Apple fans around the world will be thrilled to hear that the next version of the iPhone operating system has finally been officially unveiled and multitasking is heading up a wealth of new features.
The iPhone has been criticised for some time over its lack of multitasking, meaning that switching between apps was not as swift as some would have liked. Apple has changed all of this with version 4.0 of its smartphone software platform, but there is more going on than multitasking alone.
Apple has made sure that the user interface (UI) is tailored to multitasking and you can now view every active app via an onscreen pop-up window.
Apple has been keen to emphasise that if it had implemented multitasking in haste, it could have ended up with users eating into the iPhone’s battery life faster than intended. Instead it has compartmentalised the multitasking to make it functional as well as efficient.
In a demonstration of the new platform, Apple showed that you could run music streaming app Pandora whilst simultaneously browsing iTunes to buy the track that is playing. Then it showed that VoIP app Skype can remain active whilst you are making standard voice calls.
Apple has added an intelligent folder grouping system to iPhone OS 4.0, which essentially pulls together similar apps and games to make them logically accessible and easy to find.
Literature lovers will be pleased with the addition of iBooks to the iPhone, as this was previously only available to early iPad adopters. If you happen to own both of these Apple devices, then iBooks can also synchronise content between the two.
