Details continue to leak with latest iPhone OS 4 seeds

The latest iPhone OS 4 gives us new insight into how certain features will work, as well as details on a new API. HD video, file sharing, and task managing have all made an appearance so far.

<a href='http://meincmagazine.com/apple/news/2010/05/details-continue-to-leak-with-latest-iphone-os-4-seeds.ars'>Read the whole story</a>

 

[amardeus]

They need a carrier update not a OS update.

 

[Game_Ender]

Why is there not wireless file transfer of some type? The Dropbox app is pretty cool, in that you can open files stored there in other applications, but there is no way to edit and resave files.

 

[dlux]

So are NDAs pretty much an industry joke these days?

 

[Giolon]

So are NDAs pretty much an industry joke these days?

Well you have to figure when every person who has an iPhone OS development license has access to the beta, it's going to be pretty hard to track a leak down and enforce your NDA.

 

[jimmyeatapple]

What about wireless sink!!!


What do I do when I am on the go and want to wash my hands! Gah!

 

[0megapart!cle]

I just jailbroke my iPhone last night (insanely easy with Spirit, BTW), and I couldn't tell you how much I care less about iPhone OS 4 now.

 

[Manuphoto]

What about wireless sink!!!

Spelling does matter

 

[Sbrocket]

You can't really call it a task manager unless its managing existing tasks, and since the only tasks that are going to be running in the background are certain Apple apps (which has always been true), the multitasking bar isn't really a task manager. Third party applications are suspended - they aren't actually still running in the background - so removing them from that list isn't actually managing running processes on the phone, which was the gripe from Steve during the 4.0 press event.

 

[pualo]

So are NDAs pretty much an industry joke these days?

Weren't they always?

 

[jimmyeatapple]

Manusnake wrote:

jimmyeatapple wrote:
What about wireless sink!!!

Spelling does matter

Read the entire post??? the part about washing hands? How do I phonetically spell sync, sink, or write the phrase "There are three theres in the English language..."??

 

[TheAce-MGT]

So are NDAs pretty much an industry joke these days?

Well you have to figure when every person who has an iPhone OS development license has access to the beta, it's going to be pretty hard to track a leak down and enforce your NDA.

I dunno, I'm part of the beta myself, although my current project isn't for the iPhone OS at all. But I still look and what not, but I don't go out and talk about it because frankly,breaking the NDA risks losing my developer account and all the apps on it. Which would definitely mean losing my job.

But I mean, there's a LOT of people with access to this, it's really stupid to think they even bother with the NDA. I mean it's not like Google doesn't have access to it, I mean they must have a developer license for when they were making Google Voice. I would bet MS has one simply to look into Office for iPhone potential. When it was publicly released and you didn't have to pay for the iPhone OS 2 SDK, it was under NDA for an additional 6 months or so afterwards. When everyone and their grandmothers could check it out, you just couldn't talk about it.

Wait a minute... Apple is to NDAs what MLB and NFL is to Copyright notices.

 

[Invid]

So are NDAs pretty much an industry joke these days?

Well you have to figure when every person who has an iPhone OS development license has access to the beta, it's going to be pretty hard to track a leak down and enforce your NDA.

Not to mention many people have their UUIDs registered as development devices through a registered developer. I assume those other people aren't required to sign an NDA.

 

[Manuphoto]

Manusnake wrote:

jimmyeatapple wrote:
What about wireless sink!!!

Spelling does matter

Read the entire post??? the part about washing hands? How do I phonetically spell sync, sink, or write the phrase "There are three theres in the English language..."??

Sorry missed the joke, tried to make it funny (thus the smiley). English is not my native language. You could be less aggressive though...

Ça m'apprendra à faire des blagues.

 

[Doug Dolde]

I just jailbroke my iPhone last night (insanely easy with Spirit, BTW), and I couldn't tell you how much I care less about iPhone OS 4 now.

I did the same but I DO care about OS 4 because it has most of the features I jailbroke it for AND will do a better job of implementing them. My iPhone seems a little less responsive since the jb.

