07 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:07 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:07 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:09 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:10 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:10 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:10 PM: Touch_Reviews He’s talking about the ABC app now.
• 2:10 PM: Err0xx Wonderful coverage so far Touch_Reviews. Loving this live feed! Keep up the good work!
• 2:10 PM: js Doing a keynote on a public channel would not be very apple like
• 2:10 PM: LJ @Touch_Reviews HOOZAH!!!!
• 2:11 PM: Maarten Maarten from the Netherlands I can’t waint…
• 2:11 PM: Touch_Reviews Jobs is demoing some games, like Scrabble, Labyrinth, We Rule (which is a pretty damn fun game actually.)
• 2:11 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:11 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:11 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:11 PM: Touch_Reviews He’s talking about the ABC app now.
• 2:11 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:11 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:11 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:12 PM: Touch_Reviews And of all the futuristic magazines out there, Pop Sci is really great. And Netflix… the quality of the video is very nice… and… where would we be without an accordion?” Ha! Big laughs for that.
• 2:12 PM: Touch_Reviews And of all the futuristic magazines out there, Pop Sci is really great. And Netflix… the quality of the video is very nice… and… where would we be without an accordion?” Ha! Big laughs for that.
• 2:12 PM: Touch_Reviews “iPhone has a 64% mobile browser use share… everything else added together is half the iPhone.”
• 2:12 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:12 PM: Touch_Reviews “We’ve sold over 50m iPhones to date, and if you add the touch, over 85m iPhones and iPod touches. If you’re a dev, that’s a plum market to go after.”
• 2:12 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:13 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:13 PM: Mo COME ON 3G RELEASE DATE!!!
• 2:13 PM: Touch_Reviews “Today we are giving a developer preview of OS 4.”
• 2:13 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:13 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:13 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:13 PM: Touch_Reviews Over 1500 new APIs in OS 4. Devs can access the calendar, photo library, quicklook…
• 2:13 PM: Touch_Reviews It’s going to ship this summer, and a developer preview will be released today.
• 2:14 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:14 PM: Touch_Reviews “We’re releasing a framework called accelerate — for hardware accelerated math functions.”
• 2:14 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:14 PM: Touch_Reviews There will be 1500 new APIs. In-app SMS, Calendar, Automated testing, Full map overlays, full access to still and video camera data, carrier information, ICC profiles, Image I/O, half-curl page transition, Quick Look, package-based documents, call event notifications, iPod remote control accessories, Draggable map annotations and a few more. Nothing super amazing in here that we see in here.
• 2:14 PM: Touch_Reviews Keyboards!
• 2:15 PM: Touch_Reviews But for users, you can gift apps, create playlists, 5x digital zoom, sync IMAP notes, tap to focus video, places in Photos, home screen wallpaper (like iPad), iPod Out (wha?), Web search suggesetions, Bluetooth keyboards (!), file and delete mail search results, cell data only setting, larger fonts for mail, SMS and alerts, Choose image size in mail messages, wake on wireless, and a few more.
• 2:15 PM: LJ yes yes I KNEW IT
• 2:15 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:15 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:15 PM: Touch_Reviews “Now we weren’t the first to this party, but we’re gonna be the best. Just like cut and paste.”
• 2:16 PM: Touch_Reviews Bluetooth keyboards…
• 2:16 PM: Touch_Reviews “We weren’t the first to this party, but we’re going to be the best.”
• 2:16 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:16 PM: Touch_Reviews He says it’s really easy to implement it to drain your battery and make the foreground app feel sluggish.
• 2:16 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:17 PM: Touch_Reviews “We figured out how to implement multitasking for third party apps and avoid those things. So that’s what took so long. I’d like to demo it. We have a great UI.”
• 2:17 PM: Touch_Reviews Demo time
• 2:17 PM: Touch_Reviews Jobs just launched mail. He’s inside mail, looking at a mail message.
• 2:17 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:17 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:18 PM: Touch_Reviews “I’m gonna launch mail, this has a URL — so I jump to safari — so I want to go back to mail… I double click the home button and a window raises that shows me all the apps that are running.” Like a dock you can call up — smart!
• 2:18 PM: Err0xx Oh GOD here it comes!
• 2:18 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:18 PM: Touch_Reviews “Now I want to go to ebay — I go right to where I left off in the apps, now I want to play a game — now I want to play a game, Tap Tap Revenge, it keeps me where I was. Again, the game stops, let me go back and look at mail.”
• 2:19 PM: Touch_Reviews “So now I want to go back to my game. Pretty cool, huh?”
• 2:19 PM: Dave Nice!!!!
• 2:19 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:19 PM: Touch_Reviews The multitask tray pops up and pushes the UI higher when it does.
• 2:20 PM: Touch_Reviews
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  This is Gizmodo’s liveblog for the Apple iPhone 4.0 OS Event on 4/8. Make sure to check Gizmodo.com for more news after the liveblog’s complete. Thanks!

  « Older posts

  Jason Chen:
  So how did they do this while preserving battery life and performance? Jobs introduces Scott Forstall, SVP of iPhone Software to explain.

