Apple CEO Steve Jobs announces the new iPhone OS4 software during an Apple special event in Cupertino, Calif. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Associated Press | Apple Inc.’s iPhone and iPad devices will soon be able to run more than
one program at a time, an ability that phones from Apple’s rivals
already offer and that iPhone owners have long sought.
The changes, coming this summer to iPhones and this fall to iPads, mean
that users might be able to listen to music through the Pandora program
and check a bank account online simultaneously. Currently, users must
return to Apple’s home screen, effectively quitting the open program,
before starting a new task.
“We weren’t the first to this party, but we’re going to be the best,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs declared Thursday, as bloggers, software developers and others in the audience greeted the news of such “multitasking” with applause.
The iPhone already permits some multitasking, but that’s largely limited to Apple’s own programs. Apple had not given users ways to seamlessly switch among all the software “apps” available from outside software companies, the way phones from rivals Palm Inc. and Google Inc. already do.
That will change with the updates known as iPhone OS 4. Apple generally makes such updates available for free, and often automatically, as a software download.
“It really changes the way you use the iPhone,” Jobs said. “You’re bouncing around the apps with tremendous fluidity.”
Although Apple is making the updates available to all iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad models, the multitasking function will only work with the newest devices. So you won’t be able to run multiple programs with the original iPhone or the iPhone 3G — only the 3GS versions that came out last summer. For the iPod Touch, you’d need the models that came out late last year.
Other new features will be available to older models as well. They include the ability to have messages from multiple e-mail accounts land in a single inbox, support for folders filled with applications and a way to connect an iPhone with a regular keyboard using Bluetooth wireless technology.
He also announced an advertising platform called iAd in which Apple will sell ads to run on apps made by outside developers; those developers get 60 percent of the ad revenue.
Full multitasking had been high on many people’s wish lists. Because Apple’s new iPad runs the same software as the iPhone, changes would apply to that larger gadget as well. Some people have held off buying one because of its inability to run more than one program at once.
Jobs also said the company has sold 450,000 iPads since its launch Saturday. The company earlier said it delivered more than 300,000 iPads on the first day, though that included pre-orders and units shipped to retail stores such as Best Buy but not necessarily purchased right away.
The iPad models currently on sale connect to the Internet using Wi-Fi, at prices that start at $499.
Shares of Apple fell 56 cents to $240.04 in afternoon trading Thursday.
I’ll wait for Microsoft’s Courier.
Google Talk!
“Golvin believes Apple is likely to launch a system for delivering ads to iPhone and iPad apps, reflecting its January acquisition of mobile advertising company Quattro Wireless.”
This IS bad. Already get too much junk spam on my phone.
Apple’s ability to seperate fools from their money is stunning. They have always released a “new” technology that is glaringly substandard. The materialistic fools that have to have the latest gadget snap it up. Then Apple releases a “new version” that is significantly more expensive…and the fools upgrade.
It’s more predictable than the sun rising in the east and setting in the west.
I have to agree with Nate. WOW, multi-tasking. I’ve been doing that for awhile now on my Android phone, and I spent $100 on it.
Just proves there are a village of idiots, not just a village idiot.
Multitasking, home screen folders, and a unified inbox. Wow… Blackberry has supported those features for 5 years.
OMG make it stop!!!!!!
“iPhone OS 4 will work with iPhone 3G” from apple.com
get your facts right, Trib.
Wow….Apple envy? Let’s see who continues to lead the pack in terms of TOTAL innovation – not just a few features that Jobs admittedly pointed out in his address. The amount I do with an iPhone is 100% more than any other technology out there….bar none. I had a blackberry too….but we dont need to go into how totally ineffective it was…
Apple vs Microsoft, Blackberry, et al is like jocks vs nerds.
***** and moan all you want nerds but Apple is still cooler than anything Microsoft has or ever will produce.
Um, why do you care if people spend their money on this stuff? It’s not your money, and it’s not impacting you at all. If you don’t like it, don’t pay attention to it.
You people get so up in arms about Apple, at least they are pushing the limits and making other companies do the same. If they didn’t we’d all still be using Windows 95.
Well, it’s multi-tasking of a sort. I suspect that most iPhone users will be fine with it, but they were fine without it too.
For the small number who wanted true background processing for all open apps, like that offered by my Palm Pre since day 1, well you are still out of luck.
It’s an interesting solution, but not particularly revolutionary.
NATE F.—sorry to blow your master thesis into oblivion, but there is no additional cost to the iPhone software. This article wasn’t about a new iPhone or iPad–just the expected (FREE) release of the software that runs it.
Apple announces a new product release and fools like Nate F. come a runnin to spout off leaving their brains trailing far behind.
When it comes down to it I think Alec Baldwin said it best in the Glenn-Garry movie. A.I.D.A attention, interest, decision and action. I’ll spare you guys the full speech where he cusses everyone out.
@DeadHead4Life—-
You spent $100 on your phone and got multitasking. I had some form of multitasking from the very beginning. iTunes and several other apps all were capable of multitasking. In over two years, I never noticed this feature was missing because the only apps I wanted to multitask with already had that ability.
BTW, I spent $199 and with that I got a GREAT phone with access to 150,000 apps (many are FREE) that significantly extended the usability of my phone beyond anything I could imagine. I personally downloaded well over 200 apps (most of them FREE)and continue to download and play with new apps (most of them FREE) ever single day.
How many apps did you get with your $100 Android???
And, I sold my 2 year old phone for nearly $300 and bought a new and improved model for $199—so in the end we spent the same amount on the phone.
…and now Apple is releasing another update to my already fantastic phone!!
It looks like you are the biggest idiot in this village!!
Wow gee the software is ‘free’. Riiight.
But it will only do anything if you have the ‘newest’ device.
So for everyone who has anything other than the cutting edge device it’s a far cry from free.
Apple is quickly becoming a money pit.
As a recent convert who just upgraded to the iPhone from a Blackberry, this is good news. The iPhone is a much better technology than the Blackberry. Although I liked my Blackberry, the iPhone has so much more that it can do, is more expandable and the user interface is much easier to use. While never an Apple “fanboy”, I am really thinking about the next upgrade: from Windows to a Mac. Windows 7 seems OK so far, but so many of my business colleagues have upgraded to the Macbooks from Windows and rave about it, that it is hard to ignore. Apple is on such a roll these days.
Read the byline of the story. Associated Press. Not all the Trib’s fault if a fact is wrong in the story.
@DeadHead4Life—-
You spent $100 on your phone and got multitasking. I had some form of multitasking from the very beginning. iTunes and several other apps all were capable of multitasking. In over two years, I never noticed this feature was missing because the only apps I wanted to multitask with already had that ability.
BTW, I spent $199 and with that I got a GREAT phone with access to 150,000 apps (many are FREE) that significantly extended the usability of my phone beyond anything I could imagine. I personally downloaded well over 200 apps (most of them FREE)and continue to download and play with new apps (most of them FREE) ever single day.
How many apps did you get with your $100 Android???
And, I sold my 2 year old phone for nearly $300 and bought a new and improved model for $199—so in the end we spent the same amount on the phone.
…and now Apple is releasing another update to my already fantastic phone!!
It looks like you are the biggest idiot in this village!!
“You people get so up in arms about Apple, at least they are pushing the limits and making other companies do the same.”
Guess it goes both ways. If Android, BlackBerry, and the dying Palm Pre didn’t have true multitasking, iPhone OS 4 probably wouldn’t have it ;-p