One app I'd jb for though is PDAnet to be able to make the iPhone into a WIFE (oops I mean WIFI or was that a Freudian slip) router.

 

[LeonardNimrod]

Last, but certainly not least, Apple has added what can be best described as a task manager for quitting applications that are running in the background. Some may remember that Steve Jobs indicated at the iPhone 4 media event that task managers are evil and should be reviled, but apparently things have changed.

That has been there since the 1st Beta, released the day of the presentation you mention. What has changed in the 3rd Beta is the ability to hold down a single suspended or previously used app to get them all to wiggle with the Kill badge appended. Previously you had to press-and-hold each and every item in the list, which was time consuming. Though, there is little reason to clean this out as Apple's backgrounding APIs are very slick.

 

[jimmyeatapple]

Sorry missed the joke, tried to make it funny (thus the smiley). English is not my native language. You could be less aggressive though...

No aggression intended

 

[0megapart!cle]

I did the same but I DO care about OS 4 because it has most of the features I jailbroke it for AND will do a better job of implementing them. My iPhone seems a little less responsive since the jb.

One app I'd jb for though is PDAnet to be able to make the iPhone into a WIFE (oops I mean WIFI or was that a Freudian slip) router.

I personally think that the CategoriesSB method of folders is better than the iPhone OS 4 method, IMO. But what about SBSettings? When in the hell am I going to be able to toggle important settings without backing out of the current app and rummaging through Settings? Not to mention the much better task switching that ProSwitcher provides than iPhone OS 4, and the actual use of the lock screen that LockInfo provides (along with improving push notifications greatly) I haven't even tried out vlc or similar players that will finally let the iPhone play xvid.

Performance really hasn't suffered for me yet on a 3GS, with all the above running.

 

[torok]

That task manager behavior has always been there...

 

[Brad Oliver]

What has changed in the 3rd Beta is the ability to hold down a single suspended or previously used app to get them all to wiggle with the Kill badge appended. Previously you had to press-and-hold each and every item in the list, which was time consuming. Though, there is little reason to clean this out as Apple's backgrounding APIs are very slick.

Yeah, it seems to me that if you kept your iPhone running for months on end without a reboot, the "task manager" list would just endlessly fill up with icons, so I view it not so much as a task killer (which it's not) but as a fast-app-switcher-cleaner-upper, which seems closer to the truth.

 

[kirkengaard]

Software history is full of people who innovate by saying "[x basic UI concept] doesn't work," and wind up having to do it anyways. Task management is no different. Hell, look at Ubuntu and the latest fluff over "window indicators" -- Shuttleworth says "we're ditching the taskbar and putting it all in the app itself," when what he means is taking a specific set of functions and making a new UI abstraction to handle them instead of putting them through the taskbar. The job doesn't change, just what you call the tool you invent to do it differently.

 

[Neil Twist]

What has changed in the 3rd Beta is the ability to hold down a single suspended or previously used app to get them all to wiggle with the Kill badge appended. Previously you had to press-and-hold each and every item in the list, which was time consuming. Though, there is little reason to clean this out as Apple's backgrounding APIs are very slick.

Yeah, it seems to me that if you kept your iPhone running for months on end without a reboot, the "task manager" list would just endlessly fill up with icons, so I view it not so much as a task killer (which it's not) but as a fast-app-switcher-cleaner-upper, which seems closer to the truth.

I've always been under the impression that it's a 'recent apps' mechanism, where the user just doesn't care if it's running in the background or not unless it does something special like VOIP or audio, but if wanting to switch between apps quickly then double home will do.

 

[VideoGameTech]

Apparently Apple / Jobs keeps saying certain things are "bad" and won't be included in iPhone OS. Then when Apple includes them, hello! they're good. Of course, lots of other companies do that, so nothing surprising there.

Any word on real multitasking, not just for Apple apps? That seemed like a big deal that was expected in OS 4.

 

[KiwiPhred]

It's not really a task manager, certainly not in the sense of the Windows task manager. It's a 3rd party running app manager that allows you to quit any running 3rd party app. Pretty much equivalent to quitting running apps from the dock in Mac OS X. To label it a task manager and then to say that this is contrary to Steve's comments on task managers, well... I call shenanigans.

