The first update to iOS 4.0 is jumping all the way up a full tenth of a point to 4.1, and it’s now available for those of you signed up for Apple’s iPhone Developers Program. It looks like there are major changes to Game Center (which has yet to launch) in this build, but otherwise, we’re not sure what’s up just yet — and no, as far as we can tell, there’s no iPad support here. Stay tuned!
Update: So we’re definitely noticing some differences. The signal bars are, in fact, larger in the new OS, and we’re seeing fewer bars on our 4.1 device when compared to a standard 4.0 iPhone 4 (see the image after the break)… which is pretty much exactly what Apple said would happen. We’re testing now and will report back what we find!
They prompted some public outcry from competitors and a preliminary antitrust investigation from the US government, but it looks like Apple isn’t even enforcing those new rules on outside ad networks — at least not yet. That’s according to none other than AdMob CEO Omar Hamoui himself, who said at the MobileBeat conference this week that “they haven’t been enforcing” the new regulations yet, and that he’s “very appreciative of that.” If enforced, those regulations would prevent companies like AdMob from collecting some analytic data on ads placed in iOS applications — data that Apple itself could collect with its iAd platform. Of course, it’s not clear when or if Apple will start enforcing the rules, but Hamoui seems to be content with the current situation, and even went out of his way to praise Apple’s own advertising efforts, saying that “anybody getting advertisers interested in mobile is a good thing. It’s not at all a zero-sum game.”
Although there’s been no shortage of iPhone DJ apps in the past few years, they’ve remained fairly niche, since Apple didn’t allow devs official access to the iPod music library — mobile DJs needed to upload a second separate music library per app, and that’s no fun at all. Looks like that’s about to change, though: one of the 1500 new APIs in iOS 4 provides direct access to the iPod library, meaning music apps of all kinds can play your tracks in any wacky way they want — including, yes, scratching them. The first app to support the new API in the store is Flare Scratch, which is a relatively simple scratch app — we just gave it a shot and yes, it does indeed load tracks from the iPod library and let you scratch ’em. There’s a bit of a wait when loading up a new track, though, so it’s not totally fluid to use in anything but a hey-this-is-fun context, but we’re betting we’ll see more serious DJ apps hit with smoother transitions soon enough — and we can’t wait to see what devs do once iOS 4 hits the iPad and they’ve got more room to work with. Video after the break.
We just saw Flash 10.1 ported to the iPad demonstrated in video form by Comex, and now you can get in on the action too, as long as your iPad is jailbroken. It’s called Frash, and while the plugin is still pretty early and doesn’t do video playback yet, you can definitely play games and other animations right now, and we’re told video support is forthcoming. Okay, so let’s try this out, shall we? It’s not point-and-click simple, but it’s not that hard, either. Full instructions after the break.
Exactly how many eBook stores do we need? Depends. If you own a dedicated e-reader then one is all you get. Own a tablet or smartphone and the world of eBook stores is pretty much yours for the taking through competing apps. Borders looks to be taking a hybrid approach by offering up the $150 Kobo, $120 Aluratek Libre (available July 20th), $170 Sony Touch, and $150 Sony Pocket eReaders and today’s launch of a self-branded eBook store powered by Kobo’s catalog of more than 1.5 million titles — “thousands” of which are free and available in a variety of formats including ePub (primarily) and PDF. Borders also has desktop PC and Mac apps ready for download in addition to a few apps listed as “coming soon” for both Android and BlackBerry devices — these join the apps already released for Apple’s iOS. It just went live so why not hit the source and have a browse.
P.S. Funny enough, there’s not a single mention of Spring Design’s Alex on Borders’ new site. Funny sad, not ha ha.
Apple might be cooking up a do-over with its TV set-top box using a key ingredient: the iOS platform powering the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. It might just work.
Both The New York Times and Engadget recently published independent reports claiming that Apple would upgrade its set-top box with an iOS-based software overhaul. There’s a possibility the upgrade could also involve an inexpensive piece of hardware — a $100 “iPhone without a screen,” according to Engadget.
Apple declined to comment on the rumor, but Wired.com did discover on LinkedIn a few new hires on Apple’s interface design team who have backgrounds in home entertainment and TV broadcasting, which might hint that something major is in the works.
It seems likely and feasible that Apple will expand the iOS platform to the Apple TV. Apple frequently refers to the Apple TV as a “hobby,” because it has been a modest performer. The video-entertainment industry has been a challenging environment for the company to swing a home run, because it’s packed with competitors offering a multitude of methods to watch TV and movies. Also, cable providers often subsidize set-top boxes, which sometimes include a DVR.
But iOS could be the weapon that enables Apple to invade home entertainment. Here are five reasons an iOS-based Apple TV could be a hit.
The Connected Living Room
As Altimeter analyst Michael Gartenberg said, “The TV remains one of the last disconnected devices in the household, and everyone is trying to figure it out.”
