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Pocket Gamer's guide to Apple's iOS 4.0 - Part 2

New threads, reading material, and big brother

Pocket Gamer's guide to Apple's iOS 4.0 - Part 2
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Welcome to part two of Pocket Gamer's all-encompassing guide to Apple's iOS 4. For part one, click here.

Integrated mailboxes

If you use your device to email a lot, then this is probably the most useful update. Rather than having to switch between accounts, you can now view all of your mail in one inbox, or switch between the individual ones. This makes things feel a great deal slicker, and is a very impressive addition.

Better still, Mail Threading now groups your emails, by reply, in conversation trees (think Gmail). A number next to the message shows you how many mails are grouped, all of which will be displayed when you go to read them. Gmail users will also notice that the ‘delete’ button has changed to ‘archive’.

Smart links now function in your emails too, meaning that, for instance, tapping on a date will bring up the option to ‘create event’ which will then let you put it straight into your calendar.

If all this sounds too efficient for you, you can still access the full accounts, links to which are situated a little lower on the main mail page.

Emailing large photos

Now, after composing an email which includes an image or two, you will be presented with a new options screen which slides up when you hit 'send'.

From here, you can change the photo to small, medium, large, or actual size. It also tells you the image’s file size at each scale, which is great for ensuring you’re not breaching data limits – especially as carriers are not providing unlimited data schemes for iPhone 4.

Bluetooth Keyboards

Ever the visionary, Apple now includes support for Bluetooth keyboards as well as headsets. You still won’t be transferring inappropriate images to/from strangers in a seedy club, though. Or is that just me?

Messaging

If the dizzying freedom of a full sized keyboard makes you worry that you’ll use up your free message quota in one go, don’t worry.

You can now switch on a character count which will show you how close you are to the magic 160, and let you know how many messages your text will consist of.

You can also switch off MMS (if for some reason you don’t think you can manage to just select SMS instead), and, best of all, you can also search your messages in the same way you can your emails.

Spellcheck

As well as Apple’s take on predictive text, there's now also a built in dictionary. Any misspelled words are underlined in red, and a simple tap will bring up some suggested alternatives.

This is far less intrusive than the long standing auto correct feature, and makes for a handy addition (of course, you could just fast switch to a dictionary app and back now, but it’s good to have options).

New contacts screen

All of the details for a new contact can now be added on one page, making for a much faster experience. Now you can fit in more schmoozing at parties.

iBooks

iPad users are already enjoying it, but now everyone else can too. You will still have to download the application from the App Store (don’t worry, it’s free), and you’ll have access to a plethora of free books, as well as the store should you wish to splash out.

The app works just like the iPad version, and even lets you turn the pages as if they were real (a feature that you’ll be bored of after just one chapter, so relax in the knowledge that a tap will do the job for you).

Playlists

The simplistic On-The-Go playlists have now been replaced with standard ones which will sync with iTunes, and can be named.

Location services

In here, you can view all of the apps which are determining your location, and either switch them all off with a master slider, or individually.

Handily, any app that has requested your location with the last 24 hours displays a location services icon next to its name.

iPhoto Events, Faces and Places syncronisation

If you’re a Mac user and have iPhoto, you can sync Faces, Events and Places from within iTunes, and then filter your images using these tags on the phone.

If you don’t use iPhoto, however, you will still find that some of your images are geo tagged, so you will be able to view them by location.

Some other bits

There are many more changes, of course, but not all are worth mentioning here.

However, you may be interested to learn that you can now switch of cellular data, forcing your phone to stick to wi-fi, and can put in place alphanumeric lockcodes, rather than the previous four digit ones.

The whole thing also feels more responsive and faster (though only on the 3GS) – much closer to the iPad’s lagless feedback.

Verdict

All in all, this is a hugely generous update, which transforms not only the way your phone looks, but how it functions. Much more than a superficial sprucing, iOS 4 will make your old phone feel brand new again.

There's still more to come as well, in the form of Game Center and the more dubious iAds which, for better or worse, are likely to change the way you experience your phone yet again.

If Apple can iron out some of the kinks, we’ll be happier. But for now, iOS 4 a genuinely impressive retooling that cuts through the Cupertino company’s hyperbole and makes for the best iPhone and iPod touch experience yet.

Ben Maxwell
Ben Maxwell
Ben is an eager young games journalist who, when touring with his band, happily replaces sex, drugs, and rock & roll with Advance Wars, Drop7, rock, and Rolando...