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iOS 4 Releases Today
tekgoblin writes "Today Apple releases the much anticipated iOS 4 for iPhones and iPod Touches. No word on when we will see this update on the iPad." Can't wait to see all the neat new stuff that won't run on my stale phone.
I personally can't wait to see what measures this new software takes to control its users and limit their access to other programs.
Palm trees and 8
I wonder if AT&T's network will melt :/
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Make sure you are ready today to get the update as soon as possible.
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I can't wait to see all the new stuff that I had on my Android phone a year and a half ago.
It's not for all the iPhone and iPod touch models. The first generation is being left behind.
So that means a lot of users stuck with devices running iOS3. Please don't forget that when making apps, unless you don't like profits of course.
FYI: the 1st generation iPod touch is the slowest, least powerful of all the iDevices. If it runs properly on that, it will run on all others.
Let's get a grip on reality here, people. First and foremost? This device is a CELLPHONE. Many, MANY cellphones have been made before the iPhone was released, and many more have been made since then which NEVER get a firmware update at all! You simply "get what you get" with them, often meaning even functionality the original manufacturer intended the phone to have is stripped out by your cellular carrier and their custom version of the firmware. (EG. Despite it supporting bluetooth data transfer, you *may* get blocked from copying over your own ringtone files from a computer -- or maybe you're disallowed from moving over your contact info as vcard files, or ??)
Yet along comes the iPhone, which by contrast, has an INCREDIBLE amount of flexibility, and people are screaming FASCIST?!
As phone handsets go, it's pretty empowering, I'd say. (And I say this as someone who used to own the original iPhone as well as a 3G, but now uses a Samsung Messager II phone instead of "drinking the kool-aid" and extending my AT&T contract out another 2 years just to get the latest iPhone.)
The iPad's specs are better then any currently available iPhone or iPod touch, so I'm not sure what you're saying. Should Apple have released a less capable iPhone 4? If you're asking why they aren't releasing iOS 4 for the iPad today, yeah that's a decent question. I have to presume they'd have liked to have had iOS 4 out for the iPad today too, but for reasons unknown they aren't going to be able to do that today.
--- What?
Ignoring the fact that we're entering an era of mobile computers, iOS 4 runs on the iPad too. Is that a phone too by your twisted logic?
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Let's get a grip on reality here, people. First and foremost? This device is a CELLPHONE. Many, MANY cellphones have been made before the iPhone was released, and many more have been made since then which NEVER get a firmware update at all! You simply "get what you get" with them, often meaning even functionality the original manufacturer intended the phone to have is stripped out by your cellular carrier and their custom version of the firmware. (EG. Despite it supporting bluetooth data transfer, you *may* get blocked from copying over your own ringtone files from a computer -- or maybe you're disallowed from moving over your contact info as vcard files, or ??)
Yet along comes the iPhone, which by contrast, has an INCREDIBLE amount of flexibility, and people are screaming FASCIST?!
As phone handsets go, it's pretty empowering, I'd say. (And I say this as someone who used to own the original iPhone as well as a 3G, but now uses a Samsung Messager II phone instead of "drinking the kool-aid" and extending my AT&T contract out another 2 years just to get the latest iPhone.)
If by "flexibility" you mean "you may buy the apps we approve, or the apps we approve, and only from our store so we get a cut" then yeah Apple's phones are just spiffy. So why was Google Voice blocked for such a long time again -- was that because of popular demand by the users? Why is it so hard to get a good solid backed-by-facts explanation for why a particular app is rejected from the App Store again (i.e., quote the exact section of the ToS or similar that it violates)? Nothing fascist to see here, please move along.
Look, here's the deal: if Apple wants to control the platform and the approve all the apps, and use nebulous/arbitrary criteria to reject apps for any length of time even against the express wishes of its users, then they open themselves up to being accused of being fascist control freaks worse than Microsoft. THEY open THEMSELVES up to that accusation, for it otherwise would hold no water. Got it?
The way you fanboys defend and stick up for companies who already have multimillion dollar marketing departments is just sick. Most major corporations engage in business practices that are in some way detrimental to the rest of us. Even your beloved object of fanboy worship does this and is not above doing this. Get over it and quit trying to shoot the messenger who points it out when your beef is with your beloved company.
Required to be tested against iOS 4 isn't the same as requiring iOS 4. You can still build against the 3.0 SDK if you want to support older devices, you just need to make sure it doesn't break when running on iOS 4 too. You can still build against 2.X if you really want to, but it needs to not crash on 4.0.
