No matter what technology and creativity never end and fly through obstacles, especially Apple Inc. Down the time they manage to upgrade the iOS to compete with other available mobile operating system. In version 4.0, they manage to introduce many significant features including multitasking for 3^rd party application, JAVA Scrip support and Wi-Fi multimedia streaming.

With those features iOS became a huge threat to other mobile operating system and sometimes it could dominate very old market empires. Symbian OS, HP WebOS (previously palm OS) and Windows Mobile OS like giant were moved with the improvement of Apple iOS. In 2011 June Apple announced the latest iOS 5.0 comes with lots of amazing features and it was launched in October. This OS initially came to the market with Apple iPhone 4S. It’s a good time to take a look in to effect that iOS 5.0 made to the mobile device world.

New Features

Notification Center

The notification canter is one of the main components in any Mobile OS not just in iOS. Previously the way it used to give the notification was not user-friendly and sometimes it was disturbing to the currently running application. In iOS 5 they have redesign it. The notifications come at the top of screen and disappear very quickly. In the case you need to see entire list of notification you can swipe the top edge of the screen. Further, when the screen is locked the list of notification displays and you can respond to them easily. You can configure the notification center to display the desired items the ways you want including news, weather etc.

iMessaging

This is a brand new messaging service only for iPhone and iPad users who are using iOS version 5. This is providing the facility for you to send text messages through 3G or Wi-Fi based data networks. The text messages are displayed in usual threaded design. You are free to send any type of content including text, images, video and many more. If you need group messaging it’s possible through this application. Its really cool that application keep the messaging history, so you can re join the conversation which you did maybe sometimes ago. To ensure the maximums security of your message which going to be transfer through a public network, the application uses advanced encryption algorithm.

Camera and Photos

iOS 5 provide many new features to iPhone camera. Manly it has made the access easy. From the lock screen you can directly go to camera without unlocking it. So you will never miss an unforgettable moment. Additionally it provides grid lines, to align objects in your frame, tap focusing and zoom in and out gestures. Normally iPhone camera decides the optimum exposure to the frame. But if you are moving rapidly through areas with different light, it doesn’t work well enough. To solve that problem, iOS 5 provide exposure lock to iPhone camera, which is a feature comes in professional cameras. And you have a hardware button, which is volume up button to capture a frame which is way better than previous touch screen virtual button.

The photo viewer of iOS 5 provides on screen photo editing. You can do basic editing while you watch the photos like Auto enhancement which correct, exposure, blacks and color balance intelligently, cropping and red eye reduction. This is really helpful for frequently traveling people, especially for e journalists. They can capture the photos on sight, then edit them right there in iPhone and upload them to web site or social media applications.

PC Free

With previous versions of iOS it requires a computer which connected to internet to setup the device for the 1^st time. In other words, if you want to own an iPhone, before that you must own a PC or a MAC. But with the iOS 5, it has made the iPhone and iPad independent. The device itself can connect to internet right out of the box and download latest updates of iOS through any data service. Same with the 3^rd party applications, the device itself can connect to internet and download them. When it comes to your images, emails and contact like content, again you don’t need a PC or MAC since you have online storage, iCloud comes free with iOS 5.

iCloud

iCloud is one of the interesting feature that comes with iOS 5 and it’s totally free. It’s a online storage where you can sync all the data in your device. Hence you can use the same data in many devices after successful login. This service is integrated with multimedia contents like images and videos.

Ex: Once you take a photo you push that in to iCloud and you can access the same photo in another iOS 5 powered devices without extra effort.

With this service you will never miss any data if you are using many iOS powered devices. iOS comes with new email client that is also powered with iCloud, so you can access your mails with any iOS device. Same service could be used to sync and back up calendar entries and reminders too.

