iPhone OS 4 allows iPhones to catch up, iPad to lose some weak points

Apple's update to the iPhone operating system, announced today, will soon allow the company's recent-vintage smart phones to do what competitors have done for years. And when the new OS comes to iPads, it'll remedy a few of the more bothersome negatives of using Apple's tablet computers.

Among the 100 new features promised by Apple CEO Steve Jobs were the ability to run multiple applications at once, allowing you to multitask by, say, listening to music streaming from the Pandora Net-radio app while checking your e-mail or listening to intermittent turn-by-turn directions from a GPS app. If you're uploading pictures from your iPhone to Flickr, a feature called task completion will allow uploading to continue even if you switch away from the application. And Skype, the VoIP phone service, will also work in the background, allowing you to receive calls while performing other tasks. A tray at the bottom of the iPhone 4 home screen will show all apps that are running.

The new system will officially launch this summer. The date was unspecified, but new iPhones customarily debut annually, in late June—providing the perfect launch platform for the new system. iPhone OS 4 will also be available for existing iPhones, though some of its features, like multitasking, will not run on iPhone 3G or older iPod Touches. While no pricing details were provided, OS upgrades are typically free for iPhones, and $10 or so for Touches.

iPads will get the new OS sometime in the fall; again, no date was specified.

Some of the new features mentioned, though not elaborated on, provided insights into what we can expect from the next iPhone and from iPhone accessories. For example, there will be support for 5x digital zoom and Bluetooth keyboards, a tap-to-focus feature when shooting videos, plus gift apps, geotagging, and even a spell checker. And the iBooks app that launched with the iPad will be available on iPhones.

Here's the rundown on the rest:

Folders. A welcome feature, this will allow iPhone apps to be better organized and more numerous. You'll be able to gather apps into mini folders by dragging the icon from one app over that of another. The feature automatically names the folder based on the category the apps share. Because each app will now occupy less real estate on the phone's desktop, you'll be able to store up to 2,160 apps on your phone, up from the current 180 app limit.

Better e-mail functionality. Besides having a unified view of your various e-mail accounts, you'll be able to open attachments with third-party apps from the app store (Something you can already do on the iPad). You can also organize your messages by thread, as you can on a Mac desktop. Clicking the ">>" symbol will take you to the entire thread. And corporate users will be pleased to know that they can now have more than one Exchange account, and that security features have been beefed up.

Social gaming. Taking a page from Microsoft's X-Box, iPhone OS 4's Game Center will provide developers with the "ecosystem" to enable networked gaming—that is, to allow gamers to play others individually or in group. Not much else was revealed about this feature, including how, and how much, you'll pay to use it.

iAds. This new platform will enable developers to more easily embed advertising into their apps, while at the same time making the experience better (or at least less painful) for consumers. For one thing, clicking on an ad won't take you away from the app you're using, so you won't lose your place. In addition, the platform provides more tools for adding built-in games, richly-interactive videos, and, of course, various purchase options.

"This is about helping our developers make some money through advertising to keep their free apps free," said Steve Jobs.

—Mike Gikas