With all the speech sound and fury over Apple ’s previous creation , the iPhone may have get to seem like the Jan Brady to the iPad ’s Marcia . But Apple deftly followed up on the excitement over the iPad ’s release by teasing a sneak peek at the 4th revision of the iPhone OS on April 8 .
What will iPhone OS 4.0 bring to the party ? The iPhone 2.0 update introduce the App Store while iPhone 3.0 added long - awaited and much - neglect lineament like written matter - and - paste and MMS . In the nervure of our previous wishlists , here are seven lineament thatMacworld’shopes to see in iPhone O 4.0 , whenever it might seem for good .
Pervasive multitasking
Yes , yes , the iPhone OScanmultitask — countenance ’s get that out of the style up front . But justly now that superpower is own only by Apple ’s own apps ; it ’s not extended to third - political party applications . Apple has touted get-up-and-go notifications as superior to straight multitasking , which , to Apple ’s way of thinking , drains battery aliveness and slow up down machine carrying into action . But as we all bed , it ’s a classic Apple dodge to downplay a feature right up to the very import the company unveils it .
We ’re willing accept a pretty wide definition of multitasking : it could be as uncomplicated as make it easier for apps to save their state when you chuck up the sponge them , so that you could relaunch right where you left off . Even being able to change over between apps without having to go to the Home screen every clip would be a big improvement for those who want to do juggling tasks .
With rival mobile operating systems Android and webOS capable of running as many applications as you darn well please , and the arrival of the iPad ’s ginormous screen , it seems an opportune moment for Apple to deliver its resolution and squelch the doubters.—Dan Moren
Home screen and app management improvements
We ’ve want a better Home screen back since before iPhone 3.0 ( and , with the initiation of the iPad , we crave it all the more ) . Sliding apps around one at a time is getting old — even the app management features in iTunes 9 find like a makeshift : Why should we have to be link up to a computer to rearrange our iPhone ’s apps ? It ’s clock time for a better solution , though it ’s laborious to say exactly what that is — brochure , for exemplar , find a bit retro and out of piazza in this new hereafter .
While we ’re at it , though , we ’d love the power to utilize all that spare space on our Home and lock screen to display useful info : how about get us some Dashboard - like widgets for things like the weather , stocks , or sticky notes ? Workarounds do live , but they ’re not nearly as elegant as what Apple could do.—DM
Better notifications
We ’ve all done it : pulled out our iPhone and unlocked it , realizing in horror even as we did so that we ’d unexpectedly sack the dialog box that had pop up while we were n’t looking . Was it a text substance ? A score update from the Sox - Yankees game ? There ’s no way of knowing suddenly of hunting through all of your apps .
The iPhone group O ’s apprisal system is urgently in motive of an overhaul . You need look no further than the iPad to see how ludicrous those little blue messages look , sit down right in the centre of a gargantuan projection screen . Plus , the modal nature of the notification dialogue means you ca n’t doanythinguntil you ’ve either fire it or climb up to the app in question ( thus derail whatever task you ’re currently engaged in ) . Even worse : oftentimes if you get more than one apprisal , only the last one exhibit up , meaning the earlier one are misplace in the mists of meter .
Apple ought to take a cue from Android and webOS ’s notification system , which — while not without their own flaw — arguably manage to palm the problem more elegantly than the iPhone.—DM
Wireless Syncing
expend an Android earpiece and you ’ll let out that it was designed as if the personal computing machine had never been invented . Unlike the iPhone , which requires you to attach it to a Mac or PC before it can function , Android telephone doeverythingfor themselves without any middleman . We ’d care to see the iPhone ( and iPad ) go one further , and comprehend the internet for everything that currently requires a USB connection .
Sure , you ’re probably not go to sync GiB of telecasting over your home Wi - Fi connection , but for smaller measure of information , why require a conducting wire ? guess coming home and plug away in your iPhone next to your nightstand , while it refresh your contacts , photos , and even of late - purchased iTunes euphony from the iMac across the house .
