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>> Brian Tong: Brian Tong here outside of Apple headquarters at the conclusion of their iPhone OS 4.0 announcements, and the big news, multi-tasking is here.
>> Let's start off with the first one, which is probably going to be the biggest one, and that is multi-tasking. [applause]
>> Brian Tong: Now, we know multi-tasking exists on other phones, but really the way Apple showcased it and its execution is what stood out. You can use applications like Pandora, listen to your music, interact with other apps. Another example was using Skype, where you could take a phone call and then jump into other applications, still be on the same phone call, and look for all the information that you need. We also saw Folders. We know plenty of you have so many apps, you just don't know how to organize them. They showed a cool little way to drag and drop them on top of each other. It creates a folder, and then you could see the icons of the apps in that folder. And one feature that took us by surprise is Apple is implementing what they call Game Center. Now, this is essentially a social network for gaming much like Xbox Live, but now on the iPhone platform. You can invite friends, you can earn achievements, check out leaderboards. This is a space that Apple's never ventured into, and it was really a surprise. And then the rumored iApps platform. Apple is getting into the mobile advertising business -
>> We think most of this mobile advertising really sucks. [laughter] And we thought we might be able to make some contributions.
>> Brian Tong: What made this different is how you can actually play with ads within the app. You don't have to go outside of it, and these ads themselves kind of look like applications on their own. Apple is sharing 60 percent of the revenues with the developers, but Apple is getting into the mobile advertising business.
>> To infinity and beyond.
>> Brian Tong: Some of the features they showcase an enhanced Mail application. It has a unified inbox so you can have multiple accounts, multiple Exchange accounts, and a cool thing that I liked, organizing your e-mails by threads. I-books, we've seen it on the iPad. It's coming to the iPhone, and surprise, Apple's actually giving you something free.
>> We're going to supply a free book [laughter], and we think "Winnie the Pooh" is [applause] a good choice.
>> Brian Tong: There's also some new enterprise features. So businesses will really enjoy that, but the big news is multi-tasking is here. It's only going to be supporting currently the iPhone 3GS and third-gen iPod Touch. For those of you who have an iPhone 3G or second-gen Touch, you'll have some of the iPhone OS features, but not multi-tasking.
>> If the user has to use a task manager to manage which applications are running in the background and which aren't, they blew it.
>> Brian Tong: Joining me know, Senior Editor Kent German of CNET.com Kent, what was the feature that really stood out the most to you?
>> Kent German: Well, of course, multi-tasking. One thing we've always asked for on the iPhone is something, you know, task manager, but Steve Jobs said today, well, if they're doing a task manager, they're doing it wrong. And Apple does seem to have a nice way to do it. You just be able to call up, see all the apps that are running, and be able to select what you want. Seems pretty cool.
>> Brian Tong: Now, some people are going to be left in the dark because the iPhone 3G and second-gen iPod Touch doesn't support it. Should they upgrade?
>> Kent German: Well, they don't have to answer that question yet because WWC, Apple's Worldwide Developers' Conference, will be in June. We don't know exactly when. We should see new hardware there. So I would wait until that point because the OS isn't going to be available until after then. So then you can make the choice, then, well, I'm just going to buy the iPhone 3GS, or I'm going to get this new hardware, whatever it might be.
>> Brian Tong: Alright. Thanks, Kent. Now, the iPhone OS 4.0, it's going to be available sometime in summer of this year. Also for the iPad they said sometime in Fall. So we'll wait to see all that. For CNET.com, I'm Brian Tong.
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