iOS4 Cool Features Review

• Custom App Folders
• Better Email Interface
• Threaded Emails
• Links to Dates for Events
• Spell Checking
• Playlist for Songs
• Tethering Support

• Multitasking
• 5x Built-in Digital Zoom
• Video Focusing
• Video Uploading to YouTube
• Bluetooth Support
• Home Wallpaper
• Keyboard Layouts

Custom Folders

Custom folders allow you to organize apps by categories, usage or any other topics. There is some limitations to just 12 apps per folders, however, with this feature you can add tons more apps. It picks the category of the first icon that you drag your app into, but it gives you the option to rename it. For example, if you drag an app into the Facebook icon, by default the name displays as “social” until you change it.

To create the app folder, hold and then drag the app to another icon. Then drag and drop any application on top of it to add more apps in that folder. One suggestion is to put a folder in the bottom row so this makes it easy to access commons apps quickly.

Better Email Interface

With the new email interface you can quickly glance at all the emails in one place rather than going into the individual accounts. This unified box is an excellent feature that was long overdue. I also like that you can now see all current emails from the sender once you click on it, no more searching. Very nice feature indeed and its called threaded emails. Note that it also does a count on the thread.

Playlists

I am surprise this was not there on older iPhones since the iPod was released a while back, but now you can create your playlists for the office, the gym or the car. For years, creating new playlists on an iPod (or the iPhone for that matter) defaulted to the “On-the-Go” playlist. Now you can create a playlist for anything you want.

Multitasking

Until you start using this feature, you wont appreciate the real value and it’s truly the most hyped feature. The new OS tries to make educated guesses as to what apps should be in the background, but the cool thing is that you can swipe through the list and close the ones you don’t want running. Double tap the home button for quick app switching, this pulls up most of the recently opened applications. Tap on any app you want to quickly switch to without going back to the home screen. Note that this is feature is not available on the older iPhone 3G.

One thing to consider is that as more apps start supporting background processing by default, you may want to notice the performance (and battery life)  and make sure that you don’t have any apps running in the background that you don’t really want or need running. To remove the app from running in the background, double tap the home button, then tap and hold the app you want to remove from the background, until you see a  red minus sign on the corner of the icon. Tap it to remove the app from the background.

Spell Checking

No more worrying about spellings, with this feature you can type the message and it will spell check things as you go. Once you hit return, the phone will red underline those words that the device thinks are misspelled and by tapping it, it will suggest the correct spelling for you. It’s a great start for a spell checker feature.

5x Digital Zoom

The new zoom feature is one cool component that has changed with the camera in this version of the IOS. You can also snap photos a lot faster and upload videos directly to YouTube from your phone. The feature does a decent job but it could lead to blurry photos if you are not careful. One other thing to notice is the shutter speed when taking photos in-motion, this seems to be causing blurry photos as well – not sure if its a bug.

Bluetooth Support

Starting with the iPhone 3Gs, Apple added Bluetooth capable hardware/software and with this version you can start taking advantage of it by pairing it with an external keyboard. Cool feature if you need a bigger writing device.

Homepage / Lock Screen – Backgrounds

Now you can add a background wallpaper as eye candy for your phone. However, this feature is not available for the older 3G iPhone, mainly because “The icon animation with backgrounds didn’t perform well enough” as Steve recently pointed out.

If you have a minute, let me know what’s your favorite features in the comments section below. Would love to hear your thoughts.

For a different and more thorough review check out this clip by Michael Sherlock.