Complete rumor rundown of Apple's upcoming iPad 3 event, from release date to hardware hopes and software speculation

Apple's next generation iPad 3 will almost certainly be announced on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, California. Everything else about it, however, is still up in the air. That's nothing new. The road to every Apple product release is paved and pot-holed with rumors true and fake - and this one is no different.

Still, while Apple is secretive they do tend to follow patterns. What they've done in the past can indicate what they may do in the future. That's what we're going to look at here -- sift through all the recent rumors and try to figure out what makes sense.

Name

Product names are ultimately marketing decisions and regardless of specs, chronological or model generation, or any other factor, Apple can call any of their products anything they like, whenever they like. The 2010 iPad was simply "iPad" and the 2011 iPad was simply "iPad 2", so there's a good chance the next one will be simply "iPad 3".

The internal Apple model number seems to be iPad 3,1, but that doesn't always translate to marketing name. (iPhone 1,2 was released as iPhone 3G, and iPhone 2,1 was released as iPhone 3GS). Could Apple go with an iPad 2S name like iPhone 4S? Given the presumed Retina display (see below) and processor bump, it seems unlikely. So do things like iPad Pro or iPad HD. The former seems more fitting of the Mac line, the latter unlike anything Apple has used for a flagship products in the past.

So, for purposes of this article, we'll stick with iPad 3.

Release date

Apple will no doubt announce the release date for the iPad 3 during the March 7, 2012 event. We've heard a couple of dates, the most frequent of which is Friday, March 30, 2012.

That fits with previous releases, which were also on Fridays. It is a long time between announcement and release, however. If they go earlier, March 16 or March 23 are both good targets.

Until we hear otherwise, however, March 30 is likely.

Hardware features

Because Apple doesn't manufacture their own hardware, there are often leaks that come from the factories that do the assembly, or accessory makers who manage to sneak a peak at the assembly. However, Apple also tests and produces different prototypes, so leaks might not always be for the final production model.

When looking at rumors, one thing to consider is component availability and costs. Apple will need to keep component costs down to maintain price points and margins. They're in the hardware business and they don't price their products to be at or near the break-even price point.  The iPad 3 has to make money, and that helps reduce the likelihood of some of the more extravagant possibilities.

Processor

Rumors about the iPad 3 processor are split right down the middle. iMore heard Apple is going quad-core with the iPad 3. Others have heard they're sticking with dual-core, albeit supercharging it with much better graphics. 9to5Mac discovered references to both a quad-core and a dual-core chipset in the iOS software, so it's possible Apple is testing both and will decide based on factors like battery life. It's also possible dual-core and quad-core will each be deployed in different devices, an Apple A6 quad-core processor for the iPad 3 and an Apple A5X processor for something with lower requirements, like an Apple TV 3.

For the most part , it won't matter much. Since Apple controls the iPad 3 from atoms to bits, they can optimize dual-core to do specific tasks better and smoother than many non-integrated quad-core devices. And either way, it sounds like iPad 3 will be a monster gaming machine.

While there haven't been many specific RAM rumors about the iPad 3, BGR obtained an alleged iPad 3 iBoot log, and developer Will Strafach spotted a reference in it that suggests there will be 1GB will be on board.

Again, because Apple can optimize iOS for the exact hardware they're releasing, they can usually get by with less RAM than competitors. More pixels (in a presumed Retina display, see below), and more power might just demand more memory, however.

Storage rumors have been all but non-existant this time around. iPad 2 came in 16, 32, and 64GB models, as did the iPhone 4S. 24nm NAND Flash chips have been announced, making 128GB a technical possibility. Whether it's a cost-effective one remains the question.

If 1080p content becomes a reality (see below), the extra storage will certainly come in handy, but if iCloud really is Apple's future, they may consider streaming far more important than storage. Apple can buy in flabbergasting volumes, but even at iPad numbers, 128GB still seems like a very expensive option.

Quad-core Apple A6 with 1GB of RAM and 16, 32, and 64GB of storage sound most likely at this point.

Radios and 4G LTE

We heard that Apple was going 4G LTE this year, but weren't certain if it would start with the iPad 3. The WSJ claims it will. What we're still not certain about, however, is where LTE will be available.

LTE isn't a standard and different carriers around the world use a wide range of different bands to support it. There are so many variations, in fact, our friend and LTE expert, Mickey Papillon thinks Apple would need two different LTE models -- one to support North American, and another to support Europe, Australia, and Asia.

It's possible Apple restricts LTE to North America only, or to the U.S. only for AT&T and Verizon. Verizon needs it the most -- their current CDMA/EVDO Rev. A iPads are almost crippled at 2-3mbps.

There are also newer, faster and more flexible Wi-Fi technologies on the horizon, and Apple was an early adopter of 802.11n. Is it possible Apple will add 802.11ac Gigabit Wi-Fi, or Wi-Fi Direct to the iPad 3? 802.11ac may still be a ways off, and AirPlay and AirPrint are doing a lot of direct Wi-Fi transfers now, though not via Wi-Fi Direct. So neither seem imminent at this point.

Both the iPhone and Mac have gone Bluetooth 4.0 however, and it makes sense for the iPad to follow suit. That will allow for low-power accessories, and likely speed up the iPad (and other iOS devices) becoming interfaces for all sorts of accessories, from household appliances to cars to healthcare products and everything in between.

So LTE, but perhaps North America only, and Bluetooth 4.0 are good bets, but 802.11ac and Wi-Fi direct probably aren't.

Cameras

The iPad 2 cameras are... terrible. There are reports from NextMedia that we might see a better rear camera in the iPad 3, anywhere from 5 to 8 megapixels, the latter of which would match the excellent iPhone 4S camera. The size and quality of the lens, however, is limited by the depth of the device, so a better camera would either need a slightly thicker device or be positioned at a thicker point in the device. Both are possibilities, given other rumors.

Likewise, Apple has introduced "FaceTime HD" cameras in the Mac, but not in the iPhone 4S. With a Retina display rumored for iPad 3 (see below), the current, incredibly low resolution front facing camera in iOS devices would make my eyes bleed. It seems logical Apple would give it a bump, even if only into the very low megapixel range.

Frankly, any camera improvement would be welcome at this point, so anything 5mp or above on the rear, and FaceTime HD on the front would be huge wins.

Dock connector and speakers

While iMore did hear Apple was getting ready to ditch the traditional dock port for something smaller, it sounds like that's on more of an iPhone 5 timeline than the iPad 3 timeline.

As for speakers, Apple hasn't shown any interest to date in augmenting them for their iOS devices. They let the headphones handle the heavy listening. Even though competitors have implemented technology like Beats, there have been no rumors suggesting a speaker improvement is in the cards.

Screen size, aspect ratio, and Retina display

Apple has said they don't think smaller tablets are as usable or allow for the quality of apps they want on the iPad. However, Apple has famously derided products and features they later went on to release themselves. Even so, and even though rumors of iPads in sizes from 7- to 8-inches have floated around for a while, there's absolutely no reason to think the iPad 3 will change screen sizes any time soon. Especially not with so many apps in the App Store designed for the current screen size. (Shrinking apps, even if you keep the same resolution, makes touch targets small and hurts usability.)

Likewise, while 16:9 aspect ratio tablets are better for 16:9 video (which is mostly HDTV -- movies tend to vary more), they're terrible for portrait use. Apple needs a device that's okay for both landscape and portrait, and that means sticking with 4:3.

A 2048x1536 Retina display seems like the closest thing to a sure bet. Apple has reportedly been working on it since before the iPad 2 launch, and if parts leaks from MacRumors are to be believed, they can finally produce them cheaply enough, and in sufficient quantities to make them affordable and viable.

To put the display in context, 2048x1536 (and it really couldn't be anything else without trashing existing apps) is a higher resolution than many computer displays, and higher than a 1080p television (1920x1080) -- in a 9.7-inch screen.

The idea is that it makes pixels so small they disappear - all you notice is the content. Everything from ebooks to web pages to videos should look almost as good as they do on the iPhone 4S. The density isn't quite as high, but since the screen is bigger you'll probably hold it slightly further away, making the relative quality close to the same.

So yeah, 9.7-inch, 3:4 Retina display at 2048x1536.

Home button

Apple's iPad event invitation (see above) didn't show a Home button, leading to rampant speculation that Apple might be ditching the click and going exclusively to multitouch gestures, as introduced in iOS 5.

Gestures aren't as discoverable as buttons, however, and the iPad is a decidedly mainstream device. The introduction of the Fast App Switcher has put more strain on the Home button than ever before, but with the iPhone 4S Apple has begun making them stronger and longer lasting.

There have been rumors from Boy Genius Report about Apple dumping the Home button in the past. There have also been parts leaks showing an unchanged front-panel layout, including the Home button spot.

It could be something Apple's working on obsoleting, but not any time soon.

Miscellaneous

No glowing Apple logo. No additional hardware buttons. No AMOLED screen, super or otherwise.

Software features

Software is harder to predict than hardware. With the exception of the beta process for developers, and carrier testing for network compatibility, Apple gets to keep it completely in house. Leaks happen when people discover hidden strings and images, but Apple almost always keeps the most exciting, most demonstrable new features completely out of the software until event day. That makes new apps and many new functions much harder to guess before hand. Still, there are some things to consider.

iOS 5.1

New versions of iOS have traditionally come with new models of iPhone, and while the incremental x.1 version of iOS has traditionally come with new models of iPod touch, there wasn't one last year (not really) and so iOS 5.1 falls to the iPad 3.

iOS 3.2 was a major new version, bringing iOS to the big screen, tablet style user interface for the first time. iOS 4.2 was fairly big, re-unifying the platform and bringing all the iOS 4 features like multitasking and folders to the iPad for the first time.

The iPad got iOS 5 day and date with the iPhone back in October, however, so we're probably not looking at anything nearly as profound as the last two years.

iOS 5.1 has yet to go Gold Master (GM), but that will probably happen at the March 7 iPad event, with release to follow a couple of days before the iPad 3 hits stores.

In addition to some small changes already seen in the iOS 5.1 betas, like the ability to delete Photo Stream photos, faster fast camera access, and fixes to some privacy bugs, there are still a few cards left for Apple to play.

Siri

Apple's intelligent virtual assistant, Siri is the headline feature of the iPhone 4S and hasn't been made available to any previous iOS devices. Apple was also careful to point out that Siri is still in beta, with limited language support for now. The beta was, in part, to allow Siri access to far more voice data than it could ever get locked up inside Apple’s private test bubble.   Although Siri was plagued with server problems early on, it's largely more stable  (though certainly not perfect) now.

If Apple really wants to push Siri as part of their user interface going forward, they'll have to bring it to more devices... eventually. iPads aren't as mobile as iPhones, however. They aren't as ubiquitously connected to the internet either (there are Wi-Fi only models, after all). You likely won't need to dictate iMessage replies on your iPad while driving.

But even now, when I'm using my iPad 2, I keep trying to hit the Dictate button so I can use Siri.

It will likely require better mics, like the iPhone 4S has, but Siri seems like a good bet for iPad 3. If it's not there, the absence will be notable.

1080p

With a Retina display screen, the iPad 3 will have a higher pixel count than a 1080p television -- 2048x1536 vs. 1920x1080. With a faster processor, regardless of whether it's dual- or quad-core, it'll be able to handle video better than ever before. 1080p content just seems like a natural fit, and a great way for Apple to show off that new display and all that new power.

Whether iTunes begins to offer 1080p content, and how much they can offer, how soon, and in how many regions is another question. In some areas, ISP bandwidth caps may prove prohibitive even to an average amount of 1080p content. Likewise, even with 4G LTE, the ability to stream 1080p would likely be extremely limited if not blocked outright.

But having even simple support for local 1080p -- however you get it on the device -- sounds absolutely reasonable.

iMovie HD/Final Cut Pro X for iPad

Apple launched iMovie for iPad alongside the iPad 2, but it's since been overtaken by Avid Studio which offers better support and more features. Again, given the Retina display, it feels like Apple is going to want to show off a little and give iMovie an update.

Given the recent iMovie-style makeover of Final Cut Pro X, there's been some speculation Apple may start porting their pro apps to iPad, but that seems less likely. There are still limitations to mobile devices and multitouch that professional level software doesn't face on the desktop.

If Apple goes back to video for the iPad 3 launch, a version of iMovie that supports 1080p and overtakes Avid Studio in features seems more likely.

iPhoto/Aperture

iOS 5 added rudimentary retouching tools to the Photos app, but it's nowhere near the desktop iPhoto in feature set or functionality, never mind the professional power of Aperture. Again, a Retina display seems to demand great Apple software to go along with it, and iPhoto feels like it fits that bill.

Aperture, like FCPX, is a pro tool and probably wouldn't fit with demands of mobile and multitouch, but iPhoto would. Photography professionals are already drooling over the idea of a Retina iPad for carrying around their portfolios. Give them -- and us -- even good quality consumer tools for editing them, and it will be a huge win. (Especially if, given the native code and Apple UI acumen, it proves more useful than the often-frustrating Adobe Photoshop Touch.

FaceTime conference calls

If Apple goes with a FaceTime HD camera in front, an better chipset inside, and a Retina display on the panel,

one of the best demos they could do alongside it would be a  A FaceTime conference. Showing gandma the grandkids and talking to a colleague across country is one thing, connecting several members of a family or a team scattered across the globe is quite another.

It would make for a great commercial. Allowing it to work over 4G LTE, if available, would just be a bonus.

Miscellaneous

Given the recent developer preview of OS X Mountain Lion, it's obvious that there a lot of other interesting stuff Apple's working on. And as much as iPad interface an experience elements have been brought "Back to the Mac", it'd be great to see some of the Mountain Lion stuff brought Back to the iPad as well. But that's probably more likely in iOS 6 than it is for the iPad 3.

One more things...

In addition to the iPad 3, there are rumors suggesting other products might also make an appearance at the next Apple event on March 7. Some Apple events, like the fall music events, typically showed off numerous iTunes-related products. Apple's famous "One more thing..." has also been used to highlight additional products, including the original MacBook Air, during largely unrelated events.

Apple TV 3

There are rumors, many from 9to5Mac, that Apple's getting ready to announce an updated Apple TV 3 as well. Given the Apple TV wasn't updated last year, it makes sense they'd want to get it on the new hardware platform eventually.

Would they take attention off the iPad 3 launch with an Apple TV 3 introduction? Sure, they split the original iPhone launch with the original Apple TV launch back at Macworld 2007. If the Apple TV 3 is positioned as having cool new features that enhance what Apple shows off for the iPad 3 -- especially 1080p -- then it's easily something we could see.

New iPod touch

Like Apple TV and the rest of the iPod lineup, the iPod touch received no significant update last year, which makes it feel like it's due. However, the lack of any leaks surrounding a new iPod touch make it seem like it's not a priority right now and probably won't happen for a while still.

(Georgia thinks the "And touch." in the iPad event invitation might hint at it.)

Conclusion

It's been roughly a year since Steve Jobs took the stage to launch the iPad 2. This year, Tim Cook, Phil Schiller, Scott Forstall, Eddy Cue, Jony Ive, or some combination thereof will show us what Apple has in store for iOS for the first part of 2012.

Regardless of which rumors ultimately prove true, and what surprises may or may not be in store, one thing's for certain -- it'll be one hell of a show.

Join us next Wednesday, March 7, at 10am PT/1pm ET/6pm GMT for iMore's usual commentary, color, and analysis. And until then, give us your best predictions in the comments below!

Curious how to change the amount of lines shown on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch email preview? If you get a lot of email, it is really handy to see a preview  of the first few lines to know if it is important enough to read and deal with. If you're concerned about privacy, you may prefer to display nothing at all. Out of the box, the iPhone and iPad only show the first two lines of text from an email but that can be changed to show much more, or nothing at all.

• Click on Settings
• Click on Mail, Contacts and Calendar

• Scroll down to Preview
• Click on Preview
• You will now see a screen that lists the number of lines of text you will see in an email preview

• If it is set on two lines, this is how it will look

• Change the setting to your preferred amount of lines, four in this example
• When set at four lines, you can now see much more of the email message without opening it.

That is all there is to it, simple but a very handy tweak.

Daily Tipsrange from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com.

Twitter have added iTunes App Store previews to their integrated services. Previously, Twitter had added Apple's Ping service to their integrated services, to allow you to preview songs before opening iTunes. It seems that Twitter have now added App Store integration as well. When someone tweets an App Store link, you will get a similar preview pane, which will show you, what app the link goes to, the price, a description and screenshots

This will only work on the new twitter website, won't work on the old website or on the official apps. Interestingly this new App Store integration only works with the iOS App Store and doesn't show any previews for Mac App Store Links right now.

Anyone appreciating this new functionality? Does it make you want to use the new website more?

[MacGasm]

iOS 4 (previously iPhone OS 4 or iPhone 4.0) continues Apple's relentless yearly mobile OS update cycle. If 2007 was the mainstreaming of the multitouch user interface, 2008 all about the App Store, and 2009 was filling in the feature list, then iOS 4 promises to be... well, that's why we're here.

(And yes, iOS. That's the new name Apple has licensed from trademark-holders Cisco to represent the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch -- and maybe soon the Apple TV and who knows what else -- family.)

Back on April 8 at the sneak preview event, Apple promised 7 "tent-pole" features and 100+ general user features overall, along with 1500 major new API for developers. We're going to walk you through the ones that matter most.

Note: iOS 4.1 is now available. See our complete iOS 4.1 walkthrough for the latest on Game Center, HDR photography, Ping social music network, and the other new features.

See also our iPhone 4 review for more on hardware specific features.

iOS 4 in 10 minutes: video quick-start guide

If you don't have time (yet) to read this massive iOS 4 walkthrough and are eager to get the basics down now, here's a quick 10 minute video guide to get your started.

We're showing it off on an iPhone 3GS, which should be similar to how it will work on an iPod touch G3. If you're using the iPhone 3G or iPod touch 2G you won't get the multitasking and wallpapers. You'll blame Apple. Apple will blame the hardware. The hardware will try to frustrate you into upgrading to an iPhone 4. You've been warned.

Note: If you haven't updated yet, save yourself some time and potential hassles and go read our getting ready for iOS 4 post first first. Then once you're good to go, sit back, relax, and hit play on the video below.

YouTube link

What Hasn't Changed

As always, we'll start off by telling you what hasn't change so we can clear the deck for what has. For more information on any functionality that's pretty much identical to past versions, check out our previous walkthroughs:

• iPhone 3.1
• iPhone 3.0
• iPhone 2.2
• iPhone 2.1
• iPhone 2.0

And here's a quick list of the unchanged apps in iOS 4:

• Stocks: Similarly, Stocks got landscape and a slew of swipe-able data last time, so the update love gets skipped this time.
• Weather: Almost comedically at this point, it's still unchanged from iPhone 1.0. Still no HTC TouchFlo 3D style animations, no landscape mode with more/different information. Not even a Calendar-style icon update to show current local weather. Nada.
• Voice Memo: Introduced in iPhone 3.0, it looks pretty much the same in iOS 4.
• Clock: With nothing but a lap feature added last time, we lose the "but" and keep the "nothing" for iOS 4.
• Calculator: Upgraded back in 2.0 for landscape scientific mode, all Calculator gets this time is a slight icon tweak towards the red.

(We're not counting getting a resolution bump for iPhone 4 Retina Display as a functional change.)

System-wide enhancements

Spell check

Spell check, which debuted in iOS 3.2 for iPad, is a system-wide addition to iOS 4 now as well. Words the OS thinks you've misspelled will be underlined in red (familiar to any Microsoft Office or Mac OS X user). Tapping on them will give you a popup containing a recommended replacement. Tapping the popup replaces the misspelled word with the (hopefully!) correctly spelled one.

Combined with the iPhone's existing -- and industry leading -- predictive auto-correct, it's a powerful combination.

Text Replace

Cut, copy, and paste also gets an iPad-debuting feature with "replace" now added to the popup options.

Additionally, if iOS 4 autocorrects a word and you immediately backspace, a popup will appear offering to replace the correction with the originally typed word.