Other

To support the booming trend of social media iOS 5 has included the twitter application built in. Good news for twitter junkies! Gestures were introduced in previous version of iOS as well and iOS 5 has come up with more full hand gestures to make the device more usable. iOS is probably the most used mobile OS for gaming. So there is an upgraded gaming center in iOS 5. AirPlay was introduced in some previous version though this version iOS 5 support HD video mirroring through Apple TV. This will be a cool feature for professionals who planning to use iPhone and iPad for presentations. Location alert in reminders is another cool feature, which let you set a reminder which triggers not in specific time, but in specific place using GPS.

Other than visible features, there are various optimization of source code which of course no one knows for sure except Apple development team. The optimization are having the target of utilizing the battery power when heavy processes are going and utilize the processing power when multiple tasks are running.

All these features have extended the usability of iOS powered devices to initiate new trends and open whole lots of possibilities.

New Trends and Possibilities

Business Usage

Even in the early stage of iPhone some of the businessmen were using it to monitor and control their business through custom made applications. With the arrival of iPad this trend hit the roof due to the extended usage of iPad, specially its big touch screen. Introduction of iOS 5 has open more possibilities for the businessmen to use those devices more effectively. Mainly iCloud provide online platform to manage data and make them portable which comes handy for any professionals. You have your emails, calendar entries, to do list and other files wherever you go. With the improvement of mail clients, calendar application and new reminders, those made possible. With the performance optimization in core OS, they can trust the device for time critical online application like Stock trading. With new Notification center, you can easily configure it to display the status of stock market.

Communication

No matter what, the main purpose of any mobile device would be communication. I have mention many times before as well, conventional communication mediums like voice calls and SMS are less discussed subjects today, yet they are the most used. iOS 5 provide seamless integration of front camera to give excellent video conferencing experience to users. Further new iMessage general users can communicate through data service with much lesser cost. As always iMessage and SMS are having threaded discussion mode. And there is a new feature Newsstand let you manage your online subscription to various news sources.

Social Media

Social media is always made easy with iPhone and iPad. The increasing number of mobile social media users proves it today. Facebook applications came built in with previous version of iOS and now twitter application also comes with iOS 5. Using these applications provides more features that conventional web interface and let you utilize the full power of the device. With the new features in camera, we will be able to see more social photos uploaded to social media sites. And new image viewer provide on screen photo editing, color correction, cropping and red eye reduction. Users will be able to edit the photos, right in the device before they upload them to social media, without help of a PC or MAC.

Optimization and Continuation

The development of iOS is always backed by its previous success and version 5.1 beta is already out for developers. It’s expected to be containing with many more cool features. In next releases of iOS I expect it to be more performance tuned and more importantly less battery power consuming, unlike the previous version. Most of the users were complaint about the battery drain in iOS versions when they work with many applications at the same time. At the same time developers will have to keep a track on memory foot print, which was not a huge problem in iOS so far, yet highly complained issue in Android Mobile OS. When they increase features in iOS and make it ready for 3^rd party applications they might face the same problem. Looking forward to take a look at the iOS 5.1 and wishing all the best for Apple iOS developers.

In the first quarter of the year 2011, apple introduced iPad 2 as a continuation and improvement to the previous iPad. It contained lots of more cool features and new technologies. Again same as before sales hit the sky and people started using iPad 2 like crazy. It became a day to day item than a high tech magic in matter of months. In this article I’m going to take a look in to social impact done with the wide spreading of Apple iPad 2.

Specification Overview

• Processor
• Apple A5
• 1GHz
• Dual Core

• Operation System
• iOS version 5

• Display
• 9.7 inch
• LED Backlit
• Multi Touch sensor
• Fingerprint resistant

• Storage
• 16 GB
• 32GB
• 64GB

• Sensors
• Gyro meter
• Accelerometer
• Light Sensor
• Compass

• Connectivity
• Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth
• UMTS/HSDPA

• Camera
• 720p HD video
• Front VGA
• 0.7 Mega pixel rear
• 0.3 Mega pixel front

• Battery life
• Up to 10 hours

• Online service
• Cloud
• App store
• iTunes

In my first look I didn’t notice many differences in tech specification. But when I take a closer look there are very important improvements. Mainly they have increased the processing power from A4 chip to A5 dual core chip which will give you double the processing power. And previous iPad didn’t have any camera while this one has 2 with 720P HD video recording. Happy news for mobile games, iPad 2 comes with Gyro meter which give you more precise control when you play games with physical movements. Previous one only had a accelerometer which capture only movement of device not the movement relative to gravity. These features have enabled whole lot of new possibilities with iPad 2.

