Apple will ship the next major update to its iPhone operating system this summer, claiming over 100 new features. CEO Steve Jobs decided to focus on what he called seven “tentpole” features that will make the latest version the best yet. And yes folks, this list of features does include multitasking.

Saying “we weren’t the first to this party, but we’re going to be the best,” Jobs lamented that most multitasking functionality on smart devices both kills the battery as well as reduce the performance of the foreground app. By double clicking the home button within an application, a list of applications come up, similar to what currently happens with Apple-Tab now.

This is great for non-iPod music apps. Now for instance you will continue to be able to listen to Pandora or Rhapsody without having to stay in those apps. For VoIP, you will now be able to receive calls from services like Skype even when it is not currently running. Geolocation would also work through multitasking as well.

Push applications going through Apple’s servers also become unnecessary: this means they can be served locally right from the iPhone. In addition, functions such as uploading would even continue after you leave an application.

 
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