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During today's iPhone OS 4 event , Apple announced that it plans to bring iBooks and the iBookstore to the iPhone once the new OS becomes available later this year. It is not clear, however, why Apple plans to wait this long to bring its e-reader software and e-book store to the iPhone. After all, being able to sync books between the two devices would put Apple's feature set close to being on par with Amazon's Kindle platform. Sponsor Just like the Kindle apps, iBooks will be able to sync pages and bookmarks between the iPad and the iPhone versions. Judging from what we have seen so far, iBooks on the iPhone basically looks like an exact copy of the iPad version - with a few concessions to the smaller screen. Isn't iBooks Just Another App? At its core, the iBooks application is nothing else but just another iPhone app. As far as we can see, iBooks doesn't rely on any special abilities that are only available in the iPhone OS 3.2 on the iPad or the newly announced iPhone OS 4. Given that Apple is tying iBooks so closely to the next OS release, chances are that iBooks for the iPhone won't work on the original iPhone and older iPod touch models and won't be available as a stand-alone download. Maybe the team behind iBooks was just to preoccupied with developing the iPad app in time to also focus on the iPhone app. Maybe Apple doesn't want to blur the lines between the iPad as an e-book reader and the iPhone. None of this, however, really explains why Apple plans to wait until the release of the iPhone OS 4 to launch iBooks for the iPhone and forgo all the possible e-book sales it could get from iPhone users. One of Amazon's big advantages over iBooks and the iBookstore (besides the fact that some people simply prefer the Kindle app and that Amazon has a larger book selection), is that users can easily read and sync their Kindle books between the iPhone, iPad, Kindle and desktop. There is also a good chance that Barnes & Noble will soon release an iPad version of its iPhone e-reader. With this, the company's e-books will then be available on the B&N Nook, a number of third-party e-readers, the iPhone and the iPad. By not releasing iBooks for the iPhone for another few months, Apple will probably lose quite a few customers to Amazon. After all, Apple has already sold close to 80 million iPhone OS devices and less than 1 million iPads. Image credit: gdgt Discuss
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iBooks is Coming to the iPhone this Summer - Why the Wait?
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So before the purists go off the deep end, fuming about the iPhone OS 4.0 announcement today , let's just concede one point - it isn't truly multitasking. Apple announced "Multitasking" with seven key points, one of them being "Fast App Switching", and this is what they meant for much of multitasking. But, here's the thing - for some of the most exciting things we've wanted to do, multitasking-wise, with our iPhones, the new OS will indeed offer true multitasking, and for that we're fairly excited to say the least. Sponsor Multitasking, for the most part, is handled by a double click on the home button, which pulls up a screen showing icons of all the apps currently hanging out in the background. Some, like Skype or Pandora, will actually be running, while others will simply be in a frozen state. The multitasking feature will be available for iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch 2nd Generation starting this summer and Apple is guaranteeing that it will not only keep your device moving quickly but will work to conserve battery life. In this effort, the company has released 7 APIs to handle the "multitasking". Instead of allowing the application to continue running a full instance in the background, potentially clogging up the system and draining power, the OS will handle background operations for several specific processes. [Image courtesy of GDGT .] For other applications not using these specific background services, switching out of the app will simply freeze it in its current state for the user to return to later. Otherwise, Apple certainly nailed it as far as the types of services we were hoping to run in the background. You want music to keep streaming through Pandora while you catch up with reading on Read It Later? You got it. How about keeping track of your bike ride across town with Map My Ride and being able to look up directions on the way? Sure! Keep Skype running in the background and get phone calls and chat notifications? Indeed. The iPhone will even complete tasks, such as uploading photos and videos, in the background - a feature sounds rather like "true" multitasking to us. We admit, "true" multitasking or not, this fulfills many of our wishes and we're quite excited. The only thing we'll have to hope for now is that the apps we want to multitask implement these new APIs. By doing multitasking this way, Apple has tried to assure that it can control the quality of the experience, but we'll have to hope for companies to follow along and release updated versions. Discuss
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Apple Announces Multitasking for iPhone? Close Enough.