Usage Impact

Games

The iPad 2 comes with lots of favors for gaming. Its processor, highly accurate multi touch screen and special motion sensors like gyro meter turn it in to excellent gaming device. Lots of games developers have take the advantage of improvement of iPad 2 and came up with cool concepts. Most popular one would be car games and the most interesting part is you can drive the car considering the device as the steering wheel. With new gyro meter you can do more than previous accelerometer. I believe that game developers have not yet taken the full advantage of gyro meter and its capabilities, yet soon we will be able to see cool game which uses this new hardware. I wish there is a game which help us to work out, especially aerobics properly by guiding us detecting our movements.

Scientific Application

Other than the general public, iPad has dominated the scientific and academic world as well. Most of the scientist and researchers are using iPad as their notebook and data collection device. When they are working in field, this becomes really handy. There are custom developed applications which allow the researchers to store new data in central database and a retrieve the data as well. Improved connectivity options of iPad 2 have made those possible. The data could be presented to the researcher in various different graphical ways with the 10 inch display. Additionally they are using it as a communication tool, especially for video conferencing with the aid of front camera.

Graphic Designing

Many of the expert graphic designers and art directors are using iPad as their idea book. They are drawing  sketches using multi touch screen and edit them using special software. With the improved multimedia capabilities and graphic acceleration this kind of work will become even easier and efficient. Additionally they can get the use of gyro meter to come up with graphic design with physical movements like smudge painting. Since iPad 2 comes with a camera capable of capturing stills and720p HD videos they can record their inspiration on the run and attach them in to their portable digital idea book.

Music Production

In music production software, it’s very difficult to handle its control surface with mouse and key board. To make controlling easier music produces were using hardware control surfaces. Still there were problems, like its very difficult upgrade hardware surface with the rapid improvement of software. Purchasing new and upgraded hardware surface was very costly. iPad and its multi point touch made music produces world much easier. They could extend the PC or MAC software interface to iPad and control it with touch screen. In this case, dealing with software upgrades is effortless. This comes handy when they are working with mixers and their faders. This made it very easy to program and automation while mixing audio. And this made it very easy to program drum beats with drum machines. One of the most popular music production software re designs their interfaces to work with touch devices in their latest version. They came up with special drum machine named Kong Drum Designer with big buttons which works amazingly with touch devices. With the improvement of processing power in iPad 2 all these processes became smooth with lesser latency.

Stock Trading

Stock traders are set of people who deal with lots of information and make quick decision. iPad gave them perfect solution to their needs. iPhone is having too small display to give what they want. With iPad mainly they are reading news. 3G connectivity always helps this. And news is not enough then need stock market statistics and software to execute orders. Again iPad provides versatile solution to install application, visualize data in big 10 inch screen and place order with the Wi-Fi of 3G connectivity. One of the most popular stock trading software, Direct FN Pro has released iPad version of the software. This software work with iOS 5 and let the traders to get the market statistic, visualize them with charts, apply market indicators and place orders. You will find more information about this iPad application in here, with screenshots.

In early time most of the investors were reluctant to use these kinds of devices considering the performance issues and connectivity issues. A delay of one second may lead to loss of many millions in finance game. I believe that iPad 2 has given a solid solution to those investors to be confident and do their trading on iPad with its Dual core A5 processor and 3G or may be Wi-Fi connectivity.

