iPhoneOS 4 Details

The announcement is done and Apple has posted the details. There is a lot of new stuff coming, but the big ones appear below.

The big 7:
1. Multitasking for Third Party Apps: Listen to Pandora while composing an e-mail.
2. Folders: More advanced organization of your Apps
3. Improved Mail: Hello, Unified Inbox and opening attachments
4. iBooks comes to the iPhone
5. Enterprise Features including E-mail encryption, advanced wireless configuration
6. Game Center: Unified social gaming - essentially XBox Live for iPhone
7. iAd: Integrated advertising in Apps, to allow more free and low-cost Apps

Google Wave - E-mail's Replacement

We have seen a lot of companies try to invent "the new e-mail". The shortcomings of e-mail are already obvious to most: SPAM, inability for most to know if a message was received, SPAM, long lags between send and response, SPAM, etc. But all attempts to date have failed because e-mail simply matches best how we actually work - like an old paper letter. Now Google is taking its shot at the e-mail replacement trophy with Google Wave, a system that combines concepts from e-mail, instant messaging, group collaboration software, and social networking. I really didn't "get" Wave from all of the discussion online before, but now hands-on reviews are starting to appear and they make things a bit more clear. The latter link is worth a read, if you're not up for sitting through the 90 minute Google video.

Personally, I think Wave will NOT replace e-mail, but it may encourage enhancements to the old e-mail system to force it to compete. If so, it will still have been a worthwhile effort.

iPhoneOS 3.0 preview coming soon

Apparently, we'll see a preview on March 17 The early rumors are the new iPhone OS will support MMS and tethering.

Tethering, for those not in the know, is the practice of hooking up your cell phone to your laptop, to use the cell phone's data services to access the internet. MMS is a service akin to text-messaging that allows sending pictures, sounds, and video between phones.

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