Apple's "iPhone OS" Event Live Coverage - April 8th, 2010 || The Mac Observer

Live Coverage of Apple's "iPhone OS" Event on April 8th, 2010

1:00 PM EDT, April 8th, 2010 - Digg This! or Tweet This!
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[2:40 PM] Bryan: Steve noted that if you see a device with a stylus, that maker blew it. Same goes for a task manager. If you see a task manager, the developer blew it. Hear! Hear! And that's it, just as I am running out of power.

[2:39 PM] Bryan: Question about whetehr developers would be able to use third party ad networks and third party social gaming services. Steve said yes to both.

[2:38 PM] Bryan: Question about Apple being concerned about leaving older iPhone users out. Steve said that the iPhone 3GS has been a big hit, i.e. that it's a large portion of users, and that if the new features prompt people to get a new device, so much the better.

[2:36 PM] Bryan: Then the dude starts trying to pimp his own company. Time and place, dude, there is a time and place. This ain't it.

[2:36 PM] Bryan: Question about improving the App Store. Steve notes that Apple can change that any time - it's not part of iPhone OS. Apple will continue to introduce new features, for instance Genius Bar, and that he sees infrastructure being built up by the broader ecosystem to accommodate user needs.

[2:32 PM] Bryan: Phil Schiller: "The pace of this" has just blown Apple away. Steve noted that other platforms might hope for 3,500 apps in a year. Apple has had that in a week.

[2:31 PM] Bryan: Question about any surprises in the iPad in its first few days. Steve said that he thinks that "people get it." He thinks it will be looked abck on as a major turning point in computation devices. What has grabbed him, though, is that, "people immediately got it." he's gotten thousands of e-mails from people thanking him and telling him how important they think the iPad is.

[2:29 PM] Bryan: Question about running unsigned apps on the iPhone. Steve noted there was a porn store for Android, and that it was open to everyone, including your kids. "That's a place we don't want to go," Steve said.

[2:28 PM] Bryan: Question about revenue opportunities for Apple on iAd. Steve said it wasn't being done to make a big profit, but to offer the service to developers.

[2:27 PM] Bryan: Question about what Apple can do to keep users from using their iPhones while driving. Whatever, dude - that's hardly Apple's responsibility. But, Steve said that Apple has worked hard to integrate the iPhone with cars so that people can use them handsfree.

[2:24 PM] Bryan: Steve was asked about expanding iAd, and he said Apple has no interest in becoming an international ad agency. He said they don't know a lot about the market yet. He acknowledged they tried to buy AdMob, but had to buy Quattro Wireless instead. I'd add that it looks like I will NOT be having to print my article on iAd and eat it. w00t!

[2:22 PM] Bryan: Steve is waxing passionately about how iPhone is the first friction-free app delivery platform in the history of computing. "This stuf has never existed on PCs, and it still doesn't."

[2:20 PM] Bryan: Asking for more info on the billion ad impressions thing mentioned earlier. 30 minutes per day per user, one ad every three minutes = 10 impressions per user per day. Apple will soon cross 100 million devices, which equals a billion impressions per day. Thos numbers are a tad loose and vague to me, but the underlying principal is valid.

[2:18 PM] Bryan: Question about information widgets on iPad. Steve quipped that they just shipped it on Saturday, "and we rested on Sunday." Zing!

[2:16 PM] Bryan: Question about Twitter timeline or chat time line so that apps can remember where you are. Steve gestured to Scott, who said that Notifications are awesome. More to the point, Fast App Switching will remember state, which seems to me will mostly address that need.

[2:14 PM] Bryan: Question: Will there be required tools for the new ads. Steve: No. As long as they are HTML 5 ads.

[2:13 PM] Bryan: For some bizarre reason, a dude asked if there would be a change on the status of Java or Flash on iPhone OS 4. Where has that guy been? Steve: "No"

[2:12 PM] Bryan: Question if Apple would approve ads with a process similar to apps. Steve said he hopes it will be a light touch, at most. I would infer that they haven't thought a lot about that.

[2:11 PM] Bryan: Question on why Apple was starting their own social gaming network. Steve said they were asked to do so, and that it will be a huge network because gaming on the iPhone is so big.

