Apple Announces iPhone 4.0 Update, Centralized Social Gaming Network

This morning, Apple held a press conference to talk about their upcoming 4.0 OS update for iPhones, iPod touches and their newest headline-grabber, the iPad.

Chief among the touted new features is multitasking, which will allow apps and games to continue running in the background of the operating system if you need to do something else. Not having to restart a game every time you back out of it to check a message will make marathon Plants Vs. Zombies sessions much more tolerable.

The biggest announcement from a gaming standpoint is the addition of an Apple-based gaming social network. This will surely take the place of other gaming networks on the iPhone like Plus+ and OpenFeint, integrating achievements, a friends list and matchmaking services into the OS of the device itself. This is one thing that I’ve been hoping for on the iPhone for a long time, but I’m actually quite pleasantly surprised to see that they included it. It seems a bit out of left field, but I am definitely not complaining.

These updates will be available for iPhones and iPod Touches (excluding the first-generation versions of both devices) in the Summer, and it will be coming to the iPad in the Fall. Only the current models of iPhone and iPod touch (3GS and 3rd-Generation) will be able to do multitasking, as well as some other unspecified features, but the majority of new code will be available for all versions of the devices.