Through what can only be described as relentless and consistent improvement over the years, Apple has made iOS one of the most feature-rich and well-supported platforms on the market.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about iOS is how similar the OS as it exists today is to the OS as it existed , yet the number and breadth of features that Apple has baked in since then is mind boggling. Far from suffering from the "feature creep" that typically bogs down operating systems over time, iOS has managed to stay relatively snappy and is more internally consistent than anything else available today.
And iOS 8 — launching on devices this fall — looks to evolve the story even further. Read on to see exactly how Apple evolved its mobile platform over the years, in our history of iOS. During the original iPhone announcement, Apple touted that it ran on the same Unix core as Mac OS X and that it used many of the same tools. However, it was clear even then that while there may be some shared elements between OS X and this new phone OS, it was a different-enough beast to warrant its own branding.
For the sake of simplicity and because it's a much-less awkward phrase , I'm going to indulge in a little revisionist history here and refer to all versions of the operating system as "iOS" in this piece. Although it may be difficult to imagine now, when the original iPhone was introduced, it was actually well behind the competition when it came to a strict feature-by-feature comparison. Comparatively, the iPhone didn't support 3G, it didn't support multitasking, it didn't support 3rd party apps, you couldn't copy or paste text, you couldn't attach arbitrary files to emails, it didn't support MMS, it didn't support Exchange push email, it didn't have a customizable home screen, it didn't support tethering, it hid the filesystem from users, it didn't support editing Office documents, it didn't support voice dialing, and it was almost entirely locked down to hackers and developers.
Yet all of those missing features hardly mattered and nearly everybody knew it. Instead of competing on specs, Apple focused on getting the core experience right. It focused on speed, consistency between apps, and a making a few features radically better than anything else that was available in Although there were obviously a ton of innovations in iOS 1. The core iOS user interface.
Until iOS, smartphones either didn't have a touchscreen or used a resistive touchscreen and a stylus. The iPhone changed that with its capacitive touchscreen, but more importantly Apple carefully wedded that new hardware capability to a new user interaction model that was simultaneously simpler and more powerful than systems that had come before it.
Removing all physical buttons save 5, Apple made touch the primary interaction model. Apple also nearly perfected pinch-to-zoom and inertial scrolling to make apps feel more natural and immediate. The speed and "directness" in iOS 1.
Mobile Safari web browser. Those new gestures came into their own on the Safari web browser for iOS. It was, as Jobs himself bragged when unveiling it, literally years ahead of the competition.
Yes, it famously has never supported the Flash plugin, but it was the first mobile web browser that felt nearly as capable and powerful as a full desktop browser. Where other mobile operating systems reflowed, reformatted, or simply broke the look and feel of web pages, mobile Safari presented the web fully and offered simple zoom and scrolling features that were unmatched at the time.
A "widescreen" iPod. Apple used its already-massive iTunes and iPod ecosystem to provide an "anchor" for the OS and the beginnings of what would eventually become a huge ecosystem of music, movies, television, books, and apps. For many, listening to music may no longer be in the top five things they use their smartphone for, but at the time the iPod functionality in iOS 1. Google Maps was shockingly better on the iPhone than it had been on any other platform.
Apple fully utilized the new pinch-to-zoom functionality to make the app feel smooth and quick, but more importantly it felt more intuitive and natural to use than even desktop mapping software. Visual voicemail was a clever trick that allowed users to jump directly to any voicemail without having to sit through endless voice prompts. It also showed off Apple's newfound ability to cut deals with carriers. Visual Voicemail was a signal that Apple, not the carrier, was to be the main provider the user experience.
Anybody who has struggled with Palm's HotSync or Microsoft's ActiveSync can appreciate that simple and reliable desktop syncing was hugely important. It was also an example of Apple's ability to take complicated features that had given other companies and users headaches and simplify them to the point of invisibility. The software keyboard on iOS 1. Yes, systems like PalmOS' Graffiti and 3rd-party extensions like FitalyStamp enabled text entry with a stylus, but iOS' paradigm of showing you the keyboard when you needed it and giving you more screen real estate for reading when you didn't was an important step forward for mass market smartphones.
