The iPhone Collective

[MM32830]

Isn't it obvious?

Faster, smaller, more features!

I do have to give Apple credit with their ability to keep information under wraps so well.

Looks like we'll have to wait 'til tomorrow.




___________________
Armand

 

[Sphyrna]

Is Daft Punk doing the intro music?? Oh sorry, that's harder, better, faster, stronger!

Definitely have to give Apple credit for how little leaks out. Not only do we not have any firm rumors about what will be announced tomorrow regarding iPhone OS 4.0, but also new iPhones supposed to come out in June. It truly is amazing how little information gets leaked.

 

[Golf4food]

Coming soon to an iPhone near you: full multitasking, folders, gaming center, ibooks, and more. Check any news site - they should all have the full list from the press conference today.

 

[Cyrano]

Coming soon to an iPhone near you: full multitasking, folders, gaming center, ibooks, and more. Check any news site - they should all have the full list from the press conference today.

I have been following the keynote presentation about iPhone 4.0 here

Some very interesting news

 

[Sphyrna]

Multitasking and folders I'm excited about. I also like being able to set a wallpwper on the home screen. Everything else is just eh to me. I still wish they would allow us to put widgets on the unlock screen for quick access to information. Maybe for OS 4.1.

Of course, the biggest news is that some features (like multitasking) won't work on the iPhone 3G or older. So I definitely will be getting a new iPhone. I'd just wish we'd know more about when it's coming to Verizon.

 

[Justin Jett]

Ads will be possible. Apple is predicting Ads every 3 minutes

 

[Golf4food]

It will be great not having to turn off Pandora or Sirius to text to check email, etc.

 

[luke]

How distinctly underwhelming!
Nothing there that I can't already do!!
Folders only for the 3gs? Why? Certainly possible on the 3g and even the first gen iPhone!
As much as I love the iPhone, and I do love it, Apple don't half show a bit of contempt for their customers with their 'drip feeding' of features!

Really hope when the new hardware is revealed that it's something to shout about!!

 

[luke]

Sorry I meant multitasking not folders when I said 3gs only.

How odd then that I'm listening to WunderRadio now while I type this on my iPhone!!

 

[doconeill]

I didn't watch the presentation (I don't have an iPhone), but I wonder if by "multitasking" they mean some of the other issues with running multiple applications - like if an alert pops up from one application, it blocks alerts from others...we had a guy at work who used his iPhone as an alarm clock - and he was always late because the alarm alert wouldn't come up because he got an IM before then...

I did hear one quip that I thought was funny...

"So, it's like Android now?"

 

[Sphyrna]

I'm not sure about the alerts. But the mutlitasking isn't true multitasking since the apps themselves aren't still running, just services they use. I can see this being good for performance and battery but wonder if it will limit some functions?

As for the new hardware, latest rumors I've read are a front-facing camera, 5 MP rear-facing camera with flash, and the same A4 processor used in the iPad.

I'll be really curious to see how the ads work out. They're bad enough on free apps now. Can only imagine how bad things can get, especially if they start putting them in paid apps.

 

[donmil723]

Did they say anything about getting Flash on the iphone?

 

[sarahsar]

Did they say anything about getting Flash on the iphone?

They did. They said absolutely not.

Apple is pretty serious about the Flash thing. They actually modified the developer agreement today to prohibit using Flash CS5 to create iPhone apps (CS5 is an Adobe product for making cross-platform apps, including Flash apps, that will run on the iPhone). That suggests to me no sign of Apple including Flash. I doubt they ever will.

 

[sarahsar]

I'm not sure about the alerts. But the mutlitasking isn't true multitasking since the apps themselves aren't still running, just services they use. I can see this being good for performance and battery but wonder if it will limit some functions?

Just wondering what multitasking feature you feel they are missing? I was actually pretty impressed with what they came up with. It seems like they hit all of the main multitasking issues people wanted - streaming Pandora and other radio apps, GPS being able to keep track of you/give directions without the app in the foreground (they showed TomTom and Pandora running at the same time - pretty cool), letting downloads/uploads continue with apps that aren't the foreground app, and so on.