This
Where I work, IE6 represents about the same 6% that the 1G iPhone does for you. But we're still expected to devote considerable effort supporting that decrepit old fossil. Every once and a while somebody decides, for this project or that, that we can leave IE6 behind. But no one's stood up and made the decision that the company as a whole will do so.
Ironic... in an industry where we talk so much about Moore's law and how your latest shiny new toy is already obsolete when you walk out the store and such; that we still haven't dropped something so godawfully old and busted as IE6.
Imagine all the people...
So the iPad won't be running iOS 4 right away.... Apple is really running the risk of having a very segmented market a la Android, but they are doing it without any of Androids advantages. For instance even though it was only released two months ago the iPad only has half the amount of RAM that the iPhone 4 has and a lot fewer sensors. This means that there will be a large group of applications that will run on the iPhone 4 but will not run on the iPad which will wind up frustrating users to no end. While I realize that technology advances with time, there was no rational reason for Apple to upgrade hardware, but when you release devices within 2 months of each other that vary so wildly, you are doing something wrong.
And while this problem is unlikely to affect them in the near term, in the long term users are going to become as frustrated with the segmentation of the iOS market as they were/are with the segmentation in other cell phone environments. The EXACT same segmentation that Steve decried when first announcing the iPhone/iPod touch SDK.
Monstar L
they are computers with massively reduced user freedom
I think it's an appliance in the same way that my PS3 is an appliance. There is a computer under the covers and the device is quite general purpose, but in the end its an appliance because I don't have the freedom to tinker.
I think "computer with massively reduced user freedom" could be part of a decent definition of appliance.
Well, I think the point was that before the iPhone there really wasn't much of a sane market for cellphone apps. I totally agree with you on the walled garden crap, but the iPhone was still leaps and bounds ahead of most smart phones at the time. It's like bitching that your brand new shiny sports car doesn't have leather seats and they won't let you put in aftermarket leather seats without voiding the warranty while conveniently forgetting that you were driving a rusty pinto before. Now that other devices are catching up it is putting pressure on Apple to play a little nicer and be less draconian. I don't expect an overnight change since big part of their success is that they can deliver a very simple and identical user experience across the board. The worst part is, that if they just opened the gates for whatever app and a malicious app made it through they would be taking flak from the same people that howl about their strict control of the gate. You know, the same way Microsoft takes so much crap over shitty third party software crashing worse than a heroin addict in rehab. Also, people that don't like them don't have to buy them. However, they seem compelled to go on at length about how that device is evil and doesn't actually meet the needs of the owner and that they know exactly what would meet those needs. You know...kinda the same crap that those companies pay their marketing departments to do. The only real difference is that the marketing company actually knows more about the competing product than what they read on the internet, and they have a vested interest in getting people to switch.
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
And the other 80% of the cellphone market that uses subscription crapware I can only get through the telco is different how?
Only hardcore Apple fanbois can justify calling what is essentially a tablet computer a phone, just to justify the lockdown placed by Apple on it. I give up.
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I personally like apple screening all of the crap out. Sure there are some potentially good stuff they have not allowed but I dont miss it. Every kind of app I have wanted has been there in some form. When you need a phone to constantly function as a phone and be secure a more closed model where you cant install any old crap off of the internet seems to be the better way to go. Sure there are the downsides of having limitations put on what you can install from an outside source but you also have the added benefit that at least someone has checked to make sure the program is functional.
No one can argue that apple has good reasons for denying every app that it has denied because they don't, but for people that actually own iphones, we really don't care too much.
Irregardless of their app ecosystem apple products (hardware and software) are by far the best at total system integration. When everything works together like your laptop, phone and tablet, when they all keep in sync and the management of that syncing is easy it is a beautiful thing. I have plenty of technical knowledge and work as a software engineer so I could get all of the android syncing stuff to work, but no matter how good it works it wont have that tight system integration that apple puts in all of its products.
If you choose to live in apple's walled garden, life is great. You have stability performance and usefulness. Once you experience this all come together everything else seems inferior.
Woot! My full tower case PC, mixing desk and desktop montors are now a cell phone! Might skip taking it to work though, since the thing weighs about 50kgs thanks to the subwoofer.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
No, it's that Apple is NOT bad. They are good but not perfect. And everyone else was a HELL of a lot worse before they came along and I'm sure you weren't wrapping yourselves in the "freedom" flag back then.
