
IPhone OS 4.0 unveiled, adds multitasking, shipping this summer - glymor
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/08/iphone-os-4-0-unveiled-shipping-this-summer/
======
kalid
I think this is the right way to go about it... rather than giving apps whole-
hog access where they can burn up cpu and memory at will, in a black box,
Apple can do a "don't call us, we'll call you" type of API.

Apple can monitor exactly what resources are being used, have timeouts for api
calls, etc. to maintain perf. If you do regular multitasking (just split up
cpu time between the top N apps) you have no idea how efficient apps are
being, or why they are using cpu. You can't easily prioritize certain
activities over others (i.e notifications vs. voip vs location). You can't
optimize everyone's calls with core library functions (each app would re-
implement their background tasks, perhaps poorly).

When people say they need multitasking they really mean "streaming
music/skype/background notifications", like when they say they want flash they
really mean they want video. We have to be careful not to just give people the
faster horse.

~~~
ezy
Well, when I say "multitasking", I mean the ability to switch out of a network
app _without it disconnecting_. I wonder how persistent network connections
will be managed that aren't IM or streaming audio?

One huge annoyance with the current platform is that remote desktop or ssh
apps _disconnect_ when you switch out of the app. It's one of the reasons i'm
thinking of holding off on the iPad for another year (another OS release).

Given Scott's comment about how there is no "close" in this pseudo-
multitasking world, I'm a little worried that the iPad will stay useless for
me for the foreseeable future :-)

~~~
ptomato
I haven't looked at the APIs yet, but it will probably be possible to do
something like not DCing an ssh connection via the task-completion API, as the
example given was uploading photos to flickr.

~~~
ezy
I missed that. Yeah, then in all likelihood, if it isn't supported directly,
one could hack it.

------
gamble
iAd is the ultimate FU to Google.

The cheap way to pay them back for Android would have been to banish Google
from the iPhone. Instead, they're attempting to transform mobile advertising
into something where Google's technical strengths are worthless, while their
weaknesses - user interfaces, platform fragmentation, and apps - are a serious
liability.

Worse, Apple is right - mobile ads _do_ suck. Nobody clicks on them, because
launching a web browser from an app is incredibly disruptive on a handheld.
This is an 'aha' moment akin to when Google launched adwords. If iAd is easy
to develop for and deployed across millions of devices, Google's ambitions for
mobile are in serious trouble.

~~~
timr
They're certainly picking a fight. It's far from clear that they'll win.

If the iPhone loses its dominance in smart phones, this move will have done
nothing but antagonize the most obvious heir to the throne. Like nearly
everything else Apple does, iAds will have a monopoly on a small market.
Meanwhile, much of the iPhone's greatness depends on Google's own products....

~~~
buster
You do realize that there is no smartphone dominance of apple, right? It's
basically RIM (US) and Nokia(rest of the world) that are dominating.

~~~
CamperBob
Nobody gives a crap about phones for which nobody buys apps. That would be....
all of them, except the iPhone.

~~~
buster
"nobody"? I was just mentioning it, because i am sick of seeing people sucked
into that apple marketing dream and telling it over and over again.

Let's take the whole mobile phone market as measurement. The iphone is still
only used by the vast minority, yet it feels like apple users are caught by
all that marketing and buzz around apple they reject reality.

Yes, of course, the iPhone has the appstore, it's good hardware and software
and shiny and usable and so on. But the reality is STILL that it's a minority.

The reality is that the big old mobile companies have still enough money,
resources and potential customers to get. It's just not that Nokia is making
all the fuzz around this as the press does about apple. Steve Jobs farts,
press coverage instantly. It's sick.

------
rimantas
I must admit I really like the way they do it: they do not rush, don't push
half baked solutions. It either works or it is not there. Look at the copy and
paste: it was the laughing point, it took some time and now it is the best
implementation there. Even more so with iPhone OS 4: multitasking, folders,
unified inbox — looks like they just focused on what's important. Anyway,
naysayers will always have Flash to cry about.

~~~
mrkurt
"Market leader adds features in response to and inspired by features their
smaller, more nimble competitors ship with."