• 2:20 PM: LJ I approve
• 2:20 PM: nicholas dring @Touch_Reviews well cool!
• 2:20 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:20 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:20 PM: Err0xx That is freaking amazing. Well done Apple, well done. I hope to GOD this applies to iPad too.
• 2:20 PM: Mo whats UI
• 2:21 PM: Touch_Reviews “So how did we do this? We’re providing seven multitaking services as APIs to developers.”
• 2:21 PM: Vertical User Interface
• 2:21 PM: Touch_Reviews “Let me show you an example… Pandora.”
• 2:21 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:21 PM: Touch_Reviews “Until now, if you left the app to go to another one, the music stopped. No longer. Pandora can continue to play music in the background while you switch to apps. And you can use a controller in the lock screen to control Pandora.” Pandora’s Tim Westergren is up.
• 2:22 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:22 PM: Mark H I hope to god they release this to the ipod touch even if I have to pay for it, they have clearly got it right so far
• 2:22 PM: Clive @Mo User Interface
• 2:22 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:23 PM: Touch_Reviews Thanks Scott. It’s no exaggeration to say that the iPhone has changed the future of Pandora. I could take this little guy out of my pocket and choose music to suit my needs.”
• 2:23 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:23 PM: Touch_Reviews “It took developers just one day to make Pandora fully background aware.”
• 2:23 PM: Touch_Reviews Pandora says they’re adding 30,000 new listeners a day just on the iPhone alone.
• 2:23 PM: Joe This will be awesome for when i get my iPad
• 2:23 PM: schizrade Still underwhelmed.
• 2:24 PM: Touch_Reviews With the new APIs, Pandora just plays in the background without you having to do anything. “Notice the performance of the browser even though Pandora is playing in the background,” he says as he fires up Safari.
• 2:25 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:25 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:25 PM: Touch_Reviews You can jump into the iTunes store out of the app while music plays… so you can buy music. “Thanks very much.” Still, no deep dive on how that works. Obviously the whole app doesn’t stay running.
• 2:25 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:25 PM: Touch_Reviews The next API is VOIP. The demo app: Skype.
• 2:25 PM: Touch_Reviews Up until now, if you weren’t running the app in the foreground you couldn’t receive phone calls, and if you left the app, the call disconnects.
• 2:26 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:26 PM: Touch_Reviews “Now when you’re on Skype, you can switch to another app, and you get a double-high status bar. And when you’re not running it in the foreground, you can still receive calls.”
• 2:26 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:26 PM: Touch_Reviews When you lock the phone you can still receive Skype calls.
• 2:26 PM: Ptah Now that’s talking
• 2:26 PM: RobotWoods It will be interesting to see how that all takes shape from a dev standpoint…he mentioned a game would stop when backgrounded, but pandora kept running.
• 2:26 PM: LJ @Touch_Reviews *gasps
• 2:27 PM: Luka THANK U VOIP!!!
• 2:27 PM: Stephen Northcott Doesn’t look like existing apps will multi-task. Apps need to be re-written to take advantage of limited services Apple make available to Devs… Colour me underwhelmed.
• 2:27 PM: Err0xx Oh heck yea. Love that.
• 2:27 PM: Touch_Reviews David Ponsford from Skype is up. “Thanks everybody. We have half a billion users, and iPhone OS 4 makes it even more convenient to use Skype.”
• 2:27 PM: Touch_Reviews “Until today navigating away from the app meant that I would go offline. Now I go into the background, but I can still receive calls.” Call coming through… in a pop up!
• 2:27 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:27 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:28 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:28 PM: Touch_Reviews You can play your custom sound through the notification as well, so the Skype call sounds like the standard Skype ring.
• 2:28 PM: clivesinclair Looks like a lot of re-qriting loads of apps
• 2:28 PM: Touch_Reviews “Hey Aaron are you there?” “Yeah you want to go to dinner tonight?” “Yeah, let me go into other apps to find a restaurant.” And… it’s multitasking.
• 2:28 PM: schizrade So Apple is catching up to the rest of the BB and Android world and it has done something “innovative”? Reality Distortion Field GO!
• 2:28 PM: chd still nothin much of interest
• 2:28 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:28 PM: Touch_Reviews When you switch out of an app like Skype, there will be a red status bar on top that flashes to alert that you’re still in the call.
• 2:29 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:29 PM: mike are the phones going to be sold unlocked??
• 2:29 PM: Touch_Reviews Third API: Background location.
• 2:29 PM: Touch_Reviews There are two types of classes, like turn-by-turn navigation (TomTom), so they can continuously monitor your location to tell you when to turn. “Until now, when you left an app like TomTom it would stop tracking your location and stop giving your directions.”
• 2:30 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:30 PM: mike or with ATT
• 2:30 PM: Dave They’re not the first but they’ve done it the best. Pay attention…
• 2:30 PM: schizrade @Mike… yeah right lol.
• 2:30 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:30 PM: Touch_Reviews “So VOIP. The next service is background location. There are two classes of apps that want to use this — turn by turn, like TomTom. These always want to know where you are so they can provide directions. Now you can get them in the background, you can even listen to music, and it’s still giving you directions.”
• 2:30 PM: Touch_Reviews “Now GPS uses a fair bit of power, but that’s okay for something like this. But there’s another class of application that wants to use your location… social networking applications like Loopt. For that, we use cell towers.”
• 2:30 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:30 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:31 PM: Touch_Reviews “Our baseband is always connected to cell towers, so it knows when you move.” Hmm, this isn’t going to be that precise for apps like FourSquare.
• 2:31 PM: mike How do you get to go to one of these presentations??
• 2:31 PM: chd Just a software update won’t do. Need an iphone with a good camera with flash. And an oled screen with long battery life
• 2:31 PM: schizrade Oh right , “the best”… I will let RIM know.
• 2:31 PM: clivesinclair Background Location API – sounds like a battery eater
• 2:31 PM: Touch_Reviews So when you switch cell towers, (500-2000 meters), the phone will wake up and tell loopt that you switched locations, and loopt will update.
• 2:31 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:31 PM: Baconbitz *Keeps fingers crossed for verizon*
• 2:32 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:32 PM: Touch_Reviews “We take privacy very seriously. We’re taking it further in iPhone OS 4. We’re adding an indicator on the status bar to see if something is asking for your location. Next we’re asking fine grain settings you can enable or disable per application. And if any of them have asked for your location in 24 hours, we’ll show you.”
• 2:32 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:32 PM: mike No T-Mobile
• 2:32 PM: Cbranger dont count on it
• 2:32 PM: LJ @Baconbitz same here
• 2:32 PM: Touch_Reviews next: Push notifications.
• 2:32 PM: Touch_Reviews They’ve had this for about 9 months, and they’ve pushed 10 billion notifications.
• 2:33 PM: Touch_Reviews “That is background location. Next, push notifications. They’re very popular, in 9 months we’ve pushed more than 10b notifications.” Now Scott is explaining the push process using Apple’s servers. A process that has seemed fairly limited to us.
• 2:33 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:33 PM: Touch_Reviews It will be the same as before, but there’s also another one: Local Notifications. They’re just like push notifications, but you don’t need a server. It’s done right on the phone.
• 2:33 PM: Baconbitz I’m hoping this OS update is for the touch also.
• 2:33 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:33 PM: Touch_Reviews “Now building on push notifications is local notifications. It doesn’t need to use our servers.”
• 2:34 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:34 PM: Touch_Reviews For example, if you have TV Guide, you can have it ping you with a notification when your TV show is on.
• 2:34 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:34 PM: Touch_Reviews The last one: Fast app switching. “This is the easiest for developers to adopt and the most important. This is what allows you to store all the state of an app when you switch out, and resume where you were when you come back.
• 2:34 PM: Touch_Reviews The apps will be exactly as you left it. So everything has been preserved in the background.
• 2:35 PM: Touch_Reviews These are the seven services to enable multitasking. Along with that, you have the UI popup that allows you to switch between tasks.
• 2:35 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:35 PM: dalton i want a new way to organize apps
• 2:35 PM: Touch_Reviews That’s the first “tentpole.” The second is folders. Folders, as in folders to arrange your apps.
