iPhone OS 4.0 Overview

Apple just announced the next iteration of the iPhone OS.  iPhone OS 4.0 will be available to the public this summer.  I was able to grab a copy of the developer preview of iPhone OS 4.0 because I purchased a developer license to create BestTechie iPhone and iPad apps (which I will be submitting shortly).  Nonetheless, in the video above I show off some of the biggest new features of iPhone OS 4.0 including (but not limited to), the ability to set wallpaper for the lock and home screen, new Mail features such as unified inboxes, a new springboard dock, folders to organize apps, and multitasking.

The ability to set wallpaper on both the lock and home screen is pretty cool.  Granted its been a feature available if you jailbroke your iPhone or iPod touch for a while, it’s nice to see it was finally implemented by Apple.  The new springboard dock also now resembles the dock in OS X much more.  The unified inbox feature is also very nice, especially for those of us who have multiple email accounts on our iPhone’s.  Another new feature of Mail is the ability to select a particular application to open a specific file type.  Now let’s get into the fun stuff.

I had four pages of applications on my iPhone prior to installing iPhone OS 4.0.  I now have a single page of apps thanks to Folders.  Folders is a new feature which will allow you to group applications together into well, folders.  Folders will automatically generate names for themselves based on a smart naming system, however, the auto-generated names can be edited if you so choose.  The smart generated folder names are usually pretty good though (based on my experience).  Folders can be placed in the springboard too.

Multitasking is also another feature that people have been begging for now for ages.  Apple now allows applications to sit in the background.  You can easily switch between apps with something called Fast App Switching by double clicking the home button.  That will bring up recently used and open apps.  The new multitasking and background apps will allow users to do much more with the iPhone at any point in time.  For example, you will be able to receive Skype calls while surfing the web or listen to Pandora while using Tweetie.

I should also mention one of the new features that I forgot to show in the video which is the new digital zoom feature implemented in the camera.

The new version of the iPhone is definitely a welcomed upgrade, it provides a lot of the things users have longed for, but at the same time, doesn’t offer anything too innovative.