Multitasking

With iPhone 4.0, certain functions will be able to run in the background; For example, you might be listening to streaming internet radio through an app, now you can exit that app and do something else, and the streaming music will keep playing. GPS applications will be able to keep tracking your location while you check in with another app too.

Apple have done exactly the right thing by limiting full multitasking to those core functions that need it, while not letting everything do it. This way you won’t chew through your battery too quickly, and you aren’t likely to have the phone lockup or crash, which is a problem with other systems where full multitasking is running.

For applictions (like games, for example) that are not allowed to multitask, when you exit them their state will be saved, so when you go back, the app or game will be exactly where you left it. This is perfect for most apps as you can go back to where you left off (which is all you really do with most apps on a PC too), but while you are away, the app is not chewing up your phones battery and processing power.

App Folders

Realising that apps are the big reason so many people are switching to the iPhone, Apple are making it easier to organise them with a folderu system in iPhone OS 4.0. Now you can group similar apps together in a folder. The first thing I’ll be doing when I get the update will be putting all my games into a folder, so I won’t have to troll through them all to find other apps.

Local Notifications

The new OS will let applications send notifications internally, rather than just from an external server as it is now. This means, for example, you could be cooking a recipe using an app, which allows you to tell it when you put the food in the oven; Instead of you having to time it yourself, you could close the app and go do other stuff, and when the time is up, the app can notify you the food is ready. This will be great for apps that upload stuff to facebook, flickr and the like too, so you can close them and do something else while the data uploads, and the app can let you know when it’s done.

New Mail App

The Mail application has been ugpraded too, so now if you operate multiple email accounts, you can see all your email in a unified inbox. Another welcome addition is mutliple exchange accounts, something that we will be using extensively as soon as it’s available.

Custom Backgrounds

Not a big deal, but something a lot of people would like, is the ability to set a custom background image for the entire phone experience, not just the lock screen. Well, soon, you will be able to.

There are plenty of other minor adjustments and updates, and we think that iPhone OS 4.0 will ensure the iPhone is the lead smart phone for at least another year or so; If Apple manage to release another hardware update later this year, the competiton will have to do plenty to close the gap all over again.

They just added video support to the app, so I’m guessing the plan to hike the price, so now would be the time to pick this one up.

See it on iTunes – See it on Facebook – See it on the web

In fact, all the Dr Seuss apps are $1.19 today! If you have little ones, now would be a great time to stock up on these classics.

These are the Dr. Seuss-branded apps currently available:

- The Cat in the Hat e-book

- Dr. Seuss’s ABC e-book

- How the Grinch Stole Christmas! e-book

- Dr. Seuss Camera – The Cat in the Hat Edition

- Dr. Seuss Camera – The Grinch Edition

- Grinchmas! kid’s game

If the people that run Tennis can get their act together and release an App that provides this kind of coverage for every major tournament, so you don’t have to download a new app all the time, they could be on a winner.

Other sports, take note!

Many business owners are growing increasily concerned about their staff’s use of work computers, and in particular, worried about the sorts of websites that staff may be visiting;

Now, with our Network Monitoring solution, business owners can take control of their network, having quick and easy access to reports of what their staff are visiting online, as well as being able to monitor chat software and other communications.

If you’d like to know more, give us a call today!

iSteam is what found it’s way onto my iPhone, and it’s a fun app, along the lines of iBobble, both of which were free, but now with popularity and press coverage comes a price tag of $1.19. Probably not apps’ I’d pay for, but fun to have if they ever go free again. (As of writing, iFog is still free)

This is good news for the many customers Telstra force to use this service because it refuses to expand it’s ADSL network to accommodate demand. Here’s hoping our government gets its finger out and gets moving on the national broadband network, which will, if done right, solve this anti competitive problem once and for all.

In the mean time, users suffering along with the Bigpond Wireless service should phone Bigpond immediately and ensure they are on one of these “liberty” plans. The cost of the previous plans for excess data can easily lead to hundreds or thousands of dollars in excess charges.

