Today is June 21st: the day iOS 4 arrives. The firmware of the iPhone and the iPod touch will be upgradable today. The iPad firmware will be upgradable to iOS 4 this fall. Apple claims iOS 4 delivers over 100 new features, but I guess most of them are hardly noticeable. Let’s go over a few of the most important new features of iOS 4.
iOS 4 Features
First of all, and probably the most important feature; Multitasking. It’s one of the most asked features for the iPhone and people are now finally able to do multiple tasks at once. Just double tap the home button and an extra bar will show up at the bottom of the screen showing your currently active apps.
The second most important feature (at least in my opinion) is the Folders feature. Keep your finger on an application till it starts wiggling, then drag it on top of another app and let go. The two apps immediately form a folder and the software names the folder accordingly. So placing two games in one folder will result in a ‘Games’ folder. You can also rename the folders to your own liking.
Another great feature is the Unified Inbox. Have multiple gmail-accounts, hotmail-accounts or other email-accounts? You can now organize them to look like it’s one inbox. If you get a mail in your gmail-account and later a mail in your hotmail-account, both mails will be shown in one inbox. So you don’t have to open one account first, then go back to the main menu and select the next account. It’s all organized together.
I must admit, I don’t read a lot. But the e-book reader of the iPad is wonderful. It’s only a logical step to introduce iBooks for the iPhone. The cool thing about this feature is that you can read a book on your iPad, sync it to your iPhone and continue reading on the iPhone where you left off on your iPad. There’s no need to buy the e-book twice and it also doesn’t matter if you buy it from your iPhone or from your iPad, the e-books are interchangeable.
There are a lot more features, but smaller in significancy. The Wallpaper feature for instance. It’s already available on the iPad, but with iOS 4 you will be able to set a wallpaper for the Home screen on your iPhone as well. You will also be able to Gift apps, use Faces and Places on your iPhone and pair a wireless keyboard via Bluetooth. A very small new feature, but a very welcome one, is the fact that text messages now show how many characters you’ve used so far, telling you how many messages you’re sending. I’m sure there are a lot more very welcome changes, but I think I’ve discussed the most important features here.
Is a jailbreak still needed?
To answer that question, you will have to ask yourself why you want to jailbreak your iPhone in the first place. My reason to jailbreak my iPhone was to be able do multiple tasks at once. Another thing I do like is the fact that you can make folders. But with the iOS 4 you get Multitasking and Folders, so two very big issues have been solved. The display of how many characters you’ve typed in a text message is also one of those things that is no solved with iOS 4.
If the above reasons are the only reasons to jailbreak your iPhone than I would recommend using the iOS 4 software from now on and don’t use the jailbreak anymore. The result is a more secure iPhone and one that has all the features you want it to have via the official way.
However, there are more reasons to jailbreak. To name one: SBSettings. This application is used to change your phone’s settings. But instead of closing a currently running app and tapping the Settings icon to change your phone’s settings, you can swipe at the top of the screen (over the displayed time and battery percentage) to activate SBSettings without closing any app. You can then turn on/off options like Wi-Fi, 3G and Push. With the same app it was also possible to lock the screen from rotating (the rotation lock will now be available in iOS 4).
Another reason to still jailbreak your iPhone is the fact that you can install themes with an app called Winterboard. You can also change to theme of the lockscreen and the icon dock. And one other big reason to jailbreak the iPhone is that you will be able to install Mobile Theater and download movies with it…for free.
To get back to the question: Is a jailbreak still needed? For me personally I’ll go back to the official software to at least try out if I miss anything of the jailbreak. If I do miss things like SBSettings and themes, I can always jailbreak my iPhone again and start using the wonderful apps in the Cydia store. I must admit Apple did a great job at implementing some frequently asked features and convince me to go back to the original Apple software.
Last pieces of info
- The release of iPhone OS 3 took place after 1PM Eastern/10AM Pacific. The same is expected this time
- You can update your OS by syncing your iPhone/iPod touch with iTunes
- The first generation iPod touch and iPhone will not receive an update
- The iPad will be updated to iOS 4 this fall
- You can check if the new firmware version is available via this link: http://ios.e-lite.org/
