iPhone OS 4 is coming. It's hard to believe it's been almost three years since the iPhone was introduced. In that time we have seen several versions of the iPhone, iPod Touch, and now the iPad. All of them can run the 150,000 + apps in the iTunes App store. Even with that, it's been a bit annoying that we can't do things like run background tasks, like Pandora or Google Latitude.

iPhone OS 4 is set to be launched this summer, and we can't wait to get our hands on it. You will love it if you have a 3rd Gen iPod Touch or an iPhone 3GS.  Looks like that's the demarcation point of multitasking compatibility.  iPad users will get the new OS in the Fall.

Multi-Tasking. Steve said it's easy to implement a version that drains your battery and makes your phone sluggish.  Apple's version implements 'services' that apps can access to run in the background. For example, if you want to run Pandora and listen to the music in the background, there is a service Pandora can access to continue to provide that streaming audio.

Apple is providing developers 7 different APIs to enable multi-tasking.

• Background Audo - audio can continue to play in the background.
• VOIP (yes, Skype!)
• Background location (like GPS & social networking apps such as Google Latitude)