A large number of TVs include built-in internet connectivity, and Google recently announced its plans to share its Google TV software platform with TV manufacturers. While this strategy sounds promising, Apple’s iOS could still succeed with the same strategy that allows the iPhone to compete with Android phones — an elegant operating system tightly integrated with other Apple hardware versus a one-size-fits-all platform from Google, which will undoubtedly take a long time to refine.
While TV makers have been busy pimping out expensive 3-D televisions, Apple has been gradually iterating an extremely successful platform allowing customers to easily expand their devices with downloadable apps, while enabling third-party software developers to make money.
Huge User Base
The iOS user base includes more than 100 million users. It’s likely that Apple would include a cheap basic remote with a new Apple TV while upselling the device to the gigantic audience of iOS customers. In this scenario, people who own an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch would receive special benefits and more-seamless control when using an Apple TV.
From a strategic perspective, Apple would be pinning its “hobby” device on its blockbuster products, and that would be a wise move.
TV Apps? Yes, Please
In addition to a huge customer base, the iOS platform already has more than 200,000 apps. It wouldn’t be easy to repurpose apps made for the iPhone or iPad to display nicely on a big-screen HDTV, but a number of apps would provide interesting utility for television and living-room entertainment systems.
Imagine getting internet-streaming radio, video conferencing or the Hulu app playing on a TV. Plus, an Apple TV App Store could introduce new apps to calibrate the picture of your television, adjust your sound levels, turn an iPhone into a a slick, touch-based universal remote, and more.
Thanks to the introduction of Apple’s iAd mobile-advertising platform combined with the already large iOS user base, third-party developers would have strong incentive to produce apps to make Apple’s TV product unique and innovative like the iPhone.
Motion-Based Gaming
Gaming would be even be more interesting. Apple is already in a good position to more directly compete with console makers, and expanding iOS gaming to the TV would be a compelling move. Independent game developers would likely price games considerably lower than console games. We’d also see a host of innovative games made for all types of customers: children, teenagers, adults and even grandmothers — as opposed to the tired 3-D shooters aimed at nerdy Xbox 360 or PS3 players. Plus, the iPhone 4, which includes a gyroscope, is already better than Nintendo’s Wii controller.
In 2009, iOS already grabbed 5 percent of the videogame software market, quadruple the number in 2008. That seems like a small chunk, but it’s substantial when you consider that gaming is only a partial purpose of iOS, and that the platform is only two years old. Imagine how much that number could grow if iOS extended its reach to television gaming.
Alternatives to Cable
Apple is rumored to be preparing a cloud-based iTunes for streaming media, which could provide an attractive alternative to pricey cable subscriptions. Also, iOS apps such as Hulu+, the ABC TV app and Netflix offer additional flexibility for internet-savvy customers who are looking for ways to reduce or even eliminate their monthly cable bills.
We’re already seeing a slow decline in the money spent on cable TV and a growing interest in internet TV. According to research from Centris, digital-cable spending dropped from $79 a month in the third quarter of 2008 to $70 per month in the third quarter of 2009. Meanwhile, more and more TV content is becoming freely available online: Avner Ronen, CEO of internet TV startup Boxee, estimates that 60 percent of broadcast TV is available free online, along with 10 percent of cable TV.
We oftentimes hear raw numbers of apps bandied about in mobile OS comparisons, but we rarely get any idea of just how many developers are behind the scenes working for each platform. This is the void of knowledge filled by AppStore HQ today, who have gone to their dev directory — claimed to be a complete listing of all 55,000+ coders whose work is currently available for consumption in the Apple App Store or Android Market — and stacked them into neat piles of Apple, Google and Gapple programmers. It’s immediately apparent that single-platform development is the norm (with Apple holding the predictable edge), but AppStore HQ also provides a list of some of the most well known (and well funded) apps doing the cross-platform dance, and suggests that a movement is afoot toward making software available for both sets of users. Then again, the BNET article below points out the difficulties faced by smaller outfits, who might struggle to find the resources required to port their content over and maintain the skills required to be multi-platform, resulting in them sticking to one environment, irrespective of what allures others might throw their way. Give them both a read, we say.
Take it with a grain of salt, but it’s looking like some prayers have been answered on this Fourth of July — Flash (or is that “Frash”?) is running on this man’s iPad, cleverly ported from Android. The YouTube video claims that by using a compatibility layer, the Android runtime can play Flash content natively in Safari, but only on iPad so far — iPhone 3GS support is planned soon, as is iOS 4, and there’s a call for developers to move the project forward at GitHub. We’ve no way of determining its legitimacy at this moment, but it sure seems like Comex (he of the iPad “Spirit” jailbreak) has outdone himself this time, and hey, where there’s smoke, there’s fire, right? See Strongbad answer emails on iOS, right after the break.
Update: It appears Comex has indeed been working on this project for some time; a second blurry video after the break (running on iPhone) shows us what it used to look like.
