iPhone OS 4 Becomes iOS 4 — Available June 21 for Free

Goodbye to iPhone OS 4 and say hello to iOS 4 Yes, Apple, today, announced iPhone OS is now iOS.  iOS 4 was previously announced in April’s Special Event; the new iOS4 will include multi-tasking, a unified inbox, folders, and other features. The iOS trademark, however, is already owned by Cisco and refers to the software used in most of Cisco’s routers and switches (Internetwork Operating System). But Apple struck a deal with Cisco to license the “iOS” trademark to Apple.

Cisco has agreed to license the iOS trademark to Apple for use as the name of Apple’s operating system for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.  The license is for use of the trademark only and not for any technology.

In fact Cisco also owned the iPhone trademark back when Apple introduced the original iPhone back in 2007. After a bit of legal battle, the two companies eventually reached a settlement agreement whereby Apple was afforded the right to use the iPhone.

Apple announced that iOS 4 will be supporting Bing’s search engine along with iBooks for iPhone (which is currently only available for the iPad)

iOS 4 has been declared Golden Master Candidate and will be publicly released on June 21st. It will be a free upgrade for existing iPhone and iPod touch owners, though depending on the age of your device not all features many be available. This is the first time that a major OS update has been free for iPod touch owners.