iPhone OS 4.0

iAds isn't anything more than Apple getting a slice of the ad revenue that apps are already using with AdMob. They're actually making it a better experience for the user than the existing ad solutions.

"iPhone OS 4 will work with iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and the second- and third-generation iPod touch this summer, and with iPad in the fall. Not all features are compatible with all devices. For example, multitasking is available only with iPhone 3GS and the third-generation iPod touch (32GB and 64GB models from late 2009)." At least some older hardware will get a taste of the new OS, I imagined Apple would only be selling it new hardware, much like the WinMob scene where you have to buy a new phone for no reason, even though your existing device will work fine with an update.

It is a very incremental update. The semi-multitasking feature is no where near as elegant as WebOS; but of course, WebOS has terrible battery life. Its hard to believe that Apple did not release this to iPad before iPad Nano with the push that device is getting right now...but better to solve it's G1 issues first, I guess. Semi, kinda, almost related - I hope that the rumors of Lenovo buying Palm come true....they have done will with the ThinkPad brand and may be able to breathe some life into a dying company that started this whole device category. --tayme

Whoo... This will make my phone upgrade choice a lot harder. Evo 4g with tethering for 8 devices or the iPhone 4 with... ads. uh... Nevermind.

Waethorn said "BTW: Nothing that Apple said today impresses me one iota." For some reason I don't really get the impression that you not being impressed amounts to much when it comes to the iPhone's success.

Anyone tried that U1 hybrid yet? is it even out?

@waethorn at least are consistent! Very solid update, nothing to surprising. This will help them continue their lead. Not all features on the 3G a given since the hardware probably cant handle it. Of course this is only half of the release, the other half will come in the form of new hardware. I suspect, iPad CPU, more pixels on the screen, wireless N, 16gig 3GS becomes the new 8gig 3G, and probably a 64gig model. Windows Phone 7 has time to make some catch up changes before they launch in Sept?

"Not all features on the 3G a given since the hardware probably cant handle it." Maybe not, but at least it's something.

"For some reason I don't really get the impression that you not being impressed amounts to much when it comes to the iPhone's success." It's a phone that does what other phones already eclipse in functionality, and yet it's a big money pit for consumers that want to increase the functionality to get it to the level of other devices, but they'll do so because Apple puts on a flashy show. So you would be correct. "Which of the new Lenovos did you order? Are you still liking it? I have a friend looking for a new W7 laptop and I was thinking about sending him that direction." I'm personally using an AMD ThinkPad Edge 13". The battery probably isn't as good as what you'd get from a more expensive Intel model, but the graphics is certainly superior, and the processor performance is going to be at least on par. Where it excels is in functionality though - a model with Win 7 Pro x64 and at least 3GB of RAM will easily handle virtual machine workloads for business apps. I've upgraded mine to 4GB and am rocking a Windows Server 2008 (R1, cuz R2 is 64-bit only) deployment server VM with a separate VM for testing the rollout of Win 7 OEM images. In fact, I'm doing that now as I type on the host Win 7 Pro. I only paid $649(CDN) for mine and got the baseline 2GB/250GB/Win7HomePrem Athlon Neo model with a 4-cell battery because I have RAM in my store, and my Action Pack includes Win7Pro licenses already. It gets about 2.5-3hrs which is what I'm used to from my old laptop, but there's a 6-cell battery option too. It's very light with the small battery though, and I'm just used to plugging it in because I want maximum performance most of the time. The AMD model is a leg burner if you have it on your lap though. Use one of those gel pads if familial propogation is one of your future interests. I've noticed that Lenovo is cutting back on the number of options on their website for customization. I haven't looked at the US page lately, but on the Canadian page, they don't show the Edge 13 versions with Turion Neo configurations at all, and they've taken the options down for building your own (it's only 3 Athlon Neo baseline configs with only options for warranty extensions and accessories - nothing else). If that's a problem, find an authorized reseller. Lenovo-authorized distributors still carry a bigger range of SKU's with all different possible combinations of the processor/RAM/HDD/OS customization options and resellers should be able to get something to fit what you're looking for. You *CAN* get 32-bit versions of the OS if that's your thing, but it's normally 64-bit on default configs. As I mentioned, I got Win7HomePrem x64 with it. I just used Anytime Upgrade and plopped in my Action Pack Win 7 Pro number as an upgrade key so that I didn't have to wipe anything (the Lenovo Toolbox software is actually good - not crap like what HP and Dell puts on their systems). I've been looking for a nice thin and light system that will handle VM's, a decent amount of RAM, and doesn't cost a lot, for a long time. Lenovo is finally able to deliver, and in no way is it with thanks to Intel. AMD Vision Pro is by far the most economical and value-rich platform for business laptops.