I've spent quite a bit of time heaping praise on iOS 1. Still, there were plenty of shortcomings. The largest was that iOS 1. Apple tried to fill that gap by promoting web apps, but in HTML apps weren't ready to carry that load for the platform. Some including yours truly even argued that it may not even be technically correct to call the iPhone a smartphone, since it didn't offer a platform to develop against beyond the web browser.
Multitasking on other smartphone platforms wasn't a great experience, but it did work for many and the lack of it on iOS 1. That design decision is still hotly debated to this day, but it did serve to simplify the device and make it more user-friendly. However, it could be said that the different layers of abstraction it sometimes requires can be off-putting the inability to include an attachment in an email reply comes to mind.
Other limitations, like the inability to change alert tones, were maddening if only because they were so easy to change on even the simplest feature phone. Lastly, iOS 1. Hitting the home button always brought you to it, no matter where you were in the OS, presenting the user with a simple but not yet re-arrangeable grid of icons. In a feature-for-feature comparison chart, an OS like Windows Mobile beat the iPhone in nearly every metric.
When it came to actual usability, however, it was no contest. I don't need to tell you which ended up being more important in the long run. Three months after releasing the original iPhone, Apple released its first major software update for the device, iOS 1. It was notable for a few reasons. First, it established a pattern of releasing major new versions of iOS concurrently with new devices — in this case, the original iPod Touch.
It also established that Apple would be continuously updating iOS with new versions and new features and that those software updates would be offered across as much of its iOS product line as possible. With only two devices, it's not fair to credit Apple too much for avoiding fragmentation at this early stage of iOS's progression, but the precedent was set here.
As the name implies, the store only worked over Wi-Fi. Apple called these "Web Clips" and though the new functionality was appreciated, it mainly served as a reminder that there was no native app SDK.
I distinctly remember at the time that the general feeling around the iPhone was a mix of impatience and excitement: impatience because we could clearly see the unfulfilled potential of the iOS platform and excitement because we had already learned by then that Apple was capable of pushing out regular feature updates.
Around this time, each new feature that came to iOS was met with a "finally! Native apps weren't on iOS yet, but everybody seemed to know they were coming, and soon.
The App Store. Critically, the App Store existed both on the device itself and within iTunes, where users could easily browse and install apps. Just as importantly, the App Store used Apple's already established base of iTunes music customers, so users wouldn't have to re-enter their credit card information in order to make purchases.
It meant that finding and installing apps was easier than ever before and they quickly would become impulse buys. The second innovation was simply that the iPhone was a powerful device and Apple provided a development kit for iOS that offered incredible tools for developers.
The combination gave the platform a lead on apps that other companies are still trying to close in on. The introduction of apps and the App Store was not without some controversy, however. Apple did not completely open up iOS, but instead prevented users from "sideloading" any app they'd like.
The only legitimized way to install apps was via the App Store, and Apple set a policy of curating apps that would and wouldn't be allowed in. Apple regularly rejects certain classes of apps that are allowed on other platforms, including apps that allow tethering your computer to your iPhone for internet access. Another, perhaps unforeseen, consequence of the App Store was that apps became much much less expensive.
Top-selling charts for apps began to look like the top Billboard charts for music: if a developer could find a way to the top, he or she could make big money, but it was difficult at the bottom. Most of these concerns have gone away in the last couple of years and now there are many, many development houses and independent developers making their living by selling iOS apps. Microsoft Exchange support.
The most important of these was full support for Microsoft Exchange for push email, calendars, and contacts. Apple also introduced proper contact search previously you had to scroll through your contacts manually , as well as multi-selection for email. Apple also announced its own cloud-based service, which replaced.
Mac and provided integrated email, calendar, and contact sync. Unfortunately, iOS 2. The 2. It fixed a raft of bugs across the board on the OS and also added faster sync with iTunes. In terms of features, Maps saw the biggest updates, with Google Street View, walking directions, and public transit directions added in.
