Dear Apple, you're half-way there

In January you told Apple what you wanted in iPhone OS 4.0. Did the development team heed your advice? Well, even though iPhone OS 4 is only in its first beta release, Apple has already added 50% of the major features you wanted.

What was delivered?

Vertical swiping, app switching, background VoIP/audio playback and enhanced abilities for apps to save state and return you to the point where you left off are available in iPhone OS 4 through the new multitasking features. App organization and overall device app capacity has been improved with the introduction of Folders. A new home screen has been implemented with background wallpapers and a new dock.

What got left out?

Flash (and it's never going to happen, so just forget about it), a new lock screen, support for more codecs, and disk mode are the obvious ones that didn't make the list. However, some of the smaller feature requests are still possible, since they would be relatively minor changes that would be easy to implement as the SDK beta continues to progress. The ability to lock the device to portrait or landscape could still be a feature we'll see, especially considering Apple has already implemented the feature on the iPad via a hardware switch.

It's also possible that Apple could allow users to remove or hide Apple-installed apps, though there are so far no hints of that in the SDK according to the devs we've spoken to; however, having Folders means that you can pile them all in one folder and forget about them. As for that universal documents folder, no signs of it yet, but Mail app's ability to select which apps should open attachments in iPhone OS 4 is a good start.

Now we wait and see if anyone listened to your hardware wants for the 4th gen iPhone.

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In January you told Apple what you wanted in iPhone OS 4.0. Did the development team heed your advice? Well, even though iPhone OS 4 is...

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Phaedrus

You can hide the apple apps...

Settings -> General -> Restrictions -> Enable Restrictions

you can hide Safari, Youtube, iTunes, App Store, and the Camera

April 11 2010 at 11:01 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jared

Apple still did not fix notifications. My list of top wants was multitasking, new notification system, better app managment, better lock screen, and widgets. Maybe iPhone hardware 4.0 will deliver the touch screen that goes below the display so I can swipe up a dashboard. That would be way cool. I will wait to see hardware 4.0 before I get too mad but the shitty notifications not being fixed does piss me off. Fix it Apple!!!

April 11 2010 at 8:39 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

iMuggle

You may be able to cross off better codec / video support somewhat. A whole folder of videos synced with my phone out of iPhoto that I knew never would before. Most of them were taken with a digital camera, my n95, my bold 9000 etc.. Well under the 4.0 beta it transferred that entire folder and it plays every single one of the videos. Whether it is re-encoding on the fly or supporting other video formats, I don't know (haven't looked yet) but I known pre 4.0 that event always failed to sync over except for the videos that were already mp4 format.

April 11 2010 at 3:29 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Verks

You can go ahead and uncheck new homescreen. Until we have some informational widgets or text, mail and weather info on the homescreen they have done nothing.

Notification, notifications, notifications!!!!!! Nuff said.

April 10 2010 at 9:43 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

registration

I'm excited about iPhone mail getting threaded messages but how about a just read unread messages view. I've always wished that were a feature.

April 10 2010 at 6:47 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Richphoto

Still it's an amzing tool for me and my work, everyday. I am still amazed with it and am looking forward to 4.0

April 10 2010 at 6:12 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

sonola777

How you guys forgot to talk about that horrendous notification system is beyond me! Its an obtrusive, atrocious piece of trash that needs fixing.

April 10 2010 at 5:30 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tom Boucher

Isn't the ability to disable landscape mode a feature of the hardware switch? Also as an app developer they don't have to react to the orientation change so even if you enable disable you can have issues

For example watch what the abc player does. It kinda goes goofy when your in landscape.

Why do people want that feature so bad? I've not found myself thinking that and I'm curious how it's a big deal

April 10 2010 at 2:36 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

hedbluntincharge

I dont understand why people are still bellyaching about flash. If you think your battery life is sub-par now, wait till all those flash ads bombard you in safari and make your phone last 20 minutes. The simple fact of that matter is flash is a memory hog, processor hog and battery killer. It would absolutely ruin the iphone and anyone that doesn't understand this VERY basic concept should have a lobotomy. (oh wait, maybe they already have)

April 10 2010 at 2:10 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Timrek

Ugh... Will I not have the option to keep my metal dock at the bottom, I really like it....

April 10 2010 at 1:07 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply