Lukas Mathis on iPhone OS 4.0

Good overview of the new UI features. Mathis is skeptical on the utility of the task switcher.

Regarding “folders”, I’ll add that they’re not really folders at all, not in the sense of the Mac. There is no “folder” icon, nor any folder object that you create as a first step. There is no nesting. You just pile icons on top of each other. What iPhone OS 4 folders resemble most is the “stacks” concept that has been rumored for the Mac desktop ever since Copland was a bright shining beacon ahead of us. I think it’s great. (Note also that on a hypothetical 960 × 640 iPhone display, the tiny 9 × 9 thumbnail icons on the container icons will be more legible.)

★ Thursday, 15 April 2010