Applications are the big story with the iPhone, and so far I haven’t found too many killer applications, but certainly the facebook application is very good, allowing me to update my status, check in with friends and upload photos direct from my phone.

There are plenty of fun games to keep you amused, and as time goes on, we can expect the iPhone App Store to grow into an amazing resource, turning your iPhone into just about anything you need it to be.

The app store auto checks for updated versions of apps you have installed, however the update process messes up your home screen layout because it adds the application a second time, installs the updated version, then removes the previous one. Thats pretty stupid, hopefully they’ll fix that.

Web browsing is unbelievably good on the iPhone. For a long time I couldn’t believe anyone would seriously browse the web on a phone, and for the most part that has always been true, with users taking advantage of “mobile” versions of their favourite site. But with the iPhone, you don’t need to; Using Safari on the iPhone is a breeze and you can quite honestly surf the regular web with no problem at all.

Reports are coming in that some users have a “yellowed” screen. Mine is beautiful and clear, so happily mine is unaffected. In fact, compared with my staff’s iMate Jam, the screen is an order of magnitude better than the competition. It is just gorgeous.

Which leads me to another great feature; I watch quite a few video podcasts, and now I just have iTunes download them to the iPhone and watch them whenever I have spare time to do so, wherever I happen to be. With 16 gigs of storage (nobody is buying the 8 Gig model when the 16 is not much more money), there’s plenty of room for heaps of videos.

The exchange integration is fantastic; Adam and I now have access to our email everywhere we go. This has already made it so much easier for us to keep on top of our growing email inbox, as there are plenty of moments through the day that would otherwise be spent twiddling thumbs, and now we can check our email. We’ve even stopped using SMS, preferring to send emails.

With exchange integration comes contacts and calendar syncing, and that is awesome as well. I started assigning photos to people in my address book on the iPhone, and was impressed to see these photos suddenly appear in Outlook as well. Now if I need someones details, staff in the office can put the contact info into my contacts folder, and my phone gets it straight away. Brilliant!

For those that do continue to use SMS, the iPHones SMS interface is to die for; Each contact has its own threaded view, showing you each sms as it was sent/recieved, so you can review your entire converstation with that person. It is just brilliant.

Finally, I thought I’d touch on some of the complaints that have been levelled against the iPhone. Some have suggested the bluetooth is no good; The facts are that it does the job (my iPhone talks to my headset and GPS just fine), and if enough people want expanded features, I’m sure a firmware update can accommodate that. Its certainly no reason not to own one.

No MMS: Who cares! I can email a photo instead which is vastly more useful, or I can zap it up to facebook.

No Card Slot: Who Cares! I have 16 Gig of space, which is bigger than any card I could get.

No Copy & Paste: Yes, this one annoys me just a little, but for the number of times I would need it, its not that big of a deal.

No voice dialling: If voice dialling worked on my old phone, I would possibly care; Voice dialling, even on my previous expensive Motorola, just didn’t work reliably enough to use it. At least the iPhone’s large screen makes it easy to select a number to dial manually.

No Video Recording: Sheesh, how much does this thing have to do for you before you are happy? Besides, you can get an app to provide video recording, so no need to worry!

So, to wrap up, I think the iPhone is a wonderful device, that will get better with age as the App store expands. Certainly not for everyone, but for those that need email on the go, and want their media along for the ride, I don’t believe there is a better option. Just make sure you don’t sign up with Telstra, their plans are very very expensive!

I’ve also got to start bugging the Windows Live Team. I know they read the blog here as they’ve commented, so hopefully they will read this too; Put out Live Writer for the iPhone! I can blog from the phone using Safari, but a custom app would be super awesome!

They’re bringing a USB Stick style modem to market, which would be sweet for laptop users as it’s less painful that the “blob on a cable” you get now. There is also talk of a router unit that could be used at home to give multiple home PC’s access.

What annoys me is that Huawei only sell their products to mobile phone companies. Its much the same deal that Optus and Telstra have with cable modems; You have to buy the modems from the carriers. That means we the consumers end up paying much more than necessary for the hardware.

Until a manufacturer steps up and offers these products through normal channels, I guess we’ll just have to accept it.