[2:08 PM] Bryan: Steve, Phil Schiller and Scot Forstall are on stage doing a Q&A

[2:03 PM] Bryan: Steve is done. I need to move!

[2:03 PM] Bryan: This is shipping for iPhone 3GS and iPod touch 3rd Gen this Summer. iPhone 3G and iPod touch 2nd Gen will support some, but not all of the new features. iPad iPhone OS 4 is coming in the Fall.

[2:01 PM] Bryan: Steve is reviewing now, going over the 7 "tent poles" of the 100 new user features and 1,500 developers APIs in iPhone OS 4. Developer preview is being released today.

[2:01 PM] Bryan: Ad agencies will be able to make these ads, as will iPhone developers. In other words, Apple won't be making them. This represents a great opportunity for a lot of developers to make some money on the side.

[2:00 PM] Bryan: A target ad has a commercial built into it. You can build your own dorm room with an interactive thing. "I am a dude," he chose, then the theme of music, the University o Michigan, and he pieced together his dorm room. Then picked a store near him where he can pick the stuff up. Really incredible.

[1:58 PM] Bryan: The Air Jordan ad has a timeline look at the Air Jordan shoe, some photos, NikeID that allows you to make your own shoe - shake for other custom built options. A map for local stores, the ability to download a Nike app directly from the ad.

[1:57 PM] Bryan: He's looking at a Nike ad. "This is not an endorsement, BTW, we just love their brand and love their products." You know, but it's not an endorsement.

[1:56 PM] Bryan: This ad even includes an in-ad game, a Toy Story 3 Concentration-style game. It has theater listings (using Google Maps, we might add!). You can buy a dedicated game right from the ad, too. This is frankly incredible and is going to leave Google and everyone else in the dust.

[1:55 PM] Bryan: In a shot at Adobe, he noted the ad was built entirely with HTML 5 standards. Users, BTW, can tap an obvious "X" to take them back to the app.

[1:54 PM] Bryan: He's looking at a Tory Story 3 ad. "I've seen that movie, BTW, and it's really good." That got a big laugh from the audience. He tapped on it, info about the movie popped up that includes (in this case) character audio clips and pics, and other interactive features.

[1:53 PM] Bryan: Developers can add iAd through an API. Apple will sell and host the ads. Developers will get 60% of the ad revenue, in what Steve said is the industry standard.

[1:52 PM] Bryan: "The ads keep you in your app." He said that current mobile ads yank you from your app by taking the user to a browser page, out of the app. Steve said that iAd is going to change that by offering information within the apps when users tap on it.

[1:51 PM] Bryan: Apple wants to deliver interactive ads, ads that convey or offer or tap emotion. Emotion + Interactivity.

[1:50 PM] Bryan: Steve said that users spend an average of 30 minutes a day in their iPhone apps, and that this represents 1 billion ad impression opportunities per day. He said that Apple could do it better than what's being done already.

[1:49 PM] Bryan: In a poke at Google, Steve said that advertising on the desktop is in search, but that isn't the case in mobile devices. He didn't mention Google by name.

[1:48 PM] Bryan: For those keeping score at home, this is when we find out that I won't be eating my own article.

[1:48 PM] Bryan: As expected, #7 is a mobile advertising network. Apple is calling it iAd, as Peter Kafka from AllThingsD reported two days ago.

[1:47 PM] Bryan: Apple is adding an API for multiplayer gaming. Users can find similar players, invite friends, share a game, and more. It is being previewed in iPhone OS 4 and will be available "later this year."

[1:46 PM] Bryan: #6 is Game Center. There are 50,700 Game & Entertainment titles in the App Store, which dwarfs the other mobile platforms, including the dedicated devices.

[1:45 PM] Bryan: Also, there will be Mobile Device Management, and Wireless app distribution, which is aimed at the Enterprise market. Multiple Exchange accounts, Exchange Server 2010, and SSL VPN support are coming, too.

[1:44 PM] Bryan: Scott Forstall is back on stage talking about better encryption in iPhone OS 4. He didn't offer details, but developers will be able to encrypt user data inside their apps.