• 2:35 PM: Stephen Northcott Of course all this will be fine as long as you don’t have more than a few pages open in Safari on the iPad. In which case I’d be interested to know how long your app is allowed to hang around “idling” before it’s booted out!
• 2:36 PM: Touch_Reviews “People are having to flick from page to page to page to find them. Folder fit the bill. Let me just show you what it’s like.”
• 2:36 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:36 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:36 PM: Joe FOLDERS!!!!!!!!!!!!
• 2:36 PM: dalton YES
• 2:36 PM: Touch_Reviews And here’s a demo.
• 2:36 PM: Joe Folders!
• 2:36 PM: LJ @dalton and you just said it
• 2:36 PM: MariusNocturnum @dalton Ask and ye shall receive!
• 2:36 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:36 PM: schizrade Ok, now we are talking.
• 2:36 PM: Touch_Reviews Jobs is going to make a folder full of games. You make one by dragging one app on top of another, and it automatically makes a folder containing the two apps. It also automatically names the folder based on the category that these apps came from.
• 2:36 PM: Baconbitz OMG I hopes this for the Ipod touch.
• 2:36 PM: Spacecowgurl YESS!!! Folders!!!
• 2:37 PM: Touch_Reviews The icon becomes a multi-icon icon. Kind of cool!
• 2:37 PM: Touch_Reviews To launch, tap on the folder and then tap on the game to launch it. The folder acts like an icon. You can have as many folders as you’d like. You can even put a folder in the dock. Woo!
• 2:37 PM: Vertical Oh Folders is going to make it so much nicer!!
• 2:37 PM: Luka Lock them pleaseee
• 2:37 PM: Baconbitz I hate the clutter of all the apps on my Ipod touch.
• 2:37 PM: dalton thanks steve!!!!! lol
• 2:37 PM: schizrade Welcome to 2002 iPhone users!
• 2:37 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:38 PM: Touch_Reviews “Now one of the other things I wanted to show you was the homescreen, the ability to change the wallpaper.” Okay, a demo of wallpaper? Really Steve?
• 2:38 PM: Touch_Reviews So, it’s just like changing wallpaper. On anything. Ever.
• 2:38 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:38 PM: Mo all windows mobile have folders
• 2:38 PM: Touch_Reviews You can have two separate images for the wallpaper and the lock screen.
• 2:38 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:39 PM: Touch_Reviews “So that is folders.” Okay, we like folders a lot.
• 2:39 PM: Touch_Reviews “You used to be able to see 180 apps on your phone, now it’s over 2000.”
• 2:39 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:39 PM: Touch_Reviews If you replaced every one of the 180 app spaces in your phone with folders, you can now have 2160 apps on your phone.
• 2:39 PM: Touch_Reviews Third tentpole: Enhanced Mail app.
• 2:40 PM: Touch_Reviews First is a unified inbox. You can have multiple email accounts come into one screen. So you don’t have to jump between inboxes.
• 2:40 PM: clivesinclair Impressed with the folders – VERY impressed
• 2:40 PM: Touch_Reviews “All of your mail is in one inbox. And, we’ve made it so you can have more than one Exchange account.”
• 2:40 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:40 PM: Touch_Reviews Now if you want to focus on one account, we’ve added fast inbox switching. In addition we’ve added the option to organize by thread.” Finally!
• 2:40 PM: dalton @clivesinclair me too
• 2:40 PM: schizrade catching up to RIM on email.
• 2:40 PM: Err0xx Oh yea! WOOT! New single inbox mail!
• 2:40 PM: Joe One inbox.
• 2:41 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:41 PM: Touch_Reviews If you want to go to one account, there’s “fast inbox switching.” You can also organize by thread, like on the Mail app in OS X, so you’ll see a “>>” icon if there is a thread. Click that and you can follow the entire thread.
• 2:41 PM: Touch_Reviews “And, open attachments. The ability to get an attachment and open it with an app for the app store.”
• 2:41 PM: clivesinclair Looks like a lot of work has gone into 4.0
• 2:41 PM: dalton spam filters???
• 2:41 PM: Parker Neat, but they are so behind. Android phones do this and MORE
• 2:41 PM: Vertical Thank gosh for unified mailbox, that was so tiresome!
• 2:41 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:42 PM: Touch_Reviews “So that’s number 3. Number 4… we’re adding iBooks for iPhone OS 4.”
• 2:42 PM: Touch_Reviews Tentpole number four: iBooks support.
• 2:42 PM: schizrade They really need to overhaul the UI, not just add folders.
• 2:42 PM: Dave Stick with your crackberry and shut up.
• 2:42 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:42 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:42 PM: Touch_Reviews The bookshelf looks just like the iPad. and reading it looks similar as well (in portrait mode at least.)
• 2:43 PM: dalton @schizrade i agree
• 2:43 PM: Dave Why do you think they’re holding this event? So they can stay behind?
• 2:43 PM: schizrade I wonder if people realize that these “New innovation” have been standard on winmo and BB for years…
• 2:43 PM: Sm0KE_DX Yess! Books
• 2:43 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:43 PM: Touch_Reviews “We think customers will really enjoy this. It’s a delightful ebook reader. You can buy your books once and read them anywhere.” Even Steve doesn’t seem that excited about this.
• 2:43 PM: Touch_Reviews It has access to all the same books on the iPad, and you just need to buy once and “read anywhere.” They’ll wirelessly sync the current page and bookmarks, just like the Amazon Kindle app does.
• 2:43 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:44 PM: Touch_Reviews “We labored about that on the iPad, what to include… and Winnie the Pooh won.”
• 2:44 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:44 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:44 PM: Touch_Reviews Scott is back for number 5. “Here’s some great features for enterprise. We have some really nice features here. Starting with even better data protection.”
• 2:44 PM: Luka welcome to amazone app
• 2:44 PM: schizrade Who the heck wants to read books on that tiny display? ROFL.
• 2:44 PM: Paul Rosenberg @Dave: Thank you! I was hoping for someone to pipe in…
• 2:44 PM: js I was praying for a new UI as well. I think an update is needed.
• 2:44 PM: schizrade Ah real meat, Enterprise.
• 2:44 PM: Parker If Apple wants the iPhone to remain competitive they have do more than this. I personally think the “innovators” in this smart phone war have changed…Google
• 2:44 PM: Baconbitz *Prays this comes to the Ipod touch*
• 2:44 PM: dkdu Iphone sucks
• 2:44 PM: dalton ohh this is a big one
• 2:44 PM: Touch_Reviews Here’s the checklist: Even better data protection. It encrypts email and attachments. There will be APIs available so developers can encrypt stuff inside their own apps. Also, Mobile Device management.
• 2:45 PM: clivesinclair @Parker YAWN
• 2:45 PM: Touch_Reviews Wireless app distribution. Before this, you’d have to plug into iTunes to get this app. But now companies can wirelessly distribute the app from their own servers to anywhere.
• 2:45 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:45 PM: clivesinclair @dkdu Don’t you mean it blows all the competition away
• 2:45 PM: Touch_Reviews Multiple Exchange accounts and Exchange Server 2010 support. Also SSL VPN support from Juniper and Cisco.
• 2:46 PM: Touch_Reviews The sixth tentpole is Game Center. Game Center?
• 2:46 PM: dalton wireless syncing????
• 2:46 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:46 PM: schizrade I like the promised Enterprise features, lets see if they can actually ikplement them right.
• 2:46 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:46 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:46 PM: Touch_Reviews There are 50,000 game and “entertainment” titles. Compared to DS and PSP, there’s 4321 games on the DS and 2477 on the PSP.
• 2:46 PM: Baconbitz I don’t get you people hating on the Iphone stuff. If you don’t like it then why are you here?
• 2:46 PM: chd games, here we go
• 2:46 PM: Guest1 @schizrade You’re clearly not interested in this – just hear to whinge about it all, so why not go watch a RIM conference on your little Blackberry?
• 2:46 PM: dkdu soooo, that old news for the other phone..
• 2:47 PM: aje7590 verizon?? c’mon!
• 2:47 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:47 PM: Touch_Reviews They’re adding a social gaming network. You can challenge a friend to a game. Also, automatic matchmaking to find random people to match up with you in multiplayer games. And, leaderboards.
• 2:47 PM: Touch_Reviews “That’s available for everyone later this year.” And Steve is back!
• 2:47 PM: dalton @aje7590 we can only hope
• 2:47 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:47 PM: Touch_Reviews Wow. So Apple’s got their Xbox Live. This is kind of huge. Achievements, leaderboards, match making.
• 2:47 PM: schizrade @Guest1, this is relevant to my work and industry.
• 2:48 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:48 PM: Touch_Reviews The seventh tentpole is iAd. Mobile advertising. They’re going to build advertising right into the iPhone OS 4.
• 2:48 PM: Joey Seriously, if you just came here to talk trash, get a life.
• 2:48 PM: Parker @clivesinclair. People can remain ignorant to the truth.
• 2:48 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:48 PM: Edwin Yeah.. go watch a live conference on a crackberry! thats a good one… why afre they here? It’s jealousy LOL
• 2:48 PM: Mo apple cant compete with psp and ds