VoiceControl

We haven't found any specific documentation on this yet, and it doesn't seem to be listed as one of the options flying by on the on-screen suggestions, but per the comments below asking "what time is it" will now have VoiceControl speak the current time to you. It's possible other commands have been added as well. If you come across any, let us know.

Wi-Fi

iPod touch (and I believe iPhone) can now stay connected to Wi-Fi even when in sleep mode. This means background VoIP calls, push notifications, and other apps that require an active Wi-Fi connection can just keep working.

Virtual Keyboard

Instead of just hitting the globe key to cycle through languages on the virtual keyboard, you can now hold it down to get a popup showing all currently enabled international keyboards.

Bluetooth Keyboard Support

You're going to get tired of us saying "like the iPad" but remember when we told you spring's influx of iPad news would be important come summer's new iPhone news? You were warned for a reason. iPhone is getting iPad's Bluetooth keyboard support. Thank goodness for that.

Over-the-air Carrier Setting Updates

Based on reports from Rogers/Fido users in Canada, iOS 4 adds the ability for Carrier Setting Updates to be pushed out over-the-air (OTA) to iPhones and installed on-device. (In previous versions iTunes would handle the update and sync it over).

Home Screen

SpringBoard, the app behind the Home Screen gets an iOS 3.2 for iPad-style update to support custom wallpaper. Yes, the default background in iOS 4 is water drops on gray, which is not default but included in the iPad's wallpaper gallery. Also like iPad, the Mac OS X reflective Dock (buh-bye grid) and translucent top bar have been brought over.

(If you get a new iPhone 4, or do a clean install of iOS 4, you'll also note Clock, Compass, Calculator, and Voice Memos have been moved to a Utilities folder by default -- more on Folders later).

In addition to the iPad wallpapers, Apple has also introduced a few new ones, all seemingly focused on livening up the home screen without being too visually distracting. Natural textures and muted patterns get an obvious focus here with stones, rocks, and textiles front and center.

(See all of them in our iOS 4 wallpaper gallery)

In addition to previous status icons, the top bar will now show a north-east pointing arrow to alert you that location-based services (GPS) are being used. (So you'll see this in Maps and when using navigation, location-based social networks or games, etc.) An orientation lock icon will also show if you've enabled the widget to lock your screen in portrait mode (see below).

The color bands indicators across the top of the screen that highlight running voice or data connections (green for Phone, red for Voice Memo, blue for tethering) get expanded. Red now serves double-duty to indicate a VoIP app (like Skype) is active in the background.

How the SpringBoard has been once again extended to visualize new, core-level OS changes is where things get more interesting...

Spotlight

First, and strangely least, the Spotlight Home Screen introduced in iPhone 3.0 now gets to look beyond on-device data and reach for the clouds. Literally. Well, insomuch as the cloud here is Google and Wikipedia, which are very welcome additions. (Hopefully Twitter will be added in as well at some point). Tapping either will launch you into Mobile Safari and the appropriate search result page.

Multitasking

While Apple's built-in apps (like iPod, Mail, etc.) have had background multitasking since 1.0. four years, many gripes, and stiffer Google Android competition than later, background multitasking comes to App Store apps. (At least for iPhone 4 and last year's iPhone 3GS).

Why no iPhone 3G? Apple abjectly refuses to put their name on an implementation where hardware constrains software -- see video recording last year -- and that means iPhone 3G isn't up to their multitasking standards.

As to how it works, instead of a traditional "leave full apps running in the background" approach, Apple instead chose to implement a more restricted but, they felt, better performing and power friendly solution involving 7 specific background API (application programming interfaces.)

Local notifications

In addition to the existing push notification service from Apple's servers, which provide sound, badges, and alert popups for everything from IM to game challenges, iOS 4 adds local notifications so something like an alarm-clock app could register an alert that would sit in the iPhone in the background until the proper time, then activate. That takes the online server out of the equation which is good for tasks that don't need additional information from the cloud, and so don't have to activate the radios.

Task completion

There's another API for task completion so that, for example, if you're uploading a picture to Twitter and leave the app, it can register a thread to keep uploading the picture in the background while you do something else. That means the entire app doesn't have to keep running, freeing up memory and lightening battery load, and even the thread will terminate when the upload is done.

Fast task switching and saved state

Fast task switching deals with the perceptive speed that multitasking offers. With previous versions of iOS, if you left an App Store app it would shut down completely. If you went back -- regardless if it was a second or a week or later -- it would usually restart not from where you left off but from the beginning. A few developers tried to add persistence on their own, saving your place when you came back as best as previous OS versions allowed, but most didn't -- especially games which was aggravating when phone calls pulled you unexpectedly out of them. Also, if you closed one app and went to another, you could theoretically be stuck swiping back or forth between 11 home screen pages.

Saved state is now built into iOS 4. If you switch out, Apps have their currents state saved to memory and if/when you go back, the app checks the memory save and resumes from that state. [Thanks Aaron]

To enable fast app switching, Apple's created a new UI mechanic. Now, when you double tap the home button, the screen turns translucent and slides up, allowing you to peek at the apps running "under the hood". (Technically frozen with state saved and threads registered with the background API).

Apps in the fast switcher UI are sorted in order of last usage. That means, if you're moving between a set of commonly used apps, they're most likely right next to each other and not screens and screens away. These two elements combine together to make launching apps perceptively much faster, even though the apps don't have to be running in the background consuming resources just for that convenience.

Positionally the fast task switcher apps take up the space traditionally reserved for the Dock, so while it's a tad confusing the concept of apps at the bottom of the screen being more permanent and easily accessible remains. Behaviorally, while they look like a secret dock, they function like the Home Screen itself in that you can swipe from right to left to scroll through a several 4-icon sets of multitasking apps.

Given even the iPhone 3GS has only 256MB of RAM, we assume Apple will discretely kill off the least-used app in the stack when things get tight. Whether or not that means the icon disappears from the multitasking UI we don't know, but worst case you just have to go to the home screen, re-launch it (hopefully from saved state) and all you notice is a slightly longer start up time. iPhone 4 is supposed to have 512MB of RAM which should allow for significantly more threads to run in background without slowdown or other problems.

iOS 4 helps users visualize what's going on when switching tasks by introducing a new, carousel-like animation. The new animation occurs when you switch between two apps either via the new, double-click-Home to trigger to launch the multitasking UI, or when one app calls another app (i.e. when you're in Contacts and you tap to send a contact an SMS).

Launching or leaving an app retains the same, zoom-based effect as always (though the wallpaper in iOS zooms slightly as well, like on the iPad).

YouTube link

Interlude: Task Killing

At the iOS 4 event, Steve Jobs likened task managers (in the multitasking, not to-do sense) to styluses -- if you need them there's something wrong. Initially this created confusion in iOS 4 when it was noted, if you hold your finger down on multitasking apps, they'd jiggle and bring up a delete icon that, if tapped, removed them.

It appears like there's a couple things going on. First, with built-in Apple apps, like Mail, if you "delete" it from the fast task switcher, you will still receive Mail (it doesn't kill the background thread that checks, sounds/vibrates, and updates the badge) but the app seems to do some sort of data cache refresh at times.

For App Store apps, if you "delete" them it does appear to force a reset when next you launch them, i.e. they won't resume from the previously saved state and their threads seem to be restarted. [Thanks Justin!]

Widgets

Just like to the left of the main home screen is a special Spotlight screen, to the left of the fast app switcher is a special widget dock containing an software version of the iPad's hardware orientation lock control (though it currently only locks in portrait mode). More over, there are three circular controls to skip back, play/pause, or skip forward any music (including streaming music) -- and rewind or fast forward if you hold them down. Lastly, whichever app is currently playing the music, be it iPod, iTunes (streaming podcasts, for example), or an App Store app (like Pandora or Slacker) is shown at the right so you can jump back to it and access further controls.

YouTube link

The presentation may not be as visually slick as Palm webOS' Card view (which looks like iPhone Safari's Page view) or Mac OS X Expose mode, but it keeps tens of millions of existing iPhone and iPod touch users grounded in the interface they're familiar with and that's what Apple is prioritizing.

Note: Previously you could assign the double-click home button action to trigger Phone Favorites, Camera, or Spotlight. On iPhone 3G under iOS those options remain. On iPhone 3GS under iOS, in early betas you could double-click-and-hold the home button to trigger Phone Favorites, but this function doesn't appear to have survive to the final release. Hopefully something will replace it and soon.

Background music, location, and VoIP

Speaking of streaming music, perhaps most famously, Apple is allowing apps to register three specific types of the threads for persistent backgrounding (they can just keep running until you close them). Again, this isn't the whole app running, just one thread from the app, so the idea is it won't slow down performance, use up memory, or drain battery to the same degree. These API are for streaming music, location, and VoIP (voice over IP).

This means you can listen to Pandora, Slacker, etc. while surfing the web. Navigon, TeleNav,TomTom, etc. can keep using the GPS and alert you to directions while you're on the phone, and to further save resources, non-critical location apps like FourSquare, Gowalla, Loopt, etc. can be alerted when you change cell towers. Fring, Skype, Line2, etc. can answer calls and receive messages when you're not in the app, making them more equal telephony citizens.

What's still missing are background API for timeline updates, so that IM, Twitter, RSS, etc. could update like Mail does and have new messages ready and waiting when you return to the app. Also, there's no API to let internet sessions like SSH, RDP/VNC remain active when you exit an app making it more onerous for network administrators and others to manage remote machines. Hopefully these can be added in future revisions.

Folders

There are over 200,000 apps in the App Store and likely a ton more by the time I finish writing the sentence. Literally. iPhone 1.0 had one Home Screen but with only the built-in apps available back then, it wasn't even a limitation. With WebApps, it grew to 9 pages for a 148 app limit. With iPhone 3.0 we were given 11 pages, for 180 apps viewable, but you could eventually install many more and use Spotlight as a way of finding and launching them. Organizing them still wasn't a real option.

Enter Folders. A Folder is simply a grouped icon that holds up to 12 other icons inside it. (And for those keeping count at home, the new math means a whopping 2160 apps can be kept available at once. Shudder).

The way it works is you tap a Folder icon and once again the Home Screen fades and splits open, this time below the Folder. Inside the split are all the apps contained in the group.

To create a Folder, you begin by tapping and holding an icon to put it in jiggly mode, just like you did before to delete or move it. Then, drag it over and drop it on top of another icon to create a Folder. (This works better when icons aren't at the right edge of the screen, as the move behavior seems to supersede the Folder behavior, causing the icon to wrap to the next line before you can drop on top of it.) Once created, iOS reads the apps' category data and tries to name the folder for you, but you can easily edit it and change it to anything you want.

To remove apps from a Folder, put them in jiggly mode inside the Folder and drag them out (or just delete them if you don't want the app anymore at all). You can also move them around within the Folder to customize their order.

Folders can be put in jiggly mode and moved as well, but not deleted (they can only be deleted by removing all the apps from within them, and which point they self-destruct for you). You can even move them to the Dock, which means you could have 48 apps readily available at any time for quick launching.

And while you still can't delete Apple's built-in apps, you can take the ones you're not using and hide them away inside a folder so they waste as little Home Screen space as possible (as Apple now does by default with the Utilities folder mentioned previously).

Again, not as visually exciting perhaps as Mac OS X's Stacks, but it keeps current iPhone users in a familiar interface while adding much-needed functionality.

YouTube link

The ability to manage Folders has also been added to iTunes 9.2, mirroring the creation, editing, and removal features found on-device.

Messages

Messages in iOS 4 gets the same built-in Spotlight search that Mail and other apps got with iPhone 3.0. It appears at the top of the main messages screen. (There's no search within an individual Messages thread). [@justin_horn]

Messages (finally) gets a character counter so you'll know when you're getting close to, or going past, the SMS limit (which would cause a second message to be sent). It kicks in after you've typed 50 characters or so. [@iMuggle]

iOS 4 will now put an exclamation badge on the Messages app as a way to inform you when an SMS text or MMS multimedia message fails to send.

There's also a new API to allow in-app SMS for developers who want to include the functionality in their own apps. While this might be similar to the iPhone 3.0 embedded email option, and whether or not it will let users reply to SMS without leaving an app, it doesn't seem as elegant a solution as a global background messaging system.

Calendar

Calendar removes two long-standing gripes and adds something pretty much invisible from the interface but awesome in terms of functionality.

First, you can now show all or hide all calendars or individually check/uncheck just the calendars you want to see.

Birthday calendars have also been added to the option, something that was previously only possible to see under certain setup conditions.

Lastly (and most excitingly), Apple has finally added Calendar access for developers. What this means is you may soon see apps where you can buy tickets for a local movie and have the show time automatically added to your Calendar.

Photos

Photos, at least for Mac users, gets the same iPhoto '09-based organizational features introduced with the iPad: Events, Faces, and Places.

If you have a Mac with iPhoto '09 and you've let it automatically file your photos by time stamp (Events), through facial-recognition algorithms (Faces), and via geo-location (Places). All these join the previous Albums view to form the bottom tab bar.

Landscape mode is also now supported in album and gallery views [@antonioj].

Previous betas included a Rotate function under the action button that would turn a photo 90 degrees, but this doesn't seem to have made it into the final. Hopefully it will return.

If you Email Photo, you now get the option of sending a small, medium, or large version (shrunken pixel dimensions and hence file size), or at actual size.

Lastly, developers have been given access to the photo and video library (not just the image picker as in previous OS versions).

Camera

Tap to focus, introduced in iPhone 3.0 for still photography, now gets expanded to video recording for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4.

Still photography maintains its leg up, however, via a new 5x digital zoom. When you tap the screen, a slider pops up allowing you to swipe to the right to increase magnification and swipe left to decrease.

With iPhone 4, there's an additional control to swap between the beefed up 5mp back-facing camera, and the all new front-facing VGA camera (if you want to take a self-portrait/profile picture). There's also an icon to show the new rear-mounted LED flash. This feature sounds like it's automatic for still but can be turned on and left on for night-time video shooting, but we'll have to wait and see when iPhone 4 ships.

Developers also get full access to and control of video playback and recording.

YouTube

You can now watch YouTube videos in portrait mode if you really want to. They'll still default in landscape, so you may have to rock the accelerometer back and forth to get them to switch.

Maps

A minor tweak, but the current location/current direction button changes from the previous crosshairs to a north-east pointer to match the new location services icon used in the title bar. (No iOS 3.2 for iPad-style terrain mode, at least not yet).

For developers, overlays can now be added to embedded maps to show extra data like routes or annotations.

Notes

When you first enter notes it looks unchanged from previous versions of the iPhone OS. However, there is now an Accounts button at the top left of the list page and tapping it takes you to a new screen where you can choose to view All Notes, just the notes on your iPhone, or just the notes that are synced via IMAP to your email account(s). Yes, that means over the air (OTA) notes sync is finally here -- with the caveat that Exchange doesn't seem supported yet.

(UI-wise this is similar to how you back out/left in Calendar or Contacts to toggle data sources.)

The way these show up in Mac OS X is via the built-in Mail.app client in the Notes tab.

On Gmail they show up as a generic label. In other IMAP clients, regardless of OS, they'll show up as generic IMAP folders.

iTunes Store

The iTunes store itself is the same, however, audio streaming from the app has taken a huge leap forward. Since iPhone OS 2.2 you've been able to tap the title of a podcast to begin streaming (rather than downloading) the audio, even in the background while using other apps, but it was sometimes hit or miss. It would drop out, it would time out, you couldn't really scrub through it, and if you left it for a while it would lose its place and start over.

In iOS 4 it's rock solid. You can scrub and it re-buffers and keeps playing flawlessly. You can stop it and come back hours or even days later -- even after using the iTunes app to search for other things or the iPod app to play different audio -- and it still knows where you left off and starts playing again instantly without missing a beat.

As mentioned previously in the multitasking section, when iTunes is using the background music streaming API (I'm assuming thats' what it's using) it gets the widget position in the fast task switcher interface, complete with widget controls.

Settings

This year, like every year, some of the more numerous and interesting changes Apple delivers in their new OS are tucked neatly away in the Settings app.

General: Network

You can now choose to not only turn off 3G data or roaming data, but all cellular data.

General: Location Services

At the iOS event, Apple made a big deal about user privacy when it came to location (like a shot at Google). That manifests here with far more granular controls over which apps are allowed to access your location data (GPS, Wi-Fi mapping, and cell tower triangulation) and the aforementioned north-east pointing arrow that shows up when any app has used your location in the last 24 hours.

General: Spotlight Search

Since double clicking the home button is now a hard-wired to launch the fast-task switcher for iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, the Home Button setting is gone and replaced by direct access to Spotlight Search preferences.

Since iPhone 3G won't be getting multitasking those options remain under iOS 4 for that device.

General: Passcode Lock

Previously available only through an Enterprise profile, iOS 4 brings stronger, alphanumeric passcodes to all iPhone users. That means you're no longer stuck with only a 4 digit pin, but can now create longer passcodes with far greater variation. Of course, longer, more varied passcodes are more of a hassle to remember and enter, but that's the cost of good security.

Mail, Contacts, Calendars

As previously mentioned, Notes will now sync over IMAP and the settings for that appear here. First, all the way at the bottom, you can choose which account to use as the default for note sync.

Inside MobileMe, Gmail, or other IMAP accounts, you can choose whether or not to enable sync. Again, there's no support for Exchange ActiveSync accounts yet (including Gmail via GoogleSync).

Safari

When you tap into the Safari's URL bar in iOS 4 and start typing, Safari starts to do a "keyword search", i.e. display predictive results based on your bookmarks and history. Anything that contains the text you're inputing either in the URL or history is listed below the URL field so the moment you see what you want you can just tap it and go.

This makes it easier to find something if you don't remember the exact web page address or if you know you recently saw a site, and know what it was about, but don't remember where exactly it was. Just start typing a few words you do remember and let Safari do the heavy lifting. Highly convenient and certainly "awesome". [To misappropriate the term from Mozilla]

Also, welcome to iOS search options, Microsoft Bing.

Messages

Here's where you can turn on that new character count option.

iPod

The iPod app now has an overlay that shows you information about songs and podcasts. While functional it's not terribly attractive so it's nice to be able to toggle it off right here.

App Store

iPhone 2.0 brought us the iTunes App Store, iPhone 3.0 added in-app purchases, and now iOS raises the mercantile stakes once again with...

iAd

iAd will provide developers with an easy-as-Xcode way to place advertising in their apps, both paid and free. Apple is setting a high bar for their ads, however. No simple Google-style text, annoying punch-the-monkey, or jarring transition out of the app and into the browser, they claim to want great looking, highly interactive, emotionally compelling content that will connect with rather than alienate users. Served every 3 minutes. Yeah...

Functionally these are built in HTML5 (no Flash need apply) and seem to work as apps-within-apps. Tapping on a banner brings up a full-screen ad-as-webapp and examples shown included plenty of animated UI effects and content that ranged from videos to freebies like wallpaper, to free and paid apps you could download from within the ad (no trip to the App Store needed). An exit button is persistent at the top left so users can quit the add at any time.

Apple will be selling and serving the ads, so all we can do is hope they're unobtrusive and actually reach the quality levels presented. For paid apps that also try to include in-app iAds, that bar will rightly be very, very high.

Quick Look

Just like Mail can preview documents, Quick Look will allow developers to present the same functionality in their apps.

Accelerate

2000 hardware accelerated math APIs probably won't be seen by users, but there's not doubt we'll feel them in the games. Zoom. Zoom.

File Sharing

Again it looks like the iPhone is finally getting in iOS what the iPad got in 3.2 with the file/document transfer feature now exposed in iTunes sync.

Now all we need is an elegant way to share and wirelessly sync those documents across multiple devices and users. MobileMe 2.0, souped up iWork.com 2.0, where are you?

Phone

The biggest addition to the iOS 4 Phone app is iPhone 4 exclusive -- FaceTime. When connected to Wi-Fi and making a call to another iPhone 4 user, the Hold button gets replaced with a FaceTime video icon. (Where the hold option goes under these circumstances is as yet unknown.)