[1:43 PM] Bryan: Apple will autosync your page between devices, and iPhone iBooks will also come with free Winnie-the-Pooh

[1:42 PM] Bryan: Speaking of dinosaurs, there's a cat near me taking notes with...what do you call that? Oh yeah, pen and paper. HAHAHAHA!!!

[1:41 PM] Bryan: We're on #4 of 7 new features we're looking at. It's iBooks for iPhone. Same online book store, of course.

[1:41 PM] Bryan: You can open attachments from an e-mail with an app, directly from inside the e-mail. That's great!

[1:40 PM] Bryan: You can have a unified in-box in Mail. You can also do Fast Inbox Switching for looking at individual inboxes. There's a threading system, too, with on-screen notification for seeing how many messages are in a thread.

[1:39 PM] Bryan: You can now have 2,180 apps on your iPhone. Seriously. That's up from 180. Download away!

[1:38 PM] Bryan: It looks like you can set different backgrounds for different screens, which would make it easier to recognize which set of apps you're looking at, if you're all organized and stuff.

[1:37 PM] Bryan: So, you drag an icon for one app on top of another app's icon. That automatically creates a Folder that contains those two apps. You can then drag as many apps as you want to that Folder.

[1:35 PM] Bryan: Steve is back on stage showing us Folders, a way of managing apps on-screen.

[1:34 PM] Bryan: Apple is also adding Fast App Switching, which Scott said should be the easiest for developers to use. Also new is Task Completion, but Scott didn't talk much about it.

[1:33 PM] Bryan: Apple is adding "Local Notifications" as an API. This allows a notification to be pushed to your screen without using Apple's servers. In other words, if the info is in your iPhone, an app can push it without tapping the network.

[1:32 PM] Bryan: Apple has pushed 10 billion Push notifications in the last 9 months.

[1:31 PM] Bryan: In addition, you can turn off Location Services on an app-by-app basis.

[1:31 PM] Bryan: Scott says that Apple is taking privacy "several steps" further. First, there is a status indicator in the menu bar that let you know if any app is using your Current Location.

[1:30 PM] Bryan: Apple is using cell towers for background GPS tracking. This allows the actual GPS chip to not be used, which saves power.

[1:29 PM] Bryan: Scott is back on stage talking about Tom Tom. He pulled up some Turn by Turn directions, then switched to Pandora. We heard Tom Tom voice directions come up over the music.

[1:28 PM] Bryan: Not sure if you can see it in that photo, but there's a red status bar at the top of the screen to indicate an in-progress Skype call.

[1:28 PM] Bryan: So Skype has to be running to receive phone calls, but it doesn't have to be in the foreground to do so. That's handy. Oh, and they used my favorite game, Doodle Jump, to demo the notification feature.

[1:27 PM] Bryan: So Skype has to be running to receive phone calls, but it doesn't have to be in the foreground to do so. That's handy. Oh, and they used my favorite game, Doodle Jump, to demo the notification feature.

[1:26 PM] Bryan: Chap from Skype is on stage. Didn't catch his name.

[1:25 PM] Bryan: With iPhone OS 4, you can switch apps and keep your Skype call active. You can also receive Skype calls when the app is not running in the foreground.

[1:24 PM] Bryan: Scott is back on stage. We're moving on to Skype.

[1:24 PM] Bryan: One can control Pandora through on-screen controls even when the iPhone is locked. He's showing us how you can keep listening while tapping through to iTunes.

[1:23 PM] Bryan: BTW, I'd count it as a personal favor if you requested The Atomic Love Bombs from Pandora. Just saying...

[1:22 PM] Bryan: He said that Pandora adds 30,000 new listeners per day just through the iPhone, and that the iPhone initially doubled listenership.

[1:22 PM] Bryan: Tim Westergren from Pandora is on stage with his CTO to show us how Pandora is going to take advantage of Apple's new API.

[1:20 PM] Bryan: Apple is providing seven different multitasking APIs. The first is a background audio API. To wit: Pandora.

[1:19 PM] Bryan: Steve is going to explain how Apple was able to do this while preserving battery life. Scott Forstall is on stage to actually do so.

