Most of the news surrounding the pending release of OS4 has focused on the major updates like multitasking and app folders. Admittedly, these are nice features (although as a 3G owner I don’t get to play with multitasking) but there are a number of others that seem to have been overlooked. There are also a number of bugs but it’s beta software so they should be expected and, as such, I won’t bother writing about them!

Having played with the 3G version of OS4 for a few days there are a few new features that are quite small but are really useful.

Firstly the Spotlight Search has been extended to include messages (previously only mail was searched). Also, at the end of the results list are two quick links to search in Google and in Wikipedia. This opens up the relevant search page in Safari.

The next new feature is the integrated spell-check. Unrecognised words are underlined in red and then when you tap on the word you are given a few suggestions as to what word you intended writing. This, along with the good old spelling corrections, makes typing in the iPhone even more fulfilling.

Searching in Safari has also been improved. The Google/Yahoo! search bar now offers suggested searches just like when you use the normal Google/Yahoo! websites.

Maps has a new view mode so you now have the option of map, satellite, hybrid or list. List simply shows a list of the directions for your route or just shows your search result(s) in text form.

Whenever the GPS (or other ‘My Location’ services) are running you now get an arrow showing in the status bar. I can only assume that this has been added as am aid to multitasking so you an easily see if there’s an app running that’s using the GPS.

Sending messages has become friendlier for the cheap-skates among us (or those who tweet by SMS) with the new option of a ‘character count’. After writing 3 lines of a message a count appears above the send button saying, for example, 89/160. At the moment it will also simply say 254/160 but you have to work out for yourself how many messages that will take up! Remember though, this is still beta so it may well be improved upon.

App folders work really well and have been covered by various blogs across the web. Simply drag an app on top of another one to create a folder and then rename it and add/arrange further apps. You can fit up to 12 apps into a folder and can also place them in the dock thereby giving you quick access to 48 apps regardless of which home screen you are currently on.

The Camera app now has 5x digital zoom, for what it’s worth. Simply tap the screen and a slider will appear. It’s digital zoom though so not completely wonderful, but still, it’s something new so worth a mention!

And, finally, the unified inbox! This is great! Changes mailboxes was such a hassle but now from your inbox it’s a single tap to get to the list of accounts where you can either view a single mailbox or everything together. You can still view all the other folders (Trash, Sent etc) easily too. Another enhancement to the Mail app is threaded email. If you have multiple emails with the same subject / recipient then you can view these in a single thread. Mail will show the number of messages and a double arrow to signify this.

UPDATES:

The Calendar app has had a little update too – but it’s very useful. You can now select which calendars you want to display for example if you have a few Mobile Me calendars as well as a GMail calendar. Also added is a Birthdays calendar – the data for this is pulled from your contacts list and is not editable (i.e. you can’t add an alert for them).

Something I missed earlier with the updates to the Mail app is the new option to resize image attachments. When you press ‘send’ you are asked if you want to resize the image or use the original size.

Over the air Notes syncing has also been added. The Notes app now has an accounts button where you can choose which notes are shown in the list – this includes ‘all notes’, Mobile Me notes’, ‘gmail notes’ and ‘notes on the iPhone’.

In the Settings there are a couple of new additions too. You can now turn off all cellular data and not just 3G like you could previously. Also, once you have given an app permission to use your location then you can manually turn on/off that permission in the Location Services settings.

I mentioned earlier about the spell-check feature when inputting text. Something I missed was the option to ‘Replace’. When you select text you now get the option to Cut, Copy, Paste or Replace. Replace simply gives you a selection of a few similar looking words to change to. This would be useful when you accidentally select the wrong word via the spell-checker!

And, finally, for this update the iPod’s ‘On-The-Go Playlists’ have been removed! Before you reel in horror I should explain that they have been replaced with just good, old fashioned, playlists. Tap on ‘Add Playlist’, give it a title and then pick the songs you want to add.

If we find any further forgotten features we’ll make sure we post them here at Wired4iPhone.com