Apple announced the release of iPhone 4 and along with it the ability to upgrade to the new iPhone OS renamed to iOS for existing iPhone 3G, 3GS, and iPod Touch owners. The release date for the update was scheduled for June 21st, 3 days before the release of the new iPhone4 and now after much anticipation iOS 4 is now available for download…best of all, it’s a free upgrade. When you click Check for Updates in iTunes, you should see the message below.
Update 1 (3:01PM EST)– I started the update at about 1:15PM EST after the file was downloaded, but I was prompted to create a backup of the iPhone before proceeding, which I did and now it’s been close to 2 hours and the backup is still going. This is really slow. I only have about 2GB of data stored on iPhone…anyone else experiencing this? I have an iPhone 3GS 16GB.
Update 2 (3:24PM EST) – iOS4 is running on my iPhone 3GS, 2 hours and 9 minutes later.
Looks like the release time for the iOS4 update was 1PM EST or 10AM PST.
Who can get the update?
The following iPhone and iPod touch devices can use the iOS 4 software update.
- iPhone 3G
- iPhone 3GS
- iPhone 4
- iPod touch 2nd generation
- iPod touch 3rd generation (late 2009 models with 32GB or 64GB)
So what’s in the update?
iOS 4 Software Update Details
This update contains over 100 new features, including the following:
- Multitasking support for third-party apps*
- Multitasking user interface to quickly move between apps
- Support for audio apps to play in the background
- VoIP apps can receive and maintain calls in the background or when device is asleep
- Apps can monitor location and take action while running in the background
- Alerts and messages can be pushed to apps using push and local notifications
- Apps can complete tasks in the background
- Folders to better organize and access apps
- Home screen Wallpaper*
- Mail improvements
- Unified inbox to view emails from all accounts in one place
- Fast inbox switching to quickly switch between different email accountsThreaded messages to view multiple emails from the same conversation
- Attachments can be opened with compatible third- party apps
- Search results can now be filed or deleted – Option to select size of photo attachments
- Messages in the Outbox can be edited or deleted
- Support for iBooks and iBookstore (available from the App Store)
- Photo and Camera improvements – 5x digital zoom when taking a photo**
- Tap to focus during video recording**
- Ability to sync Faces from iPhoto
- Geo-tagged photos appear on a map in Photos
- Ability to create and edit playlists on device
- Calendar invitations can be sent and accepted wirelessly with supported CalDAV servers
- Support for MobileMe calendar sharing
- Suggestions and recent searches appear during a web search
- Searchable SMS/MMS messages**
- Spotlight search can be continued on web and Wikipedia
- Enhanced location privacy
- New Location Services icon in the status bar
- Indication of which apps have requested your location in the last 24 hours
- Location Services can be toggled on or off for individual apps
- Automatic spellcheck
- Support for Bluetooth keyboards*
- iPod out to navigate music, podcasts and audiobooks through an iPod interface with compatible cars
- Support for iTunes gifting of apps
- Wireless notes syncing with IMAP-based mail accounts
- Persistent WiFi connection to receive push notifications*
- New setting for turning on/off cellular data only**
- Option to display the character count while composing new SMS/MMS**
- Visual Voicemail messages can be kept locally even if they have been deleted from the server**
- Control to lock portrait orientation*
- Audio playback controls for iPod and third-party audio apps*
- New languages, dictionaries and keyboards
- Accessibility enhancements*
- Bluetooth improvements
- Better data protection using the device passcode as an encryption key* (Requires full restore.)
- Support for third-party Mobile Device Management solutions
- Enables wireless distribution of enterprise applications
- Exchange Server 2010 compatibility
- Support for multiple Exchange ActiveSync accounts
- Support for Juniper Junos Pulse and Cisco AnyConnect SSL VPN apps (available from the App Store) More than 1,500 new developer APIs
- Bug fixes Products compatible with this software update:
- iPhone 3G
- iPhone 3GS
- iPhone 4
- iPod touch 2nd generation
- iPod touch 3rd generation (late 2009 models with 32GB or 64GB)
* Requires iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPod touch 3rd generation. ** Requires iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 4. SMS/MMS messaging and Visual Voicemail require support from your wireless carrier. For feature descriptions and complete instructions, see the user guides for iPhone and iPod touch at: http://support.apple.com/manuals/iphone http://support.apple.com/manuals/ipodtouch For more information about iPhone and iPod touch, go to: http://www.apple.com/iphone http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch To troubleshoot your iPhone or iPod touch, or to view additional support information go to: http://www.apple.com/support/iphone http://www.apple.com/support/ipodtouch For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222
