Apple today unveiled details about major updates for the 4th edition of the operating system which is used in iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Quite a few issues have been addressed in the new version of the OS owing to the requirements of the users. The users will get around 100 new features including multitasking and improved enterprise support. Also, the update will give developers access to over 1,500 new APIs to improve and extend the capabilities of their apps. Some of the major additions to the new edition are going to be :

Some of the statistics given by Steve Jobs in the unveiling ceremony :

As of today,

1) Over 450,000 iPads have already been sold
2) Over 600,000 iBooks have been downloaded
3) Over 3.5 million iPad applications have been downloaded
4) Over 4 billion applications have been downloaded from the App Store since its inception
5) There are over 185,000 apps in the App Store, (3,500 of which are iPad apps)
6) Over 50 million iPhones have been sold
7) Over 85 million iPhones and iPod Touch devices have been sold

The major 7 new features being introduced are :

1) Multitasking
2) Folders
3) Enhanced Mail
4) iBooks
5) New Enterprise Features
6) Game Kit
7) iADs

MULTITASKING

It is one of the lacking feature in iPhone of which everyone has been complaining about and one of the major factors why some people prefer other phones over iPhone. With the announcement of this new feature, the positives of iPhone are going to weigh , probably, more than any other phone. This feature will also support the 3rd party applications. Even the iPad will get the multitasking feature. As explained by Jobs, multitasking feature drains down the battery and makes the phone slower. But Jobs claims that Apple has come out late with this feature but has plugged in all the side-effects of the multitasking feature.


FOLDERS

With thousands of applications for the iPhone and users installing number of applications on a single device, it is a hassle to search for the correct application among the numerous installed apps. It has been even harder to  avoid clutter. To help organize , Apple has come out with Folder Categorization feature with Drag and Drop UI, and intelligent naming. This will surely prove to be very useful feature which was missing from the earlier edition and caused a lot of hassle for the users.


ENHANCED MAIL

Also targeting the business section of the users, Apple has come out with enhanced mail services. The enhanced functions will include :

1) Unified Inbox, which lets you manage multiple e-mail accounts in one place
2) Support for multiple Exchange accounts
3) Fast inbox switching – if you want to focus exclusively one account at a time, and fast
4) Organisation by thread – An email with a thread will have an indicator showing that, along with the number of messages associated with it
5) You can also now able to open attachments directly in the mail, by choosing which app to open it with.


iBOOKS

One of the another added feature is iBooks. This is not a feature that the users demanded but nonetheless, it would be good to have some way of reading the ebooks on the phone. The users will be able to enjoy iBooks like in iPad but in a smaller version. The bookshelf and store are exactly the same as on the iPad. Also once you buy an iBook on iPad , you can use the iBook on iPod touch as well as iPhone. This feature also allows wireless page syncing between devices, so that you never forget which page you were on when switching between devices.

NEW ENTERPRISE FEATURE

For the companies and business professionals using the iPhone these new set of features will prove to be extremely useful. Some of the major additions under this feature are :
1) Better data protection – Lets you encrypt all of your e-mail and attachments with your pin code. Apple will also make APIs available that will allow developers to encrypt data inside their apps too
2) Mobile device management – Something that has been very popular demand from enterprise customers, this will allow for enterprise solutions to easily manage the deployment of many phones within the company
3) Wireless app distribution – Another very popular demand, this will allow enterprise users to distribute custom/3rd party applications wirelessly anywhere in the world from their own servers to other employees, without being required to plug in anymore
4) Multiple exchange accounts on a single phone (as shown before)
5) Exchange Server 2010 support
6) SSL VPN support from Juniper and Cisco

GAME CENTER

With thousands of games been designed for iPhone, it is a successful platform for the gaming lovers. With this new Game Center  you can challenge/invite your friends to games. You can also enjoy automatic matchmaking where others of similar ability in a game will be found and put together.

iADs

This is a new feature which seems to sound revolting just seeing the name for the users. Actually it could prove to be a extremely interesting and good feature. This feature will allow developers to keep the applications free for the users by earning from the ad revenue generated. “iAD Mobile Advertising” is apparently something that will allow a user to search for what he wants and requires. The users may complain about this feature but finally this may help keep the apps free for the users themselves. The ads are integrated into the apps and are displayed after a certain time period. The ad doesn’t take you out of the app when clicked but instead keeps you inside the app itself. These are completely interactive ads sometimes similar to apps within an app.

That are the important 7 features out of the 100 new features to be incorporated into the new edition of the OS. It is to be noted that only the iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch 3rd Gen users will get all the above listed functionalities. iPhone 3G and iPod Touch 2nd Gen users will get many of the functionality, and so far, what we know to be missing is multitasking. The new version seems to be very promising and is set to convert iPhone detractors into followers.

Developers preview of iPhone OS4 : http://developer.apple.com/

Image source : engadget