All this crap has some legitimacy, but it is blown WAY out of proportion. Never mind that other companies were (and are) far worse, but these same idiots don't seem to be posting anything about them. The reason is some people just blindly hate Apple and this is their avenue to scream.
Cisco IOS seems to return decent results for me. I am pretty sure people who use that OS have enough google foo to filter out iPhone results.
So the iPad won't be running iOS 4 right away.... Apple is really running the risk of having a very segmented market a la Android, but they are doing it without any of Androids advantages. For instance even though it was only released two months ago the iPad only has half the amount of RAM that the iPhone 4 has and a lot fewer sensors.
The iPad has the same amount of RAM that the very latest phone (the 3Gs) offers. And the same number of sensors (minus the camera, which is not exactly a "sensor"). Only the very latest phone, which initially will have a fraction of the 3G/3Gs owner numbers has one more sensor - a gyroscope, which mostly refines what you can do with the accelerometer.
So where is the fractioning? Most developers will still be targeting iOS3.1 as a base for a while, with support for some iOS4 features for at least a half year or so - time enough for the iPad to gain the update. In fact that point will probably be the trigger where developers could realistically move to iOS4 alone, since by then most people will have upgraded (including Touch owners since finally Touch updates are free).
And while this problem is unlikely to affect them in the near term, in the long term users are going to become as frustrated with the segmentation of the iOS market
In the "long term" there's iOS4, since the iPad and iPhone will both be running it - yes you can't have iOS4 on the original iPhone 1st gen, but at this point that is a fraction of the devices on the market.
Apple has done a good job thinking around the fragmentation problem, including how to handle iPhones with different resolutions...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Releases what?
Oh, you mean Apple releases iOS 4 today. iOS 4 will be released.
C'mon man, let's not ruin our language.
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
I guess since I can make a call on my laptop then that makes it a phone?
According to the twisted logic of your fellow fanboys, yes. See http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1693064&cid=32641450
The iPhone has done more to liberate consumers in the mobile market than any phone before or since. It's not perfect, but the mobile landscape was radically different 3 years ago and much has changed for the better because of the iPhone's release. In fact it was so good that Google, RIM, Windows, etc. jumped on the bandwagon and decided to copy it.
Err Windows Mobile, Blackberry etc. never had restrictions on app developers. But now WP7 is going to have the same restrictions by following in Apple's footsteps. If anything, the iPhone has actually made it worse for the mobile market by your own logic.
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The way you fanboys defend
The way you dismiss those who defend as "fanboys" is childish.
There is more then one point of view; there are reasoned arguments to be made on more then one side, and there are more then one objective criteria that matters can be judged on, and more then one principle that can be important to people.
Its tired. No one can be even vaguely positive towards anything Apple does without being dismissed as a "fanboy" -- even if you criticize something Apple does a breath after you praise another thing they've done. Hell, you can be only moderately-pro-Apple and then luxuriate praise on something Android does and yet if you point out even one flaw or weakness -- even if its purely objective -- and your entire point of view is immediately dismissed as a "fanboy". The *automatic* vitriol that a lot of Android supporters (Fandroids? :P) spew at anything even vaguely pro-Apple is absurd.
Grow up and drop the ad-hominem nonsense: if you need it to win an argument, you are just utter fail. Recognize there are *actual reasons* people *actually like* Apple products. Recognize there are *actual reasons* why people *actually do not like* Apple products.
Recognize that these reasons may be *different* for *different people*, and that it doesn't make anyone stupid, brainwashed, or some mindless cult without any sort of reason.
Why? Today Apple will release iOS4. Tonight I will have it on my iPhone 3G. Why is 30 days not a long time to wait?
As far as I'm concerned, there is one and only one Correct Way(TM) to write a date or date/time. It is:
2010-06-21 15:37:21 (Which is the exact date and time in UTC that I typed that.)
You go from most general (year) to most specific (seconds). Always write times in 24-hour format, and always include leading zeroes. Why is that the Correct Way(TM)? Because when you ASCII-alphabetize a list of such dates and times, they will sort into the correct chronological order.
I guess the 21/6 rationale is that some people call it "the twenty-first of June." Those people are wrong. It is "June twenty-first," or if you prefer, "June twenty-one." Do those people call the time "the thirty-seventh of three p.m."? I think not.
