Multitasking and More
Tech giant Apple has sold more than 450,000 iPads, 50 Million iPhones to date, and Steve Jobs' company aims to go higher with the announcement of the iPhone OS 4.0. The operating system goes into operation sometime in May but a developer preview has already been leaked.
But here's the biggie - the iPhone OS 4.0 will support multitasking, which means iPhone users now get to pause games, switch between apps, and one can double tap the home button to view running applications. However the older iPhone 3G, the iPod touch 2nd gen and even the iPad will not get multitasking.
Other features that would be supported include background audio, background VoIP which lets you switch apps during skype calls, and also receive skype calls on a locked phone, Push and Local notifications that alarms. Also in the mix are Fast app switching, Folders, Homescreen wallpapers, Enhanced mail which now has a 'Unified inbox' that combines Web mail, MobileMe and multiple exchange accounts, Thread organization. The iBooks feature syncs bookmarks and such between devices, SSL VPN support, Social gaming features etc.
One interesting feature is the iAd, Apple will sell and host the ads, 60% of the revenue generated will be pocketed by the devs. The ads will be developed in HTML5 and will be fully interactive. Steve Jobs describes as "Developers [of free apps] need to find a way to start making their money. A lot of developers turn to advertising – and we think these current advertisements really suck. If you look at advertisements on a phone, it's not like on a desktop. On a desktop, its about search. On mobile, search hasnt happened. People aren't searching on their phones. People are spending their time in apps. The average user spends over 30 minutes using apps on their phone. If we said we wanted to put an ad up every 3 minutes, that'd be 10 ads per device per day — about the same as a TV show. We're going to soon have 100m devices. That's a billion ad opportunities per day! "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 advertising. We're all familiar with interactive ads on the web. They're interactive, but they're not capable of delivering emotion. We have figured out how to do interactive and video content without ever taking you out of the app."
But here's the biggie - the iPhone OS 4.0 will support multitasking, which means iPhone users now get to pause games, switch between apps, and one can double tap the home button to view running applications. However the older iPhone 3G, the iPod touch 2nd gen and even the iPad will not get multitasking.
Other features that would be supported include background audio, background VoIP which lets you switch apps during skype calls, and also receive skype calls on a locked phone, Push and Local notifications that alarms. Also in the mix are Fast app switching, Folders, Homescreen wallpapers, Enhanced mail which now has a 'Unified inbox' that combines Web mail, MobileMe and multiple exchange accounts, Thread organization. The iBooks feature syncs bookmarks and such between devices, SSL VPN support, Social gaming features etc.
One interesting feature is the iAd, Apple will sell and host the ads, 60% of the revenue generated will be pocketed by the devs. The ads will be developed in HTML5 and will be fully interactive. Steve Jobs describes as "Developers [of free apps] need to find a way to start making their money. A lot of developers turn to advertising – and we think these current advertisements really suck. If you look at advertisements on a phone, it's not like on a desktop. On a desktop, its about search. On mobile, search hasnt happened. People aren't searching on their phones. People are spending their time in apps. The average user spends over 30 minutes using apps on their phone. If we said we wanted to put an ad up every 3 minutes, that'd be 10 ads per device per day — about the same as a TV show. We're going to soon have 100m devices. That's a billion ad opportunities per day! "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 advertising. We're all familiar with interactive ads on the web. They're interactive, but they're not capable of delivering emotion. We have figured out how to do interactive and video content without ever taking you out of the app."
