I got up very early this morning, Melbourne time, to update my iPhone 3GS to the new iOS 4.

How early? Initially 2am, only to find I still had another hour to wait. So, back to bed, playing on my iPad, until 3am.

So 3am came and passed, but the iTunes on my computer still only registered OS 3.1.3. I kept clicking until, finally at 3:05am, iOS 4 was finally available. Download and install.

Half an hour later, my iPhone had this cute little home screen background (shown above) and I was on my way to setting my eight pages of apps down to a mere two...home screen and most of the built-in apps, plus another page of FOLDERS.

Yes, this was a welcome update.

The new folder system is quite easy. You hold an app till it shakes, then move it over another, similar app, which turns it into a folder with both of them, first of all with a suggested name, like Productivity, then, if you want to change it, to anything you want.

The backgrounds operate very much the same as for the iPad. In settings you now have an option for the lock screen and the home screen. Initially it starts with the same background as your lock screen, but I like having something different on each.

As you can tell from the image, iBooks is also now able to be downloaded from the App Store for iOS 4.

Email...the inbox is now combined, though you still have options underneath the "All Email" category to access each individual email address's inbox. So now I can simply go into the combined inbox and read or delete messages from there.

And finally, multi-tasking and fast app switching. Double-click the home button and you can see a row of the current open apps. The multi-tasking itself still needs to wait for those apps which have iOS 4 awareness programmed in, but it's still good having a nice task switcher.

There's more to explore yet, but so far so good. I'm not quite sure if iOS 4 affects my 3G data, though. Initially web pages seem a bit slower. However, this might simply be due to the signal where I tested this.

Of course, when iOS 4.0.1 comes out, we'll see just what's been tightened up then.

In general, the new iteration brings some much-needed features to the iPhone 3GS.

So how are the rest of you going with your own updates to the new OS version?

We're only a few days away from iOS 4.

My current iPhone is the 3GS model, so I'm expecting the next update I get to be a full one: backgrounds, folders, Apple-style multi-tasking, etc.

On the other hand, my missus has my old 3G iphone, so she won't get the multi-tasking part.

The nine-year-old and three-year-old have a second-generation iPod between them, so they're out of luck on a full update too.

Oh well...at least they'll be able to organise their apps a bit better and have a pretty springboard if nothing else.

Still, what we will get will be a vast improvement on what we've had the past year.  I also have to agree I do like the fact Apple wait till they've got things right before they bring in features other phones have had for a longer time.  I'm still impressed with iPhone OS 3's cut-and-past method, which beats the crap out of implementations I've seen on any Nokia phone.  I tend to like it a tad better than Android's method, too.

For most of us, the practical part of iOS 4 will be in having folders.  We've worked with a nine-screen limit for our apps on our iPhones prior to this.  We may have had specific screens for specific types of apps.  Now we can have a Social Media folder and all associated apps in it, one for Photography and so on.  And our app limit is now somewhere around 2,000 total apps...or until we run out of iPhone disk space.

Yep, the folders are probably more valuable to us than whether the system mult-tasks a bit better.

I also have to say I was seriously getting tired of looking at a plain-black home screen.

Once iOS 4 is out, I'll be able to see the difference between the 3GS and the 3G on the multi-tasking issue and be able to comment better on that topic.

At least now, though, I can start to think of having more apps to play with instead of having to do pruning whenever I'm nearing the nine-screen limit.

So what things are the rest of you looking forward to in the new iPhone OS?

It's a pity my current iPhone contract still has over a year-and-a-half to go, because one look at the new iPhone 4 and I'm in love.

It wasn't too much of a surprise seeing it. We've all had a look at the Engadget articles on the early model lost in a bar and the photos from one Vietnam site.

Regardless, it's nice seeing it all ready AND with iOS 4 (no longer iPhone OS) running.

Front-facing camera and the new Facetime app. Wifi-only for the meantime, but with eventual 3G functionality. Great side and top buttons. A black model and a completely white model. HD 720p.

Oh well...at least I get iOS 4 in the next month or so on my 3GS. I'm so looking forward to having a background on my home screen and folders to organize my apps (I'm starting to run close to the 9-screen limit at the moment, so this is really looked forward to).

And then there's multi-tasking Apple-style.

Ah, iPhone...

On Saturday April 3, 2010, the iPad was released in the U.S.

If the iPhone was known as the Jesus phone, then the iPad could have been nicknamed the Moses Tablet.

The first sales figures were impressive, at around 700,000 units.  The pre-release estimates expected 200,000-300,000.  These, by the way, were only the U.S. figures.

One can only guess how many will be sold when other countries finally release it in late-April.

The lines were quicker for this release than they were for the iPhone, since the model being released was wi-fi only and didn't need activation.  Pre-orders were given first dibs, then the rest of the stock sold at each Apple and Bestbuy store.

One blogger went to a Bestbuy store for his iPad, then wrote about its game-play experience.

One website even made suggestions for five of the best apps to download for the iPad. 

I'd have to agree with that site on the iWork suite, as it would add some fantastic functionality to the device, allowing for documents, spreadsheets and presentations on the go.

Anyway, by all reports, most people have exercised their inner geek and been impressed with the iPad, though content producers seem to still be scratching their heads on it.

Then again, it's a gadget aimed at content consumers, so it's geared more for that experience.

Oh well.  Only a few more weeks to my country's release of the iPad.  I can't wait.

It'll be interesting to see what it's like doing a blog post on an iPad instead of my normal computer.

Roll on end of April and the Australian launch...

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And just a reminder:   My novel, A Question of Theories is available on eBay

Apple rumors are always an interesting read.

Sometimes the rumors are a bit skewed, sometimes they're incredibly spot-on.

In recent months I think the rumors about the iPad tended to lean more toward pretty darn accurate.

The debate over the iPad using iPhone OS rags on, though generally the majority of opinion on it is positive.

The newest Apple rumor going around is that another iPad is on its way, but this one will have something more akin to OS X.

I guess I wouldn't be surprised by that, as I'm sure Steve Jobs would be cluey enough to see if there were a market for both types of iPad and keep the OS X version at the ready.

This article here points out that it was thought there were two versions of the iPad in development, before last week's announcement.

In my family, my partner and the nine-year-old would favor the iPhone OS version, whereas I'd like BOTH the iPhone OS one AND the OS X one.

So that's a pretty good example of the fact a market for both types of iPad exists.

Of course, at the moment, rumors of an OS X version iPad are still just that, rumors. Steve Jobs won't be confirming anything right now.  He's too savvy a businessman to dent the sales of the iPhone OS iPad or segment them by bringing an OS X iPad out too soon.

In the meantime, we can drool and dream about the idea, though.

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