Tapping that initiates a FaceTime video call. During the FaceTime video call, the person you're calling fill the screen, your own camera input is boxed in the lower left corner (you can touch and drag it to move it around), and mute, hang up, and switch camera buttons line the bottom of the screen. (Switch camera toggles between the rear-facing and front-facing cameras on the iPhone 4).

Mail

Mail gets a unified inbox. Let's write that again -- Mail gets a unified inbox. For those with multiple email accounts whose previous iPhone experience involved tapping into and out of those boxes many, many times a day this is a hugely welcome addition.

As with Calendars, Notes, etc. you can tap a button on the top left, in this case Mailboxes, to back into a selection screen where you can then go into All Inboxes, a specific account's inbox (which is considered fast inbox switching), or into the complete folder and sub-folder system of a given account (how Mail has worked from iPhone 1.0 to iPhone 3.0).

Once inside, All Inboxes is visually indistinguishable from an account-specific inbox, it simply contains all of their messages.

What is distinguishable are the small carets (technically greater-than symbols) to the right of replies that indicate a message is part of a thread. A number, typically 2 or 3, accompanies the caret to indicate how many replies are in the thread.

Tapping on a message that's part of a thread doesn't take you to the message but rather to a second list-view, similar to the inbox itself, but containing only the messages from the thread. Tapping on one of them then takes you to the message. A thread view contains a small vertical bar at the top with the subject of the thread and time of the most recent reply. A button to the top left of the message that's part of the thread also contains the subject of the thread and lets you back out and see the thread again. The button then switches to contain the name of the inbox so you can back out again, leave the thread completely, and see all your messages.

So yes, the tap, tap, tap of inbox navigation persists, albeit shifted from moving into and out of inboxes to moving into and out of threaded messages.

Like iOS 3.2 for iPad, you'll be able to open email attachments in apps. Now there's no iWork (Numbers, Pages, Keynote) for iPhone yet, but plenty of apps should support it as they push out the iOS 4 compatible versions.

Great news for heavy ActiveSync users, iOS 4 supports multiple accounts. So, for example, you can now have your work Exchange server and home Google account both set up to push through ActiveSync (which is what Google Sync users behind the scenes) at the same time. Win. Win.

Also for Gmail users, the Delete button has no been properly renamed as Archive (since Google really doesn't want you deleting anything if they can possibly help it).

Lastly, in previous versions of the iPhone OS, when you wanted to abandon an email, you would hit Cancel and get options to Save (store the email in Drafts), Don't Save (trash the email), and Cancel (go back to writing the email). The naming of these options was likely too confusing so in iPhone OS they've been replaced with a big red Delete button (to trash the email), Save as Draft, and Cancel. And yes, you can still cancel a cancel. (iPad, by contrast, still has Save and Don't Save, but no Cancel since it's in a popover rather than full-screen menu and you can just tap away to cancel).

Safari

More iPad to iPhone cross-polination means we get search auto-complete in iOS. As you type, suggestions appear in a list view below. And as with the iPad, while Google and Yahoo! branding remain in the search boxes (along with Bing now as well), they no longer get brand advertising on the keyboard -- it simply remains labeled Search now regardless of which engine is set and default.

While HTML5 video would work under iPhone 3.1.3, it would launch the full screen QuickTime player to do so. Under iOS, it seems to play in-line as well [MobileGeekdom], like it does on the iPad.

If history is any indicator, Apple will likely also integrate whatever advancements WebKit and the Nitro JavaScript engine make between now and release this summer. However, there's no sign of Safari 5 desktop's key new features -- reader (think built-in Instapaper) and extensions.

iPod

When you have a song playing in the iPod app and you tap the album art, in addition to all the previous controls that popped up, you now get a dark overlay with white text giving you the info metadata of the song or podcast. This is another iPad bring-over, though not the most attractive one by a long shot. (Remember, it can be turned off in Settings).

Album art has been added to album views, jazzing up the track lists.

And in yet another iPad-like update, on-the-go playlists are dead, long live... just regular old playlists. You can add them via an item in the playlists list, at which point you get a popup that asks you for a name. Next, you tap on any songs you want to add, and when you're done, you have a new playlist. If you're not happy with it, or any playlist, just swipe to bring up the usual red Delete button and annihilate it.

Contacts

When you sync contacts from more than one source (i.e. Exchange and MobileMe, on-device and Google Sync, etc.), and there are duplicates, rather than showing the same contact twice iOS 4 will instead create a single, linked contact. This works on any iOS 4 device, including iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, recent iPod touch, etc.

If you look at a linked contact, the header will show Unified Info at the top so you know it's linked. At the very bottom of the contact it will show you the source of the links (i.e MobileMe, Google). Tapping on the source lets you see the original, non-unfied info from just that source.

If you don't like the idea of your contacts being linked, you can tap edit and hit Unlink. If iOS 4 missed linking a contact that ought be linked, tap edit, scroll down to the bottom, tap Link Contact and choose the contact you want linked.

Game Center (Preview)

Game Center is Apple's entry into the social gaming network space (think Xbox Live or Playstation Network for iOS devices). With Game Center you'll be able to invite friends to play, use matchmaking to challenge other players, gain achievements, and have your scores displayed on a leader board.

Game Center won't launch with iOS this summer, but is scheduled for release "later" this year.

iBooks

Though not a built-in app (you'll need to go get it from the App Store when it becomes available), as part of iOS Apple announced they were bringing iBooks to the iPhone.

Apple has announced new features, including notes and bookmarks, and that those along with highlights will automatically be synced across all the iOS devices logged into your iTunes accounts. (So you can have the same book, at the same place, with the same annotations on your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad).

Also, iBooks will be able to add PDFs to a second book shelf and open them in the same iBooks interface.

Due to the fracture and regionalism in books, it's going to take Apple a while to get deals in place with all publishers in all areas which means most countries won't have paid content at first, only public domain books from the Project Gutenberg library.

Accessibility

Apple really doesn't get enough credit for the outstanding accessibility features they build into their OS, both desktop and mobile. iOS 4 continues to lead the industry. VoiceOver supports 21 languages to read out loud whatever your finger touches on the screen, and a "rotor" gesture lets you temporarily change languages now on the fly.

Bluetooth support has been extended to more than 30 braille devices with tables for more than 25 languages.

Touch Typing lets you run your finger across the keyboard, hear the letter you're currently over, and release your finger to type it.

The basic rotor has been made visible so sighted users can see it in action, and you can now add custom settings to move through content.

iOS 4 pricing and availability

Apple has announced that iOS 4 will be coming to iPhone and iPod touch on June 21, and iPad later this fall. In a huge departure from previous years, Apple is also making it a free update to all users, iPhone and iPod touch alike. (If you have a compatible device, see directly below).

iOS 4 device compatibility

Before we begin it's important to note that not all iOS 4 features will be available for all iOS devices.

• iPhone 4 (2010): All features
• iPad (2010): Coming this fall
• iPhone 3GS and iPod touch G3 (2009): No features requiring iPhone 4-type hardware (i.e. FaceTime)
• iPhone 3G and iPod touch G2 (2008): No multitasking, custom wallpaper, and Bluetooth keyboard support.
• iPhone 2G and iPod touch G1 (2007): not compatible/no update

Yes, the original iPhone 2G and iPod touch G1 don't look to be getting iOS 4 at all -- Apple considers them outdated. Second generation iPhone 3G and iPod touch G2 are getting the update but no multitasking -- Apple doesn't consider them powerful enough (similar to video recording last year). And it should go without saying only iPhone 4 (and perhaps a forth generation iPod touch when it ships this fall) will be able to use hardware specific features like the Retina Display resolution or the front-facing camera.

Additionally, Apple's own iMovie for iPhone will only run on iPhone 4 -- apparently it needs the A4 chipset -- so there might be other apps that go 2010-only. Legacy, right?

Conclusion

Apple is again rounding out their offering with iOS 4, which is the sign of the maturity of the platform. Since they've stated several times now that they're using the iPhone to "educate" users about multitouch interfaces, they're going to continue keeping changes evolutionary for now, and the UI broadly consistent across devices. There won't be any huge, revolutionary changes again until they have to, and they don't have to yet. Restraint can be a virtue.

Some functionality is still not present, like non-interuptive notifications, widgets beyond the limited fast task switcher UI, wireless sync/sharing, less painful file round-tripping, etc. but Apple is no doubt working on this the way they worked on copy and paste and multitasking. The question is how and when, not if. After all, it's only 9 or 10 months until the iOS 5 sneak preview in spring 2011, right?

But this is not a review — our full rundown of the pros and cons will come after the official launch, when we've had a chance to spend some quality time with the final version on the new iPhone 4 hardware.

Congratulations to the iOS team at Apple, phenomenal work. Again.

[Thanks to everyone who contributed screenshots and descriptions for this walkthrough. If you noticed we missed anything, drop us a note in the comments and we'll update as needed.]

iPhone 4 is the most significant hardware revision to Apple's widescreen iPod, breakthrough internet communicator, and phone since the original iPhone 2G was released in 2007. But how significant is it? Apple CEO Steve Jobs said there were over 100 new features and singled out 8 for special attention. We'll take the most interesting of both and see just how important they are, after the break.

(For more on the software, see our massive iOS 4 feature walkthrough).

In typical Apple hyperbolic fashion, they introduce iPhone as changing everything, and they have a video to prove it. Beyond the hyperbole, the thought they place into every detail of what they make is impressive. New mixes of stainless steal. New technologies for battery life. Manufacturing procedures that create unmatched build quality. And consider this: how many companies have a Senior Vice President of design?

YouTube link

FaceTime

FaceTime got the Steve Jobs "one more thing" bump at this year's WWDC so it's a fitting place to start the feature discussion. Now Apple didn't invent video calling, of course, but once again they're taking what has been a niche technology and making it mainstream. There are a couple of huge challenges this time: at the moment it's Wi-Fi only and iPhone 4 only. "At this time" because Apple indicated they were trying to push it out to the carriers and their 3G (and upcoming 4G) networks next year, and they've built it out of -- and are releasing the resulting work back to -- open standards so it can be implemented into other clients and devices. (If you're curious as to which standards, Apple lists them as H.264 video codec, AAC audio codec, SIP signaling protocol, STUN and ICE for NAT traversal, TURN for TCP/UDP data receipt, RTP and SRTP for audio and video packet delivery.)

In typical Apple fashion, however, the end user isn't supposed to worry one bit about all those acronyms mean or how hard it is to do what they're doing -- the end user is simply supposed to press the FaceTime icon and talk to their parents or grandparents, see their children and grandchildren, or tap the switch button to flip from front-facing to rear camera to watch the first footsteps or see the winning goal. That's how Apple is marketing it and they're usually very good at marketing.

Yes, on Wi-Fi you could just use your laptop webcam or MacBook iSight, but iPhone 4 will be infinitely more portable. You won't be (or at least you shouldn't be) chasing your 2 year old around the garden with a 5 lbs pound computer. And we won't even get into what it could do for long distance romances...

Apple should add FaceTime to their Mac iChat app eventually (though with their current iOS focus, the resources may not be there at this point). Skype might just be looking at supporting it as well, which would be huge. As an open standard, Android and Palm apps might come along for it as well. And if you paid attention during the keynote, Steve Jobs said 10 million Apple devices -- not just iPhones -- would support it by the end of the year. So yes, the iPod touch might finally get a camera and get into the fun.

Now there's no word from Apple about recording FaceTime calls so that may not be available at launch (and hordes of impetuous young Hollywood stars should stop and thank Jobs for that), but it's something that's easy to see them adding in the future.

Maintreaming video calls, especially locked to Wi-Fi and a singe device at launch, is a huge challenge and it could be called a gimmick if it were anyone but Apple. (Their focus on small feature sets usually prevents gimmicks from creeping into the roadmap). Unlike mobile web browsing, apps, and video recording, there's no guarantee FaceTime will take off with the masses. But it's so scifi you just have to love the attempt.

YouTube link

Retina Display

All previous generation iPhones shipped with 320x480 displays and with Android increasingly going 480x800, conventional wisdom assumed Apple would have to meet that resolution. They didn't. To lift Apple Senior Vice-President of iOS Software, Scott Forstall's favorite line -- they blew it away. The new iPhone has a 640x960 display at 3.5" diagonal size and 3:2 aspect ratio for a whopping 326 pixel density per inch (that's 78 microns wide for pixel geeks). Topping it off is an 800:1 contrast ratio so whites are whiter and blacks are blacker.

That means, very literally, where last year's iPhone had 1 pixel, this year's will have 4. For developers this is huge because older apps will look the same as before, if not slightly better because Apple will automatically re-render text and UI elements at the higher resolution. New apps will just look phenomenally better.

Apple is calling this set of technologies "Retina Display" because they day the pixel density is so high your retina can't distinguish the dots anymore -- it looks like a photo or magazine page. There's some debate about wether or not the Retina Display claim is scientifically accurate (it depends a great deal on how sharp your eyes are and how close you hold it) but for all intents and purposes, it doesn't matter. It's sharp enough that most people won't notice the pixels -- until they go back to other displays.

Apple is also using the IPS (in-plane switching) technology they mainstreamed in the iMac and iPad along with LED backlight to create an incredibly wide viewing angle. Where other devices look pretty much blank from the side, iPhone 4 is still legible. For those trying to hide the documents they're reading on planes, privacy films will no doubt sell like hotcakes. For those who want to share a movie or webpage with their family and friends, it'll be hugely appreciated.

For their next trick, Apple has used optical glass that's not only been treated for even greater scratch resistance, not only using their oil-resistant coating, but is laminated directly onto the screen so that there's no longer a gap in the display. The pixels are right underneath the glass, minimizing reflections and making it feel more like you're looking at it and not through something into it.

What this means for users is that the iPhone 4 will look better more often, text will be easier to read in a wider variety of circumstances, and apps will appear the same as before if they haven't been updated, and crisper and clearer than ever before if they have.

Multitasking

Steve Jobs highlighted multitasking as one of iPhone 4's eight new features but that's software not hardware, and it will work on iPhone 3GS and iPod touch G3 as well, so I'm covering it in TiPb's iOS 4 walkthrough.

Still, it should look and work even better on the iPhone 4, and here's hoping a post-release teardown reveals Apple was good enough to go with 512MB of RAM this time to really keep it snappy.

Cameras front and back (with LED flash)

The big news with iPhone 4 is that Apple introduced a front-facing camera into the mix. It's only VGA resolution -- 640x480 -- but for self-protrait profile shots for social networks like Facebook and Twitter, and FaceTime video calls, it should be more than enough for now.

The bigger news is the rear-facing camera, and that iPhone 4 feels like Apple is finally taking digital imaging seriously. The first two generations of iPhone camera were outstanding only in their convenience, with low megapixel counts and serviceable if limited software. Apple kept hiring engineers, however, and while the iPhone 3GS raised the bar to 3.2 megapixels and introduced tap-to-focus and all manner of automagical white balancing, iPhone 4 is a leap beyond. And not just in megapixels.

Sure, other devices already have 8 megapixels, but anyone who loves photography already knows megapixels are meaningless after a certain point (unless you're shooting billboards, and then you have something in the 23 range already, don't you?) In the megapixel spec race, just like with dedicated cameras before, hardware makers take the same lens and cut it up ever-smaller, meaning the number of pixels goes up even as the light captured by each one (i.e. the quality of those pixels) goes down. Canon and Nikon are (thankfully) shifting away from megapixels and racing now towards ISO/low-light performance and it appears Apple is following suit.

iPhone 4 is getting a 5-megapixel camera, but instead of chopping the iPhone 3GS lens up even more, they've increased the physical size of the rear-facing lens and more than that -- added a backside illuminated sensor to really up the low-light levels. They've also added an automatic LED flash, which is a good casual option. It's not the dual flash some other devices have, and its not the sun-like torches the big boys of SLR carry shoe-mounted, but it harkens back to the original iPhone camera -- good enough given the convenience of having it built in. (Speaking of which, there's also a 5x digital zoom which is, eh, a digital zoom -- since they obviously can't do optical given the narrow depth of the phone -- but it's there if sneaker zoom isn't possible).

720p video recording and editing

The bigger 5 megapixel camera on the iPhone 4 means not only will it do bigger stills but it can now capture 720p videos as well. Apple isn't specific on its tech spec page, but it looks like they've gone from the iPhone 3GS' 3:2 VGA aspect ratio to a full on 1280x720, 16x9 which will be great news to casual videographers. (Everyone else is carrying around a Mark II as well now for 1080p, right?)

The LED flash can be turned on to brighten dark moments, and while the mic doesn't seem improved, overall it's a good upgrade and might even make the iPhone 4 good enough to replace your Flip MinoHD.

Also worth noting, just like with iPhone OS 3.0, iOS 4 will let you trim and share your clips right on device. Apple is also introducing the $4.99 iMovie for iPhone app for more advanced video editing, theming, transitions, and titling.

We'll cover the built-in functionality in our iOS 4 walkthrough and as soon as iMovie for iPhone ships, we'll get you a full review. Suffice it to say, if you don't mind working on a 3.5" screen, the demos look fantastic.

Folders

iOS 4 has the same 11 home screens as iPhone OS 3.0 but thanks to Folders you aren't limited to 180 apps anymore -- you can shove 12 into the space that previously took only 1, meaning 2160 is you new limit. Strangely, only 9 apps are shown on folder icons instead of the 12 that lurk inside, but thanks to the Retina Display those tiny 9 should look incredibly sharp and clear enough to identify even without the smart folder naming.

However, while Jobs again singled this out as an iPhone 4 feature, it should work (if not as sharply) on all iOS 4 devices and so we're covering it in our iOS 4 walkthrough instead.

Noise-canceling microphone

It turns out two microphones on the iPhone 4 are more than twice as good as one. The reason is, like some other devices before it, iPhone 4 is using that second mic for noise cancelation. Whatever sounds it pics up that aren't picked up by the main mic at the bottom -- the one you're talking into -- get digitally removed from the audio meaning the person at the other end has a far better chance of hearing more of what you're saying and less of the party, traffic, or other commotion going on around you.

Gyroscope

Being able to more precisely control position in 3D space on iPhone 4? Terrific. Watching Steve Jobs play Jenga on the WWDC stage? Priceless. Both come courtesy of the new gyroscope included in the iPhone 4, no doubt at the behest of game developers. It will do for the iPhone what Wii Motion Plus did for Nintendo -- make good control much, much better. With 3-axis detection, rotation around gravity, advanced motion sensing is a reality. (If you're not a gamer, that translates into augmented reality apps, which should find fine use of it as well).

Even better, Apple has packaged it up along with the accelerometer to create CoreMotion API for developers so it can be more easily integrated into apps, and more elegantly degraded down to accelerometer alone for previous generation devices that don't have a gyro. (Just like CoreLocation does if GPS isn't present).

Stainless steel antenna bands

When Apple says things like they created their own stainless steal alloy for the iPhone 4 band, it just sounds like they're showing off. When they explain that not only does the band form the main structure of the device (allowing for more room inside), but the gaps -- as complained about in earlier device leaks -- are caused by it being part of the antenna system of the phone, it's exactly them showing off.

The structural part is a take-off of the unibody technology that debuted with the MacBook Air in 2008 and has since spread across the MacBook line and into the iMac and iPad. The antenna part? Well, we'll have to wait and see what difference if any it makes in the iPhone 4 reception -- particularly on AT&T. If it improves that there likely won't be a single complaint about the gaps, not ever again.

Apple A4 processor

The Apple A4 system on a chip (SoC) debuted with the iPad. While Apple isn't making their own components (yet?), they are taking the ARM Cortex A8, revving it up to 1GHz, and pairing it with an Imagination PowerVR SGX to incredibly performant, even more incredibly power saving results.

Apple truly believes that people serious about software make their own hardware, and with iPhone 4 they're starting to take that down to the silicon level.

Battery life

Thanks to the Apple A4 and the larger battery crammed into the iPhone 4, battery stats look better than ever, and even match the iPad for video playback.

• Talk time: Up to 7 hours on 3G, 14 hours on 2G
• Standby time: Up to 300 hours
• Internet use: Up to 6 hours on 3G, 10 hours on Wi-Fi
• Video playback: Up to 10 hours
• Audio playback: Up to 40 hours

Other specs

A few more iPhone 4 specs deserve mention.