Instead, Apple filled in all sorts of gaps in iOS with a massive list of functionality and app updates touching every corner of the operating system. Cut, copy, and paste. With iOS 3. Apple's combination of a text-magnifying glass and selection sliders was intuitive and, as with many of its touch-friendly features, turned out to be well ahead of the competition in terms of usability.
As with many of the features introduced in iOS 3, this feature came later than users would have liked but Apple took the time to get the UI up to its own high standards. Spotlight search. Finding content was becoming a fairly big chore on iOS, so a system-wide search option was inevitable. Spotlight allowed users to go one screen to the left of the main homescreen to get a text box that could search across contacts, emails, calendars, notes, and the iPod.
More options would come later, but Apple had "finally" matched a feature that had been commonplace on BlackBerry, PalmOS, webOS, and Windows Mobile: quickly entering text from the home screen to search across the phone.
Push notifications for 3rd party apps. Although it had actually been promised at the iOS 2. Push notifications were able to serve as a sort of stopgap for many of the functions normally handed by proper multitasking. The feature would eventually become a victim of their own popularity, however, as the constant pop-up modal dialogs would come to annoy users. Apple also added MMS support, though by mid it was already becoming a less important feature for many users.
Other features in iOS 3. Another standard smartphone feature, voice dialing, was added in iOS 3. However, to be fair, Apple went a bit further with Voice Control, giving users the ability to dial contacts and also start or identify music. After iOS 1 established the platform and iOS 2 brought apps, iOS 3 was all about filling in most of the major complaints and "gotchas" for the platform. With the update, Apple was well on its way to not just reaching feature parity with competing platforms, but establishing an OS that could be dominate on the feature front.
Only a few major checkboxes remained, not the least of which was multitasking. A few months later, Apple released iOS 3. New UI paradigms for a larger screen. In order to bring iOS to the iPad, Apple didn't just "blow up" the iPhone UI, but rather added a few changes designed specifically for the larger screen.
The most significant was the addition to a left-hand sidebar list. Typically, an app would have a list of content you could drill down into, then go back to the list. Apple removed that step by displaying the list on the left and the content on the right, no "back" button required for most apps. Apple also made it so that you could still see your content in a full-screen simply by turning the iPad into portrait-mode. The list was then hidden not behind a back button, but instead became a pop-over list.
Apple added pop-over dialogs throughout the OS where previously the iPhone would require users to switch screens. New app designs. Safari received a dedicated row for bookmarks, Apple added CoverFlow to the App Store, the Photos app organized pictures into stacks of images that could be pinched-out for a sneak-peek of the images within, Music got a simplified, iTunes-like interface with rows of album art, and the Settings app received the two-pane treatment mentioned above.
Essentially, native app sthat would have looked silly "blown up" to the iPad's x screen resolution received UI tweaks for the iPad's larger screen. Name your device and restore with your backup optional. I bet you are feeling comfort now. This is easy way to enable multitasking on iPhone 3G.
By applying these steps you will get many extra features. We are always available to help you if you face any problem with this tutorial. Nice trick to get some more juice out of previous generation iPhone. Multitasking is very essential. You know what? I just love you! You are always so informative, and every one of your posts seems to address something that I have been thinking about in the days that have passed.
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Geek Dashboard, a technology blog strives to produce high-quality tech for our readers. Here you will find the latest updates on trending tech news, unbiased product reviews, and how-to guides on various gadgets. Posted on Sep 14, AM. Page content loaded. Sep 14, AM in response to tttt4 In response to tttt4. There is no multitasking bar for the iPhone 3G, that's why you don't have it, as the iPhone 3G does not support multitasking. Sep 14, AM. After you double-click the Home button to see what apps are in the background, swipe them back and forth to see more.
Swiping all the way to the left-most "screen" of them will show iPod controls. Swiping to the right will show all the apps that you have open in the background. To fully quit any open apps, touch and hold any of the App icons until they wiggle and you see the minus icon in their upper left corners. Click the minus to quit any apps you want, then click the Home key again when you are finished.
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