iPhone OS 4, and iPhoneography

Apple's iPhone OS 4 event has just come to a close, and whilst Steve Jobs announced some nice additions to the iPhone OS, it is the following new features that will interest most iPhoneographers.

• Multitasking - This will allow you to upload your photos to flickr in the background, whilst continuing to shoot some more.
• 5x digital zoom - This will be nice, although there was no reference to resolution.
• Tap to focus on video - This will be a nice addition for the 3GS.
• Geotagging places in the photo app.
• Folders - Put all your photo apps in one place. Just push your finger on an app, they start to jiggle, and just drag one app on top of another and it instantly makes a folder. It also automatically names the folder based on the categories of these apps, or you can rename them.

Whilst OS 4 will be available in the summer for both the iPhone 3G and 3GS (there was no mention of the 2nd generation being supported), and later in the year for the iPad, it wasn't made very clear which features would be available for the 3G.  Whilst all the new features will be available for the 3GS, the 3G will definitely not support multitasking!!! I very much doubt it will support the 5x digital zoom either.

Comments

[Jarle Aasland]

Will be more interesting to see what the new SDK will allow photo app developers to achieve. Hopefully, we'll finally be able to create new photo album folders on the iPhone itself.

[Doug Chapin]

Although, based on my math (2160/180) you can only have 12 apps per folder. This would be a big bummer since I have over 50 photo apps.

[Jesse]

The multitasking is an even bigger boon than that — think instant camera access without quitting your app. As someone who uses Snappy on a jailbroken 2G, I can't tell you how transformative this is for the whole iPhone experience. I wouldn't use an iPhone without it.

[Jesse]

Also: Not unexpected, but looks like the camera's getting a flash too: http://gizmodo.com/5512823/flash-coming-to-iphonebut-not-that-kind-of-flash :)

[Tania]

The only feature I really care about is Folders, so does anyone know if that will be supported on the 3G? I googled it and I found lots of interesting articles on the iPhone 4.0 upgrade, but not specifically mentioning whether or not Folders and the 3G will play well together. I REALLY hope so, as I have pages of apps I can't even see cause my screens are all full.

[James]

Looks like it will include some functions for frame buffer access, which means developers will be able to do full screen real time image processing (without having to use private api calls).

[rfbarr]

@Jessy I donno about snappy. I have my iPhone set up to where I double click the home button and it brings up my camera instantly. This does basically the same thing but it does quit the current application. That is the one reason no camera replacement app has worked for me. If I cant double click the home button to bring up the camera I will not use the app. It is just too complicated to go in and select a program.

that is also a good tip for anyone if you set your iPhone to open the camera when you double tap the home button it really makes getting access to your camera sooooo simple.

I am excited about the multiasking and the folders. Although I do have like 3.5 pages of photo apps that will probably not fit all in one folder. My OCD though will seperate it out in to editors, effects, camera replacement apps, and misc.
-- Robert

[scw]

I installed the OS 4.0 dev beta for a day but it was far too buggy to even be considered a beta it was honestly in alpha mode. Too many bugs & glitches in many everyday common usage issues. As well there is a major blotchy glitch that is caused when editing photos with a handful of iPhoneography apps. Which would cause blue blotches to appear on the results when that was not the chosen effect or filter desired.

Examples of a few photos using the same image, apps, setting & effect on OS 3.1.3 vs 4.0
http://twitpic.com/1ewidl
http://twitpic.com/1ehc57

On a side note: there are many, many very cool & useful updates & additions in 4.0 but they are overshadowed by the bugs & errors that I would run into on a daily basis so until fixed...

I have reverted back to OS 3.1.3 due to the fact that I can't tolerate putting up with those kind of defects for the next few months until Apple finds a fix.

SCW

[Tania]

@scw
Thanks for letting us in on the beta testing progress. From what you've said, I really hope that Apple manages to get the bugs out before the release, because otherwise I'd be really leery about updating my phone with, what sounds like atm, a piece of crap.
Hope you'll let us know when you try it again, and if there are any improvements.