MacBook Pro 2010 Release

The new operating system comes with a few caveats, such as the iPhone 3g won’t support the new multitasking feature – only the 3gs will. Because of this, many wonder if a new iPhone 4.0 4g HD will be released.

Apple iPad Release in UK Delayed

The iPhone 4.0 OS brings the iPhone more in line with other business phones, such as Blackberry. It allows for VPN access, and will even support Lotus Notes email applications. In addition, there are a variety of features available to corporate fleets wishing to turn in their tired RIM handsets for shiny new iPhones.

There are applications you can download that allow you to read any attachment you get on your iPhone, such as a PDF or Office file. It’s a big step for computing and many in the IT industry may find themselves leaning more towards an iPhone.

Still yet, the iPhone is only available on the AT&T network. That’s rumored to change, but we have yet to see the changes thus far. Currently, the new 4.0 OS is all we have to go by, and by the looks of it, business and enterprise users are going to win big with the update.

Resource:
http://cnmnewsnetwork.com/17698/iphone-4-0-4g-hd-%E2%80%93-apple-4-0-os-business-user-improvements/

Catching everyone off guard, Apple has sent out a teaser (it rarely does any other kind) to journalists proclaiming “Get a sneak peek into the future of iPhone OS” and dated it for 8 April 10AM PT (5PM GMT).

Naturally enough the rumour mile has already hit breakneck speeds with Engadget claiming there will be three distinct flavours of new software (4.0, 4.1 and 4.0.1). Yes, this could hint at multiple new iPhone models – though more likely it refers to iPhone OS 4.0 on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

Will we finally get multi-tasking? It’s tough to call since you’d think Apple would have unveiled that with the more powerful iPad if it was on the horizon. Let’s stay positive though. Furthermore, while we’re announcing our wishes we’ll list a few simple, common sense additions that should have been long sorted out by now:

• The ability to group apps into folders (eg games, music, travel, etc)
• Homescreens above and below, not just side-by-side
• A dynamic weather icon to match that of the calendar
• Homescreen access to the on/off settings for WiFi, 3G and data roaming
• Reordering browser tabs
• Caching webpages so back/forward navigation doesn’t result in reloading the entire page
• Safari integration with email, Maps integration with Safari (opening one doesn’t exit the other)
• Multiple Exchange account support
• Enabling the battery charge percentage indicator on models other than the 3GS

Surely not too hard? As for the likes of Flash support (via Flash 10.1) and LTE I’d suggest they are pipe dreams for now given the state of the relationship between Apple and Adobe in the former and the horrendous battery drain still evident in the latter.

That said, iPhone OS has stood relatively still for the last six months while Android in particular has come on leaps and bounds so – for possibly the first time – Apple really does need to pull something special out of the bag to reassert itself.

We’ll know by Thursday. Until then, fingers crossed…

Resource:
http://www.apple.com/uk/iphone/

Smartphone use grew 21 percent from December 2009 through February 2010, with some 45.4 million people using handsets with full HTML Web browsers in the U.S., according to new statistics from comScore.

Google’s Android operating system was the chief beneficiary of this growth spurt, rising to 9 percent market share from 3.8 percent from September 2009 through November 2009. That 5.2 percentage point gain was spurred by Verizon Wireless’ successful November launch of the Motorola Droid.

Verizon backed that Android 2.0 device with a $100 million marketing campaign, which enabled the carrier to sell hundreds of thousands of Droids during the holidays.

HTC’s Droid Eris joined the Droid from Verizon, while Sprint’s HTC Hero and Samsung’s Moment joined the Android party for the holidays.

Android’s growth was great, but the platform still stands a distant fourth in the smartphone market. RIM is the dominant leader, with 42 percent of the market, followed by Apple’s iPhone at 25.4 percent and Microsoft Windows Mobile, which garnered 15 percent share.

Microsoft lost 4 percent OS market share from December 2009 through February 2010, which could point to where Google’s 5.2 percent share gain came from. Palm also lost share, dipping from 7.2 percent share to 5.4 percent share over the same period.

ComScore also tracked content consumption on mobile phones and found that 18 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used social networking Websites such as Facebook and Twitter from December 2009 through February 2010, up from 15.1 percent in the three-month period through November 2009.

Some 29. 4 percent of subscribers used a Web browser, up 2.4 percent from 27 percent over the same period. The increased Web browser and social networking use prove that Web content consumption is seeing solid growth, no doubt a sign of the improved Internet experience of today’s handsets, particularly smartphones.

Text messaging to other phones, use of downloaded apps, gaming and music on mobile phones all saw growth from U.S. mobile subscribers over the time frame comScore tracked.