• 2:48 PM: Touch_Reviews “We have a lot of free or reasonably priced apps… we like that, but our devs have to find ways to make money. So our devs are putting ads into apps, and for lack of a better way to say it, we think most of this kind of advertising sucks.” Ouch!
• 2:49 PM: clivesinclair @Mo Figures would say otherwise – if it’s $$$
• 2:49 PM: Stephen Northcott Game Network : How will this impact on the likes of Scoreloop and so on… Did Apple buy someone? Or is there a partnership we don’t know about yet?
• 2:49 PM: Guest1 @schizrade Then watch it, by all means, but don’t bore us all with your criticizing.
• 2:49 PM: Mark H not ads
• 2:49 PM: Touch_Reviews What’s happening is people spending a lot of time in apps. They’re using apps to get to data on the internet, rather than a generalized search.
• 2:49 PM: Parker @Baconbitz….I love Apple and the iPhone. But I was hoping for ALOT more than this.
• 2:49 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:50 PM: Touch_Reviews “When you look at ads on a phone, it’s not like a desktop. On a desktop, search is where it’s at. But on mobile devices, that hasn’t happened. Search is not happening on phones; people are using apps. And this is where the opportunity is to deliver advertising is.”
• 2:50 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:50 PM: Touch_Reviews An average person spends 30 minutes in an app all day. So if they put up one ad every 3 minutes, it’ll be 10 ads per day. Soon, they’ll have 10 million devices, leading to 1 billion ad impressions per day.
• 2:50 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:50 PM: clivesinclair Has Apple held back on new functions to enable OS 4.0 to run on 3g/3GS an iPod touch as well as new iPhone?
• 2:51 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:51 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:51 PM: Touch_Reviews “This is a pretty serious opportunity, and it’s an incredible demographic. But we want to do more than that. We want to change the quality of the ads too.”
• 2:51 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:51 PM: Touch_Reviews “You know the ads on the web — they’re eye catching and interactive, but they don’t deliver emotion. What we want to do with iAds is deliver interaction and emotion.”
• 2:51 PM: Luka how about landscape mode for homescreen steve grrrr
• 2:51 PM: Stephen Northcott @clivesinclair This is what I am curious about now. They suprised me with the limitations they put on multitasking. So I am wondering if this is now across all devices…
• 2:51 PM: Joey Perhaps it’s my OCD but I’d love to have more control over what I can and can’t delete, like Stocks and Weather.
• 2:51 PM: Nexis99 Oh what fun more ads in a device i pay out the butt for.
• 2:51 PM: Baconbitz So what if its a paid app? Will I still see an ad?
• 2:51 PM: schizrade @Clive, I think they have.
• 2:51 PM: Dave maybe they missed the pie chart at the beginning that showed iPhone as 64% used and crushed all other OS mobile phones combined. Eat it.
• 2:51 PM: schizrade #Guest1 – This should be a discussion, not an Apple love fest. This is for DEVELOPERS, not consumer’s. “OMG LOOK! YAAY APPLE!”
• 2:52 PM: Touch_Reviews “You know the ads on the web — they’re eye catching and interactive, but they don’t deliver emotion. What we want to do with iAds is deliver interaction and emotion.”
• 2:52 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:52 PM: Touch_Reviews “So that’s what iAd is all about. It’s about motion plus interactivity. The ads keep you in your app. Today when you click on a banner ad, it yanks you out of your app and throws you onto the advertisers web page. So people don’t click on the ads.”
• 2:52 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:52 PM: Touch_Reviews “Because iAd is in the iPhone OS itself, we have figured out how to do interactive and video content without ever taking you out of the app.”
• 2:52 PM: schizrade @Dave, drop the fan boy crap.
• 2:52 PM: 1 anyone can see picture?
• 2:53 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:53 PM: Touch_Reviews Here is a demo with a mockup of a few ads.
• 2:53 PM: Touch_Reviews So iAd is inside the OS, Apple can do interactive/video content without leaving the actual
• 2:53 PM: schizrade Yuck, fully integrated ads.
• 2:53 PM: RobotWoods @Baconbitz, I think ad integration is going to be up to the devs
• 2:53 PM: Touch_Reviews An example, an app that delivers entertainment news. On the bottom there’s a Toy Story 3 banner. Jobs says “I’ve seen it, it’s really good.”
• 2:54 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:54 PM: Paul Rosenberg God, is there a way to selectively filter individual commenters?
• 2:54 PM: Luka i will hate this Iad thing
• 2:54 PM: clivesinclair Hope Devs are not forced to include Ads
• 2:54 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:54 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:55 PM: Touch_Reviews When you click on the ad, the ad takes over the screen. “All this stuff is done in HTML 5 by the way.”
• 2:55 PM: Touch_Reviews If you tap on the X on the top left, you can go back to the app where you left off.
• 2:55 PM: Touch_Reviews If you explore the ad, there are interactive things you can do like tapping on the Toy Story characters and having them play back sound clips. Videos play back too, inside the ad.
• 2:55 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:55 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:55 PM: Mo I hope they dont force you to watch an advert before you use an app
• 2:56 PM: Nexis99 Well I think I will need to look for a phone that doesn’t inject ads directly into my brain.
• 2:56 PM: Parker iAds: Good for developers….bad for User
• 2:56 PM: dalton i don’t like iad at all
• 2:56 PM: Archmagician iBlock new app ad blocker for the jailbroken iphone LOL
• 2:56 PM: TheAppleFreak So far I’ve been liking this, but the ads kinda ruin it for me. Still waiitn on verizon
• 2:56 PM: schizrade I am making the bet that most apps will have iAds, to drive traffic.
• 2:56 PM: Vertical I think I’d prefer the ads be intigrated than be in the apps as they are now… they are really annoying, especially if you accedentally click one of the banners and it pulls you to safari…
• 2:56 PM: Baconbitz I hope I don’t have ads in games I’ve already payed for.
• 2:57 PM: Touch_Reviews They can even have games in the ad.
• 2:57 PM: Guest1 @Parker I agree!
• 2:57 PM: Vertical @Mo That would piss me off…
• 2:57 PM: Touch_Reviews “Have you ever seen an ad like this?” *silence* “Anything even close?” *laughter*
• 2:57 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:57 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:58 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:58 PM: Touch_Reviews Now Steve is showing an Air Jordan ad with an embedded video. This is kind of cool — the ad has a “history of the Air Jordan” app/ad.
• 2:58 PM: Mo maybe iads will give us cheaper apps though
• 2:58 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:58 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:58 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 2:58 PM: Touch_Reviews Jobs is demoing a sample Nike ad. You can watch videos, build custom shoes, or visit the history of the Air Jordan shoe. Also, a store locator.
• 2:59 PM: Touch_Reviews “So here’s Nike ID… you can make your own shoes. And there’s an app right here that I can download to my phone.” Steve seems pretty pumped about these new opportunities. Certainly more jazzed than he was about iBooks.
• 2:59 PM: TheAppleFreak @Mo I prefer more expensive apps to those with ads.
• 2:59 PM: Baconbitz I love how there comparing there games to DS and PSP when most of the apps on the Ipod touch/Iphone/IPad are fart soundboards.
• 3:00 PM: Touch_Reviews Another sample ad comes from Target. It plays a target ad video. You can also custom-build a college dorm room.
• 3:00 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 3:00 PM: Guest1 @TheAppleFreak Me too!
• 3:00 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 3:01 PM: Joe Blah. Michigan apparel in an ad.
• 3:01 PM: schizrade Wow, I am disappointed in Apple. This device will soon become a in pocket commercial.
• 3:01 PM: Archmagician iAds might be a good reason not to upgrade to 4.0
• 3:01 PM: Touch_Reviews These ads are looking a lot more like apps. Almost totally separate apps that live inside apps. Is your mind blown yet?
• 3:01 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 3:01 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 3:01 PM: Touch_Reviews “So that is iAd, and that is our seventh tent pole.”
• 3:01 PM: Vertical I can’t wait to interact with an iAdvertisement!!! It’s going to be great! *sarcasm*
• 3:01 PM: Unkleskunky How bout bluetooth game controller? PSP? DS? Didnt think so.
• 3:01 PM: Dave iAd=Stupid
• 3:02 PM: Touch_Reviews So, to recap. Multitasking, folders, improved Mail, iBooks, enterprise stuff, preview of Game Center and iAd.
• 3:02 PM: Touch_Reviews They are releasing a developer preview today. TODAY.
• 3:02 PM: Mo iads is a consequence of people jailbraking their iphone getting free apps
• 3:02 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 3:02 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 3:02 PM: RobotWoods I will be interested to see how their ad rates (post Apple cut) compare to other providers.
• 3:02 PM: clivesinclair A lot of people will stop buying app if they have iAds in them, so how can this benefit Devs?
• 3:02 PM: Error Verizon update?!