Size

• Height: 4.5 inches (115.2 mm)
• Width: 2.31 inches (58.6 mm)
• Depth: 0.37 inch (9.3 mm)
• Weight: 4.8 ounces (137 grams)

So, essentially the same size as previous iPhones, but 24% less depth. Which is crazy. There has to come a point where increasing the components, and size of the components in the device becomes more important than thinning it out. Right?

Colors

Like previous years, iPhone 4 comes in black and white. Unlike previous years, iPhone 4's white option isn't back-only -- even the glass front plate comes in white.

Cellular and wireless

• UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz)
• GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
• 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi (802.11n 2.4GHz only)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR wireless technology

Pentaband radio is almost as crazy, and certainly good news to people in countries like New Zealand where the additional frequencies will be most welcome. People hoping for the 1700 MHz band for T-Mobile 3G will unfortunately remain disappointed.

802.11n is welcome, the 2.4GHz only is not. That's the same, busy, interference-laced band most of the slower 802.11 protocols slum around in, not to mention microwaves and garage door openers. Now that dual-band routers (like Apple's own Airport Extreme since 2009) can support both older standards and the newer, higher bands, it's unfortunate we're not going to get to use them on iPhone 4.

TV and Video

It looks like iPhone 4 supports the same PCM stereo audio in .avi file format as iPad, which I thought was for importing footage from older video cameras via the Camera Kit USB dongle. If it is, then does that mean the Camera Kit will work with iPhone 4? (It doesn't with iPhone 3GS under iOS 4).

VGA cable support is listed, so apps that choose to make use of it can be output through the dock to VGA adapter that was released alongside the iPad. Carrying presentations around with the iPhone will be a great ultra-mobile solution. (Hollywood probably won't let too many of their movies escape that way, however).

Conclusion

Steve Jobs was right, iPhone 4 is Apple's biggest leap forward since the original iPhone 2G they rightly claim re-invented the smartphone market. Is it big enough to re-re-invent it? That's impossible to answer until we've reviewed it but the odds are long -- that type of thing typically only happens once every decade or two, not year or three. Still it's one of the most significant pieces of engineering to date and that's saying a lot.

TiPb will have a complete iPhone 4 review as soon as Apple makes it available and a buyers guide before it goes up for pre-order to help you decide if and when to buy it or upgrade to it.

In the meantime check out TiPb's iOS 4 preview to see the software Apple's bringing to bear on this amazing piece of hardware.

(And if I've missed anything in this preview, point it out in comments so it can be added in).

iOS 4 (previously iPhone OS 4, iPhone 4.0) continues Apple's relentless yearly mobile OS beta and release cycle. If 2007 was the mainstreaming of the multitouch user interface, 2008 all about the app store, and 2009 filling in the feature list, then iPhone 4 promises to be... well, that's why we're here.

(And yes, iOS. That's the new name Apple has licensed from trademark holders Cisco to represent the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch -- and maybe soon Apple TV and who knows what else -- family.)

Apple promises 7 "tent-pole" features and 100+ new user features overall, along with 1500 major new APIs for developers. We're going to walk through the ones that matter most. As with previous years, Apple is likely to release a half-dozen or more betas, as often as every second week or so, leading up to a Gold Master (GM) seed on or around WWDC 2010 (date yet to be announced) for iPhone and iPod touch, and September for iPad.

Things can and will change. Features will come and go. And all sorts of iOS secrets will be discovered deep inside the code strings. We'll update when any of that happens.

What Hasn't Changed

As always, we'll start off by telling you what hasn't change so we can clear the deck for what has. For more information on any functionality that's pretty much identical to past versions, check out our previous walkthroughs:

• iPhone 2.0
• iPhone 2.1
• iPhone 2.2
• iPhone 3.0

• iPhone 3.1

• YouTube: Accounts were a big addition in iPhone 3.0, so iPhone 4 sits this update out, at least so far.

• Stocks: Similarly, Stocks got landscape and a slew of swipe-able data last time, so the update love gets skipped this time.
• Weather: Almost comedically at this point, it's still unchanged from iPhone 1.0. Still no HTC TouchFlo 3D style animations, no landscape mode with more/different information. Nada.
• Voice Memo: Introduced in iPhone 3.0, it looks pretty much the same in iPhone 4.
• Clock: With nothing but a lap feature added last time, we lose the "but" and keep the "nothing" for iPhone 4.
• Calculator: Upgraded back in 2.0 for landscape scientific mode, all Calculator gets this time is a slight icon tweak towards the red.

System-wide enhancements

Spell check

Spell check, which debuted in iPhone 3.2 for iPad, is a system-wide addition to iPhone 4 now as well. Words the OS thinks you've misspelled will be underlined in red (familiar to any Microsoft Office or Mac OS X user). Tapping on them will give you a popup containing a recommended replacement. Tapping that replaces the misspelled word with the (hopefully!) correctly spelled one.

Combined with the iPhone's existing -- and industry leading -- predictive auto-correct, it's a powerful combination.

Text Replace

Cut, copy, and paste also gets an iPad-debuting feature with "replace" now added to the popup options.

Bluetooth Keyboard Support

You're going to get tired of us saying "like the iPad" but remember when we told you spring's influx of iPad news would be important come summer's new iPhone news? You were warned for a reason. iPhone is getting iPad's Bluetooth keyboard support. Thank goodness for that.

Home Screen

SpringBoard app, the power behind the Home Screen gets an iPhone 3.2 for iPad-style update to support custom wallpaper. Yes, the default background in iPhone 4 beta 1 is water drops on gray, which is not default but included in the iPad's wallpaper gallery (yet strangely not included in iPhone 4's) Also like iPad, the Mac OS X reflective Dock (buh-bye grid) and translucent top bar have been brought over.

Apple has brought over some of the iPad wallpapers but also introduced a few new ones, all seemingly focused on livening up the home screen without being too visually distracting. Natural textures and muted patterns get an obvious focus here with stones, rocks, and textiles front and center.

(See all of them in our iOS beta 4 wallpaper gallery)

In addition to previous status icons, the top bar will now show a north-east pointing arrow to alert you that location-based services (GPS) are being used. (So you'll see this in Maps and when using navigation, location-based social networks or games, etc.)

In addition to the previous color bands across the top of the screen that indicate running voice or data connections (green for Phone, red for Voice Memo, blue for tethering) red is used again to indicate a VoIP app (like Skype) is active in the background.

As mentioned, the Calculator app also gets a new icon. Where things get more exciting is how Home Screen has once again been extended to visualize new, core-level OS changes.

Spotlight

First, and strangely least, the Spotlight Home Screen introduced in iPhone 3.0 now gets to look beyond on-device data and reach for the clouds. Literally. Well, insomuch as the cloud here is Google and Wikipedia, which are very welcome additions. (Hopefully Twitter will be added in as well at some point). Tapping either will launch you into Mobile Safari and the appropriate search result page.

Multitasking

While Apple's built-in apps (like iPod, Mail, etc.) have had background multitasking since 1.0. Now, four years, many gripes, and stiffer Google Android competition than ever, background multitasking comes to App Store apps. At least for the iPhone 3GS and the 4th generation iPhone Apple will more than likely introduce this coming summer. RAM limitations and Apple's abject refusal to put their name on an implementation where hardware constrains software -- see video recording last year -- means iPhone 3G will get a lot of 4.0, but won't get multitasking.

We won't get into the saved-state, streaming music, location, and VoIP APIs, push and local notifications, and task completion that make up the 6 innards of the service because this is a GUI walkthrough. Fast task switching, however, is where we see background multitasking made manifest, and this is what it looks like.

You double tap the Home Screen and the UI turns translucent and slides up, allowing you to peek at the apps running "under the hood". (Technically frozen with state saved an threads registered with those APIs, but we're trying not to get technical here). Positionally the Fast Task Switcher apps take up the space traditionally reserved for the Dock, so while it's a tad confusing the concept of apps at the bottom of the screen being more permanent and easily accessible remains. Behaviorally, while they look like a secret dock, they function like the Home Screen itself in that you can swipe from right to left to scroll through a several 4-icon sets of multitasking apps. We don't know what the upper limit is yet (11 pages like Home Screen itself?) but it's a lot.

Given even the iPhone 3GS has only 256MB of RAM, we assume Apple will discretely kill off the least-used app in the stack when things get tight. Whether or not that means the icon disappears from the multitasking GUI we don't know, but worst case you just have to go to the Home Screen, re-launch it (hopefully from saved state) and all you notice is a slightly longer start up time.

In iOS beta 3, the fast app switcher UI gained a soft-version of the iPad's orientation lock and audio controls. When you double click the home button to bring up the fast app switcher, you can now scroll all the way to the left to get the new orientation lock and audio controls. The default on the orientation is off but a tap will turn on, or turn off, the lock. (Home screen doesn't sound like it rotates, however).

Audio controls include back, play/pause, and forward, with the name of the current track written beneath. If music is being played via the iPod app, the iPod icon will be displayed to quickly get you back to that app. If you're streaming via the iTunes app (i.e. a podcast) then the iTunes icon will be displayed instead. We're guessing iOS will show you the icon of whichever app is currently playing music using the new background audio API, and yes we mean Slacker and Pandora when they're enabled as well.

YouTube link

At the iPhone 4 event, Steve Jobs likened task managers (in the multitasking, not to-do sense) to styluses -- if you need them there's something wrong. However, if you hold your finger down on multitasking apps to make the jiggle and bring up a delete icon that, if you tap it, removes them. Added to the list of things we don't know -- whether that kills their API thread or merely removes them from the Fast App Switcher interface. (And no, sadly you can't re-arrange jiggling apps for fast switching, at least not yet -- if you want your favorites close at hand, that remains a Dock thing).

The background for the app switcher (and for folders) has also changed from the rubbery, pock-mocked, dark gray of beta 1 and 2 to a new cross-hatched medium gray in beta 3.

The presentation may not be as visually slick as Palm webOS' Card view (which looks like iPhone Safari's Page view) or Mac OS X Exposé mode, but it keeps those 85,000,000 existing iPhone and iPod touch users grounded in the interface they're familiar with and that's what Apple is prioritizing.

Note: Previously you could assign the double-click Home to trigger Phone Favorites, Camera, or Spotlight. On iPhone 3G under iOS those options remain. On iPhone 3GS under iOS, you can now double-click-and-hold on Home to trigger Phone Favorites, but there doesn't appear to be any mechanism to re-assign that functionality to Camera or Spotlight (see Settings, below). [@oliok] This appears to be gone under Beta 3.

YouTube link

iOS beta 2 introduced a new, circling, side-switching animation for multitasking fast app switching. The new animation occurs when you switch between two apps either via the new, double-click-Home to trigger to launch the multitasking UI, or when one app calls another app (i.e. when you're in Contacts and you tap to send a contact an SMS).

Launching or leaving an app retains the same, zoom-based effect as always (though the wallpaper in iOS zooms slightly as well, like on the iPad).

YouTube link

Folders

There are 180,000 apps in the App Store and likely a ton more by the time I finish writing the sentence. Literally. iPhone 1.0 had one Home Screen but with only the built-in apps available back then, it wasn't even a limitation. With WebApps, it grew to 9 pages for a 148 app limit. With iPhone 3.0 we were given 8 pages, for 180 apps viewable, but you could install many more and use Spotlight as a way of finding and launching them. Organizing them still wasn't a real option.

Enter Folders. A Folder is simply a grouped icon that holds up to 12 other icons inside it. (And for those keeping count at home, the new math means a whopping 2016 apps can be kept on-screen at once. Shudder).

The way it works is you tap a Folder icon and once again the Home Screen fades and splits open, this time below the Folder. Inside the split are all the apps contained in the group.

To create a Folder, you begin by tapping and holding an icon to put it in jiggly mode, just like you did before to delete or move it. Then, drag it over and drop it on top of another icon to create a Folder. (This works better when icons aren't at the right edge of the screen, as the move behavior seems to supersede the Folder behavior, causing the icon to wrap to the next line before you can drop on top of it.) Once created, iPhone OS reads the apps' category data and tries to name the folder for you, but you can easily edit it to anything you want.

To remove apps from a Folder, put them in jiggly mode inside the Folder and drag them out (or just delete them if you don't want them anywhere anymore). You can also move them around within the Folder to customize their order.

Folders can be put in jiggly mode and moved as well, but not deleted (they can only be deleted by removing all the apps from within them, and which point they self-destruct for you). You can even move them to the Dock, which means you could have 48 apps readily available at any time for quick launching.

And while you still can't delete Apple's built-in apps, you can take the ones you're not using and hide them away inside a folder so they waste as little Home Screen space as possible (not that that's as big a deal now as it used to be...)

Again, not as visually exciting perhaps as Mac OS X's Stacks, but it keeps current iPhone users in a familiar interface while adding much-needed functionality.

YouTube link

Messages

Messages in iPhone 4 gets the same built-in Spotlight search that Mail and other apps got with iPhone 3.0. It appears at the top of the main messages screen. (There's no search within an individual Messages thread). [@justin_horn]

Messages also (finally) gets a character counter so you'll know when you're getting close to, or going past, the SMS limit (which would cause a second message to be sent). It kicks in after you've typed 50 characters or so. [@iMuggle]

There's also a new API to allow in-app SMS for developers who want to include the functionality in their own apps. While this might be similar to the iPhone 3.0 embedded email option, and whether or not it will let users reply to SMS without leaving an app, it doesn't seem as elegant a solution as a global background messaging system.

Calendar

Calendar removes two long-standing gripes and adds something pretty much invisible from the interface but awesome in terms of functionality.

First, you can now show all or hide all calendars or individually check/uncheck just the calendars you want to see.

Birthday calendars have also been added to the option, something that was previously only possible to see under certain setup conditions.

Lastly and most excitingly, Apple has finally added Calendar access for developers. What this means is, we'll soon see applications where, by way of example, you can download a movie app, buy tickets for a local screening, and the app will be able to automatically add the show time to your Calendar.

Photos

Photos, at least for Mac users, gets the same iPhoto '09-based organizational features introduced with the iPad: Events, Faces, and Places.

If you have a Mac with iPhoto '09 and you've let it automatically file your photos by time stamp (Events), through facial-recognition algorithms (Faces), and via geo-location (Places). All these join the previous Albums view to form the bottom tab bar.

Landscape mode is also now supported in album and gallery views [@antonioj].

The action button now includes a Rotate function (yes!) that turns a photo 90 degrees counter-clockwise (to the left).

If you Email Photo, you now get the option of sending a smaller version (compressed dimensions and hence file size), or at actual size.

Lastly, developers have been given access to the photo and video library (not just the image picker as in previous OS versions).

Camera

Tap to focus, introduced in iPhone 3.0 for still photography, now gets expanded to video recording for the iPhone 3GS (and presumably the 4th generation iPhone).

Still photography maintains its leg up, however, via a new 5x digital zoom. When you tap the screen, a slider pops up allowing you to swipe to the right to increase magnification and swipe left to decrease.

Developers also get full access to and control of video playback and recording.

Maps

A minor tweak, but the current location/current direction button changes from the previous crosshairs to a north-east pointer to match the new location services icon used in the title bar. (No iPhone 3.2 for iPad-style terrain mode, at least not yet).

For developers, overlays can now be added to embedded maps to show extra data like routes or annotations.

Notes

When you first enter notes it looks unchanged from previous versions of the iPhone OS. However, there is now an Accounts button at the top left of the list page and tapping it takes you to a new screen where you can choose to view All Notes, just the notes on your iPhone, or just the notes that are synced via IMAP to your email account(s). Yes, that means over the air (OTA) notes sync is finally here -- with the caveat that Exchange doesn't seem supported yet.

(UI-wise this is similar to how you back out/left in Calendar or Contacts to toggle data sources.)

The way these show up in Mac OS X is via the built-in Mail.app client in the Notes tab.

On Gmail they show up as a generic label. In other IMAP clients, regardless of OS, they'll show up as generic IMAP folders.

iTunes Store

The iTunes store itself is the same, however, audio streaming from the app itself has taken a huge leap forward. Since iPhone OS 2.2 you've been able to tap the title of a podcast to begin streaming (rather than downloading) the audio, even in the background while using other apps, but it was sometimes hit or miss. It would drop out, it would time out, you couldn't really scrub through it, and if you left it for a while it would lose its place and start over.

In iOS it's rock solid. You can scrub and it re-buffers and keeps playing flawlessly. You can stop it and come back hours or even days later -- even after using the iTunes app to search for other things or the iPod app to play different audio -- and it still knows where you left off and starts playing again instantly without missing a beat.

Settings

This year, like every year, some of the more numerous and interesting changes Apple delivers in their new OS are tucked neatly away in the Settings app.

General: Network

You can now choose to not only turn off 3G data or roaming data, but all cellular data.

General: Location Services

At the iOS event, Apple made a big deal about user privacy when it came to location (like a shot at Google). That manifests here with far more granular controls over which apps are allowed to access your location data (GPS, Wi-Fi mapping, and cell tower triangulation) and the aforementioned north-east pointing arrow that shows up when any app has used your location in the last 24 hours.

General: Home Button

Rather than gaining functions, the Home Button setting loses several. Since double-click for iOS on the iPhone 3GS (and presumably future iPhone hardware) is now reserved for launching the multitasking interface, gone is the option to assign it to launch Spotlight, Camera, or iPod. Also gone is the option to have it launch iPod when audio is playing.

Double-click-and-hold will now trigger Phone Favorites on the iPhone 3GS, but no options are presented yet to re-assign that to Spotlight, Camera, or iPod. So, the only thing that remains are the Spotlight search inclusion options. Looks downright barren now...

Since iPhone 3G won't be getting multitasking (Apple cites hardware, i.e. RAM constraints) those options remain under iOS for that device.

General: Passcode Lock

Previously available only through an Enterprise profile, iPhone 4 brings stronger, alphanumeric passcodes to all iPhone users. That means you're no longer stuck with only a 4 digit pin, but can now create longer passcodes with far greater variation. Of course, longer, more varied passcodes are more of a hassle to remember and enter, but that's the cost of good security.

Mail, Contacts, Calendars

As previously mentioned, Notes will now sync over IMAP and the settings for that appear here. First, all the way at the bottom, you can choose which account to use as the default for note sync.

Inside MobileMe, Gmail, or other IMAP accounts, you can choose whether or not to enable sync. Again, there's no support for Exchange ActiveSync accounts yet (including Gmail via GoogleSync).

Messages

Here's where you can turn on that new character count option.

iPod

The iPod app now has an overlay that shows you information about songs and podcasts. While functional it's not terribly attractive so it's nice to be able to toggle it off right here.

App Store

iPhone 2.0 brought us the iTunes App Store, iPhone 3.0 added in-app purchases, and now iOS raises the mercantile stakes once again...

iAd

iAd will provide developers with an easy-as-Xcode way to place advertising in their apps, both paid and free. Apple is setting a high bar for their ads, however. No simple Google-style text, annoying punch-the-monkey, or jarring transition out of the app and into the browser, they claim to want great looking, highly interactive, emotionally compelling content that will connect with rather than alienate users. Served every 3 minutes. Yeah...

Functionally these are built in HTML5 (no Flash need apply) and seem to work as apps-within-apps. Tapping on a banner brings up a full-screen ad-as-webapp and examples shown included plenty of animated UI effects and content that ranged from videos to freebies like wallpaper, to free and paid apps you could download from within the ad (no trip to the App Store needed). An exit button is persistent at the top left so users can quit the add at any time.

Apple will be selling and serving the ads, so all we can do is hope they're unobtrusive and actually reach the quality levels presented. For paid apps that also try to include in-app iAds, that bar will rightly be very, very high.

Task completion

With iPhone 4, when you close and app and that app is still performing an activity, the OS will allow it to complete that activity in the background. For example, downloading or uploading content from the internet.

