iPhone OS 4.0 Claimed to Include Multitasking, Revamped Interface

[Matthew Yohe]

The list so far I have seen that should of been there on day 1.

3G
MMS
Multitasking
Tethering.
Voice dialing.

3G: Apple needed a product that people could use throughout the day on one charge, otherwise it could've easily flopped. You can barely do that today with a 3GS even with the higher capacity battery inside.

MMS: That's a carrier issue. AT&T's fault.

Multitasking: Apple didn't allow any 3rd party native apps on day one, so there was no real need for this. iPhone 1.0 was solid. What it did, it did well.

Tethering: Carrier issue. (Also, this hinges on the previous 3G comment. Without 3G, there is no need for tethering)

Voice Dialing: Not necessary for day 1. Reviewers early on complained about no ability to dial a contact with one press of a button, but that complaint quickly vanished when the public used the product.

The App store being about the only item I can let apple slide on.

How nice of you.

 

[grimmace]

Only good if it works on original iPhone. I don't care how old it is now. Everything has to work with it. Can't start removing the original from everything new. If they keep it going as they have in the past then it's all good. ATT is reaping too many rewards from all this too. Keep buying the latest iPhone people.. keep buying. I think 3Gs is still not quite there. Once 32gb and 5mpx camera come, then its getting there. That's when you can sell me your 3Gs for $50.

 

[rwilliams]

Let's be honest, even if iPhone OS4 doesn't have multitasking and the lot, we all know you are going to upgrade to it

Not until the jailbreaking community performs their magic. A shiny, pretty new interface would be great, but I have too much functionality from jailbreaking that I'd be sacrificing for aesthetics. No thanks.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

3G: Apple needed a product that people could use throughout the day on one charge, otherwise it could've easily flopped. You can barely do that today with a 3GS even with the higher capacity battery inside.

MMS: That's a carrier issue. AT&T's fault.

Multitasking: Apple didn't allow any 3rd party native apps on day one, so there was no real need for this. iPhone 1.0 was solid. What it did, it did well.

Tethering: Carrier issue. (Also, this hinges on the previous 3G comment. Without 3G, there is no need for tethering)

Voice Dialing: Not necessary for day 1. Reviewers early on complained about no ability to dial a contact with one press of a button, but that complaint quickly vanished when the public used the product.

If you want to let multitasking slide then fine-- Move it to the fact that it is very out dated not to have it and should of been there on day 1 launch of the app store.

.

Sorry but no 3G was an excuse on day one. You might be able to let it slide but I still blame apple for it failure

MMS-- Again sorry but no. Apple originally defended no MMS by calling it out dated. and AT&T had to do things to prevent MMS and that made a mess when it was added. If Apple removed the stick up it rear eariler on it would not of been an issue.

Voice Dial - Reason it should of been a day 1 a lot of dumb phones from BEFORE then had it already and most of the smart phone players already had it.

So that is why I putting them as things that should of been there day 1.

 

[schwell]

3G: Apple needed a product that people could use throughout the day on one charge, otherwise it could've easily flopped. You can barely do that today with a 3GS even with the higher capacity battery inside.

MMS: That's a carrier issue. AT&T's fault.

Multitasking: Apple didn't allow any 3rd party native apps on day one, so there was no real need for this. iPhone 1.0 was solid. What it did, it did well.

Tethering: Carrier issue. (Also, this hinges on the previous 3G comment. Without 3G, there is no need for tethering)

Voice Dialing: Not necessary for day 1. Reviewers early on complained about no ability to dial a contact with one press of a button, but that complaint quickly vanished when the public used the product.




How nice of you.

The original lack of MMS was Apple's fault. They did not support it with iPhone 2G or 3G. Apple added support with iPhone 3GS and related OS. The delay in making MMS available in the US after the 3GS launch was AT&T's fault, but that was a few months versus two years.

 

[Stella]

Sorry but no 3G was an excuse on day one. You might be able to let it slide but I still blame apple for it failure

MMS-- Again sorry but no. Apple originally defended no MMS by calling it out dated. and AT&T had to do things to prevent MMS and that made a mess when it was added. If Apple removed the stick up it rear eariler on it would not of been an issue.

Voice Dial - Reason it should of been a day 1 a lot of dumb phones from BEFORE then had it already and most of the smart phone players already had it.

So that is why I putting them as things that should of been there day 1.

The original iPhone was an unfinished product, just about good enough to release - as a very dump phone with a nice interface.

It relied on its pretty GUI to sell and certainly was no smartphone.

Apple made a ton of excuses of why regular features were missing, some of which were just laughable i.e., no native applications because SJ claimed 'could crash entire cell networks' - which of course, is virtually impossible.

 

[rwilliams]

The original iPhone was an unfinished product, just about good enough to release - as a very dump phone with a nice interface.

It relied on its pretty GUI to sell and certainly was no smartphone.

I agree. It was nowhere close to being a smartphone upon its initial release.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

The original iPhone was an unfinished product, just about good enough to release - as a very dump phone with a nice interface.