[1:18 PM] Bryan: "A really simple UI," Steve said. "It's very, very easy to use, and we think users are going to love it."

[1:17 PM] Bryan: This got a round of applause from the audience. Switching back and forth between apps is fast, easy. Very impressive.

[1:17 PM] Bryan: Steve is demoing for us: He opened an e-mail with a link, tapped the link to open the browser. He double tapped the home button and the currently open apps were displayed. Tap the app, go to it.

[1:16 PM] Bryan: Steve says that Apple's approach to multitasking is going to be better than the competition, and that it will keep your iPhone from bogging down.

[1:15 PM] Bryan: "We weren't the first one to this, but I think we'll be the best."

[1:14 PM] Bryan: Gift apps are coming. Lots of new hardware accelerated APIs to tap into, too. And the first one we'll look at in depth is multitasking.

[1:13 PM] Bryan: There are 100 new features in the SDK.

[1:12 PM] Bryan: Now we're moving on to iPhone OS 4 "developer preview."

[1:12 PM] Bryan: Apple has sold 50 million iPhones and 85 million iPhones plus iPod touches.

[1:11 PM] Bryan: iPhone OS has some 64% of mobile browsing market share. The other players combine for less than half that. That's amazing.

[1:11 PM] Bryan: There have been 4 billion downloads from the App Store, and there are now some 185,000 different apps.

[1:10 PM] Bryan: Steve is running through some of the magazines on the iPad. His team somehow managed to find front pages and covers that didn't include pics of Steve or the iPad. That likely took scores of man hours to accomplish.

[1:07 PM] Bryan: 3,500 iPad apps up already. Steve is running us through some of them.

[1:07 PM] Bryan: Steve is showing a series of pics of a small child getting her iPad, ending with her clutching it like a favorite doll. The audience got a nice laugh.

[1:06 PM] Bryan: 200,000 iBooks downloaded through the first day! That's amazing. 600,000 through today. 1 million iPad apps on first day, 3.5 million through today.

[1:05 PM] Bryan: 450,000 iPads sold through today.

[1:04 PM] Bryan: He's going over some reviewer quotes.

[1:04 PM] Bryan: We're definitely doing iPhone OS 4, in case there was any lingering doubt. Steve's updating us on some things, first. Shockingly, we're starting with the iPad.

[1:03 PM] Bryan: And here he is.

[1:01 PM] Bryan: We've been asked to go into silent mode, which mean His Steveness should be appearing at any moment.

[12:57 PM] Bryan: As you can see by the pic, we're in. I am not pleased to realize that for events like this I now need bifocals so I can see both my screen and the stage. Maybe Nancy can hook me up.

[12:48 PM] Bryan: I think we're about to be allowed in to the theater here at Apple. I'm going to close up until we're seated. See you inside!

[12:41 PM] Bryan: Mayhaps I'm just grumpy at having to wait for the 3G units to ship.

[12:41 PM] Bryan: Of course, I'm on a laptop, too. I feel like a dinosaur milling around with a bunch of other dinosaurs, blissfully unaware of the sea change happening just out of view.

[12:39 PM] Bryan: Surprisingly, I've only seen one iPad so far. Most folks seem to be on laptops for this event, but then most of the computing devices present are still in bags.

[12:34 PM] Bryan: I fear I fit in neither category, mind you. Working on being hip enough to be a hipster, but I keeping coming up short.

[12:31 PM] Bryan: If this crowd of hipsters and tweed jackets is any indication, I've arrive for Apple's media event!

[12:02 PM] Dave: Bryan is en route to the event. We expect him to be arriving shortly, and he'll post here once he's there!

[5:43 PM] Dave: Just a test of the gateway here. Move along. We'll be back bright and early with more of what you're looking for!

[3:32 PM] Stephen: You're a little early, but don't fret!
We will be providing live coverage of Apple's "Future of iPhone OS" Special Event.
It's scheduled to start at 10 AM PDT (1 PM EDT, 17:00 UTC).
Check what time it starts in your time zone here.
When the time comes, TMO will be there... and you'll be here, reading everything we know.