iPhone OS 4 features (photos)

CNET shows you some of the more important new features to look forward to in iPhone OS 4.

Nicole Lee

April 14, 2010 4:45 p.m. PT

1 of 17

James Martin/CNET

Multitasking

Arguably the most intriguing addition to iPhone OS 4 is the support for multitasking. It comes in a variety of flavors--via push notifications, background music, VoIP, and more. We'll take you through a few of them in the following slides.

2 of 17

James Martin/CNET

Background music

With iPhone OS 4, you'll finally be able to play streaming music from Internet radio services like Pandora while you're in other areas of the phone. Previously the only app that was allowed to play music while you were switching between apps was the iPhone's own iPod player.

3 of 17

James Martin/CNET

Pandora from lock screen

In addition, you'll be able to control your Pandora music from the lock screen, which you couldn't do previously.

4 of 17

James Martin/CNET

Skype

With iPhone OS 4, you can also now take calls over Skype while in other areas of the phone. We don't know yet, however, if you are able to do this via Wi-Fi only or with 3G as well.

5 of 17

James Martin/CNET

VoIP multitasking

An example of the Skype app with multitasking.

6 of 17

James Martin/CNET

GPS in the background

Similarly, you can now run the TomTom GPS app in the background while you're taking a phone call.

7 of 17

James Martin/CNET

Background location

iPhone OS 4 lets you choose which location apps you want to run in the background. So you don't have to let all of them run in the background if you don't want to.

8 of 17

James Martin/CNET

Improved Mail

Another welcome addition to iPhone OS 4 are improvements to the Mail app. You will now get a unified in-box, multiple Exchange accounts, fast in-box switching, threaded conversations, and the capability to open attachments with apps.

9 of 17

James Martin/CNET

Threaded e-mail

You can organize your e-mail by thread with iPhone OS 4.

10 of 17

James Martin/CNET

Social gaming

Apple clearly recognizes the popularity of gaming among iPhone users, and introduced a social gaming platform. There will be a gaming leaderboard with achievements, matchmaking, and more.

11 of 17

James Martin/CNET

Folders, finally

Finally, Apple iPhone OS 4 will introduce a folder infrastructure so you can easily organize your apps and documents.

12 of 17

James Martin/CNET

Example of Folders

An example of how Folders would work. You can add apps by dragging and dropping them.

13 of 17

James Martin/CNET

iBooks

Unsurprisingly, Apple iPhone OS 4 takes a cue from the iPad when it comes to iBooks integration. You will now be able to purchase and download ebooks from the iBooks store and read them on the iPhone as well. You can sync pages and bookmarks, too.