 

[LeonardNimrod]

It's not really a task manager, certainly not in the sense of the Windows task manager. It's a 3rd party running app manager that allows you to quit any running 3rd party app. Pretty much equivalent to quitting running apps from the dock in Mac OS X. To label it a task manager and then to say that this is contrary to Steve's comments on task managers, well... I call shenanigans.

To be clear, it's for all apps not just 3rd-party apps and it lists apps that are currently using the backgrounding APIs or apps that are completely inactive, not using any RAM at all. As stated by other posters (and what you are alluding to) it's just a "Recent Apps" remover option. Unfortunately, this will get pushed out by the anti-Apple crowd as a Task Killer.

 

[orionxl]

What about wireless sink!!!


What do I do when I am on the go and want to wash my hands! Gah!

iSaliva

 

[orionxl]

It's not really a task manager, certainly not in the sense of the Windows task manager. It's a 3rd party running app manager that allows you to quit any running 3rd party app. Pretty much equivalent to quitting running apps from the dock in Mac OS X. To label it a task manager and then to say that this is contrary to Steve's comments on task managers, well... I call shenanigans.

Right, pretty much opens the definition of "task manager" up to include "Operating System".

 

[0megapart!cle]

I'll take ProSwitcher any day over the half-assed solution Apple has come up with.

 

[Invid]

I'll take ProSwitcher any day over the half-assed solution Apple has come up with.

Proswitcher looks great, but it's really slow to initialize. I've switched to Circuitous which looks a lot like Apple's implementation, except vertical.

 

[h3nrch]

Task management aside... the folder/stack feature is a big win for those who have migrated much of their daily workflow away from desktop computing. My biggest disappointment with OS4 is the lack of a unified notification queue. This is one area where Android is superior. Another frustration gone unaddressed is contact merging across mobile me and (now multiple) Exchange accounts.

From a development standpoint, the multitasking API's are beautifully thought out. Geolocation and timer events are very long overdue and welcome. I'm curious to see how the "check-in" apps like FourSquare will leverage this.

 

[Aurich]

My biggest disappointment with OS4 is the lack of a unified notification queue. This is one area where Android is superior.

iPhone notifications are really pathetic, WebOS kills it here too comparatively. And it only becomes more embarrassing when they show up on the iPad, looking even more out of place and silly. I was really hoping for some innovation in this area too.

 

[number_one]

The Apple fanboys in this thread trying to use semantic word games over the term "task manager" are amusing me.

If it is an interface that in some way manages tasks then it is a task manager, period. Just because there are some differences of implementations with task managers on other systems it is utterly ridiculous to act like it is not a task manager just to try to make it appear that Steve didn't put his foot in his mouth.

If Apple has come up with an implementation that is so ingenious with performance then why even have the functionality to remove apps from the background? The fact of the matter is that Steve said what he said in the moment simply to throw mud on other platforms, but when it gets down to the details the iPhone will have a task manager just like every other platform out there that supports multitasking. Steve has done this sort of thing numerous times before and will do it numerous times in the future.

The real difference is not with the task manager, but with how Apple is handling the backgrounding of tasks. The backgrounding APIs may be a notable innovation if they really prove to allow most application background activity to work without significantly reducing battery life. The tradeoff, as others have mentioned, is that Apple is not really providing true multitasking capabilities. If your app does not use the backgrounding APIs or if your app needs functionality that is not present in those APIs then you are SOL in the multitasking department on the iPhone. Time will tell if this tradeoff is a good one, but as devices get more powerful and batteries get better I can't see much future need to have the complexity of special API just to get basic multitasking capabilities.

 

[HarveyNick]

@number_one

Er... but you're playing semantics as well. Let me try. There's a difference between "a task manager," i.e. any program which lets you manage tasks, and "the windows task manager," the specific user interface used on Windows for this purpose. What Scott Forstall (if memory serves it was him, and not Steve) made fun of is WinMob's unwieldy and bloated (for a phone) clone of the second. I remember it well from by old WinMob handset. There's a bit of a difference between a dense page of text columns and a set of buttons.