It's kind of the way of the world.

~~~
kemiller
Right, those features totally never occurred to them before Palm and Google
did them. Multitasking? Ads? WALLPAPERS! Where DO they come up with these
amazing ideas?

~~~
mrkurt
Are we doing feature based checklists now, or comparing good implementations?
Multitasking on a small device is largely a UI problem, and it sounds like
Apple solved it almost like Palm did. You don't think they do research on
what's out there, see how other people have solved problems, and adapt those
solutions to what they're trying to do?

~~~
kemiller
I suspect Apple had a roadmap for all of these long before WebOS or Android
came out. Could the final form have been influenced by those? Unknowable from
outside. I'm not sure in what way you think this looks like Palm's solution.

------
snprbob86
Maybe I'm biased (I work at Microsoft on gaming), but I'm _shocked_ that this
thread is all about multitasking and not about the social gaming network!

Apple has sold 50M iPhones. Microsoft has sold roughly 30M Xbox 360s. This
summer, before the launch of Windows Phone 7, Apple will have the world's
largest gaming network.....overnight.

How is that not a bigger deal than multi-tasking?

~~~
santry
What percentage of people play social games on the iPhone? I know anecdotes
aren't data, but I've had an iPhone since day 1 and have never bought or
played a game on it.

~~~
ericd
My iPhone has completely supplanted my Nintendo DS for subway entertainment.
Based on what I've seen on the subway, it's by far the most popular portable
gaming platform, at least in NYC.

~~~
nc
Add London to that list as well.

------
adamhowell
Wow, "iAd" - Apple's new mobile advertising offering - is Apple's first foray
into advertising, isn't it?

Being able to keep the user in the app while showing them high-quality ads is
a huge advantage. And most likely the source of the recent, supposed
kerfuffles between Apple and Google executives.

~~~
adamhowell
Great question by Gruber:

"There's got to be a developer kit for making these HTML5 iAds, right?"
(<http://twitter.com/gruber/statuses/11835821330>)

Even before this I started thinking that an online app that made HTML5 banner
creation cheap & easy would be huge. Now, jeez, seems like a no-brainer.

~~~
xsmasher
This is a problem for HTML5 content in general, isn't it? There's nothing on
par with the Flash editor for creating HTML5. Adobe is the company I'd expect
to create a visual HTML5 editor, but they're not going to give up the Flash
war.

~~~
gamble
A good HTML 5 authoring tool is going to be so valuable, that whoever has the
balls to built it is going to look pretty smart in a couple of years... and
Adobe is either going to buy them, or ride Flash down into irrelevance.

~~~
nailer
It may be Adobe that creates it (or it may not).

~~~
mambodog
I'm thinking Adobe is going to build one, and its going to do horrible 'one
size fits all' type stuff, like Dreamweaver.

------
chwahoo
I think Apple has been on a streak of releasing some great products, but I'm
growing weary of Apple condescendingly telling people what they don't need
(such as multitasking and copy/paste) and then turning around and touting
those features as innovations later. (I don't mean to imply that the new
multitasking services approach is not a good solution - I think that it is).

Now, we shouldn't need a stylus or task manager:
[http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/08/jobs-if-you-see-a-
stylus-...](http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/08/jobs-if-you-see-a-stylus-or-a-
task-manager-they-blew-it/) The problem is, I want a stylus on something like
the iPad - for some operations, writing is a more familiar metaphor than
finger-painting. Likewise, their app-switcher is 90% of a task manager - all
they'd need to do is add closing background apps (a feature we don't need?).

I know Apple is the master of opinionated design / "not listening to the
customer" in order to provide something better than what the customer thinks
they want. However, as a technical user, sometimes they outsmart me and
sometimes they fail. In the next year, I'll purchase a tablet device (most
likely Android-based, maybe the Notion Ink Adam... if it lives up to its
hype). I don't expect for it to be as elegant as an Apple product, but it will
do more of the things I want (and not insult me).