Streaming music, location, and VoIP API

The underside of the multitasking/fast app switching UI mentioned at the beginning of the walkthrough are three specific types of API that an app can register threads with when you close them out. These are intended for streaming music (Pandora or Slacker being the classic examples), location-aware (i.e turn-by-turn navigation, check-in games, social networks, etc.), and VoIP (Skype and SIP clients) to register with the OS when you exit the apps proper so that your music can keep streaming, location can keep tracking, and VoIP can still alert you of phone calls even when the app isn't running.

There's no time-line API for instant messaging (IM), Twitter, etc. to register their threads with, however. Apple believes existing Push Notifications are sufficient but that means once an alert is received and you tap View, the app still has to pause and load the timeline/messages before you can view them. This is unlike the built-in Mail and Messages (SMS/MMS) apps that have new messages loaded and waiting when you get there.

Local Notifications

Like Push Notifications in iPhone 3.0 but not requiring an outside, internet connected server, local notifications will let apps you're using (and perhaps apps that have registered one of the three types of background threads mentioned above) send you popup boxes, sound alerts, and icon badges.

For the user, these should be functionally the same and perhaps indistinguishable.

Quick Look

Just like Mail can preview documents, Quick Look will allow developers to present the same functionality in their apps.

Accelerate

2000 hardware accelerated math APIs probably won't be seen by users, but there's not doubt we'll feel them in the games. Zoom. Zoom.

File Sharing

Again it looks like the iPhone is finally getting in iOS what the iPad got in 3.2 with the file/document transfer feature now exposed in iTunes sync.

While the iPad version identifies document-friendly apps (like Apple's own Keynote, Numbers, and Pages) and lets you find and sync over files, the iOS beta 3 version currently only shows Mail and Stanza and doesn't really let you do much else. However, it stands to reason this will at least reach feature parity with the iPad when Apple releases iOS to the public later this summer.

Now all we need is an elegant way to share and wirelessly sync those documents across multiple devices and users. MobileMe 2.0, souped up iWork.com 2.0, where are you?

Mail

Mail gets a unified inbox. Let's write that again -- Mail gets a unified inbox. For those with multiple email accounts whose previous iPhone experience involved tapping into and out of those boxes many, many times a day this is a hugely welcome addition.

As with Calendars, Notes, etc. you can tap a button on the top left, in this case Mailboxes, to back into a selection screen where you can then go into All Inboxes, a specific account's inbox (which is considered fast inbox switching), or into the complete folder and sub-folder system of a given account (how Mail has worked from iPhone 1.0 to iPhone 3.0).

Once inside, All Inboxes is visually indistinguishable from an account-specific inbox, it simply contains all of their messages.

What is distinguishable are the small carets (technically greater-than symbols) to the right of replies that indicate a message is part of a thread. A number, typically 2 or 3, accompanies the caret to indicate how many replies are in the thread.

Tapping on a message that's part of a thread doesn't take you to the message but rather to a second list-view, similar to the inbox itself, but containing only the messages from the thread. Tapping on one of them then takes you to the message. A thread view contains a small vertical bar at the top with the subject of the thread and time of the most recent reply. A button to the top left of the message that's part of the thread also contains the subject of the thread and lets you back out and see the thread again. The button then switches to contain the name of the inbox so you can back out again, leave the thread completely, and see all your messages.

So yes, the tap, tap, tap of inbox navigation persists, albeit shifted from moving into and out of inboxes to moving into and out of threaded messages.

Although not yet implemented in the current beta, like iPhone OS 3.2 for iPad, you'll be able to open email attachments in apps. Now there's no iWork (Numbers, Pages, Keynote) for iPhone yet, and the app Apple used to introduce this function doesn't exist on iPhone yet either. Interesting.

Lastly, in previous versions of the iPhone OS, when you wanted to abandon an email, you would hit Cancel and get options to Save (store the email in Drafts), Don't Save (trash the email), and Cancel (go back to writing the email). The naming of these options was likely too confusing so in iPhone OS they've been replaced with a big red Delete button (to trash the email), Save as Draft, and Cancel. And yes, you can still cancel a cancel. (iPad, by contrast, still has Save and Don't Save, but no Cancel since it's in a popover rather than full-screen menu and you can just tap away to cancel).

Safari

More iPad to iPhone cross-polination means we get search auto-complete from both Google and Yahoo! in iOS. As you type, suggestions appear in a list view below. And as with the iPad, while Google and Yahoo! branding remain in the search boxes, they no longer get brand advertising on the keyboard -- it simply remains labeled Search now regardless of which engine is set and default.

As usual, Apple seems to be increasing Safari's HTML5 support. While HTML5 video would work under iPhone 3.1.3, it would launch the full screen QuickTime player to do so. Under iOS, it seems to play in-line as well [MobileGeekdom], like it does on the iPad.

If history is any indicator, Apple will likely also integrate whatever advancements WebKit and the Nitro JavaScript engine make between now and release this summer.

iPod

When you have a song playing in the iPod app and you tap the album art, in addition to all the previous controls that popped up, you now get a dark overlay with white text giving you the info metadata of the song or podcast. This is another iPad bring-over, though not the most attractive one by a long shot. (Remember, it can be turned off in Settings).

Album art has been added to album views, jazzing up the track lists. [Gizmodo]

And in yet another iPad-like update, on-th-go playlists are dead, long live... just regular old playlists. You can add them via an item in the playlists list, at which point you get a popup that asks you for a name. Next, you tap on any songs you want to add, and when you're done, you have a new playlist. If you're not happy with it, or any playlist, just swipe to bring up the usual red Delete button and annihilate it.

Nike+

You can now send you run data directly from the iPhone. [When Will Apple]. Under History, tap Send to Nike+ and you're off and running (sorry). You're then sent to Safari so you can login to Nike+ and see your data.

Game Center (Preview)

Game Center is Apple's entry into the social gaming network space (think Xbox Live or Playstation Network for iPhone OS devices). With Game Center you'll be able to invite friends to play, use matchmaking to challenge other players, gain achievements, and have your scores displayed on a leader board.

Game Center won't launch with iOS this summer, but is scheduled for release "later" this year.

iBooks

Though not a built-in app (you'll need to go get it from the US App Store when it becomes available), as part of iOS Apple announced they were bringing iBooks to the iPhone.

Not Concluded

This preview won't be concluded until Apple concludes iOS with its final release this summer for iPhone and iPod touch, and this fall for iPad (unless that becomes iPhone 4.1).

iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS owners should get it for free as Apple's 2-year accounting procedure allows. That there's been no word about iPhone 2G owners could mean it's either not going to be available for the oldest hardware, it won't be free, or... there's simply been no word yet. Likewise, there's been no word on iPod touch pricing though it was $9.95 for iPhone 3.0. There's been no word on iPod touch G1 availability either, however. Apple's SDK agreement has revealed that iPad users who bought with 3.2 will get 4.0 for free but not subsequent major updates (i.e. iPhone OS 5 in 2011).

Again, there will be roughly 6 to 8 betas released on a roughly bi-weekly schedule from now until WWDC 2010 when we'll likely hear about the final version, whatever extra features will come with the next-generation iPhone (current rumors suggest iChat video), and get a final release data -- likely also to coincide with the next-gen iPhone release date.

We'll update this preview as more and better information becomes available, so if you notice anything we missed or just plain got wrong, send it in or let us know in the comments.

Note on Using Beta Software

If you're not a developer, don't even think about putting iOS beta on your main iPhone. Betas are for testing purposes and could contain any number of bugs and performance issues, could stop working or require updates when you may not have access to one, or otherwise give you problems when used in a manner for which they're not intended. Stay away.

[Thanks to everyone who contributed screenshots and descriptions for this walkthrough]

Apple's new iPad tablet is essentially a larger form-factor iPhone 3GS or iPod touch G3 which leverages both the bigger, 1024x768 screen and an updated iPhone 3.2 OS with enhanced versions of existing apps like Mail and Calendar, new offerings like the iBooks e-book reader and store, low-cost 3G data plans, and a 1GHz Apple A4 processor.

Critics have called the iPad "just a big iPhone" and fail to see how it changes anything. Supporters have called the iPad "a big iPhone" and feel it changes everything. Which is it? Until it ships in March (for the Wi-Fi version) or April (for the 3G version) and TiPb gets to do a full-on review, we can't say for sure. But we can go through and preview what we've seen so far and try to figure out just which direction Apple's leaning. And we're going to, after the break!

What is the iPad and Where Does it Fit?

At their "Come see our latest creation" keynote (available now via Apple.com and iTunes), Apple CEO, Steve Jobs announced the iPad as a new category of device in-between the smartphone and a laptop. That's not to say in-between devices didn't exist before, they certainly did -- netbooks, tablet PCs, large media devices, etc. have all tried to be that device and most have failed. Just as there were MP3 players before the iPod, however, Apple aims to mainstream the concept and possibly create if not a new category position, then a new contender to be that category.

Sure, the iPad could be just a large slab of glass too big for the pocket and too underpowered for productivity. Or it could be a highly abstracted computing appliance with an incredibly intimate, easy-to-use interface. It could fail to catch on, like others before it, or it could conceivably mainstream computers the way the iPhone mainstreamed smartphones. Geeks might enjoy using it on the sofa or while traveling. Non geeks might enjoy finally having a way to browse the web, handle email and appointments, consume music, movies, TV shows, and e-books, and use apps and games without the massive overhead involved in managing even a modern Windows, Mac, or Linus-based machine.

Significantly Better

In order to introduce the iPad, Steve Jobs said it had to be significantly better at a few key things than either a smartphone or a laptop. His list included:

• Browsing
• Email
• Photos
• Video
• Music
• Games
• eBooks

The ability to hold all that in your hands and interact with it through a fast, fluid multitouch interface was Jobs' pitch -- so much more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smartphone. But for whom?

Horizontals and Verticals

Again, geeks often buy just to have the latest gadget, but for non-geeks, an iPad might be preferable to a file-system bound PCs that require tons of tech-support from manufacturers or tech-savvy family members. No anti-virus or anti-malware, no hunting down and installing software and only partially uninstalling it later, no drivers to be driven mad by, and runtimes to rundown the system.

TiPb and many others have joked that this could be the perfect machine for our mom, but that just means it could be perfect for anyone who finds current computers impenetrable and hostile. That includes grandparents who just want to see photos and movies of the grandkids and email them back and forth. It also includes those young grandkids who, if the iPhone is any indicator, can take to the user interface like fish to water.

The lack of an iSight webcam does hamper this, however, as many grandparents actually want to see their grandkids (apply that equally to any friends or family).

For verticals, it could also be a boon to medical professionals, teachers and students, technicians, business users, or anyone who needs an easy-to-use interface that's highly customizable via apps, and incredibly low maintenance. Whether that's to review x-rays, carry around tons of interactive textbooks, follow detailed schematics, or use rich data visualization models, the iPad could be a better, more specific solution while on rounds, in class, at a customer, or on the road.

A Bit of History

Before we begin to look at where we are today, it's interesting to once again note that the iPhone we've had since 2007 was an adaption of older, existing Apple tablet efforts. The iPad (or Safari Pad) started life before the iPhone but ended up being released later. Much of the technology in the iPhone and iPod touch comes from work on the iPad, Apple just felt they could productize the smartphone and iPod version earlier, and that the iPad just wasn't ready yet.

Today, Apple thinks it is.

iPad Hardware

If the original iPhone 2G (and the iPod touch G1 that followed it) established Apple's take on the iconic black slab, the iPad establishes the black slate. Like the original iPhone and like all generations of iPod touch, it's backed by an aluminum unibody -- and the 3G-enabled version even has a similar black plastic, antenna friendly, cutout. And like all versions of iPhone, the front is a single piece of glass wrapped in a silvered bezel.

Size Matters

If we examine the size, the iPad is 9.56" high compared to 4.5" for the iPhone and 4.3 for the iPod touch. Width is 7.47" compared to 2.4" for both the iPhone and iPod touch. Depth is 0.5" for the iPad compared to 0.48" for the iPhone and 0.33" thin for the iPod touch. Weight is 1.5 lbs for the iPad compared to 4.8 ounces for the iPhone and 4.05 ounces for the iPod touch.

So in terms of size, the iPad is more than twice as high and three times as wide as an iPhone, and it's quite a lot heavier as well. It's certainly not pocketable but it is portable. Sure it's heavier than a Kindle but that's a tradeoff for the aluminum and glass-covered, full-color screen.

And oh, what a screen. 9.6" diagonal as opposed to the iPhone's 3.5", it's LED and uses IPS -- the same technology found in the new 9:16 iMac display. While we haven't seen the iPad's screen in action yet, the iMac's is phenomenal, with an incredible range of bright, beautiful colors and ultra-wide viewing angle perfect for sharing with lots of people sitting on a couch together (if you're familiar with older generation displays, and how the colors would seem to invert from an angle, have no worries about that here.)

It's also oleophobic, aka oil resistant, just like the iPhone 3GS.

Where the iPhone and iPod touch which have 3:2 aspect ration screens, the iPad's is 4:3 like an old standard definition TV. By contrast, Apple's old iMac had a 16:10 ratio, and their new iMacs, like modern HDTVs, have 16:9 aspect ratios. Why has Apple gone in the opposite direction for the iPad?

Unlike a TV, where you sit across the room and the screen fills a relatively small part of your field of vision, and like the iPhone, the iPad will be held much closer. Even with monstrous letterboxing, the video will still fill a large part of your field of vision.

Of course, the iPad isn’t only a video player. There are other forms of content to consume. For web browsing, even 16:10 sometimes feels too “short”, and you need to scroll more than you like. For books, a narrow page may not be ideal, and with a two-page spread, those pages will seem squat, squarish. In that context, the 4:3 ratio could be a good compromise.

Bottom line, the iPad is more to lug around than an iPhone, but if you're used to lugging a laptop or netbook, taking an iPad with you will be a breeze. Taking it in addition to that laptop, however, might be annoying -- and something Apple likely hopes you do instead of, not as well as.

Buttons, Ports, and the Usual Paucity Thereof

The iPad boasts just as many -- or rather just as few -- physical controls as the iPhone and iPod. There's a home button just below the screen, an sleep/wake button on the top, and mute button and volume rocker on the side.

Update: As of March 12, when the iPad officially went on pre-order in the US, Apple updated the specs to indicate an "orientation lock" had replaced the mute button on the iPad. As the name implies, this hardware button will prevent the iPad display from rotating -- a boon to those who want to read while lying down, for example. As to the mute functionality, that will now likely require holding down the volume rocker.

To control anything else, Apple expects you to use that beefy multitouch display.

Ports are similar. There's the iPod-standard 30-pin dock connector at the bottom, a 3.5mm headset jack, weirdly shaped speakers on both sides, and a microphone.

That's right, no USB or Firewire, no HDMI. You can get video-out via VGA adapter (meant for business use with projectors) and Apple's existing composite and component A/V cables. A new dock adapter also allows cameras and SD/SDHC camera cards to be connected so pictures and video can be loaded into the iPad. Since the iPad supported 720p video files, here's hoping Apple ads an HDMI adapter to the list sooner rather than later.

Astonishing Accessories

Apple is providing a basic dock for the iPad [$29 - Apple Online Store link], just as it does for the iPhone, as well as a case [$39 - Apple Online Store link] that can be flipped open and around to prop up the iPad for easier typing or movie viewing. There's also a 6-foot extension for the AC USB power adapter [$29 - Apple Online Store link], and the aforementioned video cables.

What is new -- what's astonishing given Apple's history with the iPhone -- is a second dock that's attached to, and provides full support for, an Apple-style hardware keyboard [$69 - Apple Online Store link]. Yeah, we almost fell over too. And if that's not enough, the iPad can also use Apple's -- or anyone else's -- Bluetooth keyboard as well.

This means people who might not have considered an iPad for serious text entry can now consider it, and could potentially take it on short trips instead of a netbook where they'd use just the iPad functions 80% of the time, but still need a hardware keyboard once and a while.

We hold great hope that both make their way back to the iPhone and iPod touch with all deliberate speed.

Last but not least for business users, Apple is providing a dock to VGA adapter for running presentations on a projector [$29 - Apple Online Store link].

Apple A4 System-on-a-Chip

One of the biggest stories coming out of the iPad launch was Apple introducing their own system-on-a-chip, dubbed the Apple A4. Other than the announced 1GHz speed, no one will know the exact details until the iPad ships and is subsequently torn down. We won't know for sure until there's a post-launch teardown, but Apple is either using an optimized version of the same single-core ARM Cortex A8 CPU found in the iPhone 3GS, or the next-generation multi-core ARM Cortex A9.

Similarly, Apple is either using the same PowerVR SGX graphics core as the iPhone 3GS, or the newer generation version introduced this year. There's been no word on RAM yet, though Apple did say the A4 had an on-board memory controller.

To be clear, Apple isn't making their own chips (at least for now), they're just putting the chips they want together in their own way.

Up until now, with Apple controlling software and hardware, it's been difficult for competitors to produce as nicely integrated devices. With Apple controlling the internals as well, its only going to be harder.

Storage and Pricing

Storage and pricing go together like Apple and $100 increments. Trust us, that makes sense if you're at all familiar with how Apple determines low, medium, and high-cost versions of their iPod and iPhone families, and now iPad as well.

As of March 12, you can pre-order the Wi-Fi version for pickup at your local Apple Retail Store or delivery on April 3, or the 3G version for delivery in "late April".

For the Wi-Fi only model, you're looking at:

• $499 for 16GB [Apple Online Store link]
• $599 for 32GB [Apple Online Store link]
• $699 for 64GB [Apple Online Store link]

For the Wi-Fi + 3G model, it increases to:

• $629 for 16GB [Apple Online Store link]
• $729 for 32GB [Apple Online Store link]
• $829 for 64GB [Apple Online Store link]

Those are the same storage options currently available on the much smaller iPod touch, so yes, we're disappointed. Physically, our guess is Apple could have fit 128GB of solid-state NAND Flash memory in the iPad. Whether they could have fit 128GB without significantly raising the price-point, however, is another story. That Apple was prioritizing low price over huge specs isn't surprising here.

And what a low price it is! After analysts and journalist either predicted or were fed a $999 price point, announcing at $499 made the iPad seem like a sweet deal, and it is given the functionality of even that 3G-less, low storage version.

Like with the iPhone, we're betting people get lured into the Apple Store for the $499 but realize even $699 or $829 for the 64GB, 3G version isn't that much more amortized over the course of the 12-36 month product life (gadget lovers tend to update every year, mainstream consumers only when they have to).

Cheap, No-Contract Data Plans... if You Have a Micro-SIM

For the version of the iPad that supports 3G cellular networking, unlike the iPhone -- which remains locked to carriers who, in exchange, subsidize its price to the tune of $450 -- is being offered unsubsidized and unlocked. You can run it on any 3G carrier that supports UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz), which included AT&T -- but not T-Mobile US. It also supports GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz), however, so if you really want to run it on T-Mo (or Wind in Canada) you can do so on the much slower 2.5G.

Sounds great, but as Apple has done in the past, they've jettisoned current technology for next-generation. Instead of the ubiquitous 2FF Mini-SIM cards used by the iPhone (and almost all modern GSM phones), the iPad uses smaller, 3FF Micro-SIM cards. Steve Jobs said, if you have one, you could stick it in the iPad and it should "just work". Trouble is, most people don't have a Micro-SIM yet. No doubt AT&T should by launch, and we've heard T-Mo, O2 in the UK, and Orange in France are getting them as well.

Speaking of which, Apple didn't stop the low-cost train with just the iPad itself -- they somehow got AT&T to agree to unprecedented data plans:

• $14.99 for up to 256MB of data
• $29.99 for "unlimited"

We're fairly certain "unlimited" is the typical "use over 5GB's at your own risk. That they're off-contract, however, and unlocked is outstanding. Customers can get on-demand, pre-paid data for times when they'll be traveling, anywhere in the world. What's more, Apple says you can enable the data plans right on the device, making it super convenient.

If you go for an iPad 3G, you can select and purchase your plan on a month-by-month basis right on the iPad. Choose the 256MB plan and you'll get messages alerting you when you have 20%, 10%, and 0 data left so you can turn 3G off, add another 256MB for an extra $14.99, or upgrade to an unlimited plan right from the device.