• 3:02 PM: Touch_Reviews End users will get these features this Summer, and will be iPhone 3GS and iPod touch 3rd generation compatible. They will run everything. The iPhone 3G and iPod touch 2nd generation–will run “many things”, but they will not get multitasking.
• 3:03 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 3:03 PM: Touch_Reviews The original iPhone was not mentioned. It’s unclear if it gets anything.
• 3:03 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 3:04 PM: Touch_Reviews And now, a Q&A in about 5 minutes. Stay tuned until then as everyone except press clears out of here.
• 3:04 PM: Baconbitz This is a dissapointment.
• 3:04 PM: Mo fall?
• 3:04 PM: Parker Nice!…Forcing people to upgrade…haha. Typical Apple
• 3:04 PM: Dave iPad OS 4.0 this Fall? Brutal.
• 3:04 PM: RobotWoods @clivesinclair I’m hoping its still up to the devs to include it, so it will just be marginally easier to implement ads, I don’t expect a huge change in their prevalence
• 3:04 PM: Stephen Northcott Well I guessed right on the devices. No multitasking for 3G and 2G. There is actually no reason why a 3G can’t multitask. That’s a commercial decision.
• 3:04 PM: TheAppleFreak And one more thng…. where is it? Steve hasn’t said it yet? This is uncharacteristic of him
• 3:04 PM: clivesinclair iAd should be renamed iBad
• 3:04 PM: Cbranger no verizon
• 3:04 PM: schizrade @Clive: TONS apps will soon be backed by coprs and marketing firms, so users will be innundated.
• 3:04 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 3:04 PM: cs Thanks guys, great feed!
• 3:05 PM: Touch_Reviews Very interesting. Only iPhone 3GS and the latest iPod touch will get multitasking. The 3G and 2nd gen iPod touch will get some stuff. iPhone EDGE is left out.
• 3:05 PM: Eddy iAds = B.S. ,, it’s OS , what in the hell ads doing in OS?
• 3:05 PM: Dave iSad
• 3:05 PM: Touch_Reviews Not sure if there are any features that weren’t mentioned here, but will be in iPhone 4, that will be expressly for the NEW iPhone 4 that’s coming this summer.
• 3:06 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 3:06 PM: schizrade Yep, they fo’d.
• 3:06 PM: Baconbitz iwanted verizon IPhone.
• 3:06 PM: Touch_Reviews @cs Thank you!
• 3:06 PM: Touch_Reviews Q&A is starting in one second.
• 3:06 PM: Mo no ipad uk release date
• 3:06 PM: Touch_Reviews Phil Schiller, Jobs and Scott Forstall are on stage.
• 3:06 PM: Dave Thanks for the feed and the darts everyone!!!!
• 3:06 PM: Error what about Verizon? rumors are getting heavy with iPhone 4G for Verizon
• 3:06 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 3:07 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 3:07 PM: Parker They didn’t address the terrible method of notifications the iPhone currently uses…that stupid bubble. If you accidentally dismiss it…what was it for?
• 3:07 PM: Guest1 @Mo I’m gutted about that too. Prices would be nice as well!!
• 3:07 PM: aje7590 i feel like if they are going to introduce a CDMA (verizon) iPhone, it would be at the iPhone 4 release this summer
• 3:07 PM: Dave Time to get an HTC…
• 3:07 PM: dalton Yes, very good live feed!!!!!!!!!!
• 3:07 PM: dalton ask about verizon!!!!!!
• 3:07 PM: Cbranger Wow,, so no multitasking for 3G? and is there to be a new iPhone?
• 3:07 PM: Baconbitz Maybe thats whats after the Q
• 3:07 PM: Touch_Reviews Q: Given that multitasking will increase data usage, how do you think AT&T will handle that? A: (Jobs) I’m not sure that’s a correct assumption.
• 3:08 PM: Touch_Reviews Q: But what about Pandora? A: (Jobs) I don’t think you’re right. It doesn’t use that much data.
• 3:08 PM: chd @Mo don’t be stupid enough to buy an ipad. stick 2 an iphone & laptop
• 3:08 PM: Error doesn’t ATT exclusivity end with Apple this year?
• 3:09 PM: Touch_Reviews Q: Given the huge demand of iPad demand in the US, will that impact the international launch?
  A: No. It’ll still be near the end of April, like we said.
• 3:09 PM: schizrade Jobs: lives in a fantasy world. I will very much increase data usage.
• 3:09 PM: dalton ask about verizon
• 3:09 PM: Nexis99 @Dave your are correct on that one…… I have a 3G and was looking forward to multitasking… Now I am looking forward to Iad..crap
• 3:09 PM: Mo I have a laptop.. ipad is for quick web surfing and reading newspaper and books without waiting 10 minutes for stupid windows to load up on a laptop
• 3:09 PM: clivesinclair Glad I got a Mili Powerskin – can see all the changes really hitting battery life – especially the iAds
• 3:09 PM: schizrade Oh boy, jobs is getting annoyed.
• 3:10 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 3:10 PM: Fusion Ain’t all the new coming things already in the android 2.1?
• 3:10 PM: Baconbitz @CliveSinclair Is that for the touch?
• 3:10 PM: schizrade @Mo, get a better laptop, lol
• 3:10 PM: Fusion are they not doing something more? sad…
• 3:10 PM: clivesinclair Is the lack of Multitasking on the 3G down to CPU speed being to slow to handle it and ‘spoil’ the iPhone ‘experience’ ??
• 3:11 PM: TheAppleFreak At least a small inquiry about Verizon would be nice. Or why multitasking can’t be implemented on the 2nd gen iPod Touch or iPhone 3G.
• 3:11 PM: chd @Mo well why don’t you buy an ipad & u’ll realise what i’m sayin. even if u don’t wanna admit, u’ll b dissapointed
• 3:11 PM: Touch_Reviews Q: Will the social gaming network from Apple supplant all the social gaming networks already available? And what will Apple do different?
  A: The problem was there are a bunch of different social networks out there. So the goal was to build it into the platform, and everyone can be on the same gaming platform. We expect developers will build this into their games because they’ll have a wider audience.
• 3:11 PM: Touch_Reviews Q: Are there going to be achievement points, like Xbox Live?
  A: We’re still looking at point options.
• 3:11 PM: Archmagician Mark my words..more and more people will jailbreak their iPhone apps to get rid of iAds
• 3:11 PM: Dave @Nexis99. I know I’ve been holding out until now to decide. It’s easier to go to Android or even Windows now…
• 3:11 PM: Stephen Northcott Ok.. Game Network will aim to work with existing companies like Scoreloop, Ngmoco etc.
• 3:12 PM: Mo id rather buy an ipad than an ipod touch.. lets put it that way
• 3:12 PM: Stephen Northcott @clivesinclair I don’t see the 3G being too slow. It’s a commercial decision. Plain and simple. As restrictive as Apple’s “multitasking” API appears to be even the 2G could handle it at a pinch.
• 3:12 PM: schizrade Apple: Everybody do the same thing! GET IN THE BOX! Thank god for jailbreaking.
• 3:12 PM: clivesinclair @Baconbitz iPhone. Not sure if you can get one for iTouch
• 3:13 PM: Touch_Reviews Q: Is there going to be an approval process for the ads, much like the App Store does, because you’re going to be hosting?
  A: I think there will be some boundaries, like you can’t run any ad on ABC. There are some ads we’d rather not run, but the concept are that these advertisers will pay to run ads, and they’ll pay to run ads that are well received by the audience. I’m not sure there’s going to be anything but a light touch.
• 3:13 PM: Touch_Reviews Q: How about iPad support?
  A: iPhone OS will be on the iPad this fall.
• 3:13 PM: schizrade A 2G could definitely handle their multitasking.
• 3:13 PM: Parker @Dave…for sure. I HAD and iPhone…now have a Droid…best decision of my life
• 3:13 PM: Nexis99 @Dave yep Looking forward to Win 7 mobile
• 3:13 PM: Parker @clivesinclair. No, that would be Apple’s marketing strategy to get people to dump their current iPhone and upgrade, just like they do for their iPods
• 3:13 PM: Touch_Reviews Q: Is there going to be any change in Apple’s position on Java or Flash on version four?
  A: No.
• 3:14 PM: Error seriously , are the people asking the questions purposely avoiding asking about an update with Verizon?
• 3:14 PM: Fusion android 2.1 still better i think
• 3:14 PM: Touch_Reviews Q: The development of these rich iAds…will Apple make a development platform for people to make these ads?
  A: This isn’t necessary. They’re all HTML5 ads and people can choose any tools they want. As long as it’s HTMl5.
• 3:14 PM: Mo A: iPhone OS will be on the iPad this fall. That means multi-tasking on ipad.. im definitely buying one now!
• 3:14 PM: Cbranger No, everyone knows that apple is not going to verizon
• 3:14 PM: Stephen Northcott Re: Flash question. LOL
• 3:15 PM: Touch_Reviews Jason Chen:
  On a side note, Steve Jobs looks pretty energetic today. Much more so than recent presentations that we’ve seen. He’s pretty fired up right now, talking about iAds.
• 3:15 PM: TheAppleFreak @Stephen Definitely LOL.
• 3:15 PM: Baconbitz A: YOU WISH!
• 3:15 PM: schizrade Steve is fired up becaase iAds are going to drive profits.
• 3:15 PM: Fusion Didn’t mention iphone 4 did he?
• 3:16 PM: schizrade I think the Verizon thing may be a rumor and nothing else at this point.
• 3:16 PM: aje7590 The verizon question seems to be the elephant in the room haha
• 3:16 PM: Baconbitz Q: Is Iphone coming to verizon
• 3:17 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 3:17 PM: TheAppleFreak Will SOMEBODY ask about Verizon already?
• 3:17 PM: Baconbitz @schizzle Maybe its time to give up on that happening.
• 3:17 PM: Mo 3 weeks left of April.. cant pre-order the phone in UK dont even know the price in UK.. what a JOKE!!!
• 3:17 PM: Cbranger @DUMB ASSES: IPHONE IS NOT COMING TO VERIZON
• 3:17 PM: Touch_Reviews Q: Is there a reason why you won’t be able to see a timeline in Twitter or an IM conversation in the background?