It relied on its pretty GUI to sell and certainly was no smartphone.

So as I said it comes back to a lot of day 1 issues. Things that should of been there over 2 years ago at release and really not any good excuse for not having them.

 

[William Gates]

I'm glad it won't support the original iPhone, I hope it doesn't support the 3G either. It's called progress. I'll be upgrading my original iPhone this summer anyway. 64 GB here I come!

 

[Stefano Lavori]

Replaceable battery

Battery will be replaceable. Any device costing over $800 out-of-pocket has got to have a longer shelf life than 2.5 years without the customer having to have the company crack it open and add a new battery.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Battery will be replaceable. Any device costing over $800 out-of-pocket has got to have a longer shelf life than 2.5 years without the customer having to have the company crack it open and add a new battery.

I think what limits cell phones life span so much is people replace them as soon as they are able to get a discount on a new one. If we paid full price of every phone we got I am willing to bet seeing 3+ year life out of a phone would become more common compared to the current life of a cell phone being 18-24 months.

 

[rwilliams]

I'm glad it won't support the original iPhone, I hope it doesn't support the 3G either. It's called progress. I'll be upgrading my original iPhone this summer anyway. 64 GB here I come!

Wonderful. When Microsoft basically forced people to upgrade their hardware to run Windows Vista, the masses cried foul and damned Gates and Co. But it's okay here (if true), all in the name of progress. It's amazing how people can talk out of both sides of their mouth.

 

[kdarling]

The original iPhone was an unfinished product, just about good enough to release - as a very dumb phone with a nice interface.

It's ironic that people give other phone OS's grief for not leaping ahead in glitzy UIs over the years, even though most of them also had to work on legacy equipment with almost no memory or display and no touch.

Yet it's also taking literally years for Apple, who started with a nice new platform, to add the most common functionality that's taken for granted on other phones.

The upshot is, design and change and testing takes time. Meanwhile, it's nice to be able to make those changes yourself, which is why people like other OS's and jailbroken iPhones.

 

[anonymouz1828]

Upgrade

Yeha .. I cant wait for the new iphone 4G. I am waiting specially for the design and hardware changes that I even forgot about multitask .. I m really happy with apple OS and multitask will be awesome. If Iphone 4g is similar to 3gs .. i will just upgrade to 3gs.

 

[distortedloop]

From a technical standpoint, there is no reason 4.0 should be available for the 3G and not for the original iPhone. They have the same processor and RAM. And unless they reduce the amount of RAM that the OS uses, I also doubt that it will work on the 3G. It has a difficult enough time running third party apps if you have Safari or iPod loaded in the background.

Doesn't the 2G iPhone and 3G iPhone use the exact same hardware, except for the 3G chip?

Therefore, the 3G is pretty much the 2G iPhone in terms of CPU power.

Yes, they both use the same Samsung 32-bit RISC ARM 1176JZ(F)-S v1.0[7]
620 MHz underclocked to 412 MHz[8]
PowerVR MBX Lite 3D GPU[9]

(per Wikipedia)

anyone elses 3g run slow? many times i start up an app and there is probably a 5 second lag till i can actually start typing. even after that, the typing isn't exactly synced up.

Gawd, yes. It is absolutely painful to use my old 3G after getting used to the snappiness of the 3G. That multi-second lag in typing is very annoying.

Too bad the jailbreak community can't come up with a way to overclock the thing for those of us willing to take the heat risks.

If I recall correctly, edge doesn't support simultaneous voice and data connections..

Yeah, but don't remind the "iDon't" crowd...iPhone/AT&T allowing simultaneous voice/data connections is one of the strongest reasons to stay off of Verizon (for me).

I seriously doubt this update will magically make all apps multitask - Apple likes much more control than that, and they don't like the user experience to be compromised by having to manage background processes etc. If I were Apple, I would do it like this:

1. Apps would have to be specifically developed and submitted to the app store to get "permission" to multitask. If an app did not need real multitasking (e.g. if it can just "save state" on quitting) it would be rejected.

I actually like most of your suggestions (that were snipped), but the parts in your post that I've bolded the text above are two more reasons to put a "yes" in the switch to Android internal debate I've been having ever since the Nexus One came out...

It's my fricking phone, dammit Apple, just let me make those decisions (battery life vs functionality). I do that every day with my laptop, and I am quite satisfied with my own power management model. I am sure I am intelligent enough to do the same with my frickin' phone.

I want them to fix Push. It only works for Apple apps, all other applications doesn't work at all or just few days.

Push works just fine for me with several third party apps: Mint.com, BeeJive, CNBC Real-Time, Trapster, etc. Worked so well on some of them I turned them off because they were annoyingly interrupting with too many alerts!

 

[Steven Haskayne]

At Home Gaming?

After seeing the use of the iphone as a remote control for the Parrot AR Drone (http://www.ardrone.org/parrot-ar-drone/en/) i think we're missing a trick here. Imagine if the iTablet/Slate/Pad has an HD output that connects to your television, then using bluetooth connects to your iPhone as a WiiMote type remote and the screen could be used as a secondary screen?

