The web is buzzing today with reports that multitasking will be coming to the iPhone OS at least by version 4.0, and just maybe in 3.2. In fact, Just Another iPhone Blog shows a screen shot with an allusion to multitasking in a javascript comment block. The iPhone OS has always supported multitasking; otherwise you wouldn’t be able to receive a call while listening to music! That’s also how you can continue listening to music from your iPod app while playing many games. But Apple has limited it to their own applications in the past. (Unless, of course, you did a jailbreak on your phone and ran an app like backgrounder.) To be fair, there were some good reasons why Apple hasn’t enabled multitasking of third-party apps in the past. First, apps that can run in the background without the user’s knowledge are a potential opening for malware. Second, once you start loading multiple tasks at once you’re going to see a real hit in battery life–which was a sticking point for many iPhone users already. Third, once you have multiple apps running, you have to give the user a new interface to switch between them–likely with additional utilities to allow the user to balance resource usage. Fourth, multiple tasks slow the system down and the processors in the iPhone won’t stand up to too great a load. In general, the lack of multitasking hasn’t been a serious issue for most (other than Pandora users). The size of the screen doesn’t lead a user to be thinking in terms of multiple windows anyway. But the iPad runs the iPhone OS, and with its larger screen and faster processor there will be much more demand for multitasking. It may be called the iPhone OS, but this upgrade is pointed primarily at iPad users.

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Rumor: Multitasking Coming to iPhone OS 4.0

If – like me – your fridge is black, then these shiny iPhone app fridge magnets from Jailbreak Collective will look very smart indeed displayed on the door. Just 13 bucks gets you a set of these icon almost-replicas. I say almost because if you look carefully, you’ll see they’re not identical to the Apple originals.

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iPhone App Magnets To Appify Your Fridge

In the wake of the tsunami of iPad related rumors and news both before and after it was unveiled in late January, new rumors about the next iPhone have been scarce by comparison. But that may be about to change, with various sources reporting that multitasking will finally come to the iPhone with the next major software update. AppleInsider is reporting that “people with a proven track record in predicting Apple’s technological advances” have leaked some significant details that point to a “full-on solution” to multitasking on iPhone OS 4.0. With competitors like Palm’s WebOS and Google’s Android flaunting their multitasking in recent hardware, it was probably only a matter of time before Apple figured out a solution for the iPhone. If the reports are true, it would silence once and for all the one major criticism of the device at long last. Apple introduced push notifications with iPhone OS 3.0 to stem some of the complaints, but ultimately that solution only made things more complicated, since the software is only capable of displaying one notification at a time, which limits its usefulness. Of course, since iPhone OS has its roots in Mac OS X to begin with, you wouldn’t think that multitasking should have taken Apple four generations to figure out in the first place. The current iPhone OS 3.x software is a “fully preemptive multitasking operating system, but it artificially restricts apps (other than specific ones bundled with the system by Apple) from running in the background” — for instance, the ability to leave the Phone app during a call while entering another app such as Maps, or playing music via the iPod app while reading e-mail or browsing the web. Multitasking on the iPhone is not a technical problem, but rather one of battery life and the ability to optimize resources, which Apple has not been shy about stating publicly. Jailbreak users already have the ability to install software via Cydia or Rock Your Phone which will allow multitasking on the device as well. If it’s true that Apple will introduce multitasking in iPhone OS 4.0 — presumably with a new hardware model in June as they’ve done for the last three years — the only challenge will be how to implement it in a user-friendly way without consuming further battery resources. Apple, we have faith in you… bring it on!

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iPhone OS 4.0 To (Finally) Bring Multitasking?

