Tag Archives: multitasking

Mobile, Operating Systems, tablets

Apple Officially Releases iOS 4.2 For The iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch

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Apple is finally pushing out its latest and most anticipated iOS 4.2.1, which technically can be downloaded right away via your iTunes dashboard app. The new version which weights about 624.3MB and supports miriad of cupertino devices, including iPad, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G and iPod touch, is notable for being THE most important OS software update the iPad tablet has ever had. For those of you who are still trying to figure out what all the commotion is about, imagine having in one magical slate multitasking capabilities, along with folders, Airplay, AirPrint usability, Game Center arena, and unified inbox accounts. Want even more? From now on you can use the Find My iPhone feature, free of any charge (previously priced at $99 a year). Generaly speaking, it’s a GPS-based application that lets you remotely locate your missing Apple handhelds (iPhone 4, the iPad, and fourth-gen iPod touch), by using a web interface platform and online set of maps. You can also wipe important data, lock your device from far, display a messsage on it, or sound an alarm from any place you are – and it’s free, remember? Hit the jump for full PR.

Update: Dev-Team has just launched a new redsn0w version 0.9.6b4 jailbreak for iOS 4.2.1.Regretfully it’s a “tethered” update, which means that iPhone 4, iPad, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch users will have to reattach their personal devices, either to a PC or a Mac, to boot into a jailbroken state whenever they need a reboot or lose the battery power – bummer. In any case, that won’t unlock your handheld machines, if that’s what you were expecting for. Unlock hack for 3G and 3GS is expected to be out somewhere this week, while the iphone 4 solution should probably take a little bit more.

[Apple]

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Media Players, Mobile, News, Phones, Video

iPhone 4 Officially Announced, Due Out June 24th For $199 With 3.5-Inch Retina Display, FaceTime Video Chat And OS4

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Apple has just introduced its brand new iPhone 4 at the WWDC 2010 event in San Francisco, CA, with CEO Steve Jobs telling the open-eared crowd “Now, stop me if you’ve already seen this” and adding “This is one of the most beautiful designs you’ve ever seen.” But we’ve already seen it before, due to recent unpleasant leaks, and all that left is for Cupertino to finally make things official.

Basically, the new iPhone 4 is firmly constructed from a stainless steel band, used for structural support and works as dual-antenna, while both front and back are coated with real glass cover. The screen is sized at 3.5-inch, with 960 x 640 points of high resolution (x4 more) and 1:800 contrast ratio – Apple calls it “Retina Display” for its super-sharp display, boasting 326 pixels per inch. The good news is that Apple has apparently added that strong A4 processor it first planted inside the iPad, into the new iPhone. Despite its 9.3mm thick, Apple has somehow managed to stuff up the iPhone 4 with a pretty impressive battery which can literally deliver 7 hours of 3G talk, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of WiFi browsing, 10 hours of video, 40 hours of music, and up to 300 hours of standby – did we say impressive already? Connectivity wise, you get a 802.11n WiFi, paired with Bluetooth and equipped with GPS capabilities.

Beyond that, one of the things that is talked about a great deal  is the FaceTime video calls feature that Apple has finally tossed into the four-gen iPhone, with future plans to make it an open industry standard. In general, there are two different cameras onboard – the rear one, is at 5 megapixel with a backside illuminated sensor, x5 digital zoom, and a LED flash, featuring 720p HD video recording at 30FPS (Portrait or landscape), while the second is a front facing camera that lets you conduct smooth video calls through your iPhone – the suspense – it can only be made over wifi networks at the moment. At that note we should mention Apple’s new iMovie app that gives any iPhone user the opportunity to edit his/her video content without the need to leave your mobile device in favor of your desktop platform. iMovie is said to be available at the App Store right away for a small $4.99 price tag.

As expected, the new phone is going to run on Apple’s latest OS4 (AKA: iPhone OS 4) that includes all the good stuff we’ve already written about, such as folders, multi-tasking, iBook, iAds and more.

Other than that, the iPhone 4 also houses a microSD slot and a a three-axis gyroscope.

The new iPhone will be available in June 24th, both in white and black flavors, running for $199 (16GB) and $299 (32GB), with Pre-orders start a week from tomorrow in 5 countries: US, France, Germany, UK, Japan, and 18 more following in July. The 3GS, on the other hand, will now be $99 only. PR and videos after the break.

