Yesterday, Apple released iOS 4. I've only just started to kick the tires, but on my iPhone 3GS this is a great update. The features I previously touted are all there and are welcome. For example, I love organizing apps into folders. I now have a single folder containing my different weather apps, two folders containing all of my legal reference apps, a single folder containing calculators (the built-in one, some date calculators, and the great Convertbot app), a folder containing photography apps, etc. I figured that I would like folders and other marquee iOS 4 features, and so far I really do. I wish more of my apps supported multitasking (such as fast app switching), but it looks like tons of apps are being updated every day to add support for iOS 4.
In addition to what I knew I would like, I've already come across some nice surprises. First, I didn't expect the speed increase to be so noticeable. Everything seems much more zippy. I expected to see more speed on the iPhone 4 with its enhanced processor and extra internal memory, but it is nice to see that the operating system itself is also more efficient on both an iPhone 4 and a 3GS.
Second, the mail improvements for an iPhone, especially one that syncs with Microsoft Exchange, are very nice. We've long known about the unified Inbox and the ability to view threaded messages (so you can follow prior e-mails with the same Re: / subject line in one set). Those additions are nice. But it was also a pleasant surprise to see pictures at the top of e-mails for those senders who have pictures in the Contacts on the iPhone.
Better yet, I love that you can now tell the iPhone which folders to push to the iPhone. In the past, only the Inbox was pushed, but now you can tell your iPhone to also keep your Sent folder or any other folder up to date. In the past, when I wanted to see a recent e-mail in my Sent folder, I'd first have to wait for my Sent folder to sync since the last time I checked it ... which sometimes was weeks earlier. Now, I can always keep my Sent folder up-to-date.
I also like the improvements to Contacts. When you are editing a info on a contact, more space is made available for you to enter contact info (first name, last name AND company name, different e-mail addresses, etc.) on the main page without having to move over to sub-pages, making it faster to edit and update.
I'm sure I will be discovering many other great new features, and I'll be sure to share them here as I find them. To learn more about what is new, I recommend that you read the following articles released yesterday containing lots of information and tips:
- Macworld has a ton of great posts, including What you Need to Know, a complete review by Dan Moren, and spotlights on new folder features, multimedia, Mail and Photos.
- Jeremy Horwitz of iLoung has a great review of iOS 4 with tons of great screen shots.
- Rene Ritchie of TiPb wrote this great article that I mentioned yesterday.
- Jacqui Cheng of Ars Technica has a detailed review.
- Gizmodo notes a bunch of new features in this post.
- [UPDATE] Adam Pash of Lifehacker has a great list of iOS 4 Shortcuts.
