Apple talks about iPhone OS 4

Apple’s big event today held LOTS of great information and some cool surprises! The biggest thing we learned about today was iPhone OS 4. It will be available this Summer for iPhone and iPod Touch. iPad users will have to wait until the Fall. The developer preview will come out today, though. The biggest new feature in iPhone OS 4 is…multitasking! It’s finally here! To switch an app, the user needs to double-tap the home button and a dock of all the running apps will pop-up. Thanks Apple! Now for some bad news; only the iPhone 3GS and the 4th gen iPod Touch (most likely coming out this fall) will get multitasking. Sorry guys. Most of the other features of iPhone OS 4 will work on older models though. Here is a complete list of all the new features:

• Multitasking
• Spell check
• Bluetooth keyboard support
• User-defined wallpaper
• Tap to focus while recording video
• The ability to create playlists
• Folders for organizing apps called App Folders
• Enhanced email functions
• A smaller version of iBook
• Enterprise features
• A new social gaming network called Game Center. It’s kind of like Xbox Live

There are also a ton of new developer tools! Here’s a list of them for all of you app developers:

• New SDK
• 1,500 new APIs
• Background audio
• Background VoIP
• Background location data
• Local notifications
• Fast app switching
• Apple’s new iAd mobile advertising platform
• In-app SMS
• Map overlays
• Document Previewing
• Photo Library access
• Calendar access
• Full camera access
• Video capture and playback
• Date and address data detectors
• Automated power and performance testing

You can watch video of the event on Apple’s website here: http://bit.ly/bv4mi1