Whether or not this will be rolled-out internationally is unknown. We should know more by June when Apple said they would announce more network deals.

As to the AT&T data plans, they can be managed directly on the iPad itself.

iPad Software -- iPhone 3.2

The iPad doesn't run full-on Mac OS X. If you want a highly-portable Mac, Apple offers the Intel Core2 Duo-powered MacBook Air with Nvidia graphics that runs Adobe CS 4, including Photoshop, well. In other words, you can hammer nails with a screwdriver but that's not its intended purpose, and in Apple's mind the iPad's intended purpose meant the right tool for its job is iPhone OS X in general, and iPhone 3.2 in specific.

With 70 million iPhone and iPod touch devices sold to date, Apple pointed out that there's a huge base of consumers already educated on how to use their brand of multitouch interface, something they must consider important in mainstreaming the iPad.

iPhone Inside

That's right, the iPhone 3.2 OS that's been missing in action for actual iPhone and iPod touch owners have been waiting for since late 2009 has finally shown up -- and so far it's iPad only.

Now that's not to say iPhone and iPod touch owners might not get it eventually, like in March when the iPad ships, and it does bring some interesting things to the iPad that we'd all appreciate. And, Apple being Apple, it also lacks some things that we really wish it didn't lack.

Some of what's lacking -- and we'll get to specifics below -- might well change before launch. The iPhone added the YouTube app between introduction and shipping, for example. Also, if Apple holds true to schedule, March will bring us an iPhone 4.0 sneak preview event, which means anyone getting an iPad on release could get a free software update that adds significant functionality in June/July -- just as previous iPhone and iPod touch users have enjoyed for years.

All that being said, here's where we stand as of today.

System-wide Embiggening

Apple Senior VP of iPhone Software, Scott Forstall said that all of the built-in apps for the iPad's version of iPhone 3.2 were re-written from the ground up. Since the screen is much bigger, that makes sense. Where on an iPhone or iPod touch you have to switch screens to get to list views like the Email inbox or album contents, or change options without having to go to a separate settings window. Primarily these are exposed through "popover" menus, especially in portrait mode, and side panels in landscape mode.

Scrubbers, seen on the iPhone 3GS for video trimming, also get bigger and pushed out across the system so you can scrub through everything from photos to calendar days.

Multitouch gestures like pinch-to-zoom are found in more apps, and from the demo of a prototype version of the game NOVA, more complex gestures are also possible -- such as three-finger turns.

Lastly, the virtual keyboard is much bigger and MacBook-looking (it even includes faux ridges on the F and J keys!) that almost MacBook size in landscape mode

According to numerous hands-on reports, however, the home+sleep button combo to take a screenshot isn't currently implemented. (Do a reviewer a favor, Apple, flip that switch and soon.)

Photos from the Lock Screen

The iPad has an almost identical lock screen to the iPhone and iPod touch with the exception of an extra button that launches photo slide shows. Essentially, when your iPad is off and especially when its charging in its dock, it can become a 9.6" digital photo frame (with a gorgeous LED panel!)

However, if photos aren't your thing, if you'd prefer weather, news, Facebook or Twitter status updates, or... anything else, you're out of luck. Full screen or dashboard-like widgets, Apple doesn't currently offer any other way to use that giant screen when locked.

Like with the iPhone, you can set wallpaper for your iPad Lock Screen background. But that's not all...

Home Screen: Bring your own Wallpaper, Even in Landscape

Like the iPhone, the iPad Home Screen hosts all the icons for the built in apps, App Store apps you've downloaded, and websites/web apps you've created short cuts for. Unlike with the iPhone, however, you can customize the background of your iPad Home Screen (without Jailbreaking!). And what's more, you can set wallpaper for both the Lock Screen and Home Screen, or each separately. Customization! (From Apple!) If you don't want to use your own photos, Apple provides several wallpaper options.

While the demonstration and associated press images have shown an iPhone-live 4 icon wide grid for apps, the iPad simulator shipped as part of the iPhone 3.2 SDK (more on that later) shows up to 6 apps can fit in the dock.

What's more, the iPad Home Screen can now be rotated into landscape mode.

Spotlight

The iPhone's Spotlight search feature shows up pretty much intact on the iPad, both as a "Home Screen" swipe to the left, and as a built-in option for Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Notes, iPod, etc. You can also rotate it to landscape where it shrinks horizontally and appears as an overlay for easier scanning.

Accessibility

Also transported over from the iPhone are Apple's terrific accessibility features which can either be called up via a triple-click of the home button, or through Settings. They include Voice Over, Mono Audio, Zoom, Closed Captioning, and White on Black.

Calendar Goes Weekly

iPad Calendar takes visual cues from both iPhone Calendar and Mac iCal but really looks like it comes into its own, with the real-world look and feel Apple has sprinkled throughout the iPad, and all the room the big screen provides.

Along with month, day, and list view, it also gets a week-view, which the iPhone still lacks.

Like the iPhone, iPad can sync iCal, MobileMe, Google, Microsoft Outlook, AOL, either via iTunes or over the air (MobileMe, Exchange, GoogleSync, etc.)

Contacts

iPad Contacts gets re-envisioned to look more like... well, a contact book complete faux open page design and ornamental bookmark.

Not much in the way of new functionality has been shown yet, though the SDK shows hints that either camera hooks from the iPhone were left in (and SMS and phone call handling hooks as well), or Apple has plans for future iPad devices.

Notes

iPad Notes, in landscape view, gets the side panel list so you can jump quickly from note to not without having to navigate back and forth like you do on the iPhone. In a move that might be the highlight-equivalent of the still-in-use Marker Felt font for body text, Apple helpfully circles the current note in red...

Maps, Still with Google

Like on the iPhone, Apple created an iPad Maps app that hooks into Google's ginormous back end of location, satellite, and street-view data. The biggest change is -- wow, does it look great on the bigger screen.

The "page curl" to access settings remains, and no matter how nice it looks, why this inconsistent method exists only in Maps remains a mystery.

Also, popovers make an appearance in Maps, for example when you start typing in a search, a popover appears containing suggested terms. While not expressly shown, it's not difficult to imagine this is another system-wide addition across the built-in apps.

Popovers also appear for bookmarks and even the information boxes when you tap a pin.

As an aside, it's nice to see Google still playing a role inside the iPhone/iPad OS, despite rumors to the contrary.

Videos and that 4:3 Aspect Ratio

Rather than being included in the iPod app like on the iPhone, iPad has a separate Videos app like the iPod touch. As mentioned, due to the 4:3 aspect ratio, you'll get some chunky letterboxing on video, especially the HD video (we're guessing 720) that Apple claims is supported. If you prefer, you can tap to fill the screen but you'll lose part of the picture on both sides -- something that will not doubt make cinemaphiles cringe.

Due to the bigger screen real-estate, however, instead of a vertical list, poster art is shown in an iTunes-style grid.

There's also a large, thumbnailed chapter view for titles that support it.

YouTube, Now in HD

The YouTube app for iPad pulls in the H.264 version of Google's popular video site and supports high-definition now as well (though what resolution that means, we're not sure yet).

Unlike the iPhone, where you can only see full-screen video, or video information or related videos on separate screens, on the iPad you can see a partial screen video with all that information displayed at the same time.

You can also share videos via Email or Facebook.

iTunes Store

The iPad wouldn't be part of the Apple ecosystem if it didn't include the iTunes Store. Visually, this version looks more like the Mac iTunes than the iPhone, with multiple panels that let you keep browsing along the sides and bottom even as you call up more details on top.

When you select something, however, an overlay spins out of the album art to give you more options -- something very different than either the iPhone's full-screen change or desktop iTune's window reload.

App Store -- 150,000 Apps for That... and This!

The App Store on the iPad looks like two iPhone App Store list views side-by-side at the bottom, and a big CoverFlow view stacked on top. Since CoverFlow hasn't been shown elsewhere on the iPad yet, it's a little strange seeing it here... When an app is selected, the app page proper looks similar to the desktop iTunes presentation.

Far more interesting than the UI, however, was the announcement that "almost all" existing iPhone OS App Store apps -- 150,000 and counting -- would run on the iPad. (We're taking "almost all" to mean the same ones that don't run on an iPod touch due to the lack of a camera and telephony will likewise not run on the iPad for the same reason).

That's huge, and it gives the iPad a monstrous software library right out of the gate, and it means anyone who already has iPhone/iPod touch apps can just hook an iPad up to iTunes and sync over their existing library (or, we supposed, just download them again from the App Store for free).

On the iPad, iPhone apps will run at normal size, framed in a black box, or can be pixel doubled via a 2x button to appear almost full-screen. The pixel doubling looked okay if not perfect, and better on fast-moving games then static social networking apps.

What's more, thanks to the simultaneously released iPhone 3.2 SDK for iPad, developers can make iPad-specific user interfaces that take better advantage of the larger screen, and can also make "universal binaries" where users can download an app and be presented with an optimized UI for their iPad and one for the iPhone depending on which device they run it on at the time. We're guessing this will make apps bigger overall, but simpler for the end user to manage. Of course, developers will also have the option to make, for example, App X for iPhone and App X for iPad and offer both independently on the App Store.

iPad apps will have their own section in the App Store to make them easier to find. A few prototypes have already been shown off, including the game NOVA, the New York Times newspaper app, New Yorker darling Brushes, MLB at Bat, and Need for Speed Shift.

We should also mention the iPhone 3.2 SDK contains some extra hooks that we haven't seen in the iPad yet, including VoIP, a file repository, external display support, iChat-style video calling, file downloads from Mobile Safari, support for telephony like SMS and calls, and some prototype support for a “handwriting keyboard”. We may see more of this in the future, or we may not. With Apple, anything is possible.

Interlude -- Still No 3rd Party Background Multitasking

Of course, the elephant in the iPad is that -- just like the iPhone -- none of the 3rd party App Store apps will run in the background and multitask. So you can't run 2 apps at 1x side-by-side in landscape, though they'd easily fit. You can't stream Pandora or Slacker while surfing the web (you have to use the iPod app, which does work in the background). You can't leave AIM or BeeJive open to check for IMs while you're composing in Email. (Push notifications should work for the latter, same as the iPhone, but it wasn't demonstrated.)

That may change for power-users with a Jailbreak-like effort post-launch. Better yet iPhone 4.0, should be shown off and made available in beta form sometime in March, right around when the WiFi-only iPad ships. As of today, however, iPad apps remain unitaskers.

Likewise, nothing resembling a widget platform, such as Apple's own Dashboard widgets, were shown off. They'd make just as much sense as optional popovers while using other apps as they would for glance-able data on the Lock or Home Screen.

Pounding out a blog post in Safari, if the menu bar alerted me to a new IM or @mention, being able to tap it, get a popover, quickly fire off a response, and go back to blogging would undeniably be better for some users than the current work, get push notification, exit app 1, launch app 2, perform action, exit app 2, launch app 1, resume work. Certainly the market for full-screen word processors and other window-shaded productivity apps on the desktop shows some prefer to "get things done" without distractions, but that's not how everyone works.

And when you start getting into bigger touch screen devices, the idea of multiple app windows being visualized together, like Palm webOS cards or even Mobile Safari Pages makes me drool for drag-and-drop functionality. Holding to float and drag to re-arrange within an app is excellent. Being able to hold to float and drag into another app with be phenomenal. Maybe we're not there yet in terms of hardware or software, or maybe iPhone 4.0 will start us down that road, but it's something important to point out iPad and iPhone 3.2 haven't shown off yet.

Safari Web Browser

Safari was the first app Steve Jobs showed off during the iPad demo and it resembles nothing more than the iPhone's Mobile Safari gone big screen. Pinch to zoom, swipe to scroll work just as you'd expect though there's obviously less zooming and scrolling needed on a 1024x768, 9.6" screen.

All the controls are now at the top, which seems global on the iPad, and popovers rather than screen changes let you access things like bookmarks.

Instead of the horizontal, swipe-able "pages" view on the iPhone, the iPad gives you a thumbnail view where 9 pages can be seen and selected in a grid view (Apple only shows 7 in the promotional graphic but we're assuming 9).

Safari for iPad continues Apple's exemplary support for HTML5, CSS3, and other advanced, standards-based web technologies. Unlike the iPhone, it will even play supported video forms (H.264) in line, or you can double-tap for full screen.

What hasn't changed is support for plugins, which includes Java, Silverlight, .Net, ActiveX, but most notably for most users -- Flash. Apple has stated that plugins in general and Flash in particular accounts for the majority of crash reports on the Mac platform, and that along with CPU requirements and battery drain are reasons for not having it on the iPad, just as they don't have it on the iPhone.

Most users don't care about that, however. They care that they can't get their videos and games, including Hulu, Farmville, and adult content (aka porn). YouTube has a built in app for the iPad and other video sites like Vimeo have started making H.264 versions of their videos available as well. Games like Farmville are mouse-based and may require rethinking for the iPad's touch controls anyway, can be offered as App Store apps, and Flash-maker Adobe has announced that their next version, Flash CS5 will allow Flash apps to be compiled as iPad/iPhone App Store apps anyway. Porn is an early adopter and already specifically targets the iPhone, so iPad should prove not problem for them (we're told!)

That just leaves Flash-only websites, common to entertainment, restaurant, and other types of businesses that want to bring the visual excitement. Also to "Rich Internet Applications" that want to do more than even HTML/CSS/JavaScript based WebApps typically allow. For them, and for users who go to their sites, the iPad will only show the same blue lego-block of plugin fail that the iPhone shows now.

Apple likely won't change their mind about supporting Flash, and some websites will want or need to keep using Flash because HTML5 and other new, standards-based alternatives just aren't feature competitive yet. So if Flash-based web sites are a must for you, and you avoided the iPhone, you'll probably want to avoid the iPad as well.

Email -- No Longer Pane-less!

iPad mail supports the same Exchange, MobileMe, Gmail, Yahoo!, AOL, Hotmail, and most other IMAP and POP mail accounts as the iPhone.

However, anyone tired over having to tap in, tap out, tap in, tap out, to move non-linearly between email messages in those accounts will be happy to know the iPad Mail app integrates the inbox with the message view window via a side pane in landscape mode and a popover in portrait mode.

In landscape view, rather than full screen email composition, Apple again provides an overlay. Fans of less eye-travel will no doubt appreciate it...

Otherwise, it's the same rich, HTML Email with embedded pictures you're used to on the iPhone, including viewing support for .jpg, .tiff, .gif (images); .doc and .docx (Microsoft Word); .htm and .html (web pages); .key (Keynote); .numbers (Numbers); .pages (Pages); .pdf (Preview and Adobe Acrobat); .ppt and .pptx (Microsoft PowerPoint); .txt (text); .rtf (rich text format); .vcf (contact information); .xls and .xlsx (Microsoft Excel).

Rumor has it, on the iPad you will also be able to choose other apps in which to open attachments, such as sending a Word .Doc file to Apple's new iWork Pages app for iPad.

Data detectors, familiar to Mac and iPhone users both, discover phone numbers, email addresses, locations, etc. and turn them into links so you can call, message, map, and otherwise act upon them with a tap.

Photos, Now with Multitouch Peeking

Photos for iPad shows your picture albums in a grid of rough stacks.

Tapping on a stack takes you to a grid of photos in that gallery with a thumbnail-ed scrubber along the bottom as an alternate means of selection. Tapping on a photo gives you a big, full-screen view.

In one of the few new multitouch tricks Apple unveiled with the iPad, you can also spread/pinch to zoom only partially in or out -- to peek at the contents of stack to make it it's the one you want before opening it. To open, you can keep spreading, and to close you can pinch it back down into a stack. This is the kind of thing we hope to see more of from Apple, because we know we'll see more of it from App Store developers.

Photos also includes the de facto slide show functionality, and Apple has made some nicely animated ones like the paper-folding inspired Origami, which can be viewed in the app or from the Lock Screen.

if you sync with iPhoto on the Mac, it will also pick up Faces (albums of people you know, based of facial recognition), Places (albums of locations you've been to, based on GPS), and Events (albums of things you've done, based on time stamps).

As mentioned previously, Apple is also providing an accessory to import photo directly into the app, though we haven't seen how that works yet.

iPod

Unlike the iPhone, the iPod app handles music and video. On the iPod touch, there's no iPod app but two separate Music and Video apps. Confusingly, on the iPad there's the aforementioned Video app for video, but an iPod app for music.

Consistency quips aside, iPod on iPad again looks more like iTunes player on the desktop, with a grid of albums

Again, instead of the iPhone's full screen switch, when you select and album a widget-like square flies out with the track listings.

You can, of course, also get full screen album art, and in one of the least Apple-like UI choices seen on the device, darken it down and superimpose white lyrics on top of it.

We understand as well that iTunes LP will be fully supported on the iPad, which is Apple's new interactive, old-school album format replete with all sorts of bonus material including video.

iBooks and iBookstore

In addition to the updated built-in apps, Apple announced a new app available for download from the App Store called iBooks and is Apple's entry into the eBook space. (Likely it wasn't built in so as not to appear overly predatory towards existing eBook clients like Amazon's Kindle app).

iBooks has two parts. The front -- literally a bookshelf metaphor -- contains a grid of your existing iBooks. Tap one and it zooms up full screen, or into a 2-page spread in landscape mode. You can tap to change a page or swipe to "turn" it complete with page curl. Apple is trying hard for the real-world interactions here.

When viewing a page, a popover allows you to increase or decrease the font size, and change the typeface. Options include Baskerville, Cochin, Palatino, Times New Roman, and Verdana.

Apple also mentioned that, along with color, video could be used inside iBooks. That will make them compelling for educational and professional settings.

In terms of format, Apple is using Adobe's ePub, which means ePub titles elsewhere might work on the iPad. However, iPad ePub iBooks most likely will use Apple's iTunes DRM (the same kind used on iTunes movies and TV shows, and App Store apps) and won't be compatible with other readers. DRM-Free books, like DRM-Free music, will work fine on iPad and any device supporting the format. If you have existing DRM-Free ePub books, just drag them into iTunes and sync them over.

Apple is also saying that the accessibility feature, Voice Over, will work with iBooks. Amazon ran into significant problems with the authors and publishers when they enabled a similar function on the Kindle and had to remove it, then make it opt-in. (Authors and publishers claimed it infringed on Audio Book rights). That Apple has the feature listed means perhaps they've obtained approval from all iBooks publishers and authors for the rights, or perhaps they're willing to take on the fight Amazon picked then backed away from.

Unlike iPod and iTunes Store, which are offered as separate apps, iBooks integrates the new iBookstore into the reader. At the tap of the screen, the bookcase flips around and you're in the store. iBookstore looks visually very similar to the iTunes Store, which makes perfect sense. Browse for titles, tap to get more info, and hit Buy to make it your own. (At which point the book case flips back, the title appears top left on your shelf, and a handy bookmark is left to remind you it's new).

It should be noted, however, that iBooks may be US only at launch, since content licensing on an international scale is a long, slow, bag of hurt. (Which may also be a factor in the app being downloadable rather than built-in).

iWork -- Keynote, Numbers, and Pages

The other three, new App Store apps debuted by Apple were ports of their Mac productivity/office suite, iWork, which includes Keynote for presentations, Numbers for spreadsheets, and Pages for word processing.

According to a comment by Steve Jobs after the event, they'll support exporting as Microsoft Office docs for PowerPoint, Excel, and Word respectively, as well as PDF, just like the Mac versions.

Advanced features shown off included animations for Keynote, charts and tables for Numbers, and auto text wrapping for Pages. Multitouch controls, such as tap and hold to float slides or table rows for easy repositioning, and bounding circles similar to iPhone cut/copy/paste for image positioning and masking all looked surprisingly usable.

Highlighting the benefit of a the virtual keyboard, just like Safari has a specialized layout for URL entry, Numbers includes specialized keyboards for numeric entry and formulas.

Each app will be available for $9.99 in the App Store, presumably in time for the March launch.

So Should You Buy an iPad?

After all that, it still comes down to one question -- with all it has to offer (or not offer, depending on your point of view) -- should you buy an iPad, and if so, when?