What I'd really like is if the iPhone OS let you close programs by sliding them upwards and out of the list. But yes, that would be a direct steal from WebOS.

 

[robotic_tourist]

Wireless sink is bloated overkill. Why carry around a sink just to wash your hands. The iPhone will have an alcohol gel dispenser. Your hands might not be much cleaner, but the bacteria will mostly be dead.

 

[0megapart!cle]

I'll take ProSwitcher any day over the half-assed solution Apple has come up with.

Proswitcher looks great, but it's really slow to initialize. I've switched to Circuitous which looks a lot like Apple's implementation, except vertical.

I assume you are running on a 3g or earlier? On a 3gs, proswitcher runs beautifully.

 

[JPan]

The problem I have with the task manager is not some functionality you do not have to use but that it takes the double click on the home button function. Seriously those are just fanboys battling it out. The important question is if the iPhone will remain as stable, performant and power efficient as before. Everything else is semantics.

But using home button double click? I mean come on after I found out that I could quickly skip or pause a song with a double click my Touch finally became usable as a mp3 player. Not having the ability to skip a song without actually unlocking/navigating to mp3 app ... would be pretty much deadly for use.

 

[Shudder]

Agree with the notification comments. HD, multitasking, widget, who cares. The iPhone has been an embarrassment from day 1 with its pathetic notifications and empty status bar (which would've been a nice place for them ). Android is great with these, I'm sure webOS is too. Even the blackberry 5 years ago had better notifications.

But I guess apps are all that matters. Can't monetize notifications, so why bother eh?

 

[ayelao]

If it is an interface that in some way manages tasks then it is a task manager, period. Just because there are some differences of implementations with task managers on other systems it is utterly ridiculous to act like it is not a task manager just to try to make it appear that Steve didn't put his foot in his mouth.

And it's utterly ridiculous to assume that any user-facing implementation details in an NDA-wrapped beta are not going to change.

EDIT: And it's actually quite amusing that, after lambasting "Apple fanboys" for playing semantics, you go ahead and play semantics in the subsequent paragraphs.

EDIT 2:

My biggest disappointment with OS4 is the lack of a unified notification queue. This is one area where Android is superior.

iPhone notifications are really pathetic, WebOS kills it here too comparatively. And it only becomes more embarrassing when they show up on the iPad, looking even more out of place and silly. I was really hoping for some innovation in this area too.

Completely agreed on this. The implementation has always felt like it was straight out of -- I don't even know. It's feels quite amateurish; a single modal dialog box that has no extensibility whatsoever. Apple should feel slightly ashamed to even have it attributed to their company's name, let alone their premier platform.

I was hoping OS 4 would address this, but given Apple's iterative approach, I suspect 5 will focus on these elements. OS 4 contained more changes, both user-facing and underlying framework, than any other release I can remember.

 

[RichardTH]

I hope the 4th is more smooth for running high resolution games.

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[Brad Oliver]

What has changed in the 3rd Beta is the ability to hold down a single suspended or previously used app to get them all to wiggle with the Kill badge appended. Previously you had to press-and-hold each and every item in the list, which was time consuming. Though, there is little reason to clean this out as Apple's backgrounding APIs are very slick.

Yeah, it seems to me that if you kept your iPhone running for months on end without a reboot, the "task manager" list would just endlessly fill up with icons, so I view it not so much as a task killer (which it's not) but as a fast-app-switcher-cleaner-upper, which seems closer to the truth.

I've always been under the impression that it's a 'recent apps' mechanism, where the user just doesn't care if it's running in the background or not unless it does something special like VOIP or audio, but if wanting to switch between apps quickly then double home will do.

Possibly; I haven't seen it first-hand myself. But if it lists recent apps, what's the determining factor for "recent"? I hardly ever reboot my phone, so there'd need to be some smart logic to manage that to keep it from endlessly growing. Put another way, when will the OS know that the crappy game I just downloaded, played for a minute and quit in disgust should be removed from the recent list?