"the Lenovo [super] netbooks look really sweet, but they ain't cheap, or as cheap as the typical netbook from other companies." They are when you compare them to other business-class ultraportables. They aren't the same as a consumer netbook. Comparing it against something like an Acer Aspire One or Dell Mini 10 isn't an accurate comparison. Acer makes a Timeline model that compares, but it's more expensive. Dell makes a "business-class netbook" called the Latitude 2100. It's an Atom with much lower performance than the x100e, crap graphics, and it even sports a much higher introductory price point: http://www1.ca.dell.com/ca/en/business/Laptops/laptop-latitude-2100/pd.a... That system just can't compete with the value proposition of the x100e. Oh, and the x100e is going to be available soon with the same Athlon Neo dual-core that the Edge 13 already has. Currently it's a single-core version (just FYI: Atom netbooks are all single-core, unless you get one the odd ones with a desktop dual-core version of the processor - the older 330 or the newer D510)

"Do you enjoy the features coming in IE9? Thank Firefox (some may even argue Chrome.)" Sorry, but support for webslices, hardware accelerated rendering, and "accelerators" themselves are all innovations that Microsoft produced. I consider Firefox and Safari to be the furthest behind in software technologies and innovation. IE7 was the first browser to break free of the menu-driven UI. Chrome has one innovation: their sandbox model. Opera's UI actually one-ups IE's IMO, but it's proven to be a buggy mess in my own experiences. IE is one of the most stable browsers that I've used. Stable, not just from a reliability standpoint, but also because it's a known quantity. Major versions remain on the market for a while, and it's a platform that a web developer can target without having to constantly change their code because some minor update changes functionality, or supports some kind of new tag or function that may or may not be part of a proposed or real possible future web standard. Firefox does that with minor updates. So does Safari. So does Chrome. So does Opera, to a lesser extent. Take a good hard look at Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, and tell me that they aren't changing HTML support from one minor version to another. You can't, because they are. There is only 1 rendering engine version for the lifespan of IE7, one for IE8, one for IE9, etc. Hotfixes don't add extra functionality or change rendering behaviours.

"the iPhone started out light years ahead of its competition" Ahem....the iPhone was a flashy dud when it came out. It didn't widely catch on until Apple opened it up to third party apps. Worldwide, it still isn't the most favoured smartphone OS by a long shot, and you can only really count it as being a favoured platform in its home market - the US (the same goes for Mac's BTW). "Android, WebOS, and Windows Phone are the ones that really need to knock our socks off to get our attention." WebOS at least makes an attempt to differ somewhat from the iPhone and Android (which are both nearly identical in concept and design). Windows Phone takes the platform to a completely whole different level though. Their concept rests behind the idea that a productive UI should be simple, but just can't exist on a single, small screen. So they step back, design an integrated, mostly "application-less" (and window-less) UI from the ground up, and turn the phone into the "window" that shows you a small cross-section of the UI at a time. That's a much more innovative concept than just building on a computer-based metaphor of having independent applications that load. Microsoft has tried at different times to get rid of UI concepts that dwell on applications, instead looking at a solution to what the user wants to do. And they've gotten very good at it over the years. Apple, meanwhile, has kept on the icon-driven application metaphor time-and-time-again. If somebody thinks that's somehow innovative, then they need to re-read the dictionary. We could debate this forever. In fact, Paul makes some pretty silly arguments about legacy versions of Windows Mobile, one of which I find particularly funny: "A phone shouldn't have a Start Menu" Oh yes, because having a customizable, quick-access list of your favourite applications is just completely outmoded isn't it? Meanwhile, Apple has gone to great strides to get users to quick lists of their apps (Home screen reordering, and the newly added program groups), but they know that any attempt to limit the number of apps that users can mark as favourites will just cut into their bottom line because it means they will probably stop paying for crap from the App Store and settle on their choices.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9zDv8BivYw Not me, but it just shows that multitasking is quite smooth in the new beta.