Market Impact

Same as in any other apple product iPad 2 hit the sky with its sales soon after its launch. According to statistics it shows even bigger sales in first few hours, than previous version of iPad. Within 24 hours after launching, recorded number of sales were nearly 500 000 devices. At the same time it took the large proportionate of Laptop market. After launching iPad 2, there were significant dropping of sales of Laptops, since iPad 2 practically replace and gives better experience than conventional laptop. And there were huge improvement of gaming with iPad 2. Sales of iPad gaming application were boosted by more than 100% and 17% of iPad 2 users mainly used the device as a gaming platform. This is again huge improvement compared to 9% with iPad original version.

This amazing device changes the world of good with its amazing capabilities and made a significant impact on global life style. It introduces the easier way to do things as well as totally new ways to do things. It redefine the way we game, create computer base graphics, music and many more. This impact will surely continue and make the earth a better place with the creative contribution of iOS software developers and Apple team.

New Features

Multi-Touch Gestures For iPAD

There were many touch screen mobile devices in market, yet iPhone was one of the most prominent out of all mainly due to its amazingly fast responsiveness and multi point sensitivity. iOS is giving support to use this capability to deliver an unmatched multimedia experience to users. Along with this advance hardware and software, developers can come up with more creative ideas like ‘Gestures’. In here the software captures the special and unique movement using touch screen to trigger commands. Now with the advancement of iOS 4.3 they have come up with multi touch gestures which are specially designed for iPAD. It allows the users to minimize and maximize multi task bar, switch between applications etc. using four or five finger touch gestures.

Hardware Rotation Lock

Hardware rotation is one of the most attractive features in both iPhone and iPad provided by iOS with the aid of its accelerometer. The hardware was sensitive enough to capture even a slight variation of angle of the device relative to gravitational field and it was good enough even to play a car game using it as a controller. However, at some instances user was required to switch off the screen rotation and they were using hardware switch in iPad. In iOS 4.2 it was only a mute button and many of the users requests to let them choose the functionality of the hardware switch. As a result in iOS 4.3 user can select whether the hardware switch need to be mute switch or rotation lock switch which will be very useful to the iPad users.

AirPlay

This was one of most prominent features in iOS 4.2 which allowed user to send a stream of media which may include video, audio or photo to another AirPlay enabled device. However, it was enabled for built in application. In iOS 4.3, it’s going to give the same facility to developers, so they can use AirPlay in their own application to make them more attractive to the users. The limitation for developers when they are using AirPlay is not yet defined according to my research and I hope they will give maximum. That was one of the catchy points in iPhone development that they give lots of freedom to developers to use OS features and hardware unlike in previous dominant platforms like J2ME

Camera Effects

There were unofficial reports which contain some details about new camera effect in iOS 4.3. The camera in iPhone is one of most discussed hardware in it. There were lots of complains about its quality and incapability in the early stage. However it supported many software applications to deliver a high quality multimedia experience to its users. With the improvement of hardware, the camera also came a long way. Currently the ‘I’ devices are equipped with high quality cameras even with front camera for video conferencing. The iOS 4.3 will provide extended support for those hardware capabilities along with more camera effects in future.

Video Scrubbing Options

Most of the portable video playback devices doesn’t provide video scrubbing feature, just play and stop. In case you need to quickly go through a video to get an idea, it will be difficult or may be not possible. However, iOS was providing video scrubbing manually where you can drag the curser in video play back time line. In iOS 4.3 you have more options. By dragging down the finger in video playback time line you can switch between few scrubbing modes and current mode will be displayed under the time line.

In addition to above features iOS 4.3 will be equipped with more user interface advancement like icon arrangement, onscreen keypad improvement, and extended support for retina display. Further, it will be having options like 10 times SMS tone play, ping restriction and HTTP live streaming statistics.

