No iPhone App Limit With A Nifty OS 3.0 Trick
June 19, 2009
There was a lot of talk about Apple changing the number of maximum pages of apps from 9 to 11. This means instead of having a maximum of 148 apps, the new iPhone OS 3.0 app limit is now 180 apps, right? Wrong!
We have discovered that while it's true that you can only have 11 pages on your springboard with a possible 180 VISIBLE apps, the actual number of apps you can have installed and accessible on your device is unlimited. Well, I suppose the limit is until you run out of storage space on your iPhone or iPod Touch, which may be difficult to do if have a 32GB model.
So, if you have more than 180 apps installed, how do you actually use the ones you can't see? The answer is... Spotlight! You can use the new search tool in OS 3.0 to call up any app on the device, even the ones you can't see. So by using Spotlight as your launcher, you'll never have to delete an app to download another one. It's nice to know that Apple agrees 180 apps is just not enough.
This neat trick got me thinking of a feature I'd really like. Since we no longer need the app icon displayed to launch an app, wouldn't it be nice if we could choose to hide (not display) certain apps? This could help you keep your springboard screens nice and tidy, and even allow you to hide those apps that you love but are not so proud to own. Anyone else want to be able to hide apps on a case by case basis?