Slashdot Mirror
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.'"
It's just going to keep getting worse with the rate Android is leaving the crappy old iPhone OS behind and the absolute flood of new Android based devices that make the iPhone hardware look like old 1970s pocket calculators in comparison.
Actually, the rate at which new devices are coming out is holding developers back at truly using Android to it's potential. Android is awesome as a platform, but in the end applications make or break the experience of your device. I tried to find 10 decent games for Android tonight and it was an absolute pain to get things that weren't complete pieces of crap. The quality of the apps in Apple's App Store is really *a lot* better, there's more to choose from and they're generally cheaper too. Android's got some serious work in this field until they can really compete.
Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
Sorry, but it is NOT true multitasking. Applications will have to be re-written to act like a service, then they will be "suspended" and enable quick application switching: http://www.precentral.net/apple-plays-its-multitasking-card-its-no-ace
"What Apple is doing instead of 'true' multitasking is offering seven different OS-level services that apps can take advantage of in lieu of actually running in the background: audio, VOIP, location, push notifications, local notifications, task finishing, and fast app switching. To switch to a recently opened app, you double-tap the home button and a dock of your recent apps pops up"
If you want to see real phone multitasking in action, and with a wonderful UI to go along with it/manage it, look at how Palm WebOS does it.
Its a unified ad service to give Apple 40% of the pie.
Expect apps using home rolled ad solutions to be bounced
It's a unified ad service to keep the information gathered by an ad service out of Google's hands.
I have, and it doesn't impress me. It is far from true multitasking. If you want to see "slick", you need to look at how Palm WebOS does it, and has been doing it for the last 9 months the Pre has been out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waS1jKCrm5I&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mMIHQhSyw4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-bGE7FCmDQ
That excludes a lot of iPhone frameworks out there (Unity, Corona, you name it). I'm sure that can't be what Apple means by that statement.
Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
Why did you buy it then, and not an Android based phone? It clearly didn't do what you wanted it to do and you knew that before you bought it.
I can't use a Corvette to move a sofa without extensive modification or strapping it to the roof in an unwieldy manner, but I don't whine about it.
While i agree with most of what you said, there's one thing that i think you should know about the multitasking bit.
The way that apple described it's multitasking capabilities in iPhone OS 4.0, seem to be identical in how android handles multitasking - eg your app can have a background worker, that does stuff in the background (media player, IMs, background task for periodically checking stuff), and then the user-visible multitasking of switching apps, where the app that was used gets its state saved, then the process gets killed. If that app is then resumed the code handles the reading of the state.
This behaviour has been there since Android 1.0 (@override onPause() and @override onResume())
The article is unclear if e-mail has been expanded to support multiple user logins. This to me is the deal-breaker with an iPad -- I'd have one sitting on the coffee table today if it had support for multiple user logins to keep e-mail sorted and private. But I'm not going to get an iPad for each member of the household just to keep e-mail private. So is that fixed or not? When they fix it, instant sale. Until then, nope.
Apple has a very good thing going with developers and OS X
And an even better thing going with the iPad and the iPhone.
If Apple decides that it's more profitable to have a locked down desktop that can only install apps from the app store then they'll do it. It wouldn't surprise me if they locked down iMac and left the Mac Pro for people who want to use professional applications.
Having said that, why wouldn't Apple put Final Cut on the app store if that's how they wanted their desktops to be run? If Apple decided to lock down, who's to say Adobe wouldn't just go with the flow and distribute Photoshop that way too?
Nick
I wonder if you're aware that you're making excuses. The real objection is not about whether you like to see ads or don't like to see ads. No. The objection is that the moment you see a single ad you did not wish to see, you have lost control over the device. That's completely unacceptable when you are already paying. That's why personal preferences towards advertising are completely irrelevant.
For something like broadcast TV or broadcast radio, that's acceptable, since it costs money to produce those things and you are viewing ads instead of paying a bill. You are obtaining something of value to offset the cost of watching ads. That makes it a fair exchange. However, when you are paying for a phone, phone service, and the application, and still see ads, this is no longer justifiable. It's a form of double-dipping. Thus, it's an adversarial way of relating to your customers because it amounts to taking advantage of them.
It has nothing to do with whether anyone likes ads. It has to do with the fact that a company is making money from ad revenue without earning that money by providing something of value in return. If you're already paying for it on your own, they are failing to do this but are still collecting ad revenues. It's foolish to reward this behavior because it's parasitic in nature. Do you ever wonder why there are so many companies that take advantage, exploit, and find ways to screw people over? It's because we reward them with our business.
The only time this would be acceptable would be for free apps that would otherwise cost money. Please read this quote from the summary and tell me whether you believe Apple is going to restrict these ad functions to free apps only (emphasis mine):
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
My Android phone (Milestone) does this,
no...
wait...
It doesn't.
Many devices can implement proper multi-tasking without sacrificing speed. I easily have 3 to 5 applications running at the same time on Android without any problems, the only slow downs I have ever seen on Android were when I used a custom ROM on my HTC Dream, replacing that with HTC's Android 1.6 image fixed it.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
You're still working in their Multitasking API sandbox. Without having seen the list of APIs myself, I can imagine that there would be cases which don't fall into any of the functions provided, and you really just want a GenericMultitaskHook or somesuch.
For example, one of the most brilliant jailbreak tools is SBSettings, which lets you flick WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, or Edge/3G off without having to dig down into the Settings app. Turning on bluetooth with SBSettings (for when you want to play multiplayer Flight Control, for instance) is a swipe of the status bar and a tap on a button, then another to close. With the Settings "app", it's Quit to Home > Go to Settings > General > Bluetooth > Flick switch > Quit to Home > Reopen app.
Will Apple allow the built in Settings app to run in the background? will they expose APIs to manipulate these settings?
Man who leaps off cliff jumps to conclusion.