Evolution of iOS

In the early time when 1^st iPhone introduced, iOS was an inferior operating system for mobile devices compared to other operating systems available in the market in that time, including Symbian and Windows. Top of all in that time it didn’t even have very basic functionalities like multi tasking. However, due to its exceptional user interfaces and multimedia capabilities it survived. The huge success of iPhone was defined by the ‘Apple’ name itself and its exceptional hardware capabilities including multi point touch screen and accelerometer. But today thing are way better, iOS came a long way adding more and more functionalities in to that. Now it’s having multi tasking, extended application support, improved hardware accessibility to 3^rd party application and great developers support. I wouldn’t hesitate to say, today iOS is way better than Symbian in many aspects. However, the major competitor of iOS, Android OS is out there growing fast too.

Future Market Impact

Apple iPhone and iPad has already made a phenomenal impact on market point of view on mobile devices. They actually redefined the previous standards and showed ‘This is how a mobile device should be!’ They made billions of dollars worth sales and dominated the market. In the meantime they developed themselves as well, both in software and hardware side. Now they present iOS 4.3 and they gave multi-point touch screen, accelerometer and retina display before. Those things make evident that they are the best and on top of the market. But are they really? Android OS is giving a silent yet significant challenge to iOS showing the strength of open source community. It’s also equipped with more and advance applications and features. Further, it’s also having a Software Development Kit released for developers which is building a huge development community around it. Most importantly it’s using the language JAVA which is the most popular according to TIOBE index. It comes as open source so its evolution is not decided by one company. It comes with many devices from many manufactures which will give a wide selection and features to its users. Hence, it takes leaps ahead in most aspects which will directly affect the market share. However, the most important factor which will decide the existence of any application of hardware would be the community and culture it will develop among its users. There is no argument that ‘Apple’ is the best in there with their ‘i’ culture where Android is nowhere near. So it is going to be a tight game and current stats say that Android is growing faster. No matter what, end of the day consumers will get the best product for cheaper price as a result of any market war.

References

• Patel, N. (2011, January 12). iOS 4.3 beta arrives for devs, brings AirPlay video support to apps, personal hotspot and customizable iPad side switch (update: video!). Retrieved January 19, 2011, from www.engadget.com: http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/12/ios-4-3-beta-arrives-for-devs-brings-airplay-video-support-to-a/
• Viticci, F. (2011, January 11). Apple Releases iOS 4.3 Beta, Here’s What’s New. Retrieved January 19, 2011, from www.macstories.net: http://www.macstories.net/news/breaking-apple-releases-ios-4-3-beta/
• Woods, B. (2011, January 13). Apple rolls out iOS 4.3 SDK to developers. Retrieved January 19, 2011, from www.zdnet.co.uk: http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/tech-tech-boom-10017860/apple-rolls-out-ios-43-sdk-to-developers-10021483/

Current Camera Of iPhone

The current version of the iPhone has a 3.0 Megapixels camera in it. With the Auto focus and Tap to focus options, it gives better performances to the user. The video recording performances are also better. It gives a quality video output with 30 frames per second.

Image Management In iPhone

Although the other phones have better quality cameras, they do not provide a better image management system like in iPhone. The iPhone image management system provides facility to manage image galleries according to the subject and may other filtering factors. The competition in the world market today does not looking for the better product, It always needs the best. iPhone provides iTunes to share images from MAC or photoshop album on the PC. Through this synchronization, iPhone became more user friendly for the people who love it.

Next iPhone

The Apple Inc. wishes to release their next version of the iPhone in this June.  Although they tried to hide the specifications and technological stuffs from public, some things were exposed to the public recently. According to that information, people can think of an 80GB device with iPhone 4G phone.

Next iPhone’s Camera

The next iPhone will be equipied with a 5Megapixel camera and that make it a shining sophisticated mobile device in 2010 WWDC event where they plan to release it on next June. The device will have a larger lens than the previous versions and a LED flash light will be there to add light in night or indoor moods. The most important thing is that the internal hardware will be ‘Apple’ specific. The Omnivison’s CMOS image sensors will provide a high accuracy and the quality output.