~~~
glhaynes
Nothing prevents you from using a 3rd party stylus (such as the Pogo stylus,
which is pretty sweet) on your iPhone/iPad. In fact, I think they sell them at
their retail stores. But they're not gonna ship a device with a stylus and
neither will most of their competitors.

Likewise, they never said users didn't need copy/paste, they just shipped the
first few versions of iPhone OS without it while they were still working on
it.

~~~
chwahoo
re: the stylus, I absolutely agree that a 3rd party stylus will do the job, I
was commenting on the suggestion that stylus-based interaction is necessarily
a symptom of bad interaction design. In fact, although it is not fashionable,
inclusion of a stylus with a tablet device would be a positive for me. (Note:
I'm not advocating the old WinMo finger-unfriendly UI model)

~~~
wtallis
I agree. A PalmOS or WinCE kind of stylus is probably inferior to multitouch,
but a Wacom-style pen that can detect the position while the tip is hovering
and has subpixel precision and pressure sensitivity opens a lot of doors.

------
jsz0
One of the interesting features is background audio seems to use the iPod
application for its playback controls. Presumably this means third party apps
will be compatible with iPod integration systems in cars, home audio systems,
etc. That's a big deal if true.

------
mkinsella
Google's purchase of AdMob now looks like a great exit by AdMob and horrible
purchase by Google

~~~
rogupta
FCC still hasn't approved the purchase. I'm hard-pressed to see any anti-trust
issues now, but imagine if it got blocked? It will be tough to compete with
iAd.

~~~
nolanbrown23
FTC, not FCC

------
jasonlotito
The multitasking is nice for people like me who complained, though I wonder
how everyone who was defending the lack of multitasking as a good thing will
take it that the iPhone/iPad is now losing this 'feature.'

~~~
colinplamondon
The problem with multitasking is that all the prior implementations on phones
sucked- it's a miserable experience on Android. This actually looks like a
good solution.

~~~
gamble
Absolutely. There's a reason that task manager apps are popular downloads for
every phone that offers multitasking. You won't see them on iPhone OS 4.0.

~~~
orangecat
_There's a reason that task manager apps are popular downloads for every phone
that offers multitasking._

The reason is that intermediate users who know just enough to be dangerous
think that they're necessary, when they aren't: [http://droidtalk.net/should-
i-install-a-task-managerkiller-o...](http://droidtalk.net/should-i-install-a-
task-managerkiller-on-my-android-device/)

~~~
gamble
Android gives app developers enough rope to hang themselves, or at least waste
the battery by constantly firing up the radio or GPS. I agree that you don't
need a task manager to conserve memory, but there's no automatic solution for
overactive apps except the automatic cleanup for long-running apps. Even the
link you supplied admits it:

"Is it really necessary to be notified about every new tweet or status update?
Reduce the refresh times on your social networking applications and reduce the
number of items you’re notified about. Reduce the number of widgets you have
on your home-screen, instead replace them with program shortcuts, you’ll still
have quick access to your most used programs without the constant battery
drain caused by continuous data pull."

------
jasonlotito
Ars is doing a good job live blogging it.

[http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/04/iphone-
os-4-specia...](http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/04/iphone-os-4-special-
event-cupertino-liveblog.ars)

------
spudlyo
Nice to finally have bluetooth keyboard support. I could never bring myself to
use my iPhone as an SSH terminal because typing UNIX commands using the
onscreen keyboard drove me crazy. I think landscape 80x24 on the iPhone would
even look pretty decent.

I've always been disappointed in iPhone bluetooth support. When we finally got
A2DP they only implemented a half-assed AVRCP profile so we couldn't skip
tracks with our A2DP headsets. Frustrating. Hopefully version 4.0 of the
iPhone OS finally implements this, but I've yet to see confirmation.

------
daleharvey
"Apps that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation ...
layer or tool are prohibited."

in the new license agreement, did they just ban apps generated by flash cs5?

~~~
mahipal
Does this affect something like MobileRoadie or the other app generation
platforms, which translate a data layer into UIs?

------
pkulak
So, does this mean that an IM app could now run in the background instead of
using push notifications? It's not really clear that "local notifications"
means that an app can keep a connection open.

------
pclark
No multi-tasking on 3G iPhones - 3GS only.

