22:18
iphone3
The new iOS 4 firmware update has arrived for newer iPhone and iPod Touch models. Here's what you need to know to get the most out of the new, improved operating system.First off, have you actually upgraded? If not, here's how.Afterwards, be sure to go to iTunes and download the apps updated for iOS 4. Now, let's look at what the new OS will do for your phone or iPod.Multitasking and fast app switching.The big one. Here's how you try it.
Open the phone app
Hit the home button once, then open Safari and go to any site
Double tap the home button, which will bring up a little menu tray
Select one of the "open" apps to switch directly to it
You can also swipe left and right to scroll through the different "pages" of apps you have open. If your app is multitasking-enabled, it will resume exactly where you left off. Games will continue from pause mode, web pages will be where you left them, music will continuously play even while you're in another app, and so forth. The standard multitasking benefits.So yes, this allows you to listen to Pandora in the background while you do other stuff. Well, as long as you grab that new version of Pandora. Strangely enough, YouTube backgrounding does not work, even though I remember specifically talks of that working. Not sure what happened there, or if the YouTube app needs an update.The big picture is you can do a lot of stuff now that you couldn't do before. You can have a Skype phone call and use your phone simultaneously, have a GPS turn-by-turn navigation app keep your place and keep routing you even while you go and send a text message, or even just load up a web page and have it full in in the background while you go change a song.To close a running app
Steve Jobs doesn't recommend that you even deal with closing running apps, because the phone will take care of it automatically. But if you want to shut off Pandora, or AIM, or anything else that's running in the background and giving you alerts or doing something you want to end, here's what you do.
Double tap the home button from any app
Press and hold on an app icon. The dismiss "minus" icon will pop up on each app and the icons will start shaking
Click the minus icon to kill an app. You can do so repeatedly for all the apps you want to close.
To get out of this mode, hit the home button
Improved Mail features (mail threading)
We're glad to see that the Mail app received a bit of a feature makeover of sorts. All the new changes appear to be in response to complaints we've had our heard from other iPhone users.The email threading feature is surprisingly solid. When you've got it turned on, emails will be grouped by replies — like in Gmail for example — and you'll see a little number indicator next to the most messages in your inbox to show you how long a thread is. Tap that most recent message and all others will pop up.Speaking of Gmail! Those users will be happy to see that the "delete" button that shows up after a swipe has turned into an "archive" button. Makes things just a bit more logical.We're also happy to see that there are now "smart" links in emails now. This means that you can tap on dates to add events to your calendar, press tracking numbers to pull up the UPS website, or open the Maps app when there's an address included.And the best change to the Mail app? The long-awaited unified inbox.
You can finally view emails by inbox or in one large dump. When replying to a message from the unified inbox, your iPhone will automatically use the correct email account.If you receive an email from a person who has a picture in your contacts, you'll now see a tiny image of him or her in the corner. Kinda cute.Note syncing There is now an option to sync notes over-the-air with some email accounts—such as those through Mobile Me.New iPod multitasking controls
While you can no longer get a pop-up set of iPod controls by double-tapping the home button, you do have a decent replacement in the multi-tasking drawer. By swiping over to the very left of the drawer, you'll be able to access some minimal iPod controls next to the orientation lock. Play/pause, forward, back. It's just enough to make some quick adjustments to song selection, but we still miss the old pop-up-style controls a bit.
That book e-reader program that's already out on iPad is coming to iPhone! (Yay.) But it's not built in. (Wha?) You have to hit the App Store and manually download the iBooks ap. It's free. Maybe for competitive purposes? Who knows.
In any case, you can sync ePub and PDF books directly from iTunes by using the iBooks section. If you have books in other formats other than ePub, use calibr to convert them.
Open the phone app
Hit the home button once, then open Safari and go to any site
Double tap the home button, which will bring up a little menu tray
Select one of the "open" apps to switch directly to it
You can also swipe left and right to scroll through the different "pages" of apps you have open. If your app is multitasking-enabled, it will resume exactly where you left off. Games will continue from pause mode, web pages will be where you left them, music will continuously play even while you're in another app, and so forth. The standard multitasking benefits.So yes, this allows you to listen to Pandora in the background while you do other stuff. Well, as long as you grab that new version of Pandora. Strangely enough, YouTube backgrounding does not work, even though I remember specifically talks of that working. Not sure what happened there, or if the YouTube app needs an update.The big picture is you can do a lot of stuff now that you couldn't do before. You can have a Skype phone call and use your phone simultaneously, have a GPS turn-by-turn navigation app keep your place and keep routing you even while you go and send a text message, or even just load up a web page and have it full in in the background while you go change a song.To close a running app
Steve Jobs doesn't recommend that you even deal with closing running apps, because the phone will take care of it automatically. But if you want to shut off Pandora, or AIM, or anything else that's running in the background and giving you alerts or doing something you want to end, here's what you do.
Double tap the home button from any app
Press and hold on an app icon. The dismiss "minus" icon will pop up on each app and the icons will start shaking
Click the minus icon to kill an app. You can do so repeatedly for all the apps you want to close.
To get out of this mode, hit the home button
Improved Mail features (mail threading)
We're glad to see that the Mail app received a bit of a feature makeover of sorts. All the new changes appear to be in response to complaints we've had our heard from other iPhone users.The email threading feature is surprisingly solid. When you've got it turned on, emails will be grouped by replies — like in Gmail for example — and you'll see a little number indicator next to the most messages in your inbox to show you how long a thread is. Tap that most recent message and all others will pop up.Speaking of Gmail! Those users will be happy to see that the "delete" button that shows up after a swipe has turned into an "archive" button. Makes things just a bit more logical.We're also happy to see that there are now "smart" links in emails now. This means that you can tap on dates to add events to your calendar, press tracking numbers to pull up the UPS website, or open the Maps app when there's an address included.And the best change to the Mail app? The long-awaited unified inbox.
You can finally view emails by inbox or in one large dump. When replying to a message from the unified inbox, your iPhone will automatically use the correct email account.If you receive an email from a person who has a picture in your contacts, you'll now see a tiny image of him or her in the corner. Kinda cute.Note syncing There is now an option to sync notes over-the-air with some email accounts—such as those through Mobile Me.New iPod multitasking controls
While you can no longer get a pop-up set of iPod controls by double-tapping the home button, you do have a decent replacement in the multi-tasking drawer. By swiping over to the very left of the drawer, you'll be able to access some minimal iPod controls next to the orientation lock. Play/pause, forward, back. It's just enough to make some quick adjustments to song selection, but we still miss the old pop-up-style controls a bit.
That book e-reader program that's already out on iPad is coming to iPhone! (Yay.) But it's not built in. (Wha?) You have to hit the App Store and manually download the iBooks ap. It's free. Maybe for competitive purposes? Who knows.
In any case, you can sync ePub and PDF books directly from iTunes by using the iBooks section. If you have books in other formats other than ePub, use calibr to convert them.
Posted in: latest os for iphone
0 comments:
Post a Comment