Camera Applications

BestCamera

The iPhone is looking to make their features from better to best. There is software that allows users to name BestCamera to allow users to do whatever they like to do with images. The next iPhone users are waiting for something new and improved other than what they have seen so far. The user friendly image gallery is one of the most attractive facts that anyone like to see. The user can scroll through the touch screen and add the image effect he needs from the number of available effects. The next iPhone may include more effects and more interactive options. It is said that Adobe Photoshop is the best and easiest software to manage and edit pictures for general users. A person who has used the BestCamera software might think twice before making that statement. The image editing and managing can be easily done through this software. The users expect much better BestCamera software to manage images better than ever.

Snapture

This software gives user a special feature to rotate the phone but not to get the image rotated. Snapture allows the user to take images by tapping anywhere of the screen. In most of the cameras user has to click on a specific button to get a shot. But with this software it makes easy to the user. The volume level zoom control while taking images is another special facility provided by this software. Snapture Premium allows the quick view enhancement. The user can take several snapshots at the same time and check each and every image with just one click. It enables the possibility to delete the rest of images while keeping the one the user wants with. It allows a special feature of making the images of several color modes available in a strip in the left side.

Camera Genius

This enables user to have a non-optical zoom. This gives a clear image without any distortion in it. Sound capture facility enables capturing the images in the place where can get the maximum sound. Different types of guides and timer facilities give user an interactive and special ability to enjoy photography.

Colorsplash

This is a great image management application which was introduced with editing the colors of images. The user can add or edit colors of an image with just a one click.

Future Of iPhone’s Camera And Applications

There are several types of application for the iPhone with various unbelievable features. Although it has come up with several types of sophisticated apps, there will be better in near future. A noise sensor zoom facility will be something new that people can expect. Think of a party, the camera will be auto zoomed to the place where people dancing and singing. Most of the iPhone users are not that good at photography. So the users will be able to take much accurate images with this facility. A run time stop caption will be another great invention. The camera can be improved with the large number of frames per second in it. But think of an application that counts the position in 2 several times and allowing the median to guess the final image. This will be a great invention for any kind of a camera. But for the iPhone users, this will be something special.

No Camera iPhones?

Having a camera is good for someone. But, it may be a reason for someone to not to use an iPhone. Think of people who are working in security zones. So Apple may think of introducing a phone without a camera in the future. Think of a person who works in google, that person will not be able to use the iPhone because of its camera.

References

• Inc., A. (2010). iPhone. Retrieved 05 10, 2010, from Apple Inc.: http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html
• Mokey, N. (2010, 01 26). Best iPhone Apps. Retrieved 05 11, 2010, from Digital Trends: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/the-best-iphone-apps/

New Features in OS 4.0

Multitasking

iPhone’s multitasking solution allow several third party apps to run in the background while the user working with another application. It is handled with a simple task switcher by double click the home button. When click the home button, it will show a list of currently running applications. You have to select the application and it will switch to it. The system gives preferences to running tasks and less preferences to others as needed. It allows the user to pause some applications, while enabling some special service to allow some types of tasks such as answering calls or playing music on the background. Apple has listed seven kinds of services that will give the user the kind of multitasking without choking the system

Background Audio: This can be done apps like Pandora, where user can listen to music while doing another task.

Voice over IP – VoIP: Before multitasking implemented, VoIP applications were limited as they were not active all the time to receive incoming calls

Background Location: There are two kinds of applications—turn-by-turn direction GPS applications like TomTom would run this service in the background to tracks where you are, while you are working on another app, and social networking application like Loopt.

Push notifications: This was already a background task, but it has been expanded in OS 4.0.

Local notifications: These notifications are generated by the iPhone applications and can be sent between the applications. If something important happened in background, a notification will popup whatever the app you are using at the time. This is an effective way of keep tracking between the applications.