The fast app switching, where basically an app keeps its saved state and lets you easily go back and forth between apps, may not have the secondary apps actually "running," but isn't that what we mean by multitasking most of the time anyway? If you have multiple programs open on your computer at once, for most types of things you can't really actively do things in more than one window at once. You "fast app switch" your attention back and forth. I may think of myself as "multitasking" when I have several things going on at once on my desktop - following Twitter, playing an online game, checking my email, reading an online forum - but the truth is I'm not _really_ doing all those things at once. I'm just going back and forth between them quickly. iPhone 4.0 offers a very elegant way of doing that, especially given the small screen real estate, with a lot less clicking in and out of apps. Hopefully this will preserve processor/battery. In the presentation, they said the background apps are consuming no CPU power. On your desktop, that may not matter, but on a phone, it's crucial.

I also liked how they said in the Q&A that you won't have to _close_ apps. They said if you have to use a task manager to close apps, you have failed with multitasking. I agree with that 100%. Before my iPhone I had a Windows Mobile phone and a Pocket PC before that. Sure, they multitasked and kept a bunch of apps open at once, but more often than not it slowed the whole thing down to a painful crawl. I spent more time closing apps to free up the CPU than I ever spend opening iPhone apps now. It's also one of the criticisms of the Palm Pre and some Android devices that can get hung up when there's too much going on, requiring the user to shut things down. It remains to be seen how smoothly multitasking will actually work on the iPhone, but I think they've got the right idea.

I'll be really curious to see how the ads work out. They're bad enough on free apps now. Can only imagine how bad things can get, especially if they start putting them in paid apps.

There have actually been ads in some paid apps already. I think it was the CNN app that caused a big outcry when it first came out with ads before the videos. My feeling is that if something is an ad-supported free app, the new iAd thing is no worse than what we have now (the banner takes up the same amount of space as most banner ads until you click it). It may even be better, since the potential is there for the ads to be of much better quality. The Toy Story one they demoed was nice - I know my daughter would actually like playing with that ad, which included pictures and games. Honestly, the Disney iPhone app is really mostly an ad anyway.

I will be aggravated to have paid apps start including a bunch of ads, but I think that's up to users to protest if it happens. If someone releases a $10 app full of ads, people shouldn't buy it or they should leave reviews with how they feel about it. There may be some middle ground, too - personally, if there is an app that would normally be a $10 app that is sold for, say, $2 with ads, I'd be open to that. Developers are going to respond to what sells.

 

[astrodrummergirl]

Hi guys, sadly haven't posted on this thread in a while, but probably will be again, since I'm getting a new 3GS today!!!! Certanly will be an upgrade from my original iPhone!

 

[luke]

Do you not want to wait for the next hardware to be released? Then you could either get the new one or a more discounted 3gs

still underwhelmed by 4.0! Full of things that have been 'possible' for ages, and wow does iAds seem like a pain!

 

[Sphyrna]

I agree with Luke. At this point I'd wait until the new iPhone is released this summer and get the new hardware (unless you can't wait).

 

[sarahsar]

Do you not want to wait for the next hardware to be released? Then you could either get the new one or a more discounted 3gs

still underwhelmed by 4.0! Full of things that have been 'possible' for ages, and wow does iAds seem like a pain!

I'm no fan of ads, but I don't think iAds looks any worse than the ads a lot of apps have anyway. The ads look like they will be of better quality at least (as least as demonstrated by Apple - we'll see if they actually will be). But it's basically a small banner ad until you click on it, which is what many, many apps have already. As long as developers don't start going nuts putting them in paid apps, I'm pretty neutral about it. Much as it's great to have lots of high-quality free apps with as little advertising as possible, it's unrealistic to expect people are going to write those apps for free.

 

[astrodrummergirl]

Do you not want to wait for the next hardware to be released? Then you could either get the new one or a more discounted 3gs

still underwhelmed by 4.0! Full of things that have been 'possible' for ages, and wow does iAds seem like a pain!

Since I didn't know how long I'd be waiting until the next one, the price for the 3GS seemed reasonable, and I wanted to buy it whilst I actually had money to buy one. That and I wanted to switch contract ASAP. I LOVE my 3GS!

 

[jcb]

Rumors about the next iPhone: http://gizmodo.com/5520164/this-is-apples-next-iphone