Apple has released the iOS 4 iPhone update world wide, bringing a raft of updates to the 3G/3GS as well as much anticipated multitasking support to the iPhone 3GS.
Apple’s iPhone update emerges just weeks before the launch of the latest iPhone 4 smartphone, due on June 24th in the United States and July in Australia. iOS 4 (iPhone OS 4) as it is known, brings, improved camera performance, folder menu support, as well as unified inbox support and what Apple calls ‘multitasking’.
Australian iPhone users who updated their iPhone 3G or 3GS this morning before coming in to work were unfortunately caught off guard by the time it took to complete the update process, with some reporting that it took over an hour and up to three hours to go from start to finish. As a result, employers should be aware that this may have resulted in employees who are die-hard Apple fans being late for work this morning while they completed the iPhone update process.
Apple’s iOS 4 most heavily touted feature, multitasking, is app-specific, which means that unless developers have added multitasking support (via iOS 4 APIs) that users will be unable to use the app as they would multitasking on OSX or Windows (or Android/Windows Mobile smartphones).
Fortunately developers of apps which can most take advantage of the new multitasking APIs in iOS 4 are working on bringing to market apps which support the multitasking in the latest iPhone update. Some have already rushed to market support, including Pandora streaming music (available only in the US at this time) as well as DropBox, the popular online file management utility.
To download the new iOS 4 update for your iPhone 3G or 3GS, connect your phone to iTunes.
