Apple has renamed its iPhone operating system from "iPhone OS" to "iOS," to reflect its spread to iPod and iPad, and the company unveiled a slate of new features including multitasking and support for iPhone 4's high-res display.
At Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco, attended by Gamasutra, CEO Steve Jobs said the new OS will have a total of 1,500 developer APIs, including more than 100 new features -- most notably the long-awaited multitasking.
"It's our most ambitious release to date," said Jobs. "Some people were saying you weren’t first with multitasking. The same was true with cut/copy/paste. But we took some time to figure out how to do it right."
No final release date was given, but Jobs said a release candidate will be available for developers today.
The new OS adds a user-selectable search engine choice between Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft's Bing. "Microsoft has done a great job on this," said Jobs.
Also new to iOS 4 are deeper enterprise-level support, folders, improvements to existing features like mail and the camera, and more.
The name "IOS" is already in use by Cisco for its highly-ubiquitous router and switch software. That company is already familiar with Apple muscling in on its trademark turf: it owned the "iPhone" trademark before Apple began using it, prompting legal conflict and eventual settlement.
Photo: Engadget