Task completion: This will allow applications to finish the tasks started before switching to another application. It pops up an alert when the app task is done, even when you are using some other apps

Fast app switching: This will allow currently running applications to available instantly rather than start them up each time. All the application can now be frozen in full, so when you reopen them, they are restored exactly to the previous state.

iBook

The iBook, which was only available for Apple’s iPad, is now available for iPhone, now you can take your books with you wherever you go as oppose to iPad. iBook now available for iPod Touch as well. Currently it is only available in United States only as it has some complexity of geographic distribution deals with publishers.

iAd

iAd, Apple’s newest interactive advertisement platform. According to Jobs, it offers ‘interaction and emotions’ which is middle of where web ads and TV ads to the app users. Those ads are going to be served without leaving the current app you are working on, and then you can close the ad at any time and return to the app where you left it. It offers variety of interactive options like sounds and video clips and games within the advertisement. According to Jobs, one ad every three minutes would lead to 1 billion ad impression per day over Apple’s 100 million devices. Apple will host the ads and developers will receive 60% of iAd revenue. The iAd is based on HTML5.

New Mail App

Unified inbox with multiple email exchange accounts with fast inbox switching with a few taps. It allows users to open attachments using specific applications. Organized by thread and groups together messages by date.

Application Folders

For better organizing, OS 4.0 has a folder feature. Now, user can create folders according to App Store category, and users can rename it as well.

Game Center

Apple’s going to start a centralized gaming service such as Xbox Live to connect players online and the scores can be viewed anyone on the network. This service will be available by the end of this year.

Bluetooth Keyboard Support

This is another feature taken from the iPad. Now, iPhone 4.0 support Bluetooth Keyboard.

Custom Backgrounds

Now you can choose different backgrounds for your iPhone 4 and not just for the lockscreen

Enterprise Features

• Better data protection: Encrypted emails and PIN coded attachments
• Mobile device management: Lets IT managers to deploy iPhone and manage them remotely
• Wireless app distribution. Companies can push out custom apps over the air instead of relying on iTunes sync.
• Support for multiple exchange accounts
• Support for Exchange server 2010
• SSL VPN support from Juniper and Cisco

Disadvantages

There are many hardware compatibility issues when migrating to iPhone OS 4.0. You cannot have multitasking features in your iPhone 3G and if you want to have that experience, you have to buy a new iPhone with OS 4.0. Even in 3GS model, it does not have a front camera yet, so you cannot take video calls nor do video chat though it is a multimedia phone. These features are mandatory and people are expecting them on upcoming editions. iPhone OS 4.0 does not support Java. There are number of free Java applications available all over the net but you cannot use them. They have HTML5 as an alternative for Flash. This might be a good idea but you cannot watch flash videos or browse flash sites. Only few sites support HTML5 Currently such as YouTube.

Competitors

While Apple is trying to implement the multitasking, the windows mobile has implemented it years ago. From the services and enterprise level, Windows mobile is in a leading level around the globe. There are no free things in Apple, if you want a book, you have to buy it from iBook, and for music, you need pay and download it from iTunes. But in windows mobile, there are large number of sites and lot of applications available for free. People love Apple, because of its multimedia features, and it has a great support for gaming. But the future of the Apple’s stability is depends on what are the enterprise level services it offers, how much it supports for free and open source software, and how much its applications support world wide. Most of its features limited to United States. Even though it has many wonderful features, not everyone can get benefit out of them.

After all, there is a question mark in my mind. Will iPhone OS 4.0 be able beat its competitors even with these upgrades?

