Posts tagged with "iOS"

Could Apple Make Multitasking On The iPad Better?

I’ve been thinking about this for some months now: what could be the right way to “multitask” on the iPad? Some say we humans can’t really multitask. For the sake of the argument, let’s just say that we want to argue on whether Apple’s way to switch between paused apps on the iPad could be better or not. I think that, with a few tweaks, iOS 4.2 could bring a deeply different experience from the iPhone on the iPad. Read more

Thoughts On New Features in iOS 4.2 for iPad

I downloaded iOS 4.2 for iPad yesterday, and I’ve been playing around with it all day. Overall, I think it’s a pretty solid first beta: the apps that were already updated to rely on iOS 4 APIs just work (of course they’re Universal apps such as Pandora, but iPhone apps in mini-mode work as well), the multitasking system works pretty well in spite of less RAM, animations are ok.

Sure, it’s a beta: those animations are choppy sometimes and I needed to manually “kill” some apps in the multitasking tray that were unresponsive or incredibly slow. Audio in the background froze a couple of times; Mail hangs when opening large conversations and Safari flushes open pages more often than usual.

It’s a perfectly acceptable trade-off to have iOS 4 on the tablet. And it’s a first beta. And it’s got wireless printing and AirPlay. I agree with John when he says that, considering the previous nature of the device, iOS 4.2 might turn out to be the best software update of all time.

I have collected some of the features and neat little touches I like most about 4.2 for iPad. I think it’s going to be a great operating system. Read more

Is The iPad Getting A Redesigned Keyboard on iOS 4.2?

Here’s a cool thing we found out in iOS 4.2 for iPad: if you disable the simple passcode in the Settings app and choose to create an alphanumeric passcode, the iPad has a redesigned keyboard in the lockscreen.

It’s…black. It looks beautiful, for sure: letters really pop in against the dark background, and they go subtle-blue when you press them. It’s also very elegant. Now, would it make sense for Apple to keep two different keyboards in iOS? One for the lockscreen, one for anything else? Maybe: after all, the numeric keypad was black and has always been exclusive to the lockscreen.

Still, we want to speculate here. I’d personally like this black keyboard in iOS, but I understand that it would be “too much” for some users. It’s particular, but looks great. I don’t know, I like it but I have my doubts. What do you think? Read more

Two Videos of iOS 4.2 Running On The iPad

Courtesy of AppAdvice and Engadget, two videos to get a quick overview of what using iOS 4 on the iPad feels like. I have it, and it’s great: apps already updated for the new APIs on the iPhone are working fine on the iPad, some of them (e.g. non-universal apps) are having some issues.

Anyway, iOS 4.2 really manages to make the iPad feel like a new device. And it’s just the first beta. Read more

AirPrint Coming in November, HP’s ePrint Printers First To Support It

With the release of iOS 4.2 beta today to iPhone and iPad developers, Apple issued a press release confirming that AirPrint, the technology that will allow wireless printing on iOS, will be out in November - and HP’s ePrint-enabled printers will be the first to support it.

This is pretty confusing: will HP’s printers the only ones to support AirPrint, or will they just be the first ones to officially support it? Check out the press release after the break. Read more

iPhone 3G Users, Upgrade to iOS 4.1 [Video]

As soon as iOS 4.1 comes out this week (as announced by Steve Jobs at last week’s Apple music event) iPhone 3G users should feel safe to upgrade. In case you don’t know, iOS 4 for iPhone 3G wasn’t exactly “perfect”: to cut short, it was slow. I tried an iPhone 3G running the magical iOS 4: it was barely usable. Even a stupid task like unlocking the phone took a few seconds more than usual, not to mention springboard navigation and Safari. Everything was slow and slow-motion - at a point you couldn’t believe Apple shipped such a thing. Read more

The Ultimate iOS Pie Chart

At least, that’s what asymco claims. We knew that there were 59.6 million iPhones and 3.2 million iPads through June; at the music event last Wednesday, Apple announced that 120 million iOS devices were sold to date. So asymco assumed that Apple sold 8 million iPhones and 4 million iPads during July and August, and they came up with a 45.2 million iPod Touches sold to date estimate. That’s 37.7% of total units. Read more