If you really want to get fancy, you can use alternative separators. 2010.06.21 15:37:21 is fine. Or if you're into saving space (like in a script or program), just 20100621153721 works, too. The Oracle format for that is 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS'. I use the same format for storing dates in MySQL and SQLite. Whenever I write a timestamp to a log file, I use that format so that the GNU sort command works on it. Whenever I name a file with a date in it, I use the format so that sane operating systems that sort files by name will also sort it chronologically. When I put dates/datetimes in something like Excel, I also use the format in case someone ever exports the file to a text file or to a CSV or something.
I really, really do wish that everyone would stop using all other crazy date/datetime formats.
It kind of reminds me of how, I can't remember who it was, but one of the early developers of protocols said that he regretted making hostnames things like mail.google.com. It really should have been com.google.mail. Think about it; it looks weird now, but if that were the way it worked and you had a ginormous list of FQDNs and sorted it, all your top-level domains would collate together, followed by all of your company names collating together. com.google.docs, com.google.mail, com,google.maps, com.google.www would all be together, instead of mail.google.com, mail.yahoo.com, mail.whatever.com all globbing up. It would also really make it hard for phishers who use URL munging to mislead people.
Heavy flow day? Cramping? Bloating? Zits? Hope you have a better day!
Nature-show announcer voice: The Apple Fanboy is a fickle beast, able to turn rabid and frothing-at-the-mouth suddenly and without warning upon fact-based criticism of Apple. Observed behavior may include, but is not limited to, hyperbole, excessive use of capitals and punctuation, a belittling or insulting tone in response to factual criticism, and a literal interpretation of "fascism" when convenient despite realizing it is meant to express "too controlling". Despite these maladaptive traits, this species has been successful in the wild and multiplies at a very high rate.
About the Google Voice deal, I'm betting that the only reason why Apple reversed their decision is because Google is a large well-known company with a lot of clout. Had Apple remained completely unreasonable about Google Voice, it would be trivial for Google to make sure that tens of millions of people knew all about it. Indeed, we did learn about it. That makes Google a bit more difficult to push around than the average individual developer. What we don't know is how many other innovative apps have been denied from individuals and companies who are small-fry and unable to do anything about it.
You want to create a walled garden, I'm fine with that so long as you do not hold a monopoly provided that certain conditions are met. These conditions are:
That'd be the correct way to do walled gardens. It would greatly cut down on shit like "hey, Google Voice uses data services to send voice which might reduce our revenue from voice minutes, we better find some made-up reason to reject it!"
they are computers with massively reduced user freedom
I think it's an appliance in the same way that my PS3 is an appliance. There is a computer under the covers and the device is quite general purpose, but in the end its an appliance because I don't have the freedom to tinker.
I think "computer with massively reduced user freedom" could be part of a decent definition of appliance.
I am getting sick of the game console comparisons. People are NOT replacing real computers with gaming consoles, but there's an increasing push(especially by Apple fanboys) that the iDevices are the future of computing.
Read about how a 'network security expert' replaced this laptop with an iPad --> http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1693064&cid=32641740
Read these articles about how the iPad is supposed to take over computing and make desktops and laptop obsolete:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9175600/The_iPad_is_the_future_for_home_computing
http://gizmodo.com/5506692/ipad-is-the-future
http://www.macworld.com/article/146038/2010/01/ipad_future_shock.html
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/02/ipad-future/
http://techcrunch.com/2010/01/27/ipad/
Gaming consoles were never considered the future of computing, that's why they don't represent a threat to freedom. This is the reason that people are justifiably upset about Apple's restrictions.
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Wait a second. 'Flexibility' is a neutral term -- it can be either good or bad. Flexibility controlled by the end user is almost always good. Flexibility controlled by the producer can be good, but has a history of being used in less than benevolent ways, especially in the computer industry.
Flexibility, improperly implemented, can be just another way for a corporation to screw over its customers. To my mind, the jury is still out on exactly how Apple intends to use its phones' flexibility.
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
I understand your point of view, but I look at it like this: soft comfy handcuffs are still handcuffs. It's better to complain about them or avoid them right up front, instead of waiting until they stop you personally from doing something you want to do. Think back to the famous "First they came for the trade unionists ..." .
They've made it worse for the mobile market, by making it easier for developers to sell their wares, and for consumers to purchase them?
My point was that a computer doesn't have to cost $3,000, like the GP claimed. I never said doing so was a talent, just that it was possible. Thanks for being an asshole though, I appreciate it.
