3G iPhone 2.0 launches! Really disappointing or really cool?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 10 June 2008 01:28

Your IT - Mobility

So, we’re being told that developers have loved the SDK – but developers have asked for a feature – notification of background apps running and/or wanting to let you know something needs your attention – like that eBay app.

How did Apple do it? They said other platforms enabled background processors, letting apps to continue to run even when the user thinks they’ve quit it.

Apple says it’s bad because of battery life drain and performance drain. Apple said that they’re going to use a push server for all apps – a push notification server – by maintaining a persistent IP connect to each iPhone.

3 types of notifications – badges, custom alert sounds and you can push custom textual alerts, which look like SMS messages. Put a graphical button on that SMS type message and it launches the app you’re being notified about.

It’s a unified push notification service for all developers – preserves battery life, preserves performance and it all works over the air – Wi-Fi and the cellular network.

Available in September but developers are being seeded in July. And that was it for the SDK update!

Steve Jobs is finally back after having introduced the event. Back to the iPhone at last!

First up is contact search. Next up is iWork document support – Pages, Numbers and Keynote too! Microsoft Office documents are supported too – Word, Excel and Powerpoint!

iWork and MS Office are just for viewing – no editing.

The files can be downloaded as attachments and viewed right on the iPhone. Bulk delete and move is coming as well.

You can save images from an email right to your photo library.

The calculator has been upgraded to a scientific calculator – when you turn the iPhone horizontally!

Parental controls have also been added – turn off explicit content, no more YouTube or buying stuff from the iTunes or App store.

Many more languages have been included – two forms of entry for Japanese and Chinese – draw the character with your finger! Switch between input modes on the fly. A great advantage of no plastic keys, says Jobs.

Jobs says the iPhone 2.0 raises everything to a whole new level – a free software update for all iPhone owners and coming in July. iPod Touch users get it for $9.99 – not the $20+ that was previously charged.

All the great apps are coming through the App Store – on every iPhone. Jobs explained once more that developers get 70% and Apple gets 30%.

The App Store will work in 62 countries from your iPhone – almost anywhere in the world you can “reach customers right on their phones”.

If the app is 10mb or less, the user can download it over the cellular network, it can be downloaded via cellular, Wi-Fi or iTunes, but if it’s over 10mb, you can only download it over Wi-Fi or via iTunes.

Apps will be protected by Fairplay DRM.

Enterprise customers can create apps that can only run on certain iPhones and no others – pretty amazing for business customers.

Ad-hoc distribution also allows you certify and register up to 100 iPhones and those apps can be mailed around, hosted anywhere and run on up to 100 iPhones.

Joining the App Store – two additional ways for groups of distribute create apps on their iPhones.

Please read onto page 6 for ‘Mobile Me’.