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SOFTWARE INDUSTRY NEWS |
Apple unveils iPhone OS 4 with multitasking support and mobile ad platform |
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Apple has unveiled its iPhone OS 4 software and has released a beta version to iPhone Developer Program members. The iPhone OS 4 beta release has an updated Software Development Kit (SDK) with over 1,500 new application programming interfaces (APIs) and new features that will be available to iPhone and iPod touch users this summer. Notable new features include multitasking for third party apps, folders to help organize and access apps, improved mail with a unified Inbox, enhanced Enterprise support with better data protection, mobile device management, wireless app distribution and Apple’s new iAd mobile advertising platform. It also boasts iBooks, a new ebook reader and online bookstore that recently debuted on the iPad.  The multitasking feature offers quicker switching between apps and allows developers seven new multitasking services to let them add multitasking features to their apps. These include background audio and VoIP, and multitasking to third party apps while preserving battery life and foreground app performance, which Apple says has been elusive on mobile devices until now. Multitasking requires iPhone 3GS or third generation iPod touch (late 2009 models with 32GB or 64GB), Apple said.iPhone users can finally better organize their apps using folders. Folders can be automatically created and named based on the App Store category of an app, which can be renamed as per user choice. Users will also be able to create and manage iPhone folders on their Mac or PC using iTunes 9.2. iPhone OS 4 Unified Inbox enables users to view messages from all their email accounts displayed together in a single inbox. iAd, Apple’s new mobile advertising platform, also debuts on iPhone OS 4 – it combines the emotion of TV ads with the interactivity of web ads. Apple says that contemporary mobile ads take users out of their app to a web browser that naviagtes to an advertisers webpage, from where they have to navigate back to their app. iAd, Apple says displays full-screen video and interactive ad content without leaving the app, allowing users return to their app anytime they choose. The iPhone OS 4 also allows developers to easily embed iAd opportunities within their apps, and the ads are dynamically and wirelessly delivered to the device. Apple will sell and serve the ads, and developers will receive an industry-standard 60 percent of iAd revenue. The iPhone OS 4 beta software and SDK are presently available to iPhone Developer Program members. Apple said the iPhone OS 4 will be available as a software update to iPhone and iPod touch users this summer, and a version of iPhone OS 4 would come to the iPad this Fall. |
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