I have an Mac mini in my kitchen for most of the reasons that are shown in the iPad kitchen video – music, recipes, news, etc. Yet another reason to get one (as if I needed any more)

Multitasking was probably the biggest announcement – take that ‘droid.. JK. Rather than just do multitasking as a one size fits all model, there are number of background API flavors that attempt to address the different background needs of different types of apps – telephony, music, geo-location, push notifications, etc. This is clearly driven by the need to control the battery consumption.

App developers will have to pick and choose between the various APIs to see what ones fit their app. Not all APIs will apply to every app, but clearly for apps like Pandora, Maps/Location, Skype and others, these APIs make those apps first class citizens on the OS level the way music, mail and phone Apple apps are.

It’s not true multitasking like you can find on Unix. It’s a controlled multi-tasking API. It puts the onus on the developer to use the API’s in ways that enhance the app. Poor implementation will drain battery life but it won’t be because of the OS, it’ll be an app developer issue.

There are a number of other focus items like iBooks for the iPhone, unified InBox for mail, better enterprise integration and a game developers quasi-social network, and a quite a number of small items updated in the OS.

The other item worth mentioning is iAd – Apple’s interesting twist on mobile ads. I love this from Steve:

When you look at ads on a phone, it’s not like a desktop. On a desktop, search is where it’s at. But on mobile devices, that hasn’t happened. Search is not happening on phones; people are using apps. And this is where the opportunity is to deliver advertising is.

Apple’s iAd APIs will allow developers to plug into an Apple controlled ad network in order to support apps. This is in response to the proliferation of free apps supported by a multitude of different ad networks. Apple’s willing to do a 60/40 split w/the the developer. Apple’s got an interesting interactive ad model where ads can be as rich as the app they are running in. There are too many details to explain on how the iAds can work, but I’m sure Apple will post demos on how rich they can be. Users could get lost in them thinking they were apps themselves.

More importantly, Apple’s taking aim right at Google’s ad system and Flash in 1 stroke. By creating a whole new way to develop interactive ads and a distribution network, the wind goes somewhat out of the “Flash on the iPhone” sails and Google’s no longer the easiest way to distribute the ad. This will be interesting to watch.

Update:

Daring Fireball has a post on a change in language of the Developer Agreement that bans cross compilation techniques for iPod/iPad/iPod Touch apps. If it wasn’t clear that Apple is at war with Adobe/Flash it is now. I’m guessing that Flash CS5 is toast on Apple mobile devices.

Two blogs that I read quite often, John Gruber of Daring Fireball fame and Tim Bray of Sun, are picking up the debate. While it’s undoubtedly a matter of personal preference and usage style, there’s one important point in the virtual camps favor – physical keyboards break.

In the past 2 days I’ve had 2 people (one a co-worker and the other my daughter) remark on one aspect of the physical keyboard debate that I had not considered. What happens when a mobile keyboard breaks? My daughter has a LG UX260 that has a slide out keyboard. According to her, it doesn’t work or work well. It’s out of warranty so I’m not replacing it until the contract is up so she’s a bit SOL at the moment. My co-worker’s girlfriend has a BlackBerry and keys stopped working on it. It was under warranty but the replacement took over a week to get there.

I think you can see my though process here: The virtual keyboard in my iPod Touch will never stop working unless the iPhone OS or the touch screen stop working. So in the debate of physical vs virtual don’t forget to factor in keyboard wear and tear.

He pretty much got it all wrong. However, the biggest thing he missed was the iPhone’s appeal beyond the Mac faithful. I know lots of Windows users that are sold on their iPhones and they still use Windows. Perhaps there will be a “halo effect” here but even if there isn’t I think Apple did a damn good job in their opening year+ becoming the number 3 phone maker.

Perhaps people will stop settling for “good enough” and start demanding better technology products including operating systems and computers.

I’m an Apple fan, but I don’t think they do everything right. I think they make outstanding products and know how to hype and market them but like all purveyors of hardware and software they inflict their bugs upon us. So it’s with amazement that I look on all the bruhaha about the iPhone – dropped calls, crashing OS/Apps, price drops, etc. – and wonder, what was everyone expecting from a “1.0″ pocket sized computer? Did you really think that just because it was a “phone” that it wouldn’t have all the problems associated with computers and software? Hell, my Motorola cell phone hangs up, crashes and has connection problems and it’s less than 1 year old. And the “2.0″ upgrade? Again, that’s a new release with new features and functionality. Are you really surprised that it has some nasty flaws?

I guess it’s going to take until folks realize that it’s not a phone but a computer that has phone hardware to understand that the iPhone will never be 100%. It’ll get better, but at its heart, it’s still a computer with software and it’ll never be perfect. Apple certainly has a responsibility to fix the flaws and provide remedies, but ongoing we should probably be checking our perfection expectations at the door.

By the way, I don’t own an iPhone. I figured I’d wait a couple of revisions before getting one. I want to thank all of you that are beta-testing the iPhone for me. This includes my brother – thanks Bro! I’m here for ya!!