Just now, at Apple's iPhone OS 4 event, Steve Jobs took the stage in his ill-fitting jeans to talk about the updates to the iPhone/iPad operating system. A dev preview launches today and the new OS ships this summer. A framework called "accelerate" gives access to accelerated math functions. Nerdy, I know, but this means more power for Apps.
As a gamer, you may not care about new additions like Bluetooth keyboard support or gifting Apps, but maybe you'll care about multitasking, which was just shown off. You'll now get to stop your gaming momentarily to check your email or surf eBay or look at small porn or whatever. There's a new dock that comes up from the bottom to show you what's running on your iPhone, letting you see what's currently running.
Also announced was support for Voice over IP and background audio, both of which could have gaming uses. And with the new folder support, you can stick all your game Apps in one folder. Neat.
After the jump is a convenient list of non-gaming related OS 4.0 additions for those interested.
Apple's iPhone OS 4 event [engadget]
- iBooks on iPhone
- New email with threading, multiple exchange accounts, attachment opening
- Enterprise support
- Folder support, drag and drop, 2,160 apps on one phone
- Multitasking
- Voice over IP
- push notifications, local push
- fast app switching
- Game Center: matching making, leaderboards, friend invites
- iAd: Mobile advertising
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Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site
Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, Photographic tools.
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Contest:
12:24 PM on 04.08.2010 | 
Such a shame then, that Nokia among others are already leaps and bounds ahead of Apple for proper smartphones.
And I also agree with Strandli, if there's one thing I hate about Apple, and I mean properly despise about them, it's the fact they treat some old, menial little function that's been standard for ages as their own new invention and the second coming of christ.
And people buy that shit on every subsequent release.
The amount of hate for that company is infinite.
Yes, I just had an arguement with a mac fanboy on Facebook. He lost, hard.
What the fuck makes you think they're acting like they invented. I swear nothing is worse than people who just hate.
Anyways, this has not yet impressed me. I'd need to see if it's better than the multitasking I've already got on my Jailbroken iPhone. Probably is but then the all important question becomes will they approve of the Grooveshark app? Probably not.
I'm pretty sure his ultimate goal is mind control.
what the multitasking is going to do to my performance and battery life. lack of folders was one of my biggest gripes
They claim it's optimized so it won't destroy your battery, it'll be nice to have pandora streaming in the background.
I think this will benefit iPad owners the most though, not having multitasking on the iPad was ridiculous.
oh! Ha! Isn't that what they did before?
As others have pointed it isn't technically still running which is my issue because I only Backgrounder, shitty as it is, for using Grooveshark while texting or using Safari.
But yeah it may beneift iPad users the most.
I phone already does most of this stuff Jailbroken. I am disappoint Apple.
*only use Backgrounder
I gotta slow down.
Pre-emptively posting this before someone posts it as a reply.
Nick said there were going to be more Engadget-y articles.
By that he seems to have meant more Apple related posts. :/
Just kidding! No, this isn't gaming news. Don't turn Dtoid into Kotaku, Dale. Just because you like something a lot and you can connect it to gaming through some hypothetical, Kevin Baconian "six degrees of separation" process, that doesn't mean you should post it.
And doesn't this whole multitasking thing already exist in some non-iPhone phones? Apple is slower to add a feature than the competition and they get a pat on the back as though they were the first to add said feature? This is why I ran screaming from the tech-blogosphere.
Welcome to the 3 years ago
Your friends,
RIM and GOOGLE.
Yeah I heard that. I couldn't leave my Grooveshark app anyway. Suck it Pandora.
(Oh, and iPad runs on iPhone OS, so this is really cool.)
I bet they'll be running:
iAd: Mobile advertising
I don't know what this is, but thinking about what it will likely be gives me hives.
street fighter 4 on iPhone with online match making.
get to work capcom.
i think this may be my last iphone.
@OhLikeSam: about the same reaction as PS3 fanboys had when Sony announced the move after taking dumps on the Wii and it's m.c. for years.
@Jon B: i third that thought.
@Xzyliac: Not necessarily like they invented it, but adding something common in computing for more than a decade and then making a big deal about this new "feature" is... i admit it wouldn't bother me that much perse, but mac fanboys can be really exasperating touting the gifts given to they by their god "Jobs", also, what linuxguy said.
i bought a car with no features (no gps, no ipod plug, no radio i can talk to etc), because i wanted a car.
i got a computer because its a computer.
i got a camera because its a camera.
fuck this mediocre muti component device garbage. if im out, im out doing things which means im to busy to dick around on my phone to look cool in front of people i dont know.
i dont need this shit. and no i dont game on the go, why would i buy games for my phone when i can play GOOD games at home on a huge tv in HD.