iPhone 4 launch day came and went and Number Four has taken over. Today, as the dust settles, we hope to move away from the hype and take a clear-headed look at what’s new in the iOS4. No, this isn’t a full-featured iPhone 4 review, nor is it intended to introduce you to the OS basics.
What’s new:
- Homescreen wallpapers
- Folder organization of the homescreen icons
- Multitasking and fast app switching
- Google/Wikipedia search in Spotlight
- Bluetooth keyboard pairing support
- SMS character counter
- SMS search
- Email threading
- Unified Email inbox
- Email archiving is now available when you setup Gmail
- Spell checker
- iPod music player can now create, edit and delete playlists
- 5x digital zoom in still camera
- Touch-focus in video capture (for video enabled iPhones)
- Keyboard layouts span over QWERTY, QWERTZ, and AZERTY
- Minor icon design facelifts
- Video call support (only in iPhone 4 and only over Wi-Fi)
- iBooks e-book and PDF reader
What’s still missing:
- No Flash support in the web browser
- No true multitasking for all applications
- iOS4 for iPhone 3G has limited new feature set
- Poor performance on iPhone 3G
- No quick toggles for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or 3G
- No social networking integration
- No info widgets on lockscreen or homescreen
- SMS tones are still not customizable
- No mass mark emails as read
- No proper file browser or access to the file system
- No USB mass storage mode
- No vibration feedback when touching the screen
- No Bluetooth file transfers to other mobile phones
- Contacts lack a swipe-to-delete or mass delete feature
- No SMS/MMS delivery notifications
- No smart dialing (but Spotlight is a somewhat of a substitute)
- No DivX or XviD video support and no official third-party application to play that
- The whole iPhone is too dependent on iTunes - you cannot add the same type of content (video, photos, apps) to the phone from two computers, a regular file management interface would have been much better
Turning on the iPhone 3GS with the new iOS 4 ported, reveals the usual menu layout but the first thing to notice is the homescreen wallpaper. Yes, we knew it will be there, we’ve seen it on jailbroken devices, but it’s still kinda cool to finally see it official. Apple at last have the one thing that should have been there from the very beginning.
The next advertised feature is folder organization. You can group up to twelve apps into a single folder. Check out the video below to see how it’s done:
It’s easy, isn’t it? Folder names are automatically generated depending on the selection of items you’re grouping together. But you can rename folders anytime. The folder icon is also created automatically – it simply displays the icons of the apps inside.
Multitasking
Now it’s time for multitasking. Just to be clear here, Apple gave due warning it wouldn’t be the multitasking that hardcore users expect. It’s more of a quick app switching than actual multitasking.
To start the task switcher you double click the hardware home button below screen. At the bottom of the screen, a side-scrollable row of icons will display, showing the running apps. You can kill apps by tapping and holding on an icon – you then hit the red switch that gets displayed.
Extended Spotlight search
Spotlight has been updated too – it now has shortcuts for search in your default internet search engine (Google/Yahoo/Bing) or Wikipedia. If you wouldn’t bother to open Safari you can type your search in Spotlight and tap on Wikipedia or Google. Safari will open automatically and will run that search.
News settings and security options
Let’s see what’s new in Settings. The guys over at Apple aren’t the kind to let you meddle deep inside your phone but still there are a few new tweaks inside.
It seems the Cellular Data on/off switch is now available on every iPhone, regardless of your carrier or country. It’s nothing new, but it now works properly.
There is a new security option for locking your phone too – you can now choose between a simple (4-digit) and a long alphanumeric lock code. We guess this makes some of you feel much safer.
As we mentioned in the Spotlight, you can set your preferred search engine in the Safari browser. The available options are Google, Yahoo and Bing.
The last piece of new stuff is in Keyboards. You can now choose your preferred keyboard layout: QWERTY or QWERTZ, for example. What’s more, you can set the layout of the Bluetooth keyboard you’re pairing.
Phonebook – faster contact adding, but still no social integration
The iOS phonebook hasn’t changed one bit, you’d think upon a casual look. It’s the same as Apple had it back on the first iPhone. OK, almost. There is one thing they did fix after all – the Edit Contact interface.All those annoying buttons for adding new phone/email/address/etc. are now replaced with text fields. You will never again be redirected to a new entry page, all contact’s details are filled directly on the main screen. Yes, it was about time.
SMS search and character counter, Email threading and archiving
Steve Jobs mentioned nothing at the unveiling (and with very good reasons), but this doesn’t mean the messaging app hasn’t got any new features.The first one is the SMS character counter, which honestly just took too long. It’s there finally, but to use it you need to activate it in the messaging settings first, because it’s disabled by default. Strange, isn’t it?
Gallery displays Albums, Events, Faces and Places
If you use iPhoto software on any of the Apple computers, you are now able to sync your Events, Places and Faces image holders. In iPhone’s gallery you will notice four tabs available at the bottom – Albums, Events, Faces and Places.As usual, Albums holds all of your synced, downloaded and captured images.
Photos in Events and Faces can be uploaded only if you’ve pre-created them on your computer with iPhoto photo organizer. Unfortunately, you can’t populate them with photos from your iPhone’s camera.
All geotagged photos (saved from web or shot with the iPhone) appear in Places where they show up as pins on a map. Tapping a pin shows a small thumb with basic information.
iPod can finally manage playlists
The iPod player was treated to only one, but important upgrade. You are now able to create, edit or delete playlists.After you’ve created a playlist, you can add or remove tracks from it anytime you want directly on your iPhone. There is no need to sync with iTunes.
iPhone 3GS gets touch focus in video recording, digital zoom also available
iOS 4 brings digital zoom up to 5x to all iPhones. Unfortunately, it only works in still camera mode. We find it rather useless honestly – at least in still imaging where the camera already maxes out the resolution of the sensor. Digital zooming usually makes much more sense in video recording.Connectivity – connect a Bluetooth keyboard
Apple has added support for pairing a Bluetooth keyboard with your iPhone. It’s very easy and takes only a few taps.Depending on what keyboard you have connected, you can choose its default language and layout from the keyboard menu (Settings – General – Keyboard).
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