References

• (2010, April). Retrieved April 2010, from media.techworld.com: http://media.techworld.com/cmsdata/products/3219758/iPhone%20OS%204.jpg
• Iiphone OS 40 All The New Features. (2010, April). Retrieved April 2010, from Gizmodo: http://gizmodo.com/5512635/iphone-os-40-all-the-new-features
• iPhone OS 4.0: Multitasking arrives (live blog). (2010, April). Retrieved April 2010, from Cnet: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20001876-37.html
• New iphone os 4 features. (2010, April). Retrieved April 2010, from The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/08/new-iphone-os-4-features_n_530401.html#s79663

Specification and Features

Its operating system is similar to iPhone’s operating system and has custom designed A4, Apple 1GHz Processor. It has 1024 x 768 resolutions, 9.7 inch LED touch screen, 1.5 pounds weight, 0.5 inch thin and it has around 10 hours of battery life as well. iPad has the fasters built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi connection, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and 7.2 Mbps 3G data speed. There are particularly designed games and apps available for iPad and an iWork suite which contains word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software especially for business use also announced. The starting price will be around $499 (16 GB). If you want to use AT&T connectivity, which is Apple recommended, another $130 will be added to the price. Apple’s iBook the virtual bookshop is one of the main features in iPad. You can turn pages with a single tap in the right-hand margin.

In addition, you can have a bunch of photo album in your iPad, and when it’s charging state, you can use it as a digital photo frame. Moreover, its high-resolution screen makes it perfect for watching any kind of video such as HD movies, TV shows and music videos. It has a unique YouTube app where you can easily navigate videos and organize videos. With the iPod application, you can browse, organize and listen to music with the powerful built-in speaker. The iTune store lets you to browse, buy music, TV shows or you can buy or rent movies with thousands of collections or you can sync with your Mac or PC to share the contents through iTune. There are around 140,000 applications available for iPad and you can easily browse, buy and download them from App Store.

The Google powered helps you to navigate with high-resolution satellite images where you can use your current location as well as you can get the directions. To taking notes, iPad has an onscreen keyboard and in landscape view, you can see your list of notes and the current one will shown win a red circle. From the Home Screen, you can have access to everything in your iPad in a tap and you can move apps around the screen in any order you want. Finally, the Spotlight Search allows you to search across iPad and its built-in apps.

Lack Of Functionalities

Even though iPad has the entire above-mentioned feature, it has failed some functionality as well. Due to lack of multitasking that means that you cannot listen to music while editing a photo. It’s a major issue in iPad. It does not have a camera. Even the iPod nano has a camera, so a business product without a web cam or at least a normal cam. So no video chatting, no photo snaps. It does not include a USB port, so file transfer between other devices will be difficult and inconvenient. Users have to depend on a USB adapter. Most of the users never accept this. iPad doesn’t support Flash. Which means you cannot view Flash embedded sites and applications. The main arguments against Flash running on the iPad are that it’s a resource hog and a security risk, but the lack of Flash support is nonetheless a hindrance for users. While the iPad’s display has been praised as crisp and sharp, its screen — LED-backlit with In-Plane Switching (IPS) — has its downsides. The iPad’s screen is not as power efficient as OLED devices, which don’t drain batteries as quickly. Moreover, LED screen tends to be harder on the eyes than the e-ink screens used on eReaders such as the Kindle. Apple has its own App Store for iPad and it has a lot of restriction on apps like no porn, nothing that infringes on the Apple trademark etc. The Free Software Foundation has already criticized the product, saying iPad is bad for freedom.

People have to think is it worth to buy this product for $500? Moreover, user has to depend on the iStore.  We can expect more features and bug fixed updates in future. However, for now its people have to decide do they really want to replace their current device to iPad.

References

• (n.d). Retrieved on January 2010 from huffingtonpost.com: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/29/apple-ipad-review-photos_n_441770.html?slidenumber=Dpqk1VkFkhM%3D&&&&&&&&&
• (n.d). Retrieved on January 2010 from apple.com: http://www.apple.com/ipad/
• (n.d). Retrieved on January 2010 from sindhtoday.net: http://www.sindhtoday.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/apple-ipad_tablet.jpg