~~~
bshep
They say its because of hardware limitations but I smell a rat. I have a
jailbroken 3G with 'MusicControls' and it allows me to background pandora just
fine.

This is just a way of forcing people to upgrade to the latest non-
jailbreakable hardware.

~~~
tptacek
They care about the end user experience. They don't care at all about what
you've managed to get working on a jailbroken phone. My take is that they
decided the experience wouldn't be good on the 3G. (They were emphatic about
this point in Q&A).

Either way, it's irrelevant. I didn't buy my 3G in the anticipation of having
multitasking. I bought it because I wanted what it was then. I'm upgrade-
eligible soon enough, and happy to have a reason to buy a 4th-gen iPhone.

~~~
bshep
It works perfectly, it even shows the artwork in the lockscreen just like the
ipod app does, something I didnt see in Apple's version of multitasking.

I also want a 4th Gen iPhone but not if its not jailbreak-able, there are too
many missing features that can only be enabled by jailbreaking.

~~~
tptacek
I'm not a jailbreaker (I want my iPhone to work. All the time.) But I don't
begrudge you your jailbreak or your opinion.

I'm just reacting to the implication that there is something shady about them
not giving the 3G a feature.

~~~
bshep
The have done this before, when MMS came out they did not include it for 2G
phones when they are perfectly capable of sending MMS.

Someone else pointed out that in the case of multitasking they cannot
guarantee that a 3G can handle the general case, that may be true, we shall
have to wait and see.

------
glymor
Looks like there's going to be a OmniGraffle for the iPhone (presumably not
$49 like the iPad version).

[http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/04/iphone...](http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/04/iphone-
os-4-0248-rm-eng.jpg)

------
CoachRufus87
Gdgt is also doing an excellent live-blog; no refresh required :)

[http://live.gdgt.com/2010/04/08/live-iphone-os-4-0-event-
cov...](http://live.gdgt.com/2010/04/08/live-iphone-os-4-0-event-coverage/)

~~~
icey
No refresh is required on Engadget's coverage either - just turn auto-refresh
on. (It's a link at the top of their live coverage)

~~~
Oompa
I found Engadget's auto-refresh to be very slow. gdgt was much better about
it.

------
paulsmith
Can anyone explain the implementation of multitasking here, not the user
experience of it? I'm hearing a combo of new service APIs and "freezing
state." What does "freezing state" mean? That to me implies some sort of
serialization out of and back into RAM, otherwise you'll run into out-of-
memory problems opening new apps, but that would seem to indicate swap, which
as we know would kill performance (and presumably battery life), both of which
Apple claims multitasking won't do.

~~~
wmf
It's probably NDA'd like all beta SDKs, so we'll have to wait a day or so for
the details to leak.

~~~
paulsmith
Perhaps, but I'm just curious from a stepped-back perspective, given a very
constrained environment (limited RAM, no swap device) and expectations for a
responsive user experience, how one would go about implementing "frozen state"
for a process without presumably swapping to (slow) flash storage. What
technique is being employed? Compression of in-memory objects, perhaps?

------
lazugod
Will iAd be allowed to use the iPhone's location data for targeting
advertisements? I remember they specifically asked third-party ad servers to
not do so.

------
mattmaroon
Those of you who have iPhones will truly love this. I know after having a Palm
Pre for just one week I realized I could never go back to single tasking.
You'll find yourself walking around, listening to Pandora, mapping what's
around you, checking out reviews of it on Yelp, etc. Or sitting in a coffee
shop, Googling something else, answering a call, emailing, etc.

It will be rare that you're not running two things.

~~~
lygaret
Wait a second.

Other than pandora, which I agree will be awesome in the background, what in
that use case requires multitasking?

Open Maps, see a place, click the link to switch to Safari to see it's
website, check reviews in yelp. Nowhere is more than one thing happening here.
Ditto with googling something, answering the phone, switching to email,
switching back to Safari. Everything here is saving state so when you launch
it it comes back to where it was.

THIS is what people mean when they say that 90% of use cases are covered
currently. The background services are great for pandora, etc. but let's not
make them out to be more than they are.

