Apple released their iOS4 operating system for iPhone on June 21st, and many of our clients have been asking if they should upgrade their iPhones to iOS4 yet, or if they should hold off until some bugs are found, and updates are released.
I’ve been testing iOS4 out on my 32GB iPhone 3GS for the past 48 hours, and I recommend this update for any iPhone 3GS owners. I would, however, recommend that owners of iPhone 3G skip this upgrade, as the iPhone 3G runs the new OS really really slowly.
I have had only one issue with the update. I was in Los Angeles yesterday, where AT&T data coverage is notoriously terrible. In fact, I didn’t even have a 3G signal where I was. I had to settle for the EDGE network. (remember the EDGE network? 2G data speeds? Sheesh…)
I landed at a client’s house in Santa Monica, and put my iPhone 3GS on their WiFi network, and then downloaded a full album from the iTunes store. Now, this should have been an easy process since I was on WiFi, right? Yeah. Not really.
My signal strength meter (AT&T’s, not my WiFi) kept going up and down, because, again, AT&T’s service is awful in LA, and my phone kept getting really confused and would hang other processes. Eventually the album finally did download, but after the download, the iPhone’s iPod app would crash upon launch. I restarted my iPhone several times to no avail. The iPod app crashed every time I launched it, without fail.
This, of course, was not cool, as I was relying upon my iPod being able to play my brand new album on my 2 hour trip back up to Santa Barbara from Santa Monica. I tried instead to listen to Pandora, but that didn’t work well, because — a point I’m laboring to get across effectively here — AT&T’s signal sucks in LA. I digress..
The solution for this, unfortunately, was to sync my phone to my iMac upon my return home, to ensure that I didn’t lose the music I had just purchased. Once synced, (the iPod still crashed) a complete iOS4 restore was necessary. Luckily, this took all of about 15 minutes. I moved all of my music back over (view THIS article for tips on how to best protect the music on your iPhone) and my iPhone and I were back in business. I’ve since stress tested the new iOS4, and haven’t found any other issues with it. I’m pretty happy with it so far, and I’m looking forward to testing it out on a new iPhone 4!
For more information about Apple’s iOS4, check out this great article from Michael Santo, which appeared on the 21st on examiner.com
June 21st has come and gone, and iOS 4 arrived with it. The latest version of Apple’s smartphone platform will bring with it a laundry list of long-desired features, so we have to wonder how many will update immediately?
Frequently, as we have said before, it’s not a bad idea to wait a while, and let the dust settle, along with the bugs found by early adopters. Certainly, those with jailbroken devices shouldn’t update, and they’ll lose their jailbreak: they will need to wait for a new jailbreak for iOS 4 to be created.
Meanwhile, for those who have decided to “go for it,” before you do anything, you should update your iTunes software to 9.2, the latest version. If you haven’t done it already, and are anxious to install, you’ll probably be annoyed: it generally takes quite some time for an iTunes install.
Typical of an iOS update (and yes, it is difficult to type iOS rather than iPhone OS for Apple’s newly renamed operating system), you’ll be notified via iTunes when you plug in your device and click “Check for Updates” (except for the original 2007 iPhone and iPod touch models, as well as the iPad: none of those are compatible. The iPad will get the iOS 4 features in its own release later this year).
This differs from Palm webOS and Android devices, which usually get their updates over-the-air (OTA), although some Android devices have seen standalone installers.
Assuming you’ve clicked “Check for Updates” and iTunes has told you there’s one available, and assuming your device is compatible, iTunes will lead you through the rest of the process. If your settings don’t back your device automatically when you plug it in, you should back it up manually.
To do this, right-click on the device icon in the iTunes sidebar and select Back Up. It should only take a few minute to create a backup. It’s a good idea, as being the early adopter you are, if anything goes wrong you can use the Restore from Backup option.
What is the incentive to upgrade to iOS 4? First, as developers continue to release software using iOS 4, they will require you have that on your device to run their software. There is also the incentive to be on the latest and greatest OS. Finally, there are a number of new features, some of which people have been craving for a long time.
Some of the new features are actually present in the iPad’s version of the OS, 3.2. The most notable of these changes include:
Multi-tasking: Unlike most multi-tasking OSes, iOS 4 isn’t a free-for-all. As we discussed earlier when we covered iOS 4 in detail, Apple has “distilled” multitasking to seven core services. Apps are already being posted to the App Store that support multitasking, but be aware that the vast majority will not yet do so.
That said, if you fire up a game and answer the phone and come back to the game, don’t get annoyed just yet if it doesn’t return to where you were. Time will fix this issue. Oh, and don’t forget: the iPhone 3G will not support this feature.
Folders: Finally, although this will close down the cottage industry that was Folder Support on jailbroken devices. Instead of having screen after screen of icons, you can combine them into folders, so that all your games, for example, are in one folder.
Orientation lock: The iPhone doesn’t have a hardware switch like the iPad, but iOS4 adds a software lock. This keeps the iPhone from changing orientation, and is particularly useful when reading lying down (which is why the iPad had the feature out of the gate). Double-click on the Home button and swipe to the left to find it.
Read the rest of this excellent article HERE.