[Apple]

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Events, Mobile, News, Operating Systems, Phones

iPhone OS 4 Announced, Adds Multitasking, In Apps Ads, Folders, and More To The iPhone

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The iPhone OS 4.0 event we’ve all been anxiously awaiting, just ended with Apple delivering some striking news to the world. But before getting to those shocking news we just heard, here’s some other details that might be worth considering: As of today Apple sold about 450,000 iPads throughout the States (along 50M iPhone devices), while users have downloaded about 600,000 books and over 3.5 million apps, thus far. The iPhone OS 4 which suppose to get official release this summer, is said to provide more than 1500 new APIs for developers, who can now actually download the fourth SDK Beta package from the iPhone Dev Center, and start shaping their magical crafts.

Moving the focus point over the main buffet, it’s all about the multitasking (Finally!). Yes, you’ve heard that right folks, Apple’s OS 4 is said to include multitasking (…and I’ll repeat myself again: ‘multitasking’). Of course it will work if you have an iPhone 3GS in your bag. Earlier devices, according to Jobs, amongst you’ll find “The iPhone 3G and iPod touch 2nd generation will run “many things”, but they will not get multitasking”.  In that note, Apple says it’d actually provide seven multitasking services including: background audio streaming like Pandora playing music all day long without the need to be stopped, Voice over IP apps like Skype taking calls even when you browse, background GPS and location apps, push and local notifications, task completion like Flickr image uploaded i background, and last but not least, fast app switching – all to be safely activated without the worry of battery draining.

Next in line is the new form of Folders, which aims to organize, and make sense out of the dispersed field of applications. With iPhone OS 4, users are said to be able to drag and drop apps onto one another to create folders, that from now on can hold up to 2160 apps instead of 180 apps you used to see over 11 pages.

Cupertino is also pushing forward today the Unified Inbox function, which gathers multiple email accounts (like MobileMe, Yahoo, Gmail, etc) into one single box, and thus eliminates the need to jump from one window to another. Apple has also enabled in this session the possibility of getting third-party email attachments straight into your phones – Yay, attachments are on!

iBooks gets to the iPhone OS 4 as well, with Apple taking advantage of recent iPad e-book galore.

Gaming Center. Another big news, especially for the gamer geeks between us. With Apple, building a social iPhone gaming network, which basically allows you to challenge your friends, compare achievements, leaderboards, match making  and more. In other words, it’s like the Xbox Live, but for the iPhones.

iAds. Suddenly everything that starts with the letter “i” is an Apple related product, eh? But seriously now, it was Steve Jobs who was quoted saying that free apps “Developers need to find a way to start making their money”… so far so good, but how? Apparently, Apple will sell interactive in-apps mobile ads, that everyone can create, not only ad agencies but also iPhone app developers that will split revenues with Apple (60/40) in exchange for selling and hosting their ads. Apple is said to use HTML 5 format to create those ads – interesting!

More coming up  features to include: Home screen wallpaper installation, Bluetooth keyboard support, 5x digital zoom, Spell check like in iPads, Playlist creation, Map overlays, Video playback and capture, and more.

So this is it guys, it’s huge and in some parts very surprising. A short multi-tasking OS 4 hands-on video is just after the break and you can also watch the full iPhone OS 4 keynote event on video on Apple’s website right here.

Update: Full PR announcement after the break.

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Computers, News

iTablet Gets Released In The UK, Packs Everything The iPad Doesn’t Have

Now that Apple’s iPad has finally turned official and gone into mass production, it seems just a matter of time until new tablet machines would rise and shine in geeks world and closely watched in months to come. And one UK company that didn’t wait long (’till Apple’s newcomer goes live)  and recently taken wraps off its latest greatest pride, the iTablet, is X2 Computing that offers a 10.2-inch widescreen TFT or 12.1-inch widescreen XGA – both touchscreens at 1024 x 768 resolution – due to start shipping with Windows or Linux OS in April 2010, for an undetermined price. Basically, these iTablets pack most things we wanted to see in Cupertino’s iPad but couldn’t find, like three USB ports, optional HDMI output, 1.3-megapixel webcam, multi-tasking and out-of-the-box integrated flash support. Besides that you suppose to see other included specs like Intel’s 1.6GHz processor, paired with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G connection, white, grey, pink, blue, red, yellow or black flavors and up to 250GB of storage onboard. Stay tuned for more.

Update: Word on the street says that both versions are sized at 35mm thick, which explains the big storage capacity offered, but sounds bulky, in our opinion. This way or another we’ll have to wait and see.

[via Pocket Lint]