Slog

News & Arts

Line Out

Music & the City
at Night

« The Continuing Tragedy of Boy A | Space Shuttle May Be Entombed in Se… »

Monday, June 21, 2010

Tech iOS 4 Update

Posted by Anthony Hecht on Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 5:35 PM

Official-iPhone-3-1-IPSW-Download-Breaks-Tethering-2.jpg

Did you get your iPhone software update yet? The latest release of Apple's recently renamed iOS iPhone/iPod Touch system software was released to the public earlier today, and should be showing up in your iTunes now. It's also free for everybody this time, including iPod Touch owners.

That is, it should be showing up now IF you have an iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G (some features won't work, like multitasking), or a late-model iPod Touch. 1st Generation iPhones and iPod Toucheses are forever OS 3.

I've been using the developer build for a week or two, and it's very nice. The multitasking UI (double-tap on the home button to bring up the hidden dock) takes some getting used to, and the folders aren't as pretty as the app icons they replace, but it's all very functional and practical once you adapt to it. Third-party app updates that take advantage of the new features are coming fast and furious.

The new features make things feel much faster, and the system overall feels noticeably faster on the same hardware. It's nice that Apple's focus isn't solely on adding new features; they also made tons of tweaks—both visible and under-the-hood—that result in the whole thing feeling incrementally more polished.

I particularly like the rotation lock, as I work mostly lying down.

Ars Technica has a good walkthrough that covers most all the new features, big and small, as does this awkwardly named blog.

Comments (11) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

I'm installed, but inactive, due to the typical "unable to contact iTunes" error.

Posted by Mike Smith on June 21, 2010 at 6:49 PM

Oh, rotation lock, yay!! I do a lot of iPhoning in bed. That will be so nice.

Posted by care bear on June 21, 2010 at 7:34 PM

"iPod Toucheses?" Was that on purpose?

Posted by Matt from Denver on June 21, 2010 at 8:49 PM

*droid*

Posted by nseattlite on June 21, 2010 at 9:22 PM

Been looking over a Droid this weekend.

Apple is dead.

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on June 21, 2010 at 9:43 PM

Every update has made the problems with my piece of shit 3g worse. I think I'll be holding off till I can finally be rid of this thing in a few months along with Apple and AT&T.

Posted by giffy on June 22, 2010 at 7:33 AM

OH MY GOD! Rotation lock! Hallelujah!

Posted by Meg on June 22, 2010 at 8:44 AM

Upgrade? Not until it's jailbroken. I must have MyWi for internet tethering.

Posted by warreno

on June 22, 2010 at 9:42 AM

@5: "Apple is dead. "

A little late to the party, aren't you? That prediction's been intoned steadily for the last quarter century, and counting.

Posted by warreno

on June 22, 2010 at 9:43 AM

I have an iPod Touch 2nd generation and I honestly thought that the multitasking was a "go" for the 2nd gen. As I read the info on the update, I saw that "1st generation" Touches would not use the updates. I stayed up until 2 a.m. downloading the new iTunes and then reconfiguring my Touch. I tried it out at this morning with baited breath and shaking fingers. No double click multitasking. My heart was crushed when I read the small print on the Apple website. Perhaps the 4 gen will be in my future.

Posted by catherineku on June 22, 2010 at 10:25 AM

Every time I update my Touch, I lose a dozen albums and a few contacts. It's pretty much been this way since the first days of iTunes updates. I'll probably leave it alone until it's time to replace it.

Posted by Dougsf on June 22, 2010 at 12:36 PM