  A: We think it works better with the push notifications as it’s in place now. The fast-app switching is very complicated and more impressive than what we demoed.
• 3:18 PM: Touch_Reviews Q: Why have you veered away from widgets on the iPad?
  A: We just shipped it on Saturday. And then we rested on Sunday.
  Q: So widgets are possible?
  A: Everything is possible.
• 3:18 PM: Stephen Northcott Steve Jobs actually just tacitly admitted that he thinks he is God. I love that guy. “We rested on Sunday!”
• 3:19 PM: clivesinclair DEV site “We are busy updating the site. Please check back soon.” WHOAA!
• 3:19 PM: TheAppleFreak @cbranger Shut up. We still have that thing called “hope.” We’re not letting you extinguish it.
• 3:19 PM: Baconbitz @Cbranger no need to yell.
• 3:19 PM: Error why wouldnt it goto Verizon? Verizon is clearly the leading Phone service in the U.S., if Apple’s contract with ATT ends this year, wouldnt opening up to multiple mobile services increase Apple sales 100%!?!?
• 3:19 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 3:19 PM: dalton @Touch_Reviews everything is possible lol
• 3:20 PM: Touch_Reviews
• 3:20 PM: schizrade Jobs is a megalomaniac just like Gates and Ellison. They are all notorious for this.
• 3:20 PM: Mo iphone has 3 mobile networks in UK
• 3:21 PM: schizrade Guys the Verizon market is android dominated, and apple knows this. holding GSM may be their strategy.
• 3:21 PM: Baconbitz @dalton Lol.
• 3:21 PM: schizrade @mo, all GSM right?
• 3:21 PM: Error and in the US iPhone is exclusive only to ATT customers.. and only by jailbreaking available to any other GSM service provider.
• 3:22 PM: Dave HTC HD2, nicest screen out there but runs Windows Mobile 6.5, when that goes to 7, I’m in. Forget iAds, what a joke…
• 3:22 PM: Touch_Reviews Jobs is getting really really worked up about ads on the free apps, and how it’s much better than ads on the desktop.
• 3:23 PM: Touch_Reviews Engadget just asked Steve and co. about the lack of anything that can keep track of a timeline for something like a Twitter or IM app. Scott says that the new save states for applications will be much better than the current situation. Steve also said that they stand behind push notifications and still think it’s the right choice for this platform. Then we asked about widgets or glanceable information and why it hasn’t been implemented on this platform or the iPad. “Apple sort of pioneered the idea of glanceable information like widgets and it seems to me you’ve gone to great lengths to avoid something like that in this new OS. Can you tell me a little bit about why you’ve decided that? With something like the iPad, it seems perfect opportunity where you have a lot of real estate.” Steve: “We shipped on Saturday, and rested on Sunday.” (lots of laughs) We pressed and asked if it was possible. Steve: “Anything is possible.”
• 3:23 PM: Touch_Reviews “We do not have any plans to become a worldwide ad agency. We tried to buy a company called admob, and Google came in and snatched them from us. We bought Quattro instead. They’re teaching us and we’re learning as fast as we can.”
• 3:23 PM: Jim iPhone SDK 4 Beta just went live for developers on the Dev Center
• 3:24 PM: schizrade Sigh, once Jobs gets stuck on something, the world must change to meet his needs. :\
• 3:24 PM: Archmagician its hard not to be a meglomaniac when you’re Steve Jobs!
• 3:24 PM: Touch_Reviews “There was no decision to make as far as multitasking. Some of the earlier hardware can’t support multitasking at all.” – Jobs
• 3:25 PM: Unkleskunky so other than jailbreak how can I get multitasking on 3g?
• 3:26 PM: Jim Any hints on the new iPhone? My 3G needs replacing
• 3:26 PM: Touch_Reviews No questions about Verizon
• 3:26 PM: Touch_Reviews Uh, wow. “What are you doing about distracted driving?” Really man? Really?
• 3:26 PM: Fusion iphone 4g??
• 3:27 PM: Mo Jim wait for another 4 months
• 3:27 PM: Baconbitz @UnkleJunky Waiting for the new update to happen.
• 3:27 PM: Touch_Reviews How is Apple going to stop us from driving our cars into houses, trees, or people? With a strict, secretive approval process… that’s how.
• 3:27 PM: Touch_Reviews Q: Can you do anything to make these phones more safe so people wont’ use them when they shouldn’t be using them (like when driving).
  A: I think we do more than most to connect our phones into cars’ control systems. We’ve done a great job for handsfree calling and such. We’ve done a better job on that than everyone else.
• 3:28 PM: Touch_Reviews Ryan Block from GDGT: What about running unsigned apps? Steve: You know, there’s a porn store for Android. Anyone can download them. You can, your kids can. That’s just not a place we want to go.
• 3:31 PM: Touch_Reviews Q: Anything surprise you about the initial reaction to the iPad so far?
  A: Even though we’ve been using these internally for some time, you still have butterflies in your stomach the few weeks before…the night before…launch. You never really know until you get it into customers’ hands, and they tell you what they think. The feedback we’ve got has been off the charts. We think this is a profound gamechanger. We think when people look back some number of years from now, they’ll see this as a major event in personal computation devices. What’s been really great for me is how quickly people have got it. You know. I’ve gotten a few thousand emails so far from people I’ve never talked to before just telling me how much this product is…how much they think this product is going to change their life and what they do. People are getting it very quickly. -Jobs
• 3:31 PM: Stephen Northcott www.apple.com
• 3:32 PM: Mo They just cant supply the UK thats why they are stalling on a release date. PATHETIC!
• 3:32 PM: Archmagician Apple Porn?
• 3:32 PM: Unkleskunky I though multitasking isn’t avaialble for 3g? yes? no?
• 3:32 PM: schizrade Apple has always been about tight control. They will NEVER open up the platform.
• 3:32 PM: Jim Given the iPad has the CPU/GPU combined in the new Apple processor, will the OS4 be able to ofload and in effect use the processor as a Dual core?
• 3:33 PM: TheAppleFreak I just read the third latest comment from t_r, and are you not allowed to ask questions about Verizon or has no one brought up the issue?
• 3:33 PM: Unkleskunky @UnkleJunky Waiting for the new update to happen.
• 3:34 PM: clivesinclair Downloading OS4 SDK and OS now
• 3:34 PM: clivesinclair @Unkleskunky NOT for 3G, 3GS only
• 3:34 PM: Dave multitasking for 3G, NOT AVAILABLE.
• 3:34 PM: Touch_Reviews “If our competitors ever introduce a competitor to the iPad, they’ll be hoping they can get 3500 apps within the first year. We got 3500 apps in the first week. It stands on the shoulders of 85 million people out there who already know how to use it because they used an iPod touch or an iPhone.
• 3:35 PM: Touch_Reviews Q: How are you going to improve the app store for discoverability?
  A: The app store isn’t part of iPhone 4 or any OS release. It’s programmed on the server side so we can enhance it without waiting for the release of any iPhone OS release. We’re constantly interested in improving that, and do so fairly frequently. In terms of discoverability, we’ve added stuff like Genius recommendations. I also see an infrastructure evolve to help users find apps. The store on an iPhone with the small screen can only do so much. But you are seeing more websites and services featuring iPhone apps of the week. There’sc a lot of infrastructure building up outside the app store that has been servicing this. -Jobs
  Game Center, this is also meant to help the viral spread of applications, when your friends challenge you to a game that you don’t have. There’s also gifting, so if you have an app that you love, you can gift it to someone.
• 3:35 PM: Stephen Northcott @Jim Nope.
• 3:38 PM: Touch_Reviews But you are seeing more websites and services featuring iPhone apps of the week. There’s a lot of infrastructure building up outside the app store that has been servicing this. -Jobs (He likes what Touch Reviews does
• 3:39 PM: Touch_Reviews Q: Are you concerned at all about multitasking and other features that wouldn’t work for the older devices. Will this upgrade be enough to get people to upgrade their phones and renew their contracts and such.
  A: The 3GS has been a huge hit, and iPod touch’s sales curve really accelerated over the last year. So a lot of these products, the install base, are the most recent products. The old ones will still love the new features, but they’ll just miss ones like multitasking. If that’s an incentive to get people to upgrade to the new phone, that’s fantastic.
• 3:39 PM: Jim @ Stephen Pity as per the EVGA “Folding at Home” the GPU can handle more streams than a CPU as per the Origional Motorola Apple CPU, meaning in theory things like GPS DATA correlations could be offset leaving the CPU Clear
• 3:39 PM: Error are they refusing to answer questions about Verizon .. or is everyone too intimidated by Jobs to ask about Verizon?.. some update seriously!
• 3:39 PM: Touch_Reviews Q: How do you close applications? And can people use stuff other than iAd and Game Center?
  A: If you want to kill an app…you don’t have to. We architected something so the user doesn’t have to be the custodian of applications. We’ll give the apps in the foreground as needed. The user doesn’t have to worry about that at all. The user just uses things.In multitasking, if you see a task manager, they blew it. Users shouldn’t have to ever, ever, ever think about that stuff.