Good update from Apple, I personally think they're going about Multi-tasking the right way for the vast majority of users although it will, of course, be a method that gets flack from the geek community. For 90%+ of users it'll be a very good compromise between functionality and useability, not to mention the battery life savings. I'm even kinda looking forward to iAd, as odd as that sounds. I have no problems with ads in free software but the current methods really do suck and guarantee I won't look at 'em. If they introduce ads that are basically mini-apps offering exclusive content (the Toy Story 3 example was a good 'un) for products I'm interested in.... yeah, I'd be happy with that. The one thing I did want to bring up though is Windows Phone 7. Now, let me be clear here, I'd like to see this (long overdue) move from MS pay off and deliver a proper competitor to iPhone and Android. But I can't help but feel todays anouncment makes WP7 seem a bit... outdated. It still has that unique interface and some nice ideas but in terms of functionality it's waaaay back in the pack now and its one potential killer feature in Xbox Live integration is now matched, to a certain degree, by Apple. Granted Game Center won't have the built in userbase of Live but it WILL be running on 50 million device (or more, not sure how many of th 85 Million they've sold are original iPhones and iPod Touch units) and that's one hell of a starting point. Plus Apple is going to have a few months headstart in terms of marketing and that can make a LOT of difference to public perception. Yes the hardware for WP7 will be nice but is it really going to be that much different to Android handsets? The interface is striking but also a bit... weird and I can see that turning off a lot of people, especially with the 'window onto a larger scene' theme they're using. I really think MS need to step up development if they can and at least deliver some of the basic functionality that was in WM 6.5 at launch time and not at some mysterious future date with some form of multi-tasking being the obvious candidate. Confirming what's going to happen wth OS updates would be a good idea too, I can't be the only one who got frustrated with the complete lack of updates for most devices in the WM days surely?

Another paid post by Microsoft. Great work!

@SacredCow, I would also say the following: Like multitasking on 4.0? Thank WinMo, Android and WebOS. Like the "magical" iPad? Thank MS for blazing that path. And thank Motion Computing and Fujitsu while you are at it. @Sub, regarding the planned obsolescence bit. They gotta move along some time. I doubt anyone is still rocking a first gen iPhone, and if they are, they won't really care about 4.0. Hardware evolves, and the software evolves with it. Assuming anyone will still support and upgrade a 3 year old device in the rapidly changing mobile device market is just not practical. @RJ, OK, I'll bite. Name me at least one thing on the iPad that you consider "magical". Regarding iAd, even the Apple fanboys at BGR and Engadget were subdued about this announcement. Just what we need, more intrusive, excuse me, "interactive" ads embedded in our apps.

Did anybody notice a couple of things that Jobs did yesterday? I picked up on these after reading and watching the announcement last night. - When talking about porting iBooks to the phone, he seemed very lax, like he thinks it is a bad idea. Of course he is the one that said that people do not read, so maybe he is just eating crow over that comment and pouting a bit because he was wrong. - When asked about how he thinks AT&T's network would handle the extra data usage caused by "multi-tasking", he pretty much blew the reporter off by saying that it would not cause any extra data usage. When further asked about people streaming Pandora while doing other tasks, he still stuck to his comment about not much data use. Why is it then, that a warning comes up when running Pandora for the first time, stating that data usage is high and to ensure that you have an unlimited data plan. Do you think that he was hinting at a Verizon or Sprint move coming up or just being a clueless @$$? --tayme