While most developers won’t hesitate for a moment to sign Apple’s iPhone Developer Program License Agreement in blood to have even a piece of the App Store action, a new legal analysis reveals some disturbing reasons as to why you might want to think twice. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has gotten their hands on a copy of Apple’s iPhone Developer Program License Agreement and have distilled a few choice nuggets which should give most developers pause before they drink the Kool-Aid, as it were. Thanks to the existence of the NASA iPhone app , the EFF was able to use the Freedom of Information Act to ask the space agency for a copy of the license agreement dated March 17, 2009, and here’s some of what they discovered. Section 10.4 of the agreement “prohibits developers, including government agencies such as NASA, from making any ‘public statements’ about the terms of the Agreement.” The EFF finds this section “strange,” noting that the Agreement itself is not “Apple Confidential Information” as defined in Section 10.1 — meaning that “the terms are not confidential, but developers are still contractually forbidden from speaking ‘publicly’ about them.” Section 7.2 makes it clear that if you use the iPhone SDK to develop your app, you can’t sell it anywhere but Apple’s own App Store. All well and good, unless your app should get rejected — meaning you are then prohibited from distributing it through Cydia or Rock Your Phone, both available for jailbroken devices. Section 3.2(e) was widely reported on when first added last year, which essentially bans jailbreaking to begin with. But it doesn’t stop there: The EFF notes that “it appears to prohibit developers from tinkering with any Apple software or technology, not just the iPhone, or ‘enabling others to do so.’” That could preclude iPhone developers from making iPods work with open source software, for instance. Section 8 is one of the more draconian: Apple can “revoke the digital certificate of any of Your Applications at any time.” Yes, that means that Apple essentially has a “kill switch” built into the App Store and they can remove your app from it at any time

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EFF: Apple Owns Your Apps (and Maybe Your Soul?)

No sooner did the iPhone’s App Store debut than someone found a way around Apple’s DRM and started pirating apps. But is it really as big a deal as we have been led to believe? Gizmodo has a fascinating and very thorough study of the so-called app piracy problem. Sure, we’ve all seen the headlines, with 90 percent piracy rates and $450 million in lost sales estimated — but despite the initial alarm, the problem of App Store piracy actually appears to be dying just as quickly as it came onto the scene. Needless to say, piracy of App Store apps requires a jailbroken device and Cydia, which Gizmodo calls “the jailbreak equivalent of the App Store.” Add a new source in Cydia, download a couple of rogue apps which let you both crack your own apps as well as download those from others and away you go. At the height of the piracy scene just months ago, there was a site called Appulo.us, which made it super-simple to find hacked apps. While it vanished off the face of the Internet last month, there are still plenty of torrent sites offering all manner of hacked apps — you just have to be more resourceful in finding them. So how many jailbroken devices are actually in use? Thankfully, the folks at iPhone analytics firm Flurry know the answer. VP Peter Farago is quick to point out: “Under 10 percent of the iPhone installed base is jailbroken.” Given the ever-increasing difficulty in jailbreaking the more recent devices, that number could even be much lower. And how are the App Store developers being affected by this piracy? “Roughly 10 percent of our paid app users are coming from piracy,” claims PageOnce CEO Guy Goldstein, whose popular Personal Assistant is a top-selling app in the productivity category. That’s a surprising number, considering the company also offers a full-featured free version of the app in addition to the $6.99 paid model

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App Store Piracy and You

Like Spotify — and to a lesser extent, Slacker and Pandora — Grooveshark is an online streaming-music service that supports both free users (with adverts) and premium/VIP ad-free accounts.  But unlike those services, Grooveshark has been unsuccessful in getting an iPhone app accepted into iTunes.  Apple has consistently rejected the app — possibly because Grooveshark’s ability to sync playlists and favorites is a bit TOO iTune-ish. So Grooveshark has now given up on iTunes — and have released their iPhone app to Cydia.  This may be the first time in recent memory a legitimate, above-ground, commercially-motivated company has said “Hey, we want you to have our app — and if you have to jailbreak your iPhone to get it, we’re cool with that.” (Still need a reason to jailbreak your phone?  We’ve got a bunch of them …)

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Grooveshark: Coming To A Cydia Near You

