SPECIFICATIONS OF LATEST OS FOR IPHONE 4

Multitasking: It's here, finally. It's handled with a simple task switcher: double click your home button, and you get a list of running apps. Select, switch, done. Multitasking is limited to audio streaming, VoIP and GPS apps, as well as a few other allowances: they can finish specific, important tasks in the background, for example. As far as non-music/nav/VoIP apps, those can be suspended in the background, but not left running. (See below.) Full details here.
                                       
Fast app switching: With iPhone 4's multitasking, most apps aren't actually running in the background—just certain functions of the app, like an audio stream or a GPS lock. But! All apps can now be frozen, in full, so that when you reopen them, they're restored to exactly the state they were in when they were closed.

Local notifications: Notifications can be sent between apps on the phone, not just from remote servers. In other words, if something important happens in an app you've opened and moved away from, a notification will pop up in whatever app you're using at the time, effectively saying "switch back to me!" It's a fairly clever way to keep track of multiple apps without the need for a start bar or dock-type interface.

App folders: Now you can sort your apps into folders! That's homescreen clutter solved, just like that.

A new Mail app: Unified inboxes, multiple Exchange accounts, fast inbox switching, threaded messages: These new features are actually a huge deal, since the iPhone's mail client has barely changed since 2007, and Apple doesn't allow alternative mail apps.

iBooks: Oh hey, that iBooks ebook reader app and accompanying ebook store we first met on the iPad has ambled on down to the iPhone. Nice, since you can now take your books with you wherever you go, as oppose to wherever you go with your iPad.

Custom backgrounds: Jailbreakers have them. Hell, the iPad has them. Now you can choose a persistent background for your iPhone—and not just for the lockscreen.

Game Center: Apple's going to roll out a centralized gaming service—a multiplayer network like PSN or Xbox Live—to help connect games to one another, by the end on the year. There are 3rd-party services that already do this, like OpenFeint. They will probably die.

iAd advertising: It looks like Apple's finally making use of Quattro, that mobile ad company it gobbled up a few months ago, by rolling out its own advertising platform, a turnkey ad plugin for app developers called iAd. The theory here is that instead of relying on links to external websites, which pull users out of apps whenever they tap on an ad, developers can use Apple's new tools to keep people in the app while still showing them advertising—sort of like popover browser windows. You can watch videos, play games, and even buy apps from within these ads. This is in the iPhone OS 4 developer tools, but it's not explicitly a part of OS 4, so you won't see apps with iAds until later this year.
5x digital zoom: Could this hint at a higher quality camera in the next hardware? 3.2 megapixels seems a bit low for 5x digital zoom.

Bluetooth keyboards: Another carryover from the iPad, Bluetooth keyboard support will finally come to iPhone 4.

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OVERVIEW OF IPHONE 4

 
Those that are concerned about wear and tear can take advantage of Apple's Bumpers. These are the first official Apple branded cases for its iPhone products and they wrap around the edge of the new iPhone keeping the phone protected from the majority of drop related injuries. They're made from plastic panels set into rubber rather than the clever d3o shock absorption material used in similar looking minimalist protective solutions we've seen previously.

They do feel quite nice on the phone, giving it that all important curved edge, which both feels nicer and is easier to grip than the naked phone, and don't obstruct your use of the phone much at all. Also, the raised lip of rubber that runs round the edge of the front and back 'screens' further keeps them safe from scratching when put on a flat surface. What's more it's a rather nice touch that the Bumper incorporates metal buttons, just like the phone.

However, they do break up the minimalist look of the phone and you once again have the first-gen iPhone problem of the headphone socket being too narrow for most headphones. Also, the cynic in us may conclude that the very fact Apple has only now chosen to produce a protective case for its iPhone products suggests the new model is vulnerable, and there certainly may be some merit in that. However, we think it just as likely that Apple has taken advantage of the phone's new flat sides to provide a simple and elegant protective solution.
                      
Looking more closely at those stainless steel sides, as Jobs rightly pointed out when he announced the iPhone 4, the gaps don't look very 'Apple'. However, there is method in the madness: the steel rim actually doubles as the phone's aerial, or more precisely the phone's aerials. By splitting the rim into two sections Apple has been able to use one section as the aerial for the mobile telephony signals of the phone and one for the local wireless services like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Frankly, we think it's a piece of design genius – hard edges notwithstanding.

A potential advantage of having the aerials, which are normally housed internally, mounted on the outside of the phone is improved reception. This seems to be borne out in real life with generally fewer problems with dropped calls than previous handsets. However, there does appear to be one major oversight in Apple's master plan: hold the phone in the right way (with your hand spanning the gaps as seen below) and the aerial completely shorts out and drops the call. Apple is reporting that it's actually just a problem with the signal strength detection and should be an easy fix, but it's still quite alarming. That said, it only appears to be a problem with some units and we couldn't get our review unit to repeat this problem.

Looking round the rest of the phone, there are all the usual iPhone signatures with the aforementioned circular Home button sitting below the screen; volume controls, which are now split up into two buttons, on the left edge below the mute switch; lock button on the top edge; and dock connector on the bottom edge along with the speaker and microphone. All the buttons, like the phone in general, feel solid and have a really pronounced action so you know for sure when you've pressed them. The mute switch has been stiffened up and reduced in size, so it's not so easy to knock when in a pocket, but ironically it does now make it quite difficult to use. Likewise, the volume buttons aren't quite so easily activated, requiring quite a precise press rather than a general prod.

Another change is the SIM slot, which used to be on the top edge. This has now moved to the right edge and it also uses a micro SIM. This is a bit annoying, but you can just cut down a normal SIM to fit and adapters are avilable to make your small SIM fit back in a normal slot. Apple's perennial annoyances of having no expandable storage or removable battery also remain.

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