@Waethorn "Ahem....the iPhone was a flashy dud when it came out. It didn't widely catch on until Apple opened it up to third party apps." This article reinforces the point I was making, mostly in the list near the end: http://counternotions.com/2009/08/26/pre-iphone/ (Yeah, it mentions the App Store, but most of the points are about the original model.) "Worldwide, it still isn't the most favoured smartphone OS by a long shot, and you can only really count it as being a favoured platform in its home market - the US (the same goes for Mac's BTW)." Of course it's not the most popular smartphone OS in the world. It only runs on three devices! WP7 does introduce a new UI. I can't deny that. Whether it's desirable remains to be seen. Innovation doesn't necessarily involve sweeping changes to existing paradigms. If it's truly a better UI, then you'll see others copying it, just like they copied the iPhone's multi-touch, home screens, etc. @Grannyville "If Apple give me the option to remove the Mail, Maps, Stocks, Voice Memo, Weather and YouTube apps from my phone,I'll be happy with 4.0 update :)" Put them all in a folder and stick it on the very last home page by itself. Name the folder "File 13" to be cute.

@subzero, pretty much if you dont like it, it will succeed. Dont, I repeat, dont be a financial analyst. "to stop Android from pushing right pass them this year." Dream on. Most real analysts predict 2012 before Android is on par market share wise with the iPhone. I agree with that prediction because Android is the replacement for WinMO. A flood of some good and plenty of under powered junk (we tested 3-4 1.6 Android phones back in October from Sprint and Verizon here at work) being provided by all vendors. Has the Droid even caught up to iPhone 3G sales yet? How about Nexus? The iPad will surpass Nexus sales, total sales in 2010 if it has not already. Not allowing multitasking on the 3G was a smart move. It will be allowed on the 3GS/its Touch partner, iPhone 4.0 hardware/its Touch partner, and the iPad because those devices have enough horse power to use it with out killing the experience.

"If it's truly a better UI, then you'll see others copying it, just like they copied the iPhone's...home screens" Huh? Apple invented a page of grid-aligned icons for launching individual applications?? Have you not even seen a cellphone (or computer) before 2007? @sub: I have to laugh at your comments about ads, and the fact that you have an Android phone, considering who makes Android.

"this is synthetic limitation of Apple to inflate upgrade rates." Or done to provide stability and battery life. @nonameAtAll I dont doubt the multitasking features could run on the 3G. Its probably a lowest common denominator factor. Average user opens 10 apps and leaves them running....complains the device is slow. On a 3G that probably is not an ideal situation because of its slower hardware.

"I can't believe that a way to bring more ads to one's phone is described as a feature !!!!" I'm not super thrilled about this, but it should lead to better apps and lower prices. Its kind of like TV. You can pay for HBO and not have commercials or you can watch NBC for free and have to view them. This "feature" is really for developers and not end users. The user gets apps for free if they want to put up with ads, as so many already do. This should just make it easy for the developer to implement and manage the revenue generation part of the app, thus allowing them to spend more time and creativity (hopefully) on the app itself.

@yoshipod Why do you assume that an app with ads is going to be free? all iAD does is increase profit for apple and developers and does nothing for the end user at all.

"Why do you assume that an app with ads is going to be free? all iAD does is increase profit for apple and developers and does nothing for the end user at all." Most apps that are free come with some form of advertising. Many apps also use advertising for their "free trials". Of course there is nothing preventing ads from appearing in paid apps, save for consumer backlash. People already tolerate ads in their free apps, so I don't think this is going to be much of an issue to them. My guess is that should a developer put adds in a paid for app, they will suddenly find their sales plummeting.

Did I miss the part where they're coming to Verizon? Damn, AT&T signal is a 25 minute drive from m house. I hope Windows Phone team is listening, if 7 is going to be useful at all it needs to multi-task from day 1.