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iPhone OS 4.0 Brings Multitasking, Ad Framework For Apps
Low Ranked Craig writes "Apple had an event today to show off the next major update to the iPhone OS. iPhone OS 4.0 should arrive this summer (presumably with a new iPhone) for iPhone and iPod Touch, and in the fall for the iPad. According to Apple the update has more than 1,500 new APIs and 100 new features including the sorely missed multitasking. Other highlights include unified inbox, improved security, support for multiple Exchange accounts, application folders, iBooks, and iAd, an advertising framework for developers to put ads in their applications. The official word from Steve on Flash and Java remains a simple 'No.'" Updated 20100408 22:09 GMT by timothy: Read on for more information, including some bad news if you want to program for the iPhone in C# or Flash CS5.
alphadogg points out some what he calls surprise capabilities targeted at enterprise users and IT departments, including e-mail encryption and "mobile device management."
And CWmike adds more infomation at MacWorld about iAd, which he considers the biggest news in today’s announcement, writing that one way to look at the new advertising hooks "is that Apple can now leverage the App Store/iTunes ‘ecosystem’ lock-in in effect, and deliver to advertisers a huge captive audience."
Finally, binarylarry writes with a look from Daring Fireball at the new user agreement that goes along with 4.0: "Looks like Adobe's release of CS5 with the Flash-to-native compiler has been nixed by Apple's new user agreement: '3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs.'"
And CWmike adds more infomation at MacWorld about iAd, which he considers the biggest news in today’s announcement, writing that one way to look at the new advertising hooks "is that Apple can now leverage the App Store/iTunes ‘ecosystem’ lock-in in effect, and deliver to advertisers a huge captive audience."
Finally, binarylarry writes with a look from Daring Fireball at the new user agreement that goes along with 4.0: "Looks like Adobe's release of CS5 with the Flash-to-native compiler has been nixed by Apple's new user agreement: '3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs.'"
Read the article:
Apple looked at thousands of apps to determine what services apps would most need to keep running while in the background. "In iPhone OS 4, we're providing those services as APIs to developers,"
In other words, the iPhone still isn't capable of doing true multitasking, something that other smartphones - well, never lacked.
Instead you're still stuck with only being able to do the things that Apple has decided to allow their sheep the ability to do on Apple's phone - not what the lowly sheep that bought it wishes they could do.
(or the presumed new iPhone to accompany OS 4.0)
...then yeah, no multitasking for you. Sorry about that.
"I'd just like to emphasise that taking a million years isn't a metaphor here..." -Rich Bradshaw
It's for apps that already have ads, such as the NPR app. ("NPR is brought to you commercial free by the partner whose banner ad is covering half the screen.")
Basically it's a unified ad service for smaller developers who don't have the resources to roll their own. You won't suddenly see ads on your iPhone unless you download ad-supported apps.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
The 3G and second gen ipod touch can get the update, but no multitasking support.
The 3GS and third gen ipod touch get multitasking (probably in large part because they have 256MB of RAM instead of 128).
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
Go ahead and jailbreak an iPhone 3g and try to run more than 2 apps at the same time. It slows to a CRAWL.
In revised iPhone SDK License agreement:
3.3.1 -- Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).
"It takes many nails to build a crib, but one screw to fill it."
The older iphones and ipod touches don't get multitasking likely because they only have 128 MB of RAM.
I was disappointed to find out the ipad only has 256 (same as the 3GS). RAM is cheap, and there's no lack of space inside the ipad for an extra chip. With the way Safari currently works, it starts dumping web page caches as memory fills up. That means going to another "tab" (through an expose-like interface) can often mean re-loading the page from scratch, in practice. Word is the iphone 3GS does this a lot less, so it's definitely something they need to address for the ipad. Because the expose is two taps instead of the one required for tabs, and because of this reloading, I find myself using substantially fewer open browser windows on the ipad than on a desktop.
I'm starting to think they need to use part of the flash memory to cache things, especially with multitasking (that's what the "fast app switching" I presume does - save the full state of app memory on flash). The biggest downside to this is it wears down the flash.
I was a little disappointed to find out that the ipad release will be "fall". So far, though, the only time I've really wanted multitasking (or some pseudo-multitasking) is to play audio from Pandora or Magnatune while doing other tasks (and you can use the Magnatune website to stream since Safari's media player multitasks). Most of the other features are really for iphone users (ibook app, improved mail - though unified inbox will be nice).
By the way, anyone looking for an extremely thorough review of the ipad should look here. I have no relation to the author, but I found he covered things extremely well.
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
"Looks like Adobe's release of CS5 with the Flash-to-native compiler has been nixed by Apple's new user agreement: '3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs.'"
That's the old agreement. The new agreement adds:
"Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited)."
That's the bit that nixes Flash.
Not particularly. In fact, they've always had multitasking, just not for 3rd party apps. What made them great was having a consistently fast, responsive user interface and reliable essential functions that did not bog down because of apps hogging the processor. But everybody figured that Apple would eventually work out a way to offer background processing to 3rd party developers while maintaining those strengths.
This already exists in the App Store, but the feature has to be coded specifically per-app. This adds an API to make it easier to implement. It will not be universal, but will likely be used for "lite" apps that exist on the store (as they do now, for free) that have a more fully featured paid version. This makes it easier to add an ad-supported stream to your free app, and not have to source the ad providers yourself.
OS X will continue as it always has.
"Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript"
Looks like the flash cross compiler just had a stake driven in it's heart.
Got Code?
The number of CPU cores has absolute nothing to do with singletasking vs. multitasking. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_multitasking
I don't know if you've ever used any free Apps but most of them are ad-supported. Normally they use some sort of construct to show you an ad. Apple is making a framework for ads so developers no longer have to kluge them in.
Also they are developing a ecosystem so that ad-content revenue is handled differently. Normally a developer would have to negotiate with the ad generator. Instead Apple can handle all that for you. App developers can still use the old system if they wish but it probably will not be as advanced.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
I'm not saying that there isn't a lot of crap in the App Store too. But there's quality there that's absolutely unmatched on Android. Games like DrawRace, Flight Control, I Dig It, Racer, GeoDefense, not to mention classics like Lemonade Tycoon or SimCity... all truly fun and great games. That sort of stuff just isn't there for Android.
Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
Expect apps using home rolled ad solutions to be bounced
Except that Steve Jobs specifically said during the Q&A developers were free to use other ad services. But don't let facts get in the way of a good troll.
Okay, since Slashdotters are clearly going to be completely reactionary and assume this means ads are going to be popping-over all your apps (did you even watch the media event to see it in action?), let's get this out of the way:
1.) This is for apps that are already ad-supported, like all those free and .99 versions that complement the more expensive, ad-free versions.
2.) The point is so that every app developer doesn't have to roll their own ad systems like they do now.
2.) The ads are just little HTML5 banners.
That's all it is, Slashdot.
If you don't want to see the ads, don't buy ad-supported apps. There is almost always a more expensive ad-free version. iAd is just so every developer doesn't have to implement their own ad system every time.
God, the uninformed, reactionary Apple-haters are out in full force today.