  And to answer the second question, yes, you can use any service.

• 3:40 PM: Stephen Northcott Geeky Stuff : All the multitasking stuff is handled via API calls very similar to functions like applicationWillResignActive etc. You need to declare which ones your app will support. Older devices will simply revert to the older calls and ignore any attempts to register newer functions / features.
• 3:41 PM: Baconbitz Oh…and one more thing Iphone on verizon. Lol.
• 3:42 PM: Stephen Northcott @Jim In theory if we had access to the hardware there is no reason why we couldn’t have something like OpenCL on the iPhone. In fact I believe that is the plan in the future. But as far as for now and the current hardware it simply won’t happen. Would be fun though I agree.
• 3:42 PM: Jim As you might Guess i am Hoping the same Chip is in the Apple 4G
• 3:42 PM: Touch_Reviews Steve: “Okay, thanks for coming. Thanks!” Visit touchreviews.net for round up and in depth analysics .

It’s with this in mind that an article from iPhoneWorld becomes very interesting. A video has been found on YouTube using the same visual style and musical synchronization we have come to know from Apple’s iPhone commercials. It displays a completely redesigned iPhone with a larger screen and rectangular speaker and home button. As the phone flips around through the course of the commercial we see the rear of the device has two openings where one would assume is a camera and flash. Probably one of the most interesting aspects of the commercial though starts at the 19 second where it purports to show a video call. If you pause the commercial and look closely you see a small opening embedded in the far right hand side of the reshaped speaker. Front facing camera perhaps? If they’re demonstrating video calling it would be a must. It all ends by informing us the new device will be called the iPhone HD and that it’s “The most social iPhone yet”. Watch the full video below. More after the break.

