Apple's iOS 4 Explored
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 22, 2010 3:27 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Apple
- iOS 4
- Gadgets
- Mobile
Grand Central Dispatch
While not listed as a marketing feature of iOS 4, Apple’s developer guide lists Grand Central Dispatch as a new feature of the OS. Those of you who are familiar with Mac OS X 10.6 will know Grand Central Dispatch as a task management/thread spawning core that aims to simplify multithreaded development while boosting thread utilization on platforms. The developer focuses on splitting up tasks in a sensible fashion rather than juggling n-number of threads and GCD deals with spawning the appropriate number of threads for the system.
This is of course a non-issue on any current iPhone, including the new 4th generation model, but it does make sense for Apple to introduce it now. While the iPhone 4 is a single core/single thread device, the 5th generation iPhone will almost certainly have two cores. The ramp to multithreading on mobile devices will be much quicker than what we saw on desktop PCs, mostly thanks to the fact that the leap on the PC is largely complete.
With Hyper Threading and other SMT technologies on the horizon for smartphone SoCs it’s not far fetched to see the majority of high end smartphones capable of executing 2 - 4 threads in the next 3 years.
Resolution Independent Development
Everyone should know by now that the iPhone 4 will have a ridiculously dense screen with over 600,000 pixels in an area the same as the past three iPhones. The 960 x 640 resolution is an even 2x increase in both directions compared to the previous iPhones, however developers shouldn’t have to do anything different to target their apps to the various iPhone revisions.
Apps draw to a virtual screen which is then mapped to the physical screen by the OS. Resolution, at least on the iPhone, doesn’t appear to be a concern of the developer. Obviously apps and games with higher levels of detail will take advantage of the iPhone 4’s available resolution but a re-write or any modifications to existing apps aren’t necessary.
Game Center
Apple made two bold announcements at its iOS 4 unveiling: iAds and the iOS Game Center. The former went after Google, the latter, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony.
The iOS Game Center is essentially Xbox Live for Apple iOS devices. Users will be allowed to create their own online identities (similar to Xbox Live profiles) and can play with or against one another with matchmaking, track achievements, chat with one another and basically do anything you’d want to do in an online gaming service. Eventually all iOS games will use and support the Game Center, just like there’s some amount of Xbox Live integration with all Xbox 360 games today.
When I first saw Unreal Engine running on the iPod Touch I mentioned that within 3 - 5 years we’d have the power of an Xbox 360 in a device the size of an iPhone. By introducing the Game Center early on, Apple is creating the foundation for what it ultimately hopes the iOS platform will turn into. Apple also has an advertising platform built in should it want to sell in game ads, hmm...
The Game Center wasn’t ready for launch with iOS 4 however developers are given full access to it. I’d expect a follow up launch later this year once it’s ready.
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Sazar - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
Folders reduces clutter and reduces the number of swipes/pages you need to navigate to :)Essentially, I went from 6 pages of apps to 1, when I put everything into folders, labelled correctly. It takes a little getting used to and it is definitely a little different, but reducing clutter == props from me.
Nehemoth - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
In the calendar I do not understand why apple (or any other big player in the smartphone area) don't allow calendar information to be added.For example, I live in Dominican Republic, we have a lot of not-working days in the year, so would be amazing if we can find a way in which we tell to the apple calendar which are those days, more amazing even would be if for example we have the option so those days the alarm doesn't sound as is expected the normal days.
wittaker25 - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
Just use google sync to get google calendar on your phone. You can mark off-days through google calendar. Works with my ipod touch.mathias_mm - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
You can probably find a feed somewhere on the net that has those in it - i know it exists for Denmark, which is all i need.I have no idea if this calendar is any good (I searched for dominican republic holidays ical feed on Google):
webcal://ical.mac.com/horacio.vicioso/Efemerides%20Rep%C3%BAblica%20Dominicana.ics
So, you take that link and paste it into your phone. This has to be done in a weird spot, i think it's inside the mail art of settings where you tap add account, and you can then choose calendar. Then the phone will add all the dates from that feed into the calendar app. Any changes done in the feed will also be updated on your end.
ltcommanderdata - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
You forgot to mention when listing supported devices that iOS 4 is available for 2nd and 3rd gen iPod Touch as well. What's more, it's free. As an iPod Touch owner this is one of the most important aspects of iOS 4. Device fragmentation may be getting worse with the introduction of the iPad and now iPhone 4, but at least OS fragmentation is being addressed.Hopefully, you'll be able to run some performance comparisons between iOS 3.1.3 on the iPhone 3GS and quite important for those users, iPhone 3G.
dumpsterj - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
why wont they bring this stuff to verizon ? im using an almost 2 year old samsung omnia. Im waiting out to see what windows phone 7 brings to the table (im a zune guy). I would seriously consider switching to the ipod/iphone ecosystem if they would bring it to verizon. However , after spending time with a friend who had att , his phone cut out all the damn time while my old omnia and vzw had no problem. Ill never use ATTCiNcH - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
I don't really get the test with multitasking and the conclusions that were made concerning battery life. If you are doing two expensive tasks at the same time, it will of course drain the battery. With Pandora running in the background, you get about a fifth less of time for web browsing (either 3G or WiFi). Isn't that reasonable? I mean someone has to decode audio.. and according to the specs, the iPhone can do so for about 40 hours and not an infinite amount of time.vol7ron - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
"...when you return to the home screen you’ll actually end up in the last folder you were in. Hit the home button a second time to actually get to the home screen. I suspect this is a bug that Apple will fix however."I have not upgraded yet, but I could see this as a good thing, rather than a bug. With a JB iOS, there is an app called Categories, that provides the folder functionality. It performs how you would like: you go to an app, when you hit the home button, it takes you back home, not back to the folder.
I'm not a fan of that. One of my folders is "websites" or "print," which house apps from websites (eBay, Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, etc) or journal apps (Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, USA Today, RSS Reader, TechCrunch, etc), respectively. If I'm getting my daily reading in, it's annoying to have to keep re-opening the folder. The same would be true if you're in a mood to play games. I'd be more likely to go from game to game.
I could also see this feature having benefits. If you put all your primary apps in a folder, then essentially you could create a home screen folder, thereby negating the need to go to the actual home screen. What I hope to happen is that the Springboard will be filled with folders, instead of apps. I may also hope to put folders inside of folders.
vol7ron
solipsism - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
I'm with you. I can see Anand and/or Brian's point on the matter as a personal preference, but the best method is to have a folder remain open until the user chooses to close it.If you need to get out of the folder quickly just hit the Home button again or hit anywhere outside the folder, but if you need to get back to the folder constantly it can be annoying to flip pages, open the folder and then click another app.
Sazar - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
Yah, I see their point but I have had no problems navigating in folders right now.I can still get back to the home-page, with an extra click, but it sure as heck beats the swiping from side to side to get to what I wanted before.
Still getting used to it.