Yucca

The new operating system from Apple is stunning

The Twittersphere is once again awash with tweets about the arrival of iPhone 4 and a curious sounding acronym in the form of iOS4. Apple have licenced the new acronym from Cisco, who they also licence the name iPhone from – a bit of random knowledge to thrill your dinner party guests with.

iOS4 is the latest version of Apple’s iPhone operating system. I sat through the entire iOS4 developer presentation (59 minutes) by Steve Jobs to get a feel for what it’s all about.

iOS4 sees the operating system introducing over 1500 new APIs that allow apps to use services (such as GPS) on the iPhone in much more efficient ways. The burgeoning app developer community now has access to pretty much any service on the iPhone. Want an app that messages you automatically when you walk past a card shop before your Mum's birthday, for example? It’s coming.

iOS4 has 7 key updates titled ‘tentpoles’ by Mr Jobs. A selection of these include:
- Better support for Enterprise users with encryption features and the ability to control large volumes of handsets, a blessing for any security savvy IT manager.
- Folders to organise one's apps more efficiently.
- Better social media integration enabling multiplayer games to be played user-to-user over the mobile network.
- The ability to gift apps to other iPhone users.

Here at Yucca most iPhone users have done the nerve-wracking 20 minute update but there is one team member who has got us all foaming at the mouth, having purchased the first new iPhone 4 in the office.

Early adopter Alan picked his phone up today and we haven’t talked to him since. None of his friends have an iPhone 4 either, so he hasn’t been able to make a Facetime call yet. Not that we’re jealous.

Twitter guru, Apple lover and advocate of adopting things early, Stephen Fry, has written a very comprehensive blog on the new iPhone.