Meanwhile, Nielsen posted its own smartphone study April 5, noting that only 21 percent of American wireless subscribers are using a smartphone as of the fourth quarter 2009 compared to 19 percent in the third quarter 2009 and 14 percent at the end of 2008.

“We are just at the beginning of a new wireless era where smartphones will become the standard device consumers will use to connect to friends, the Internet and the world at large,” wrote Nielsen analyst Roger Entner.

The analyst added that the share of smartphones as a proportion of overall device sales has increased to 29 percent for phone purchasers in the last six months, with 45 percent of respondents to a Nielsen survey claiming that their next device will be a smartphone.

“If we combine these intentional data points with falling prices and increasing capabilities of these devices along with a explosion of applications for devices, we are seeing the beginning of a groundswell,” Entner said. “This increase will be so rapid, that by the end of 2011, Nielsen expects more smartphones in the U.S. market than feature phones.”

Resource:
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Google-Android-Leads-Leap-in-Smartphone-Use-comScore-Says-218468/

Apple has neither confirmed nor denied that a next-generation iPhone OS is impending at all, but that hasn’t stopped the speculation. Apple seems to be a slave to routine, and past development and release cycles suggest that we can expect a new iPhone OS this summer.

Multitasking, or the lack thereof, has been one of the most prevalent complaints about the iPhone as a serious business smartphone–although I am not sure it is iPhone users who are doing the complaining. The lack of iPhone multitasking was a prime target of Verizon’s “Droid Does” marketing campaign for the Android-based Motorola Droid.

The reality, though, is that the iPhone OS is already capable of multitasking–technically speaking. Certain apps and functions already multitask. You can switch to email or calendar while a voice call is still connected in the background. You can listen to music from the iPod function while continuing to use other apps on the iPhone. The multitasking is there, Apple has just restricted which apps actually have access to it.

To be honest, the iPhone screen only has enough real estate to display one app at a time, so multitasking is irrelevant in most cases. What is more important than literally leaving other apps open in the background, is building apps that are capable of retaining their state even when they’re not in the foreground.

In other words, I don’t need the app to run simultaneously, but as I switch from app to app I would like for the app to remember where I was so I don’t have to start over each time. Since I can only see one app at a time anyway, this sort of app memory basically achieves the same goal as true multitasking. This solution is the responsibility of the app developers rather than Apple itself, and many apps already take this approach.

True multitasking introduces some additional issues that Apple, or iPhone users will have to contend with.

1. Battery Life. Battery life is often cited by Apple as one of the reasons multitasking hasn’t been allowed thus far. The more apps that are running at the same time, the faster the battery power will be consumed.
2. Performance. Multitasking is still limited by the processing power and memory available to the system. Opening two or three applications on a Windows PC may work fine, but if you open ten applications you will probably grind your system to a virtual halt. Running multiple applications simultaneously will bog the iPhone down and could lead to frustrating performance.
3. Management. As I stated above, you can only really see one app at a time on the iPhone. With multitasking, you might have four or five apps running in the background–eating up battery life and impacting performance–and you may forget about them. The next generation iPhone OS needs to include some sort of interface or function that shows which apps are active so you can manage them properly.
4. Security. The iPhone OS closes the current app when you switch back to the main screen or accept an incoming call. This security model ensures that there are no apps running in the background and ensures that malicious apps can’t be used to compromise the iPhone, steal data, or spread malware. As has been seen with jailbroken iPhones, enabling multitasking opens the platform to potential malware attacks.

While these are concerns, it is hard to ignore the fact that all competing smartphone platforms already include multitasking and that many focus on that capability as a competitive differentiator when comparing against the iPhone.

I am not suggesting that Apple’s current pseudo-multitasking model is perfect, but I am pointing out that true multitasking is not without its issues, and that there are other potential solutions for a device like the iPhone which achieve the same results–or close enough at least–without introducing the concerns that come with multitasking.

Multitasking–true multitasking–is, in fact absent from the current iPhone OS. But, it seems like it is more of an issue from a marketing perspective than an actual concern of iPhone users. If, and when, Apple does introduce true multitasking in the iPhone OS, what will Apple competitors have to attack in their commercials?

The launch of the iPad changes the equation entirely as well. Because the iPad is built on the iPhone OS, and it has a significantly larger display to work with, users will expect to be able to open multiple apps and cascade or tile them to switch back and forth just as they are used to on desktop and notebook computers today.

While the value of multitasking on the iPhone itself may still be questionable, it would be a serious handicap to the iPad–even bigger than the inability to view Adobe Flash. Particularly when considering the potential business use of the iPad, multitasking becomes a critical element.

Multitasking is always at the top of the iPhone OS rumor list, though, so it may be premature to get too excited just yet.

Resource:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20100312/tc_pcworld/doestheiphoneosneedmultitasking_1