Section: Apple News , Conferences , Macworld , iPhone / iPod touch / iPad , iPad , Originals Apple may not have used Macworld Expo to announce the iPad, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t present. Cases are all over the show floor and many developers have been happy to discuss their iPad plans. We’ll have more on that later this weekend. But today, IDG held a special event roundtable discussion moderated by Jason Snell (editor of Macworld Magazine) and four other journalists, three of whom have actually had their hands on one. What did they have to tell us about the forthcoming device? Not much at all. The panelists included Snell, Dan Moren and Ted Landau of Macworld.com , Ryan Block of gdgt, and Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun Times . All but Ted were at Apple’s iPad announcement (they said they’d explain Ted’s absence, but never did), and all had the chance to play with the device for about 20 minutes, albeit not as it’s intended to be used. Apparently, the demo units were high up on pedestals, with Apple employees hovering over their every move. Not exactly the relaxed atmosphere displayed by Steve Jobs on stage. Each panelist was able to offer his thoughts on the device. Dan pointed out that he was “… surprised by how natural it feels

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Macworld 2010: iPad Special Event

Filed under: Apple Here’s the thing. You know, and I know, that AT&T has not yet enabled tethering in the US, while carriers all across the globe have already given their iPhone customers the ability to use their phones as wireless modems for their laptops. You and I also know that strictly speaking tethering falls outside the normal terms of use for your iPhone data contract — and that there are jailbreak solutions to get around this (hopefully temporary) constraint. That having been said, you know, and I know, that there are times when your cable modem goes down and you have a bandwidth emergency. You’re not planning to abuse your data contract, but you do need a backup plan for those rare instances so you can get some work done. Enter MyWi, for jailbroken iPhones. Selling for ten bucks via the Rock Store and Cydia, MyWi enables tethering on your 3.1+ iPhone (2G, 3G, 3GS) and creates a personal Wi-Fi hotspot. It’s as if AT&T had actually enabled the feature on-board. What’s more, it works just like a real hotspot does. Unlike other solutions that require you to create ad-hoc Wi-Fi networks on a Mac and then connect to them from your iPhone, MyWi works like the Sprint/Verizon MiFi . You can connect to your iPhone data from an iPod, a laptop, or even an iPad .

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iPhone hacksugar: Creating a MyWi WiFi hotspot with your jailbroken phone

The earlier release of the latest iPhone/iPad software development kit has been updated to a Beta 2 release. As we get closer to the official sell date on the iPad, we’re getting hopeful and excited for what kind of wonderful newness our iPhone’s will be picking up. So what’s new in this latest release? Well, if you’re a regular user, there’s not much here to jump for joy about, as there’s little news yet leaked about what’s inside. Since most developers aren’t eager to find themselves blackballed by Cupertino, there are relatively few people willing to leak early information. However, from what we have been able to glean from this Gizmodo article , as well as a few forum threads is that the latest release only fixes a few minor bugs including one that made it difficult for apps built around 3.2 to run on 3.1.3. As is the usual case when a Beta follow up is dropped, the only real changes are some tweaks around the edges. We’ll probably learn more once the jailbreak community starts fiddling around with the Beta. Until then, we’ll just have to wait until March.

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iPhone/iPad 3.2 SDK Beta 2 Seeded to Developers

Filed under: Apple Last week I downloaded (but did not install) the iPhone OS 3.1.3 firmware for my 3GS. I wanted to have a copy of the firmware on hand, but didn’t want to upgrade right away. I checked “Do not ask me again” and clicked Download Only. I thought that was the end of the matter. Unfortunately, this Sunday, I plugged in my iPhone and left the room to grab some tea. When I returned, the iPhone was 50% of the way through the 3.1.3 firmware upgrade procedure. It did something I had no idea that it would do: it upgraded me without asking. How frustrating! What’s more, I didn’t have a copy of 3.1.2 on-hand to downgrade to because iTunes automatically deleted the old firmware files and I was using default Time Machine settings; Time Machine does not normally back up ~/Library, the folder that contains the iTunes ipsw files. Fortunately, I had several resources. First, because I had jailbroken my phone and registered my device signature with Jay Freeman’s caching service , I knew I could downgrade my phone. As Jay and I discussed in this LiveCha t from a few months back, Apple no longer allows you to freely downgrade your iPhone software. All firmware installations must be verified with Apple’s signature servers

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TUAW How To: Downgrading your 3.1.3 iPhone to 3.1.2