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
A Much Quicker Camera
Though the real camera update will come with iPhone 4 and the ability to take photos with the front and back cameras, iOS 4 brings camera improvements for the rest of supported hardware as well. One of the first things we noticed was just how much faster the iOS 4 camera software is compared to iOS 3. It’s very, very responsive now.
Previously, there was a good one to two seconds between taking the photo and being able to take another photo on the iPhone 3GS. With iOS 4, you can take photos nearly as fast as you can mash the camera button - it’s stupid fast compared to the old camera application. On an iPhone 3GS, taking a takes about 2 seconds - there’s a shutter animation, preview, and finally you can take a photo again. iOS 4 keeps the UI experience the same, but the shutter animation is considerably faster now. (2.1 seconds on iOS 3 iPhone 3GS, 0.7 on iOS 4 iPhone 3GS)
Unfortunately, the application still takes a long time to launch, between 2 and 5 seconds depending on whether you’re starting from a cold or warm launch. (iOS 4: 2.3 seconds. iOS 3 2.4 seconds for warm launches respectively)
Tapping near the bottom of the camera dialog brings up the digital zoom scrub bar. Initially, we stumbled on digital zoom while trying a tap to focus gesture. It’s difficult to trigger until you specifically try and find it. You can then drag the scrubber all the way to the right, giving you 5x of digital zoom. Digital zoom still remains a marginally useful feature, but it can come in handy in the right context, e.g. for snapping pictures of license plates with funny characters. Definitely not while stalking.
The other major change to the camera application is the ability to tap-to-focus while taking live video. It works just like it sounds like - tap to focus and expose while you’re recording video, not just beforehand. This might sound marginally important, but it’s a hugely welcome update round these parts when taking videos of devices close up or trying to expose for screens and then ambient light.
Viewing Photos
The photos application itself has seen a number of welcome updates. Though the camera application has been geotagging photos for quite some time, the native iOS photo application has until now given users no way of putting that to any use outside of iPhoto.
Now, there’s a “places” tab at the bottom that when tapped drops pins wherever you’ve taken photos. The initial zoom shows you all of the places you’ve taken photos, and as you zoom in, pins expand into other pins, giving you finer data. Tapping on a pin brings shows you how many photos you’ve taken at the location, and tapping the blue arrow brings up a custom album view with all the photos.
Back in the albums tab, while viewing a single image, there’s now a small play button at the bottom in the center. Tapping it starts a simple slideshow - there’s no Ken Burns effect, but there are fade transitions. It’s a subtle addition, but one nonetheless.
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rallstarz - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
Forgive me for peeking at your email Anand, but I'd be excited about a fro-yo review on anandtech.... maybe fro-yo making machines, fro-yo flash freezers, fro-yo dispensers...Stuka87 - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
Over all I like the upgrade. My phone feels more snapping in several areas (3GS). However, I have two big issues.1: In Mail, I want a "Mark All Read" option. I tgets *SO* old having to go through 30-40 emails because I read them on another device. Not an issue with my Exchange mail, but is a major issue with my POP3 mail.
2: I wish I could exclude some apps from multi tasking. Because now I find myself running 4-5 apps at the same time. And most of them are apps that don't need two. Like weather, or calculator. I would love it if I could say "Dont ever multi-task this app". The same could be applied to some games.
metafor - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
"We still need faster SoCs and more power efficient platforms to make multitasking work on smartphones. I say faster SoCs because one of the best ways to improve power efficiency is to complete tasks quicker so that the CPU can return to an idle state.Because current smartphone SoCs don’t have the level of performance needed to quickly execute a ton of extra instructions and get back to sleep, smartphone OSes have to keep background tasks to a minimum. For the most part you don’t have to worry about what applications you have open on your notebook, your CPU is efficient enough and you have enough battery power to churn through any instructions idle apps may be throwing at it. We’re not quite there yet in smartphones."
I'm afraid this isn't true. The only difference between a netbook processor and a smartphone processor is that the former is running off of a relatively honking battery. Having the CPU "finish the task faster" is absolutely not a power advantage.
Let's break down the 2 main areas of power usage for a CPU:
1. Leakage. Here, you can make the argument that if a CPU is active longer, it suffers more total energy that is leaked between VDD and GND. However, this is almost entirely offset and in most cases overshadowed by the fact that a faster CPU (running either at a higher frequency, has more parallel execution resources, or runs on faster transistors) will always be significantly leakier than their slower counterparts. Leakage increases with the square of voltage and as everyone will tell you, when a CPU ramps up in frequency, it will scale up its voltage.
2. Dynamic current. This only gets worse at faster frequencies. Whether you're charging/discharging 500 million times a second (500MHz) or 1 billion times a second (1GHz), the same tasks requires the same number of charges/discharges whether it happens in 1 second or 2 seconds. The same amount of energy to perform the work is used. However, as mentioned before, to make a chip run faster, you'll have to also up the voltage and/or use leakier (but faster) transistors.
In fact, the argument for dual-core being more power efficient is that in the case where 2 cores running at 500MHz doing the same amount of work (assuming you're running, say, 2 tasks that would otherwise be context switched in the same CPU) as 1 core at 1 GHz, the 2-core solution would draw less power since a core running at 500MHz uses less than half the power of a 1GHz core.
You are absolutely right in that the limitations of multitasking has to due with power efficient CPU's and it is a compelling argument for multi-core cell phone SoC's and perhaps even heterogeneous multi-core SoC's. Luckily, we'll be seeing those soon enough in the next year or so.
Matt Campbell - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
Angry Birds is a great game - but why do you have both the Lite and Full version installed in the screen shot? :)So far, my biggest likes of iOS4 are the responsiveness (3GS definitely feels faster) and the email threads, which really help on my Exchange account. I read a lot of eBooks on Stanza and will probably stick with that for the short term.
SunSamurai - Friday, June 25, 2010 - link
Because he tried it before he buyed it? ;)Polizei - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
I love that Anand is bumpin the 50 cent during his Iphone interview. Funny choice :Dsynaesthetic - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
Anyone know if these ads show up on the iPod touch 3G upgraded to iOS 4?If so I probably won't buy a Touch...
I don't understand why *anyone* would prefer ads to paying more for software. Seriously, it's not worth it to me. TV commercials are bad enough.
SunSamurai - Friday, June 25, 2010 - link
You dont understand why people dont want to spend money when they dont have to?jasperjones - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
tbh, I somewhat doubt it...jay401 - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
iAds will probably be enough to keep me from getting the new iPhone to replace my current cell phone. i just don't trust Apple with that sort of power over my user experience.i dont want ads interrupting and distracting me from my task. i want to get my chosen task done efficiently and quickly.
"If it wanted to Apple could even sell ads in books."
Yes, if Apple wanted customers to drive to Cupertino to punch the iAds team directly in the face.