How about going one further , and backing up via MobileMe , so that if you drop your iPhone while you ’re on holiday , your vital data point is good even if you have n’t attached it to a information processing system in weeks ? In short , we ’d care to see the iPhone be aggressive with using your local networks and the net to sync information . The more , the good . Do n’t make us punch in our iPhones unless we perfectly have to , Apple.—Jason Snell
Streaming Media
Over the years , Apple has build out some nifty potentiality for divvy up media over a local net . From a Mac or PC , you could watch other computers running iTunes on your local electronic internet and flow music or even video from those remote systems . The Apple television have you do the same . And you’re able to also play audiofroma Mac to an AirPort Express or AppleTV via AirTunes . So , why not the iPhone ?
We ’d like to see Apple backup iTunes communion , so that your iPhone can connect to medicine on your local internet and play it back without you having to load it on the gimmick . And while we ’re at it , how about earmark the iPhone to send audio recording to AirTunes - able devices , so you may fill your house with medicine being stream wirelessly from your iPhone?—JS
Improvements to Mail
Mobile Mail on the iPad has gained some welcome advance , but iPhone OS Mail remain the default app with perhaps the most unfulfilled electric potential .
The proficient tidings , if you conceive thereports of Steve Jobs respond to customer e - ring armour : our top Mail request — a unified Inbox that let you view messages from multiple accounts in a exclusive list — is on the way . But there are a estimable number of other features we ’ve become wonted to on the desktop that we ’d like to see on our iPhones and iPads : the capability to send e - mail to touch group , to notice all messages as read , to flag message for previous action , to produce and edit folders on the gimmick , to configure multiple signature ( or at least a unlike signature for each account ) , to reckon discussion threads , and to make unnecessary attachments .
We ’d also hump to see more option for textbook formatting , include a choice of baptismal font for read message and the capability to pull message to display in plain text . Finally , our Proto-Indo European - in - the - sky regard include Smart Folders ( save Spotlight searches ) and some variety of local junk e-mail filtering or labeling.—Dan Frakes
Better Bluetooth support
We ’ve had a love life - hate survey towards Bluetooth on the iPhone sincethe very first framework : it ’s a with child applied science with lashings of potential difference , but Apple has n’t taken full advantage of it . Take Bluetooth keyboard : We ’ve long want to practice a Bluetooth keyboard with the iPhone , and an external keyboard was the accoutrement most request byMacworldreaders in an intimate survey . So we were rapturous to learn that the iPad hold external keyboard — that was one of our most welcome iPad surprisal when Apple first unveiled the pad of paper . But why just the iPad ? Why not extend this functionality to the iPhone and iPod touch ?
Then there ’s multimedia system and Bluetooth : iPhone OS 3.0 lastly allow you habituate Bluetooth headphones , thanks to hold up forA2DP ( Advanced Audio Distribution Profile ) . But what ’s still miss is funding forAVRCP ( Audio / Video Remote Control Profile)—that ’s why those handy track - skip button on Bluetooth headphones and speakers do n’t do jack with the iPhone , iPad , or iPod touch . And while it ’s disappointing that the sound portable media player on the market does n’t provide even basic AVRCP functionality , we ’re also missing out on the advanced features third - party vendors could provide with full AVRCP funding — streaming metadata to remote gadget , accessing and graze menus , controlling multiple devices at the same time , and search content , all over Bluetooth .
at last , the iPhone OS currently miss support for many Bluetooth - data features . Any geek with a seven - year - previous Sony - Ericsson phone can narrate you how convenient it can be to dial your phone from your Mac , view caller-up - ID information on your computer screen , and transfer files between your Mac and sound via Bluetooth . Some printers even let you broadcast them documents via Bluetooth . We ’d care to see Apple to the full embrace Bluetooth so users and app developers can take vantage of the technology ’s versatility.—DF
The list goes on
Of of course , as long as we ’re like upon a star , there ’s plenty more we ’d like to see in iPhone 4.0 : over - the - line update for the OS itself , so you do n’t have to punch in when updating the iPhone ; the power to custom-make alert sounds for SMS messages and reminders ; a more easily accessible luminosity ascendancy ; share file store , à la the iPad ; and maybe even support for Mac OS X ’s tenacious sleeping Inkwell handwriting - identification software package .
Not all of these will make the cut — and not all of them in all probability evenshould , given that Apple ’s modus operandi thus far has been to keep the potentiality of its mobile atomic number 8 peel down . But come Thursday , we hope to see at least a few of our top complaints ostracize once and for all .
What improvements are you looking forth to most in iPhone 4.0 ? get us know in the forum .