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During a presentation on Apple's Cupertino campus this morning, the company's CEO, Steve Jobs, announced the next version of the iPhone operating system: iPhone OS 4. Apple will release a preview version to developers today and plans to release the OS to consumers in the summer. Among the new features in the OS are multitasking with the help of a new set of APIs. Developers will get access to over 1,500 new APIs, and users will see over 100 new features. Jobs also announced that Apple has already sold 450,000 iPads. Sponsor Note : This is a breaking news story. We will update this story throughout the morning as more news becomes available from the iPhone OS 4 event. Just reload this page to see the updates. iPhone OS 4 New in iPhone OS 4 Fast task switching Multitasking Folders Enhanced mail app Local push notifications Background location services Task completion in the background iBooks for iPhone Enterprise enhancement Game Center social gaming network iAd advertising network In total, Apple has now sold close to 85 million devices that run the iPhone OS. Developers, who will get access to the new OS today, will be able to access over 1,500 new APIs , including better APIs for in-app SMS, smarter ways to access the accelerometer and access to new users features like 5x digital zoom, home screen wallpapers, and access to Bluetooth keyboards. iPhone OS 4 will also finally include support for multitasking. Jobs noted that Apple isn't the first company to bring this feature to the market, but wants "to be the best." A simple double-click on the home button will bring up a task menu at the bottom of the screen. This, however, is just a way to quickly switch between apps. No Multitasking for iPhone 3G Most of these newly announced features will run on the iPhone 3GS and third generation iPod touch, but users with an iPhone 3G or second generation iPod touch will not get access to the new multitasking features. Apple plans to release iPhone OS 4 for the iPad in the fall. Background Apps To run services in the background, as Apple's SVP of iPhone software Scott Forstall noted, apps will have to access a new set of APIs. Music apps like Pandora will be able to stream their music in the background and use the iPod controls in the lock screen to control the playback. Until now, exiting an app like Pandora would stop the music playback. According to Pandora's developers, making the app background aware only took one day. VoIP services like Skype will now also be able to run in the background. Apple will now allow location services to run in the background. This will be a major boon for turn-by-turn direction services like Tom Tom and location-based social networks like Loopt, which Apple specifically mentioned during the event. In addition, apps will also be able to send local push notifications and apps will be able to complete tasks like photo uploads in the background. Folders With iPhone OS 4, Apple is also introducing a new way to organize applications - something that those of us who have installed way too many apps on our phones will appreciate. Now, users will be able to organize apps into folders. To do this, you simply drag and drop apps on top of each other. The OS automatically creates a name for these folders (presumably based on the apps' categories in the App Store), but you can also edit the name yourself. Folders can also live in the dock. This will come in handy if you want to have all your games or news apps available at a moment's notice. Enhanced Mail App iPhone OS 4 will also bring an enhanced mail app with a unified inbox and the ability to organize emails by thread. In addition, users will finally be able to open attachments with apps. Game Center For gamers, Apple is introducing the Game Center, which is basically a social gaming network that will feature automatic matchmaking for multiplayer games, leaderboards and achievements. iBooks Comes to the iPhone After Apple introduced iBooks for the iPad, it was only a matter of time before the company would introduce iBooks for the iPhone. Just like the Kindle app, iBooks will sync pages and bookmarks between the iPad and iPhone. iPhone users will also be able to access the iBookstore right from their device. iPhone in the Enterprise For enterprise users, Apple is introducing a number of new features, including improved security courtesy of support for SLL VPN. Enterprises will now also be able to distribute apps wirelessly. iAd Unsurprisngly, Apple also announced its new iAd mobile advertising platform . According to Jobs, "most of this mobile advertising really sucks." According to Jobs, the best way to deliver mobile ads in not through search ads but inside mobile apps. Jobs noted that Apple wants ads in apps to be even more interactive than on the Web. Currently, according to Jobs, people don't click on ads because it takes them out of the app. Given that iAd is a built-in OS-wide feature, however, Apple thinks that it can deliver a better experience for users. Jobs also took a swipe at Adobe and noted that these interactive ads will be developed in HTML5. Judging from Apple's demos during the event, these ads can be highly interactive and many of them resembled mini-games more than traditional display ads. Apple will sell, host and deliver the ads and share 60% of the revenue with developers. Update on the iPad: 450,000 Sold At the beginning of his presentation, Jobs also recapped last week's launch of the iPad. According to Jobs, the company managed to sell 450,000 iPads since the device went on sale on Saturday. iPad users have downloaded over 600,000 books from the iBookstore and 3.5 million iPad apps from the App Store. It's not clear how many of these books were free books, however. Jobs also announced that the App Store has now delivered over 4 billion apps to iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users, and that there are close to 3,500 iPad apps in the store already. Thanks to our friends at Gizmodo and gdgt for providing excellent live coverage of the event today. Discuss
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Apple Announces iPhone OS 4 with Support for Multitasking
