iPhone Development Blog

Hi All,

Now here is what I’ve been waiting for, Apple are having another talk on April the 8th, this time about OS 4.0. I will be trying to watch the talk via a live feed, if that isn’t possible I will post the conversation about 10-15 after it finished (or in sections during the talk) based on the live comentary from live.gdgt.com.

So what has currently been confirmed so far about OS 4.0, well, rumours about the Multitasking support seems to becoming more of a reality now which is great news. The thing that makes me wonder is how exactly will they enforce the quality of applications with multitasking. At present some apps take up a lot of memory and some even have pretty bad memory leaks. If these apps were allowed to run in the background, think of the effect on the iPhones performance in all the other areas. I personally think they are going to run more stringent tests with the App submissions if the app is going to support multitasking to ensure stability and performance.

My guess is that the multitasking support won’t be available to all apps unless approved by Apple (therefore all existing apps won’t be multitasking compatible). Along with the performance factors there is also the security issues of allowing apps to run in the background. One of the reasons why Apple didn’t include multitasking supports is due to the effect of malware and virus, such as bluetooth sniffers etc. This is why I think there will be more enforcement on application approvals (so possibly expect longer times getting apps approved).

I have also heard word of higher screen resolutions in the pipeline, not sure if this will be possible with the current iPhones on the market but definately for the next model (the 4g).

Hopefully OS 4.0 will see some improvements to the way Push notifications are handled to make them more user friendly. At the moment you have the issue of not being able to end calls if a notification is on screen and if you don’t respond to the notification with a set time (when your phone is locked) it doesn’t always seem open the application it is related to. Plus if you miss what a notification said, tuff, there isn’t anyway of viewing it again.

People are still hoping on a revamped interface (nice homescreen etc) and the one thing that I have seen mentioned around the place is the support for folders and grouping icons. This will make things much easier to manage and find (even if it does take a few extra second to navigation in a few folders, better than scrolling 8 screens )

Leave a comment if you’ve heard anything I’ve not mentioned or just say what you are hoping makes it in.

Anyway, let’s all get ready for the big chat on Thursday when all will be revealed