This week’s best apps!? You must mean the week’s best iPhone apps, right? Nope, from here on out it’s just the very best apps, every week, for iPhone, Android, and iPad. More »
The major new feature of Apple’s latest mobile operating system, iOS 4, is multitasking. What took the company so long? Apple claims it was waiting to get multitasking just right before unleashing the feature for the iPhone. Meanwhile, the Android OS and Palm Web OS have supported multitasking just fine for over a year.
However, each platform handles multitasking quite differently. Let’s take a closer look at how each mobile OS’s multitasking works.
Apple iOS 4
How you use it When you press the Home button twice, Apple’s iOS 4 displays a “drawer” allowing you to switch between apps. The drawer shows your most recently used apps. This is similar to the “alt-tab” functionality we’re accustomed to on traditional PCs.
What’s going on When you leave an app in iOS 4, it’s not actually closing (unlike previous versions of the OS). Instead, it’s going into frozen, suspended animation, sitting inertly in the background. So when you relaunch an app, it opens instantly to pick up from where it left off before you “closed” it. That behavior allows you to switch between apps very quickly — a feature called Fast App Switching, which is the core functionality of Apple’s iOS multitasking. (TidBITS has an excellent in-depth explanation of Fast App Switching.)
Fast App Switching isn’t all iOS 4 multitasking does, as there are a few exceptions for specific types of apps. Apple allows apps that play audio, connect with voice-over-IP or use location detection to run quietly in the background while one thread is still active. So that’s why, for example, you can leave the Pandora app, and the music will still be playing in the background while you check your e-mail. Likewise, you can leave Skype while on a VoIP call, and you won’t hang up on your buddy while you’re browsing Safari, for example. Third, you can leave a mapping app or a fitness tracker like RunKepper and come back to it, and it’ll still have a lock on your location.
It’s up to third-party app developers, of course, to tell their apps to behave this way with the new iOS 4 software development kit.
Another sort of background activity iOS supports is push notifications, which keeps a specific internet port active while the iPhone is in hibernation, so you can receive e-mails, instant messages and alerts even when the screen is off. These alerts pop up on the screen in the same way as SMS on the iPhone.
WIRED Fast App Switching is indeed fast and stylish, avoids draining battery. All apps are constantly running inertly, so you can quickly switch between them all.
TIRED Only allows a single application thread to continue running; only certain kinds of activities are allowed to run in the background. Push notifications scream for your attention at the center of the screen.
Android OS
How you use it Hold down the Home button and a tray appears showing the apps running in the background. Switch to another app and it instantly opens.
What’s going on Android’s multitasking behavior is by far the most complicated to explain.
In Android, when a user switches to another application, the app you switched from doesn’t shut down: Its process is kept around in the background, allowing it to continue working (e.g., for downloading web pages in the background while doing something else), and come immediately to the foreground if the user returns to it. If the smartphone is running low on memory, Android starts killing off unnecessary processes to free up resources.
If a user later returns to an application that’s been killed, Android re-launches it in the same state as it was last seen, by keeping track of the parts of the application the user is aware of, and restarting them in the last state they were seen in. This last state is generated each time the user rotates the screen or leaves the application.
There are two basic components to control what apps can do in the background. Apps with “broadcast receivers” go into the background and wait to go off in an event, such as an alarm going off at a certain time, or if you receive a notification from Google’s server for getting a new message in Gmail. The other background component is called a “service,” which instructs an app to perform a task such as music playback or turn-by-turn navigation for a certain amount of time in the background. It’s up to the third-party app developers to embed these components in their apps so they behave these ways in the background.
WIRED Apps can stay fully functional while running in the background. Notification tray makes it easy for apps to give you information without interrupting what you’re doing. Users don’t have to manually quit apps when memory is running low: Android does that for you.
TIRED Getting multitasking to work just right in an app is a lot of work for developers.
HP WebOS
How you use it The HP (formerly Palm) WebOS displays apps as “cards.” Each card acts similar to a tab in a desktop web browser. You move between activities using gestures (swipe forward, swipe back, hold to readjust the positioning of the cards), and when you’re finished with an activity, you can throw the card off the screen to quit the application.
What’s going on WebOS allocates resources (memory, processor cycles, network access) to each card based on requests from the cards. The System Manager prioritizes the card in the foreground when allocating resources. Apps in the background are placed in a semi-dormant state, and their access to services is restricted.
If an application that the user isn’t currently interacting with wants to get the user’s attention, the app can display information in the notification area at the bottom of the screen. The information sits in the dashboard until acted on or closed. (Therefore, you can do something in a foreground app while dealing with a notification, whereas on the iPhone a push notification shows up in the center of the screen interrupting your task until you close it or leave your current app.)
Activities in the background do not have access to certain battery-intensive services. For example, apps cannot access accelerometer data and their frequency of network access is reduced. Third-party games are paused in place when moved to the background, reducing both their CPU load and memory consumption.
WIRED The card interface is neat, and it feels very natural to switch between apps. Notifications appear at bottom of the screen, not interrupting your current task.
TIRED After launching a specific number of apps that reach your memory limit, you can’t launch any more, and you have to manually quit an app before launching another.
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