Apple Announces new iPhone 4.0 OS. The Good , The Bad And The Ugly.

First the good stuff.  There are so many great new features to be excited about as a developer and a consumer.  For many iPhone users, the thought of being able to multi-task on their phone is long, long overdue.  From the looks of the developer preview beta i just downloaded and installed , many people will like 4.0.

Notable new features for users

    •    MULTI-TASKING
    •    Spell check (like on the iPad).
    •    Bluetooth keyboard support (again, on the iPad).
    •    User-defined wallpaper (a jailbreak favorite).
    •    Tap to focus when recording video, just like with photos, and a 5x digital zoom for the camera.
    •    Playlist creation and nested playlists.
    •    App folders for sorting apps! You can even put an app folder in the dock.
    •    Enhanced Mail! You can have a merged inbox view, switch between inboxes quickly, and sync to more than one Exchange account. 
    •    iBooks, just like on iPad, only smaller. You can wirelessly sync books between platforms, a la Kindle.
    •    Enterprise features, including remote device management and wireless app distribution.
    •    Game Center It's like Xbox Live, but for iPhone games. Includes achievements, leaderboards, and match making. 

Developers are getting plenty of new tricks too:
    •    New SDK, Developer Preview
    •    1,500 new APIs.
    •    Background audio (think Pandora).
    •    Background VoIP (think Skype).
    •    Background location data, both with live GPS for backgrounded turn-by-turn, and cell tower-based for lower power draw.
    •    Local notifications. 
    •    Fast app switching. Saves the state of an app and resumes it from where you left off, without dwelling in memory.
    •    iAd. Apple says it's for keeping "free apps free." The ads keep you in the app, while also taking over the screen and adding interactivity 
    •    In-app SMS.
    •    Map overlays.
    •    Quick look for previewing documents.
    •    Photo Library access.
    •    Calendar access.
    •    Full access to the camera.
    •    Video playback and capture.
    •    Date and address "data detectors."
    •    Automated testing and performance / power analysis (the same tools Apple uses).

Here comes the bad and the ugly

No iPhone 3G support ?  I really didnt think that the 3G was that old ... But I guess 128MB of RAM isn't enough to handle all that Multi-Tasking load.

There seems to be some legal language in the new iPhone 4.0 developer agreement that is making many Unity3D developers nervous.   Apple has decided to essentially ban all applications developed outside of Xcode using the languages (C, C++ and Objective C).  Yes, that may or may not include our beloved UNITY.  We are big fans of the UNITY platform and what it allows us as developers to do on platforms such as the iPhone / iPad. 

If Apple's decision to make the iPhone development xCode only and ultimately ban UNITY this will drive more than just a few of us crazy.  It will be a shame to loose all the resources we have invested towards completing projects that now might not see the light of day.

Although many have stipulated on the Internet that this might only apply to Adobe's CS5 / Flash product and a few others, a general interpretation of the legal agreement casts a long shadow that might affect how we view using any middleware for Apple development in the future.  Reproducing the 3D engine and audio engine will be one hell of a job to start from scratch.

Unless of course there is a version of gameKit around the corner that fills these holes ... or Apple decides to gobble UNITY.

How will this affect apps that are already in the app store that have used these solutions ? 

Hopefully we will get a little more clarity on the issue/conflict as the dust settles.