(This preview was long enough, so we'll tackled it in a follow up post).

Not Concluded

It's impossible to offer a conclusion on an announced but unreleased product. First, a lot can happen in terms of the final iPad release between now and March, or nothing could happen at all. Also, seeing a demonstration or spending a few minutes with the device will be different than having time for a full-on review.

For now, the question remains whether the iPad with just be a big iPod touch, or whether it will transform general-purpose computers the way the iPhone did mainstream smartphones and become a big iPod touch.

Either way, we'll update this preview as often as required by new developments, so look forward to TiPb's continuing coverage!

It's only rock and roll, but we like it -- Apple's 2009 iPod- and iTunes-focused special music event -- has a tag line and a date, this Wednesday, Sept. 9 at 10am PT, 1pm ET. TiPb will be live meta-blogging the event, and following it up with a special edition of iPhone Live! at 5pm PT, 8pm ET.

Last year's event, "Let's rock", started with Steve Jobs saying the reports of his death were greatly exaggerated, and went on to announce 7,000 apps and 1 million downloads in the App Store (yeah, that's changed by a factor of 10 or more!), 65,000,000 iTunes customers, iTunes 8 with Genius, new visualizations, HD TV Shows (and the return of NBC), and Album view, iPhone OS 2.1, the second generation "funner" iPod touch, Spore and other game demos from Phil Schiller, as well as new nanochromatic iPod nanos and down-tweaked classics, and headphones, and in-ear headphones, with remote and mic.

What, oh what, could this year possibly hold?

iPhone

iPhone news will likely come as an adjunct to the iPod touch. Apple may also mention AT&T getting MMS on Sept. 25th, but we wouldn't blame them for scowling as they do so...

• iPhone 3.1 previewed as part of iPod touch announcement (to ship later). See our walkthrough for more.
• New video out cables supporting 720p (and 1080p?). Sure it's unlikely, but it is possible and would be competitive with the Zune HD
• Ringtones pre-fab style. Apparently they make money for Big Music and are too complicated for users to self-create using the process introduced at 2007's music event.
• Scott Forestall will announce MMS for AT&T on Sept. 25, and give them yet another stank-face for the delays and ongoing lack of tethering.

iPod touch

This will be the big news. The iPod touch platform is the future of the iPod platform, and it's closing the gap on the iPhone fast...

• Camera, even if delayed. 3mp with video, just like the iPhone 3GS. Get ready Flickr and YouTube, you ain't seen nothing from Apple's mobile platform yet.
• Mic. Hello ultimate VoIP handset.
• Voice Control. With a mic, both that and VoiceOver should cross over easily.
• All the above will, of course, require iPhone 3GS style internals. ARM Cortex A8 processor, PowerVR SGX graphics core, and 256MB of RAM.
• Since the iPod touch has historically sported 2 NAND Flash memory slots to the iPhone's 1, double the storage is also likely. Yes, 64GB of goodness is definitely in the cards.
• Priced at $199/$299/$399 for 16GB/32GB/64GB
• Could Apple possibly pull an iPhone 3G and keep the iPod touch second gen at 8GB around at $99? We doubt it.
• We also doubt an OLED screen, though the Zune HD will have one. If iPod touch does get it, will iPhone 3GS owners shed some not-as-bright-and-sharp-tears?
• No iPod touch nano -- yet.

Other iPods

Microsoft is abandoning their non-touch iPod rivals, but Apple owns that market and they'll keep it going as long as it makes business sense.

• iPod nano with camera (and mic?). It would need to sync content off, but so do most point and shoots.
• iPod nano 32GB doubtful for an on-the-go device, so we could see price drops instead to clearly distinguish them from the iPod touch.
• iPod classic hangs on one more year -- until the iPod touch hits 128GB. Throw it a camera bone, maybe?
• Both iPod nano and classic could get the VoiceOver (though not Voice Control) upgrade.
• iPod shuffle was revised already this year, so at most a price drop back to $50.

Apple TV

Stays a hobby. Sniffle.

• Nothing. No TV recording or 1080p. (Imagine the bandwidth).
• Okay, maybe -- just maybe -- HD TV rentals. (But what would they charge, $0.50?!)

iTunes 9

• iPhone app management. 11 screens. 180 app slots. We don't need this, we need a mobile solution like categories or stacks or something, but this will do for now.
• Kevin Rose asked for Social, Jens Alfke said Apple didn't get it. iTunes 9 will split the difference and stay with the steady, if uninspired type of integration already seen with Flickr, YouTube, and Facebook in iPhoto. Share your media tastes via Facebook and Twitter. (If there is something better, including a "social app", we'll swoon appropriately).
• Ringtones, already mentioned.
• "Cocktail" album packages. We're ambivalent about this, really. If Apple can wow us with amazingly integrated music, art, lyrics, and more, then we'll be pleased. If this is just some Big Music scheme to bring back DRM, we'll scream bloggy murder. Whatever the package, keep the music easily accessible in DRM free format, you hear us?
• No Blu-Ray. That would require new Macs with Blu-Ray drives, and this isn't a Mac event. We'll revisit this in October.
• TV rentals, per above, would be nice if unlikely still (we blame Hollywood).
• Subscription music hasn't caught on, but that might just be because iTunes hasn't done it yet. Outside chance. Even outsid'er chance for TV/Movie subscriptions (and yes, we blame Hollywood for that as well).
• Oh, and it will once again kill Palm Pre sync dead. (And we're not alone in thinking that)

Beatles on iTunes

• Not going to happen -- yet. Too much money to be made on CDs and Rock Band first. (Blame Big Music).

Steve Jobs

• If he shows, it's to show he's doing well but is he needed? Likely not here, not now, despite the whispers that would no doubt flood his absence.
• "One more thing" Boom! Steve! would be swell, but we're betting he saves himself for the iTablet, which won't be tomorrow.

What Say You?

Well, that's what we think we'll see tomorrow. But what do you think? Did we miss something, everything? Let us know in the comments.

Our updated iPhone 3.0 Walkthrough (release version) is now online. Please re-direct yourselves there.

(We'll keep this up for historical interest, however)

Just like January 2007 when Steve Jobs held up the first iPhone at Macworld and showed the world full screen multi-touch, and March 2008 when Jobs, along with Phil Schiller and Scott Forstall stood up at the Apple Town Hall and unveiled iPhone 2.0 and the App Store, this week Forstall and Greg Joswiack dropped iPhone 3.0 and... what exactly?

Let's take a walk through the first beta release of the software and find out together. Of course, this being a beta, come this "summer" when the final release version is made available to consumers (free for iPhone users, US$9.95 for iPod touch users), things could be a tad different. This is the way things are now, with the first beautiful, buggy beta into for developers to test Last year there were 8 betas between the first and the final release. Who knows how many there will be this time, and what may change between now and then. So don't take this as full feature review, just a preview.

What Hasn't Changed

We have a very full plate here with 3.0, so we'll start by clearing off what we can -- and it isn't much. Best as we can tell, this is what hasn't changed from iPhone 2.2.1:

• Maps: While the SDK got a shot of Google Maps goodness in the form of imbed-able tiles and controls, it appears the app itself hasn't gotten any additions this time around.
• Weather: Still unchanged from iPhone 1.0. Still no HTC TouchFlo 3D style animations, no landscape mode with more/different information. Nada.
• Calculator: Upgraded back in 2.0 for landscape scientific mode, calculator doesn't sport any additions this time around.

Home Screen

At first glance the SpringBoard app behind the iPhone 3.0 Home Screen seems identical to earlier versions. Sure, the Stocks icon has had a make-over and, for some unfathomable reason, it appears a rogue designer snuck in and added diagonal pin stripes to the backgrounds of several icons, including Messages, Phone, and iPod.

With Beta 2, the previous 9 pages, allowing 148 apps total, have been expanded to 11 pages, allowing 180 apps total.

Not much else looks different. There are still tiny dots that signify your additional app screen. However, there's now an equally tiny magnifying glass icon to the left of them...

Spotlight

On the Mac, Spotlight is the system-wide indexing and search feature that allows you to find files by scouring through metadata and text strings. Apple re-purposes the name and icon here for a new, system-wide iPhone search feature that serves up Contact names, App names, iPod media file names, Email headers (from, to, and subject), and Calendar event names.

You can access Spotlight from the main/primary Home Screen by swiping from left to right, or by clicking the Home Button. When on the Spotlight Screen, you can return the main/primary Home Screen by swiping back from right to left, or clicking the Home Button again. (Yes, clicking Home will toggle you back and forth between those two screens).

Spotlight starts with a blacked-out screen with a search box on top and the portrait keyboard on the bottom (no landscape mode for Spotlight thus far). As you type, results begin to popular, narrowing as you refine your search term. At any point, you can tap on a Spotlight search result to launch the app and/or take you to the resulting content within an app.

Hitting the Search button on the keyboard will slide it away and give you full screen results. Or almost full screen. Since Spotlight is integrated into SpringBoard, the Dock is revealed along with the results so you can quickly launch any of your four docked apps (Phone, Mail, Safari, and iPod still being the defaults) as well.

Messages

Messages replaces SMS as the top left-most app on the Home Screen, and is renamed to signify the addition of MMS (multi-media messaging service). It allows, in the case of the new iPhone OS 3.0 software, for pictures, vCards (contacts), audio, and location to be sent using the Messages interface to any other smartphone or feature-phone that supports MMS and those file types.

The details of MMS vary carrier to carrier. Not all carriers seem to have MMS enabled on their end yet, some do, and some error out. Not all 3.0 iPhones on all carriers seem to surface MMS functionality yet either. For example, some installs show a camera icon to the left of the text entry field for selecting a picture, while on others it's completely absent. Whether this will eventually become uniform or not on release, or whether it will still vary from carrier to carrier depending on which choose to support it, we have no idea (though we obviously hope for the former).

When the camera icon is there, tapping on it will bring up a requester asking you to select between Take Photo, Use Existing, or Cancel. Take Photo brings up the Camera app while Use Existing launches the Photo picker. If you take a photo, a Preview screen will appear asking if you want to Retake the photo or Use it. If you use it, the picture is then shown, thumbnail-sized, inside a typical bubble.

Perhaps due to carrier issues, we're also unable to determine at this time whether you can initiate an audio, vCard, or location message from within the Messages app, or whether those have to begin with Share buttons in Voice Memos, Contacts, Maps, etc. (If you have the answer, drop us a comment).

The new, system-wide Cut, Copy, and Paste service has also been introduced into Messages. It works in a similar way to the implementation in the Notes app, and we'll cover it more fully there. One difference is that double tapping a previous SMS will give you the Copy popup allowing you to duplicate the entire contents of the SMS to the clip board. Tapping on an empty text entry box will launch the Paste popup, so you can stick the text back down in an message of your own. If the entry box already contains text, double tapping will select the closest word, and double tapping an holding will select the closet word and popup the loupe. See Notes for more on how all this works.

Messages also now includes line-item deletion and forwarding. Tap the Edit button at the top right, select the messages you want, as many of them as you want, and then hit the red Delete button at the bottom, or the blue Forward button beside it. Edit still isn't the most elegant name for deletion or forwarding, mind you, but the functionality is consistent with the Mass Edit feature introduced in Mail in 2.0.

Lastly, Apple has also answered the call for pervasive landscape-style keyboards, and Messages is one of the text-entry apps that received it. For those who want a Cadillac-wide typing experience, enjoy!

Calendar

Calendar appears largely unchanged within the app itself. No landscape rotation for week view, no week view of any kind. What changes there are occur in the plumbing and are -- somewhat counter-intuitively at least for us -- hidden entirely away inside the Preferences app. That's a shame because they're rather significant: support for CalDAV and Subscribed Calendars.

Once added via Preferences, however, here's an example of how Subscribed Calendars look:

Photos

The Photo app receives an update in the form of integration into the copy and MMS systems. Now, when in the Gallery view mode (where pictures are tiled in four columns of thumbnails), tapping on the Action button at the bottom left corner will no longer slide up a menu, but will place three buttons along the bottom: Share, Copy, and Delete.

Tapping on a thumbnail will select it (or de-select it if it has previously been selected). Selected photos are labeled with a red check mark icon in the lower right corner, and number of photos selected is reported in parenthesis and continuously updated beside each of the three buttons.

Tapping on Share button will let you send the photos via Email or MMS, Copy will place them on the clipboard, and Delete will trash them.

New in Beta 4, you also get the same controls and ability to share photos when in landscape mode.

In Beta 2, some well-buried screenshots were found by BGR which shows iPhone-shot video playback functionality. Whether this will be enabled for current iPhone 3G owners or require next generation hardware is unknown.

Camera

Camera gets a minor tweak, replacing the Camera Roll icon with a tiny thumbnail of the last photo taken.

A far more major tweak, currently not surfaced but discovered by MacRumors, shows off video recording and the control to toggle between still camera and video camera modes. As mentioned above, however, it's unknown if this functionality will be enabled for iPhone 3G owners or will require next generation hardware.

Sharing to MobileMe has also been updated in Beta 3, with a new “Publishing to MobileMe” progress bar, and new options to view published items on MobileMe, or “tell a friend” (via MMS?).

YouTube

The big news for the YouTube app in OS 3.0 is account integration. You can now enter your YouTube login information for access to your Subscriptions and Playlists.

Stocks

The Stocks widget is still powered by Yahoo, and still lists your favorite stocks on top and a handy graph at the bottom. You can now swipe across that handy, however, to change it into a news feed or a more detailed set of information including opening price, high, low, volume, P/E, market cap, 52 week high, 52 week low, average volume, and yield.

Rotating Stocks to landscape mode now expands the graph to full, wide screen mode. But there's more: youch a point on the graph and you get the exact price for that day, touch a second finger somewhere else on the graph and you get the difference in value between those two days (delta).

Voice Memos

Following iTunes and App Store, Apple's third new built in app since launching the iPhone is also it's first non-Store-front. Voice Memos was relegated by default to the second Home Screen page, alongside the separate Contacts app, but as of Beta 3 it's now front and first page left-of center, shoving other apps aside a notch to claim its place.

(Note: Remote and Keynote, though from Apple, aren't built in to a firmware update and require download or purchase separately from the App Store.)

Voice Memos, from icon to main screen, pays homage to an old-style microphone (though, unlike Calculator, we don't believe it's one ever manufactured by Braun...). The bottom has buttons for Record and (a rather non-intuitive-looking stack of three horizontal lines for) Voice Memos that have previously been recorded. In the middle is a sound level meter.

Tap Record to begin and the Record button becomes Pause, the More button becomes Stop, and the top of the screen flashes red to show you you're recording and the duration of the recording.

When you're finished recording, the More page shows Voice Memos in a similar fashion to Visual Voice Mail in the Phone app. Tap a Voice Memo to play or pause it, toggle Speaker on or off, or use the buttons along the bottom to Share (via email or MMS) or Delete.

You can also tap the blue circles at the far right of each recording to slide into an Info screen where you can further tap to slide across to a Label screen pre-populated with tags including None, Podcast, Interview, Lecture, Idea, Meeting, Memo, and Custom. Choosing Custom slides another screen over where you can input your own Label names.

Back on the Info screen, tapping on Trim Memo slides up a bare-bones editing interface for taking off any unwanted content from the beginning and/or end of your recording. Interestingly, Apple chose yellow for trim slider and Trim Voice Memo action button.

Share on the Info screen does the same thing as the Share button on the Voice Memos screen. Convenience through repetition?

Notes

First up, you can now "swipe to delete" notes from the contests listing screen, just as you could "swipe to delete" email all the way back to the original iPhone OS. Consistency points!

Next, like messages, Notes benefits from the several system-wide, or at least multi-app wide improvements in iPhone 3.0. The first is the pervasive landscape keyboard:

The big thing, of course, is Cut/Copy and Paste. It works similarly -- though not identically -- across all applications, so we'll do the heavy lifting here. To start, double tap on some text. That will highlight the word and pop-up buttons for Cut, Copy, and Paste (the last of which only appears if there's text in the clipboard). You can also tap on an empty area to pop-up buttons for Select, Select All, and Paste. (Select highlight the closest word to the current cursor position).

If you want to change the length of your selection, grab one of the blue dot handles on the top left or bottom right of your current selection and drag them in or out to add or subtract text. As you move the handles, a magnifying loupe will appear, similar to the round curser placement loupe that dates back to iPhone 1.0. This one, however, is a wide, rounded rectangle and lets you more precisely adjust your text selection.

Selected text can then be cut out or copied to the clipboard, or replaced by pasting over text from the clipboard. Text can also be pasted at the current cursor location by double tapping to bring up the Select, Select All, and Paste pop up.

If at any time you either type or paste something in by mistake, Apple has added a gimmicky but semi-cool undo feature -- just shake your iPhone to call up an Undo, Redo, and Cancel dialog.

(Note: While the Mail app, discussed below, gets similar Cut/Copy and Paste functionality, so do most 3rd part App Store application that use standard text input controls. Awesome).

Lastly, predictive text in general seems to have been improved as of Beta 3. Or rather, the dictionary that tries to guess and replace words as you type seems to have been updated.

Clock

Minor tweak only in Clock so far; you get a lap display in the upper right hand corner of the Stop Watch.

Settings

As always, many of the small, yet more numerous changes Apple delivers in new firmware versions are tucked neatly away in the Settings app.

Wi-Fi increases the ease of logging into commercial-style Wi-Fi services, the kind that typically present a web-based password form for authentication. In Settings, you now have the option to toggle on Auto-Join, which we’re assuming saves passwords for commercial, web-fronted WiFi services like you’d find at a hotel or coffee shop.

Also, when you login, you get a special slide-up window with some new controls and an embeded web-view — no more app-jump to Safari.

Along with the previously discussed copy and paste features -- and while it's not yet working -- it also looks like we'll be able to paste in Wi-Fi passwords. If this works by the final release, fans of super-strong, pseudo-random passwords -- the kind almost impossible to type by hand -- will be well pleased.

Notifications gets its own top level button in Beta 3 and as of Beta 5 and Apple beginning Push Notification testing, not only can users globally or individually enable or disable Sounds, Alerts (text boxes), and/or Badges, but each app gets its own sub-screen to do likewise. (i.e. if you want Twitter to badge but not alert, IM to sound but not badge, etc. you can have it your way).

As with GPS on iPhone 3G under OS 2.0, Push Notification-enabled apps will ask permission on launch, and give you a chance to choose "Don't Allow" or "Okay" on a per-app basis as well.

General Settings, Usage, found buried in Beta 2 and shown by BGR, show off a toggle for Battery Percentage, which should allow for a more precise, numeric reading of battery level.

General Settings, Network will apparently allow for Tethering to be enabled for those with carrier who choose to support it. Not surfaced in the current 3.0 Beta 1, MacRumors reported that some enterprising developers had found it and got it working none the less.

Their screen captures show options to enable Tethering for USB and/or Bluetooth, and when tethered, the Home Screen with a blue Internet Tethering band across the top, similar to the green band that currently denotes an active phone call.

General Settings, Location, when viewed with debug menus enabled under Beta 5, reveals settings for a digital compass, which would require new iPhone hardware (via BGR)

General Settings, Restrictions now provide more in the way of Parental Controls. First off, iPod has been removed from the top menu and Location has been added. A secondary menu has now been added below to provide more granular control over iPod content, allowing you to select which country/region ratings you use, and then set Music & Podcasts, Movies, and TV Shows. Control for Apps is at the very bottom.

iPhone 3.0 Beta 3 adds yet another new Restriction button, this one for In-App Purchases.

iPhone 3.0 Beta 5 further elaborates on the app restrictions, this time with options including:

• Don’t Allow Apps
• 4+
• 9+
• 12+
• 17+
• Allow All Apps

General Settings, Home increases the options you can assign to a double-click of the Home button from Home, Phone Favorites, and iPod to include Search (epic win for mobile accomplishers) and Camera.

A sub-menu for Search Results allows you to check on or off what types of information are called up in a Spotlight Search, including Contacts, Applications, Music, Podcasts, Video, Audiobooks, Notes, Mail, and Calendar.

