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iPhone OS 4 (aka iOS 4) June 21, 2010

Posted by Matsu in Apple, Information Technology, Software, Technology.
1 comment so far

Well, I did it. I drank the Apple Cool Aid. Today Apple released their new iPhone (and iPod Touch) software known as iOS 4. It took about 40 minutes to download and another 25 minutes to install. So, just about an hour for the entire process.

How did it turn out? Better than I expected. It installed without a problem and I’m writing this blog post from my iPhone using the updated WordPress app. So, it passed the most — a successful installation.

Now that I’m running iPhone 4 software do I see any difference? Well, I am using a 32Gb iPhone 3Gs, so it’s relatively new. And, it doesn’t seem any faster (or slower) than the version 3 iPhone operating system. So, no penalty or benefit, in terms of speed, as far as I can tell. Hopefully, it will not drain the battery any faster. In fact, it would be nice if the battery lasted a little longer.

As for the new features like the ability to create folders and the new multi-tasking (background) processing, they are okay. I’ve been able to significantly reduce the number of screens for my apps, which is nice since now it’s better organized (I’ve downloaded and installed way too many apps). And, the ability to quickly jump between apps (by double-tapping the home button) works well enough. It will make it easier to look up something when I’m in the middle of writing an e-mail, but I could do that before and it always returned to the same place where I left the half-written e-mail, so it’s not a huge difference to me.

What is of great value is the ability to run streaming radio apps or other audio apps and be able to continue hearing the audio (and not having it cut off) when switching to read e-mail (or post to WordPress). That’s actually a great feature, especially when it comes to using apps like Pandora or Skype. In fact, for me that is the main reason to upgrade to iOS 4.

Well, those are my first impressions. If you have an iPhone 3G or iPhone 3Gs or iPod Touch, you should definitely upgrade. You’ll be glad you did.

Now, I’m off to upgrade my iPod Touch then my iPad. Can’t wait to see if performance improves on the iPad. I’ll post a review if there here once I get some experience. (Hey, I just used the new spell-checker built into iOS 4).