~~~
yellowbkpk
Ok, I'll take a stab at it:

foursquare app open to auto-checkin (or a Waze/OpenStreetMap editor recording
GPS traces), IM app open to receive Skype calls, SSH connection open for quick
access to top on your new widget-server.

I admit that none of those things _need_ to be running simultaneously, but the
fact that they are running is pretty nice.

------
kadavy
What's up with the disconnect between news like this and Wall Street? iAd is
announced, AAPL goes _down_ and GOOG goes _up_?

~~~
cstejerean
If AAPL goes down after the announcement, go ahead and buy before everyone
else figures out what this means.

------
zppx
I read it will supports 'SSL VPN's' does anyone know if this will include
openvpn support

~~~
FlorinAndrei
That would be awesome, but I'm afraid by "SSL VPN" they mean just the lame
browser-based pseudo-VPN gateways.

------
mcav
My startup is about online games... the more Apple delves into this (GameKit),
the more I feel pulled toward developing for the iPad vs the web. Any
thoughts? Is the iPad filled with more potential than the web for casual
card/board games?

~~~
lyime
iPad is a great device to build for. Just remember that iPhone/Touch has tens
of millions of users already. iPad by the end of the year will have probably a
few million.

------
Psyonic
The thing thats funny about this is that all the apologists who've been
explaining why multitasking is pointless and unnecessary will now instantly
switch positions and say this makes Apple the greatest company ever.

------
theBobMcCormick
Wait! I thought the lack of multitasking on the iPhone was a feature?
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1240171>

------
khelloworld
This will be the third time I will be downloading the 2.2 GB SDK on my
slow-*ss network in just the last seven days. First the 3.2 GM, then the 3.2
official version, and now 4 beta. Phew.

------
tocomment
will the 1G iphones get this? I don't see it mentioned.

~~~
tvon
> _for iPhone 3G and iPod touch 2nd generation, they will run "many things"_

> _"but there are some thigns they will not run because hardware doesn't
> support them, like multitasking"_

(via Ars live blog)

...so the 1G phone would presumably be out as well.

~~~
heed
Is there much difference in hardware between the 2g and 3g iphones?

~~~
jodrellblank
3G, GPS, a speed boost and a change of shape are the main ones, I think.

------
nickpp
No new iPhone hardware this year? I thought they were gonna announce a 4th
generation handset.

~~~
tptacek
Not at this event.

------
khelloworld
I can smell a new iPad OS (or at least a new variant of iPhone OS) coming this
fall.

------
timtrueman
Alright good job Apple. Now when can I have Google Voice without jailbreaking?

~~~
illumin8
Right now. HTML5 version works fine.

~~~
niravs
Serious limitations and certainly by no means a seamless experience. For
example, you can't get updates on SMS messages unless you use a hack (like
Prowl).

~~~
ptomato
Have it forward your SMS message to your actual iPhone phone #?

------
jrockway
Looks like Apple is finally catching up to Android.

------
ja27
Any mention of pricing for the iPod Touch update?

~~~
pchristensen
All previous one have been $10.

------
volida
what about uploading from the browser?

~~~
jsz0
One of the early slides says something about uploading in the background.
Guessing this is probably Safari -- can't think of where else it would apply.

~~~
nfg
Apps like flickr.

------
yters
Argh, make the Apple fanmactics stop!

------
elblanco
Well that's better.

Wait, multitasking? I thought we've just been having the discussion about how
Apple is awesome for _not_ having multitasking followed by a long bulleted
list of apologists talking points?

~~~
blubb
Don't worry, there's still plenty of features that most people don't care
about that techies can have mile long threads about.

    
    
      - You can't change the battery
      - It doesn't support 3D glasses and 4K cinema resolution
      - No 20MP camera with flash and replacable lens
      - There is no noticeable lag when running applications in the background, so it's actually not "true multitasking". You can't run 100 apps in the background.
      - Can't install apps without jailbreak (or dev license)
      - Doesn't have a nanoSD card
      - No USB port