General, International courtesy of some Beta 2 hacking, as reported by BGR, show off a tab for Voice Control. No information yet on what exactly that functionality covers.

General, Keyboard, International Keyboards (or General, International, Keyboards) now includes Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malay, and Thai. Good news for people in those regions eager to get their iPhone on.

Settings, Mail, Contacts, Calendar, allows you to add a MobileMe account, just like before. In Beta 3, however, if you already have bookmarks, contacts, or other data on your iPhone (for example, if you synced it over via iTunes) and you enable MobileMe, a menu will slide up asking if you want to merge the data, not merge (i.e. replace), or cancel.

Once you've added a MobileMe account, there's now a new option called Find My iPhone. There's no definitive information about what functionality will be included in this still-unannounced feature, but the text description makes reference to a new MobileMe WebApp that will enable it. Guesses include everything from pushing a ring sound to your phone if you've misplaced it in your house, to using the GPS to recover a lost or stolen iPhone.

As mentioned previously, also hidden here are the new LDAP (contacts directory), CalDAV, and Calendar Subscription, features under Add Account, Other.

Settings, Safari includes options for the new AutoFill feature, and a submenu for choosing who's Contact Info you want to use for the fill, as well as an option to allow Names & Passwords to be stored and AutoFilled, and a button for Clear All to wipe the AutoFill database clean. This, at least, gives us some control as to whether we want the security of not storing and filling our passwords on a device that could be lost or accessed without our approval, or the convenience of saving us a lot of typing.

Likewise, the new anti-Phishing Fraud Warning can be toggled on and off. Keeping it on, of course, provides some level of safety when encountering malicious websites made to look like ones we trust, intent on stealing our login info and/or credit card data. Of course, no list of Phishing sites is ever complete or completely up to date, so keep surfing safely.

Settings, Messages now, of course, includes an MMS Messaging On/Off toggle.

Settings, iPod gains a toggle to enable the Shake to Shuffle option that Apple debuted with the latest generation iPod shuffle.

Settings, Store was enabled in Beta 4, and allows on-device switching between iTunes store accounts. You can sign in, view account details, and sign out. Then sign in under a different account (i.e. spouse's account, different country's store, etc.)

App Store

As of Beta 4, App Store now allows management of multiple iTunes accounts, just like the Settings discussed previously. Scroll down to the bottom of a main page (i.e. before you’ve selected a specific app to look at) and you’ll find a button containing your account user ID. Tap on the button and you’ll be given options to View Account, Sign Out, or Cancel. Much more convenient than having to exit, launch Settings, navigate, switch accounts, go back… Highly convenient.

In the minor but good tweaks department, Apple has again changed the way screen shots appear in the App Store. Now, you get full screen shots, side by side, with the ability to swipe through them. You can see additional screenshots on each side when more are available backward or forwards. (Similar to how you swipe through multiple Safari tab pages).

The other changes to the App Store, as they pertain to users, aren't currently visible in the beta as they depend on two new functions rolled out to developers: In-App Purchase and Subscription Purchase. By way of example, if you previously wanted commercial E-Books, a developer had to wrap a reader app around each E-Book, and then sell each E-Book as a separate app on the App Store. This led to dozens upon dozens of apps that were just more books, or otherwise variations on the same functionality with different content.

With 3.0, a developer can now sell you an E-Book Reader app, and inside that app, they can sell you the individual E-Books. If you choose to buy another E-Book, the same type of iTunes confirmation and password requester will pop up as when you buy a stand-alone app, and the same iTunes-side billing and processing happen.

This can also work to buy additional levels or extra content in games, and theoretically map packs for navigation apps, etc.

Yes, Apple just invented the $0.99 scaleware model. Buy the low-price of entry into version, and if you like it, buy more. It's not a demo, it's not shareware, but it does let developers do low cost of entry content for users to try before the buy... more of it.

Why $0.99? To avoid user confusion, Apple won't let developers sell additional content to apps they gave away for free. If you want to charge more later, you have to charge at least something up front. Otherwise, "free apps stay free."

Subscriptions, for their part, seem to work just like In-App Purchases, with the pop-up advising you are purchasing X issues of Y content for Z dollars. (e.g. 6 months of iPhone Monthly for $1.99).

(Note, the following are screen captures from the iPhone 3.0 Sneak Peek event, not screen shots from live beta apps).

Although not strictly an App Store update, Apple also announced (again) their Push Notification Service. What does this do? Let’s say you’re running a 3rd party IM (instant message) client on iPhone 2.0. When you exit the app, you no longer know if you’re receiving more messages. (Sure, there are work around over SMS and Email, but the app itself is dead to you).

With Apple’s Push Notification Service, if you close that same app in iPhone 3.0, anytime someone sends you a new IM, an alert will be sent from the developer’s servers (yes, they’ll have to keep a session open for you on their end), to Apple’s Push Notification Service (PNS) servers.

Apple’s PNS server will have a constant TCP/IP connection to your iPhone (yes, they’ll be keeping connected to you, like they already do for MobileMe push if you use that service). Once they get the alert from the developer, they will “push” it out to your iPhone 3.0.

PNS currently supports 3 kinds of alerts: badges (like Mail uses to show you unread messages), custom sounds (like a beep or bell or anything already built into the app by the developer), or modal message boxes (like the kind that pop up to tell you your battery is at 20%).

Apple isn’t making any promises on up-time for the service, and any new service will have delays and downtime — and Apple was quick to point out even SMS isn’t 100% reliable when asked about it. What PNS doesn’t solve, however, is the lack of good notifications on the iPhone, and applications that require multitasking for something other than notification (i.e. streaming internet radio apps).

Imagine if 10 apps try to push out 10 alerts at the same time, how will Apple manage those on your device? Will you have to “cancel” or “accept” 50 modal message dialogs, or be hit by a cacophony of 30 random sounds? We don’t know yet, but hopefully Apple will address this.

Streaming internet radio apps, however, seem to still be out of luck with this solution…

Among the 1000 new APIs Apple announced which will make the next generation of apps so exciting, including zero-hassle peer-to-peer networking, embed-able Google maps, and iPod library access, what really stands out is Accessory Integration.

With this new functionality, future apps can directly interact with accessories via the 30-pin dock port or Bluetooth. Apple showed off an equalizer app for a stereo, an app for an FM tuner, a diabetes interface for a medical test device, and a blood-pressure interface app. This has the potential to do for mobile accessories what the App Store did for mobile applications. Big.

Phone

Minor tweaks only so far for the Phone app, including a section under the Recent tab, when you tap the arrow to get more information, that shows you incoming calls from that contact, the time, and the duration.

The Contacts tab (and the stand alone Contacts app) now integrate the "swipe to delete" functionality we all know and love from Email and other, previous apps going all the way back to iPhone 1.x. Simply pick a name, and then swipe to call up the red “Delete” button.

Email

The changes to Email are very similar to the changes to notes. You get the wide keyboard when you rotate to landscape orientation.

You also get the same Cut/Copy and Paste functionality with a couple notable exceptions. First, you get support to copy rich text formatting (bold, italic, html). Second you can also paste pictures you may have copied from the photo app. We're not sure if there's a limit to the amount of pictures you can send via 3G from the iPhone in a single mail yet, but we've received 9 in one shot so far. If anyone has reached a hard limit, let us know.

Spotlight lives inside Mail to, just like it did inside Contacts with OS 2.0. Scroll up slightly inside a mail box and you get the search input and buttons letting you choose between From/To/Subject/All. As an added bonus, you can also go beyond the local store and "Continue Search on Server..." for Exchange 2007 or later, or for IMAP installations that support it.

Much like Mac OS 10.5 Leopard, Apple has expanded "data detectors" in iPhone 3.0 Beta 2. While previous firmware would identify phone numbers and link them to the Phone App (just as web and email addresses link to Safari and Mail respectively), now 3.0 will try to identify address location to link to Google Maps as well.

While we haven't seen them yet, presumably this will work in all text-centric apps.

Safari

Mobile Safari gets the Cut/Copy and Paste love from Apple as well, although it works a little differently here than it does in Mail or Notes. Perhaps because double-tap is already used for zooming, and maybe due to restrictions in text selection already established by the zooming method (which reads HTML tags to determine the block size for zoom), Safari can't select specific words or strings of words for Copy. Instead, you hold your finger down on some text (as you would in other apps to trigger the magnifying loupe) and the entire paragraph of text is selected (everything within the P, and perhaps DIV and other similar containers).

Sites that don't properly format (i.e., use several BR, or line-break tags to simulate paragraphs) are now exposed for their shenanigans by confusing the Copy mechanic, resulting in entire reams, or even pages of text being selected. (For shame!)

Instead of blue dot handles at the top/beginning and bottom/end of the selection, Safari initially gives us blue dots center on all sides, and they can be pulled up or down to select previous or following text blocks respectively. Again, lack of proper HTML formatting can reduce the reliability (so coders, fix your stuff!)

If you move the handles around inside some paragraphs, you'll get the same top/left, right/bottom text string selectors, and magnification loupe, that you find in Notes, and that will let you pick specific words within the paragraph. This doesn't seem to work on all paragraph blocks yet (Apple.com didn't seem to work, Google search results did), so this may also vary depending on the specific HTML tags wrapped around the content, or it simply may not be a finished implementations yet.

Why are we only discussing Copy and not Cut or Paste? Those last two aren't implemented for read-only text like a web page, nor does Cut/Copy Paste seem to work yet in text boxes, but that could still be forthcoming.

Updates to Safari don't end there, however, as Apple has also (yes!) given us the option now to open links in new pages (the iPhone equivalent of tabs). Tap and hold on a link, and a menu pops up with the link path listed on top, and the option to Open the link (in the current page), Open in a New Page, or Copy to the clip board. As this is the same gesture used to allow Image Save in iPhone 2.0, if the link happens to be a picture, Image Save is rolled right into the same menu as a an additional option.

As mentioned above in Settings, if you choose to enable it, Safari will also AutoFill form fields based on your Contact info, or the Contact info of your choosing (set up in Settings), and as a separate option, passwords you've previously entered as well.

Also mentioned in Settings, Safari will try to protect you from Phishing sites if you enable it, presumably consulting an continuously updated blacklist of sites, presumably the same as recently implemented on the desktop Safari 4 Beta.

In addition, when you go to a site with an enhanced security certificate, the text on top of the browser turns green (like the green bar, we get it!), with little green lock icon beside it, and the name of the certificate's trusted organization. For example, the below screenshots show how Apple's order status page looks on iPhone 2.2.1 (top right) and iPhone 3.0.

What does this mean for users? In an age of increased phishing attacks, where bad sites try to trick you into thinking they're your bank or shop and steak your login or credit card info, this is one more visual cue in your assessment process for determining if you can trust that the website is what it says it is.

Lastly, rendering speeds have also been improved, from 3x to 16x faster according to benchmarks. Apple appears to be using the new Nitro (formerly SquirelFish Extreme) engine to throw HTML and especially JavaScript up much faster than iPhone 2.x could. On mobile devices, this will likely make a far more noticeable difference to users.

iPod

Stereo Bluetooth is in the house! Once paired to an A2DP device (similar to current blue tooth phone headset pairing), a Bluetooth icon appears to the right of the volume slider, and an Audio Source selector will let you choose from available devices.

(Note: this seems to work in apps like Pandora as well, bonus screen shot included below!)

For audio podcasts, the seemingly useless repeat and shuffle buttons have been replaced with an email icon on the left hand side, and a speed counter on the right hand side.

Semi-implemented in Beta 4, and consistently in Beta 5, the new, tiny email icon allows you to send an iTunes Link for the podcast (similar to how you could previously email YouTube video links).

The speed indicator on the other side shows x1 during regular playback, and we presume it might show x2 etc. as Apple has previously allowed you to “speed up” talk-heavy content like Audio Books.

Where the Genius button would be on music tracks, we now have a circular backwards arrow with a 30 in the middle, which allows you to jump back in 30 second intervals.

Variable media scrubbing now lets you put your finger on the position indicator at the top, and the buttons change to a text message reading “Slide your finger down to adjust the scrubbing rate.” Do so and the speed that you scrub though the file changes. Displayed in place of the track info, options so far include half speed, quarter speed, and a fine grain speed.

While these controls would also be much appreciated in video, right now implementation is not there, or is incomplete. Movies and TV shows have the same Done and Full/Fit to Screen controls as previous OS, as do video podcasts in landscape view. In portrait view, video podcasts gain the mail link and media scrubber, but retain the shuffle control.

As mentioned in the Settings section, Shake to Shuffle is also now available in the iPod app.

Conclusion-ish

There's really no place for a conclusion here, as Apple hasn't yet concluded the iPhone 3.0 software and released it to the public. That will come this summer. Until then, we're again impressed not only by Apple's continuing ability to evolve the iPhone platform and provide those updates (again, free of charge to iPhone users, $9.95 to non-subscription accounted iPod touch users), but for the easy and consistent way in which they're doing it. Likewise, providing the beta to developers early on helps ensure consumers will eventually get a more solid, more compatible release (if not with 3.0, then with 3.0.1 shortly thereafter). The features are excellent improvements, and the Dock and Bluetooth Access could be transformative, if not on to the level of 2.0's App Store, than at least beyond what we've seen in that space to date. We're really looking forward to the final release of 3.0, and will update our walkthrough as it continues it's path to general availability.

Note on Using Beta Software

Unlike iPhone 2.0 Betas, where access seemed much more limited and leaks were few and far between, 3.0 seems to be on every iPhone users want-now list. Also, unlike 2.0 when many devs were seasoned pros, now Apple is touting thousands upon thousands in the program, some seemingly happy enough to enable 3.0 access for the general user base.

However, betas are intended for developers to test and report back on. They're not as stable, not as snappy, not as feature-complete and anyone trying to use them as a production OS on their main (or worse, only) device is likely to have something less than an ideal experience. People trying to use it as such may wish they could go back to 2.2.1 almost as much as they wished for 3.0. Think thrice before taking the plunge.

[Thanks to everyone who contributed screenshots and descriptions for this walkthrough]

[This is an official Smartphone Experts Round Robin post! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a chance to win an iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset! Full contest rules here!]

Cursed I tell ya. Not "Steve Jobs' isn't keynoting Macworld cursed, (though Dieter clearly blames me for that anyway!) Cursed in that not only did UPS hold CrackBerry Kevin's beloved BlackBerry Bold hostage for nearly a week ("it didn't make it on the plane" -- what, it decided to go bar hoping first?!), not only to BIS take days to start working ("oh, you wanted BlackBerry BIS -- no, I wanted iPhone BIS?!), but then I -- a rabid iPhone enthusiast -- had to endure my first completely non-touch screen device! Cursed!

Did I survive? Could I even use the tic-tactile little BlackBerry beastie? Check the video above to find out, then drop a comment here for your chance to win an iPhone 3G, or post on my comment thread over in the CrackBerry.com forums and you may just win a BlackBerry Bold! Prize details after the jump...

Every day you comment here, you get one entry to win not only a supra-shiny iPhone 3G, but the Case-Mate Naked Case which allows full touch through access to the iPhone's amazing screen. Smartphone Outlet is also kicking in the revolutionary Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset AND a runner-up prize, $50 coupon good at any SPE store, including the new Smartphone Outlet, where you can find refurb Smartphone Accessories at very (very!) low prices.

Check out our full contest rules!

Note: Some people are having trouble seeing the video (comes back as unavailable). It's working fine for me, but if it's not for you, please let me know in the comments, and please try this direct YouTube Video link.

[This is an official Smartphone Experts Round Robin post! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a chance to win an iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset! More below!]

Did I need to review two HTC Windows Mobile devices in a row? Would it have been better to have the G1 or Bold in between, or would I then have back-to-back front-facing Qwerty or Slider bloat? I don't know. Last week's Palm Treo Pro and this week's HTC FUZE are differentiated not only by form factor, but with the FUZE's addition of Touch Flo 3D (which, during the video shoot, I came to lovingly re-brand "Press Really Hard Stammer 2D").

Fair enough, coming from an iPhone I challenge any non-Apple device's ability to deliver the same experience. They can't. But that's the point of the Round Robin: for each editor to look at every other device from their own smartphone's point of view.

Will the humungous slide-out keyboard be enough joy to cancel out the Touch Flo blues? I don't know yet; we'll find out together in my final, full review later this week.

Meanwhile, check out the video above, and if I'm wrong, mean, or just stupid, let me have it in the comments, or -- better yet -- head on over to the WMExperts Forums and help me see the error of my ways.

Likewise, Crackberry Kevin is suffering without his keyboard and trackball, so be sure to give him all the assistance you can before he he comes gunning for our iPhone in his own video!

Doing so, of course, gives you a chance to win the iPhone 3G and HTC FUZE... and a ton of other cool smartphones and accessories. Prize details after the jump...

Every day you comment here, you get one entry to win not only a supra-shiny iPhone 3G, but the Case-Mate Naked Case which allows full touch through access to the iPhone's amazing screen. Smartphone Outlet is also kicking in the revolutionary Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset AND a runner-up prize, $50 coupon good at any SPE store, including the new Smartphone Outlet, where you can find refurb Smartphone Accessories at very (very!) low prices.

Check out our full contest rules!

Confession: I use 1Password on the Mac a lot. I just used it to login so I could write this preview. I use it (synced via keychain) to my desktop at home, and I've used the various incarnations of the 1Password javascript bookmarklet on the original iPhone 2G. But now they've gone native, baby!

Internet security is a a huge concern, and with mobile internet security we ain't seen nothing yet. Browsers the caliber of MobileSafari make it possible to do our transactions on the go, be it logging into our favorite social network, or doing some emergency banking on the road. But what if we get out of the cab and leave our iPhone behind? If it gets snatched? What if someone else takes possession of the tiny little device with all our precious logins on it?

Read on to find out!

The good: 1Password has us covered, proving as innovative on the handset as they've always been on the desktop. Breaking things out into 2 categories, they provide a simple 4-digit PIN to access lower security logins (i.e., for a forum), and a full blown master password for high security items (i.e. your credit card account). And the interface? Gorgeous.

If you haven't previously used 1Password, just start entering your credentials and you're good to go. If you've already built up a 1Password store on your Mac, setup looks a tad more involved, favoring security over convenience in the age old battle, but given the focus of the app that's certainly understandable. If you're familiar with how Apple's Remote app works, this isn't dissimilar -- search for networked 1Passwords on your Mac, establish trust, and then sync.

The bad: Due to Apple's SDK restrictions, 1Password doesn't work with MobileSafari the way it works with regular Safari on the laptop. Basically, Apple doesn't allow plugins. To get around that, 1Password has built in it's own web browser. That means you may end up using a different app to access your secure sites than you use for casual browsing. Not a deal breaker for some -- and there doesn't appear to be an alternative approach -- but it's something to consider.

Also, they apparently let their programmers sleep, so we won't get features like wallet items, identities, password history, folders, search, etc. until version 1.1. What about my pseudo-random password generator? I use that all the time on the Mac! (Or did I just answer my own sync-enabled question?)

The unbelievable: According to the fine folks at Agile Web Solutions, for a limited time the 1Password App Store app will be given away FREE!

Not able to try it out first-hand yet, I'll have to wait for Apple to clear 1Password for App Store launch to see if the reality lives up to the concept, but they've sure made it a no-brainer to download and try out.

Check out their Switcher's Blog for detailed screenshots and setup instructions.

Freeverse Software, one of those Mac game developers still kickin', has developed a racing game called Wingnuts Moto Racer for the iPhone. Freeverse is known for their bizarre, offbeat games that appeal to those looking for a hilarious joyride.

As such, they would have loved to give you a preview of the game but due to their NDA they're forced to edit some portions of their preview detailing the specifics of the game.

So is the preview much ado about nothing? I mean there aren't any actual in-game screenshots just artwork. The controls aren't specifically defined rather described by an intern. Supposedly, it's a racing game for the racing enthusiasts and non-racing folks alike. Pick up and play is the idea behind the games they'll design for the iPhone.

At the very least, it's a hilarious read from a free-spirited company. Hopefully, they'll follow through in delivering games with the same fun factor.

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