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The current generation of check-in based location apps like Foursquare and Gowalla are more or less focused on the gaming aspects of location-based social networking. CauseWorld for the iPhone and Android, however, wants to use location based check-ins for two things: connect you to the stores around you and allow you to use the points you get for checking in to support a variety of charitable causes . CauseWorld features badges and other virtual rewards, but the main focus of the app is on collecting "karma points" that can then be exchanged for donations to participating charities. Sponsor Shopping and Charity The mission of CauseWorld's parent company Shopkick is to bring the physical and virtual worlds of retail together. Besides just checking in at various stores, CauseWorld's users can also scan products in supermarkets to get extra points. Typically, it's been hard for barcode scanners like RedLaser to get to this data for grocery items, but as Shopkick's CEO Cyriac Roeding tols us yesterday, his company manged to strike a deal with Procter & Gamble and Kraft Foods, which gives Shopkick access to this data. It's easy to see why these companies would be interesting in making the deal with CauseWorld. After all, whenever you scan a product (even if your motivation is to help the world by gathering karma points), you are already holding this product in your hands and Kraft can now give you a mobile coupon for the product that you can use at the check-out counter. That, as Roeding put it, "is the holy grail for retailers" - being able to create a deeper relationship with the consumer right in the store while they are already looking at the product. After just a little bit more than three month on the market, CauseWorld has already seen 400,000 downloads of its mobile app and plans to release a major update in the summer. So far, the company has received around $700,000 in sponsorship money from Citi for its charity program and is giving away about $100,000 per month. Features The app itself is pretty straightforward. You can check in to stores around you and if this is a participating store, the app will also encourage you to check the store out and scan some products. To make sure that you are not just gaming the system, CauseWorld restricts you to 10 check-ins a day and enforces a three minute break between check-ins. Every check-in is worth 5 karma points (some sponsors also offer double points). You can connect the app to Facebook, but the social networking aspects are really not the focus of the app. One problem we noticed, however, is that the app allows to check in even if the store is still almost mile half a mile away from you. This seems to defeat the purpose of really connecting consumers to nearby stores and makes it rather easy to collect points while you are actually still sitting in your living room. Discuss
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CauseWorld: Checking in for Charity
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What are the security issues with the iPad and how is it suited as a device for developing enterprise scale applications? Those are the questions we posed to Ken Westin, the founder and CEO of ActiveTrak . Westin is a a security expert. His company develops a software and a service to track the location of a device if lost or stolen. In June, the company is introducing an enterprise version of its technology that will also go by the name ActiveTrak. Sponsor The iPad will become a device that we will undoubtedly see in the enterprise. It fits into the same space as a smartphone or social computing technology, applicable to personal and work life. Neville Hobson on the NextWeb cites a survey by Sybase about the interest in smart phones for the workplace and its correlation to the iPad. But Westin says the iPad does have its own set of limitations that makes it an issue for development of enterprise security grade applications: The iPhone and iPad software has built-in PPTP, IPSec, Cisco VPN software . But more companies are moving to SSL VPN, which is not supported by the iPad. In time, though, a client should be developed for the product. The device may be able to access the domain, however it is different from being a domain member as an administrator cannot manage it, enforce group policies or push patches or apps to it. Westin is supported by other security experts who cite Apple's lack of interest in security issues: "The general consensus is that Apple continues to do only the absolute minimum to address enterprise security and supportability requirements," noted Andrew Storms, Director of Security Operations for nCircle. `We haven't seen any new enterprise iPhone security features from Apple since the summer of 2009 when they introduced their new hardware level encryption, which was almost immediately subverted. This is not the kind of behavior security professionals want to see in vendors.' Recent events seem to illustrate that point. Security researches were able to compromise a fully-updated iPhone 3GS at the recent CanSecWest Pwn2Own competition. Storms warned me "If the iPad has the same OS as the iPhone then enterprises are going to be even more concerned about the data on this device.' " Westin said it is the background processing in particular that makes the iPad less appealing for ActiveTrak. For instance, its application runs in the background on an Android device. An iPad, and for that matter an iPhone, does not provide that capability. His company does provide a free application for the iPhone. It's free but it can only be activated if someone turns it on. To maneuver around the issue, Westin said they disguise the app button as a Safari icon, which activates the application. That's when the tracking starts by triangulation techniques using WiFi and GPS. Westin is a fan of Apple. He uses a MacBook Pro. He says developer tools are better on the iPhone and it has a great community. But, Apple wants it all. It controls the hardware, the software and the content. That's a concern for the enterprise that wants to adopt the iPad. Such control over content is a problem as it gives Apple the power to wipe an application off a device without permission. That may seem unlikely in an enterprise setting but the possibility does lead to hesitation. Further, Apple may make great high end products for consumers but it does not have the equivalent of a Blackberry server that can control the device and its content. Instead, the individual must have a MobileMe account. This can become a coordination nightmare for IT if the enterprise has 5,000 people who need an iPad. Westin said ActiveTrak will wait until the iPad platfrom opens up more before developing. Discuss
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Is the iPad Secure Enough for the Enterprise?
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