Living With a Nerd
This is just my personal opinion, but there doesn't seem to have been as much Apple fanboism here as their used to be. Or FOSS fanboism. Or even anti-Microsoftism. The big evil one hasn't done anything big and evil in a while, and isn't nearly as relevant as they used to be. Linux passed from a meme into a tool, one that is stable and not terribly exciting. Like a hammer. And the diehard Apple fanbois seem to have evolved from worshiping at the feet of Jobs to admiring the hardware and complaining about the policies.
There are still a lot of Free-Market-Fundies around, but they seem to be everywhere these days. And the Anti-Copyright Crusaders have added a lot of noise to /. discussions over the past few years. There is a lot of overlap there with the Anti-Corporates. And the Android worshipers are getting a little annoying, but are nowhere near as bad as the other fanboys used to be. They seem to be in balance with the Anti-Google / Pro Privacy twin groups.
I know that's not a lot of evidence presented above, just personal opinion. But the pendulum seems to have moved.
The ______ Agenda
"There's a way to do literally everything I want to do"
You are not the entire world, first of all, and secondly, Apple is not just rejecting features, they are rejecting political cartoons and pornography from the apps store. People keep saying that HTML is the answer to that, but the apps store simply out-competes the web and HTML solutions are at an inherent disadvantage.
"Choosing one that has a unified and controlled app distribution system because it offers an excellent end user experience is definitely not participating in any kind of slippery slope scenario."
Yes, it is, considering that Apple already uses its control to do more than maintain quality.
"The appropriate way to complain in this scenario is to buy some other phone. Or, if you're a developer, develop for a platform provided by a company whose policies you prefer."
Except that the majority of people are not aware of Apple's behavior or the way that Apple is censoring these devices, and the minority who is aware will not make much a difference. The appropriate thing to do is to inform as many people as possible of the reality of the iProducts.
Palm trees and 8
It's just semantics. In Jobs' D8 interview he likened PCs to trucks and iPads to cars. I think this has been a greatly misunderstood analogy. To me, it means the people that do serious work will have PC. Developers, Network Admins, Graphic Artists, Publishers, these people will still use computers. Cars are for the everyday person. E-mail, Internet, occasional Word Processing, Personal Finance, Calendaring, all work great on the iPad.
The iPad and iPhone will not replace "real" computers. They will impede the growth of computers, not because they are better, but because most people do not NEED a computer. iPads are not computers, but they are what 60-70% of the population uses a computer for, plus a little more like ebooks and some nifty apps we never knew we needed.
I agree with you 100%. As a software developer I love it that Apple has popularized the slate format computer. More computers being sold equals more opportunities for me as a developer. I don't particularly like Apple's policies and that's why I'm bullish on Android and WebOS tablets.
I've quite shocked that Microsoft is having so much trouble in this space. They were almost there with pen computing but for some reason were never able to make the jump to touch computing.
In a recent blog entry, Russel Beattie did a pretty good job of explaining why WIMP (windows, icons, mouse, and pointer) doesn't work on a tablet.
Woot! My full tower case PC, mixing desk and desktop montors are now a cell phone! Might skip taking it to work though, since the thing weighs about 50kgs thanks to the subwoofer.
I also skip taking my corded phones to work as well, since they are pretty large and like your PC have no cell connection.
But I can still call from my corded phone even though I can't take it with me. And you can still skype from your desktop. Or use some other form of VOIP.
Welcome to 2010, where the phone is not a plastic object built solely by AT&T. This is the future, not your antiquated notion that a phone has to be only a phone to be a phone.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Yes, but then the developer has to set up their own store, pay for bandwidth, pay credit card processing fees, and spend significantly more on advertising since they are not in a centralized store and are less likely to be randomly stumbled across.
So the developer would not be able to sell their $10 app on their own for $7 and make the same amount of money.
Game consoles are not computers = iPads are not computers.
You want openness. Openness = Computers.
Now yes that is simplified and it doesn't HAVE to be true. It has historically been true though. The closed systems, ie consoles, have always outsold the open ones. Why? Consumers want a device that works. When I say iPads work for 60-70% of the population, that is not 60-70% of the population including those that don't buy computers. Openness brings a certain level of confusion. One thing Apple controls through the App store is look and feel and usability. You as an IT Pro want openness and don't mind rough edges or modifying a config file. But this is a turn off to the family down the block. Apple is selling cars. If a Prius can't haul your 5 kids and boat up to the lake, buy a truck, don't yell at Toyota that the Prius is not able to tow a boat.