On April 8, Steve Jobs took the stage and showed the world a sneak peek of the upcoming iPhone OS 4.0. As you can tell from the version number, it is a big update. Described as “the biggest and most exciting iPhone software update yet”, the new iPhone OS will come with over 100 new features for both iPhone and iPod touch users to enjoy.

Here are the highlights of the major features in iPhone OS 4 announced during the event:

Multitasking – It’s a long-awaited features and finally it’s here. Until now, you are only allowed to run a single iPhone app at one time. Say, you can’t listen to music using Pandora and communicate with your friends via Meebo at the same time. Now, developers can make use of seven multitasking services (including audio, VOIP and location-based service) to run app in background. With the multitasking support, you are able to make a Voice over IP call through Skype while browsing the web with Safari. Or you can check the email while you are uploading photos to Facebook using iLoader. Double-tapping the home button brings up a dock-like tray and you can then switch between applications easily.

Folders – Another welcome feature is the introduction of Folders. You can group applications in folders to better organize your home screen. Apple offers a cool and intuitive way to organize your apps. Simply drag one app icon onto another, and new folder is automatically created with a name based on the App category such as “Games”. You can rename the folder afterwards if you like. With Folders, you are no longer bound by 180 apps limit but can see a total of 2,160 apps on your iPhone!

Unified Inbox – This new feature allows you to view messages from different email accounts in a single inbox. The mail app also adds the support of threading to group messages by subjects that makes it easier to navigate your messages. For those using Gmail, you’ll love the threading feature. Opening an attachment is going to be customizable. You are not limited to open attachment in QuickView and able to use any iPhone apps to open the attachment. For instance, you used to view and edit Microsoft Document using QuickOffice on iPhone. You can configure to use that app to open the attachment. Speaking of Microsoft Exchange, Apple also lifted the limitation of one Exchange account. Enterprise or power users can now use multiple Exchange ActiveSync accounts on iPhone.

iBooks – The new iBooks bookstore and iBooks app were first introduced with the iPad. Apple now brings the iBook app and the store to iPhone. Using the iBooks app, you can access the online bookstore, buy and read e-book on the iPhone. Inspired by the Kindle app, the new iBook app also lets you wirelessly sync the books between different Apple mobile devices.

iAd – It’s not uncommon you see advertisements within a free iPhone app. When you click on the ads, normally it will redirect to Safari and launch the site of the advertiser. That’s a poor user experience and an ineffective way of advertising. To resolve this problem, Apple launches a brand-new mobile advertising platform named iAd that the ad content is displayed within the iPhone app instead of via an external browser. App developers can use the advertising API to embed ads in their apps. Apple is offering developers a 60 percent of ad revenue. [Check out Gaurav's post for further details about iAd]

Game Center – With over 50,000 games on App Store, Apple plans to add some social gaming features to leverage the growing iPhone game community. Come with the iPhone OS4 beta release, the Game center offers a set of APIs that lets developers build social feature such as invite friends, matchmaking, track achievements and leaderboard into their games. For now, the Game Center is available as a developer preview and will be released later this year.

Wall papers for the home screen – Remember you can only change the wallpaper of lock screen? Apple finally lets you customize the wall paper for home screen. But that’s all you can do. Apple still doesn’t offer a theme manager like Winterboard hack on jailbroken iPhone. Probably they leave it until version 5.

The above are just the major features coming to iPhone OS 4. There are other features that are not hightlighted in the event but you’ll see in the upcoming update:

• 5x digital zoom for the camera
• A spell-check feature
• The ability to send text messages from within apps
• Support for bluetooth keyboard
• Search SMS & MSM messages
• Create playlist
• Geotag a photo

Developers who have joined the iPhone developer program get accessed to download the beta preview of iPhone OS 4 today.

For general users, the iPhone OS 4 will be available to iPhone and iPod touch users this summer, while it’ll be released to iPad user this Fall. However, if you’re using iPhone 3G or older generations of iPod touch, some of the features will not be available to you, due to hardware limitation as Apple claimed. Say, the multitasking feature will only be available on iPhone 3GS and iPod touch 3G.

I am pleased to see this significant iPhone update and can’t wait to upgrade my iPhone. So, what do you think about the iPhone OS 4? Does it miss any features on your wishlist?

[Image via Apple's iPhone OS 4 Event video]

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• iPhone OS 4 Video Walkthrough
• What You Need to Know about iOS 4
• Apple Releases iTunes 9.2 to Support iPhone 4 and iOS 4
• Concept Video: What if iPhone Supports MultiTasking
• iPhone Tip: How to Close Multitasking Apps on iOS 4

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Tagged as: apple, iPhone, iPhone OS 4.0