I can't help but imagine how different this would set apple apart from the likes of Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft in terms of originality and the potential to innovate with not only a tablet, but the iphone also.

Just a thought....

 

[William Gates]

Wonderful. When Microsoft basically forced people to upgrade their hardware to run Windows Vista, the masses cried foul and damned Gates and Co. But it's okay here (if true), all in the name of progress. It's amazing how people can talk out of both sides of their mouth.

When did I ever cry foul about upgrading hardware to run Vista? I understand that you have to leave old hardware behind at some point. Hell, I'm still running XP on my 1.5 year old laptop.

 

[distortedloop]

Battery will be replaceable. Any device costing over $800 out-of-pocket has got to have a longer shelf life than 2.5 years without the customer having to have the company crack it open and add a new battery.

$1000 - $3000 unibody MacBooks and MacBook Pros contradict that position. Apple claims (claimed) they weren't user replaceable...turns out they are if you don't mind disassembling the case. The new iProduct will probably be similar.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Damn dirty apes. Double post.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Sent to apple.

Thanks for the dry shove, Apple! Way to reward your early adopters.

I've bought 4 top of the line iPhones already, and use the original because it's the most durable, and the battery life is superior. Last time around, you guys withheld video, even though the hardware was capable of it anyway, and this time, what could possibly be the justification for this? Guess I'll have to jailbreak again, to get the functionality this otherwise perfectly good phone is capable of. Or were we supposed to take all 8 million original iphones and throw them in landfills? Is that "progress" too? Planned obsolescence is wasteful and disgusting.

Hey, what do you think the odds are that I'm gonna rush right out and buy whatever new 1st gen device they're coming out with on the 27th?

 

[Stella]

So as I said it comes back to a lot of day 1 issues. Things that should of been there over 2 years ago at release and really not any good excuse for not having them.

Yep..

It's ironic that people give other phone OS's grief for not leaping ahead in glitzy UIs over the years, even though most of them also had to work on legacy equipment with almost no memory or display and no touch.

Yet it's also taking literally years for Apple, who started with a nice new platform, to add the most common functionality that's taken for granted on other phones.

The upshot is, design and change and testing takes time. Meanwhile, it's nice to be able to make those changes yourself, which is why people like other OS's and jailbroken iPhones.

Nokia had been working on a touch screen device even before the iPhone had been released- they needed the device plus the ability for the OS ( S60 / Symbian ) to support touch screens. It takes time to do this - though people will debate whether the touch screen phones of Nokia are up to par, or not.

Mobile OSX is still very much work in progress.. and isn't going to have rich functionality of other smartphone OSes over night.. it will be years. It hasn't been that long since Mobile OSX gained Copy and Paste. Features have to be thought out, and not just slapped on as an after thought - which isn't certainly Apple.

 

[binaryskies]

Oooo..Does this mean I will be able to listen to Pandora AND reply to a text or play a game?! I hope so! I've been waiting SO long for this..

 

[rwilliams]

When did I ever cry foul about upgrading hardware to run Vista? I understand that you have to leave old hardware behind at some point. Hell, I'm still running XP on my 1.5 year old laptop.

My apologies. I wasn't speaking about you specifically.

 

[kdarling]

Yes, they both use the same Samsung 32-bit RISC ARM 1176JZ(F)-S v1.0[7]
620 MHz underclocked to 412 MHz[8]
...
Too bad the jailbreak community can't come up with a way to overclock the thing for those of us willing to take the heat risks.

Note that no one knows what the actual speed rating is on the CPUs.

The "620Mhz" was only a guess due to the die layout being similar to CPUs that could be manufactured at that rating.

Chips are usually rated by testing, with lower speeds sold for less money and higher speeds for more. In general, companies don't pay for higher speeds than they plan to use.

 

[distortedloop]

I've bought 4 top of the line iPhones already...Hey, what do you think the odds are that I'm gonna rush right out and buy whatever new 1st gen device they're coming out with on the 27th?

I'd say about 99%, given that you've ran out and bought the new top of the line one each time in the past.

Most of us here will fall under the reality distortion field on the 27th and like good little lemmings march on down to the Apple Store and stand in line for one.

Oooo..Does this mean I will be able to listen to Pandora AND reply to a text or play a game?! I hope so! I've been waiting SO long for this..

I do that all the time. Just jailbreak your phone and install Backgrounder. Add ProSwitcher if you want to have coverflow-like switching between multitasking apps.

Honestly, jailbreaking is so easy and "safe" these days I don't understand why anyone with your type of complaint doesn't do it.

I've jailbroken a dozen phones since the original command-line terminal only method, and now you just run a program and it's done in a few minutes. None of them ever bricked. Everyone I've done it for loves it. I've even had one phone need warranty replacement for a hardware issues and the Apple Store employees gave me no hassle for having previously jailbroken the phone.