Pretty compelling isn’t it? Even if this is the greatest KIRF in the history of iPhone KIRF’s, this is the iPhone Apple needs to make. A larger, presumably HD, screen with combined with a forward facing camera would bury the Nexus One and reestablish the iPhone as the preeminent smartphone. Mix in improved hardware under the hood and software features like the much desired multitasking and iPhone popularity would rocket into the stratosphere.

Is this the iPhone you’ve been waiting for? Would it make you drop your Nexus One, Droid, or even 3GS to climb on the Apple bandwagon? Is this the most glorious KIRF in history? Drop us a comment and let us know.

Developers can create multi-threaded apps either using POSIX threads or Apple’s own NSThread, which is built on-top of that system. But due to the sand-boxed nature of iPhone apps delivered via the App Store, and produced using the official iPhone SDK, there is no way to have an app, or part of one, running in the background when other apps are launched. At the moment developers have to make apps save and relaunch with their current state to even appear as if they have simply been paused / “backgrounded”.

Apple’s own key processes, such as iTunes, or the phone software itself are all able to run in the background on the iPhone all of the time. And have been able to do so from day one. Key partner’s apps also have that functionality if Apple allows it. One such example is Nike+.

When you consider that iPhone OS is running on a UNIX base, multi-tasking is something it will handle very well in most cases, and already does for select apps which are written well. In the jailbreak scene this has been going on for a long time already also. Causing some to question why they have to be so limited on devices which are still tied to Apple’s own App Store.

At the end of the day the “issue” has always been described by Apple as one of security and battery life. And these are reasonable concerns for them to have. There are various ways for them to protect against these issues though, and I suspect it’s simply been getting it right that’s held this up so long. A little like the long wait we had for “Cut & Paste” on the iPhone.

One way Apple have proven adept at keeping undesirable apps from appearing on the iPhone in their walled app garden is with their approval process. I expect that multi-tasking apps will be scrutinised in some detail when submitted for publishing if / when this becomes a reality for developers on iPhone OS.

AppleInsider cites “reliable sources” who have a “good track record” as letting them have some vague details of how this might come about. But they are being a little coy…

Either way, it’s something that Apple has to do sooner or later to keep up with other mobile phone platforms such as Android, Palm, and probably the Windows Phone 7 Series. As well as keep power users happy. I think with the advent of the iPad this is quite likely to appear in a unified iPhone OS 4.0, as AppleInsider suggests, at some point this year.

Are you looking forward to multi-tasking on your iPhone?

It may have seemed like a typically hyperbolic Steve Jobs when he labelled Adobe “lazy” during an internal Apple town hall meeting. Yet, as people start to question whether Flash’s time has passed, more evidence mounts that Mr. Jobs may not have been suffering from a fit of pique after all. Case in point: a nasty little bug in Flash that crashes any browser without fail every time.

The bug was discovered by Matthew Dempsky in September 2008. Yes, that’s right, September 2008. And it remains unfixed to this very day. If you go to Matthew’s web site at http://flashcrash.dempsky.org/ there are links to all of the technical details of the bug. Be forewarned though, the site also contains a demonstration of the bug. Unless you’re running a browser that isolates crashed plug-ins like Chrome the site will probably crash your browser window if Flash is running in the background.

How ridiculous is it that Adobe allows a 16 month old bug that crashes any browser window without fail to continue to exist? That doesn’t sound like a leading edge development house that’s responsive to its installed user base. It’s situations like this that reinforce Steve Job’s one man crusade against Flash. It points a glaring spotlight at the shortcomings of the technology, and the company that backs it, and shines another on the technologies waiting to replace it.

As we’ve mentioned on several occasions, the primary technology posed to replace it is HTML 5. Not only will HTML 5 support browser rendered video, something now primarily accomplished with Flash, it will also replace Flash as a means to produce dynamic content. The HTML 5 Canvas Experiment uses pure HTML 5 and Javascript to produce an animated, dynamic web page that’s rendered entirely by the browser, no plug-in required. The project takes 100 Tweets about HTML 5 and displays them using a Javascript-based particle engine. Click on a displayed particle and you get a Tweet. The really fascinating thing about it though is how much it looks like a Flash web site. It’s web sites and technology demonstrators like this that show how quickly time is running out for Flash. Why deal with Flash when you don’t have to any more?

Flash’s days are numbered and it’s only a matter of time before developers start to leave it behind. Internet Explorer is the only mainstream browser that doesn’t fully support HTML 5. That’s bound to change sooner or later. When the web iterates again, it will be browser plug-ins like Flash that get left behind.

Is Flash on the way out? Is all the noise about Flash’s failings and shortcomings just coming from a media in love with Apple? Leave us a comment and weigh in with your opinion.

By: Erin Peterson

Yesterday we published an article where we highlighted the growing adoption of HTML5 and how Flash might just be a forgotten technology soon. According to Wired after the iPad announcement Steve Jobs made himself available to employees who could ask him any question.

When Jobs was questioned about his views on Adobe he said:

About Adobe: They are lazy, Jobs says. They have all this potential to do interesting things but they just refuse to do it. They don’t do anything with the approaches that Apple is taking, like Carbon. Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy, he says. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash, he says. The world is moving to HTML5.

The above statement clearly suggests that we may never see Flash on iPad, iPhone or iPod touch.  The growing adoption of HTML5 standards and the dominance of Apple in mobile products might just push popular web services to start publishing content tailored for iPhone therefore completely eliminating the need for Flash.

Winterboard app via Cydia

“Simple iPad Theme” via Cydia

MakeItMine app via Cydia to Change the Carrier logo to iPad. More details here.

Shrink app via Cydia to reduce the size of all the icons on the springboard.

ProSwitcher via Cydia for Multitasking. More details here.

NYTimes – The New York Times app for iPhone via App Store

Classics – The iBooks lookalike app for iPhone via App Store

Kindle for iPhone via App Store

Video Instructions