With the iPhone OS 4.0 event in less than 24 hours, I thought it would be fun to throw out some of my pre-event predictions.

Now, I am by no means an expert at this. I’m just a guy who knows a little Apple history and waded into their ecosystem five years a go with an iPod mini, then jumped in the deep end when I bought the first Intel powered MacBook Pro model the company released.

With that said, I do devote a lot of my podcast listening and reading to keeping up with the wonderful world that his steveness has bestowed upon us. So, I like to see how well I can read the tea leafs before these events.

Printing from the iPad seems to be one rumor out there that has some reasonable logic behind it. I think this is possible and maybe even likely, but it’s not something earth shattering to the way I plan on using my iPad. I don’t think we will be seeing printing coming to the iPhone though, despite what some rumor sites are reporting. Printing on the iPhone seems a little complicated for the over simplified vision Apple has for the phone.

One feature that I have been dying to get on the iPhone since the beginning of the App Store is multitasking. I would love to be able to listen to Pandora or SimplifyMedia while reading in the kindle app or playing a game of Kakuro. This is my dream scenario on the device and I hope to see Apple oblige by creating some sort of compromise to allow this.

Streaming your home library via iTunes app. Now, this may not work like SimplifyMedia but maybe more of a cloud based solution. Either way I would love to see a way to take my music with me without having a 120 GB iPhone. If Apple does do anything like this, I would expect it to be tied into MobileMe some how. Honestly, I wouldn’t complain if that were the scenario. I wouldn’t mind spending a little coinage a year on a MobileMe account for this convenience.

Lastly, here’s a few small things I’d like to see: - Customized home screen wallpaper - A revamped home screen with a dashboard of info like mail, texts, tweets, Facebook activity, etc… (yes I know this is unlikely) - Unified inbox to show messages from all accounts in one place - The picture frame mode that the iPad has - Bluetooth keyboard support (not likely) - Customizable tones for email and texts - Landscape mode for the home screens

Ok, this is maybe a lot to ask, but it is a new version not a point release so why not dream big? Of course the best part of these announcements is the stuff Apple unveils that you didn’t see coming. Of all the Apple events, OS announcements are probably my favorite so I’ll be frantically following several live blogs tomorrow to keep up with the news as it unfolds.

The following review was written for my application to an app reviewer spot withTUAW, I thought I might as well post it here after taking the time to write it I would hate to have it never gets published if they pass me up.

There’s little one expects from a free mahjong game. Basically, the app just needs to open, give you a game to play, and not crash. iMahjong meets these requirements handsomely, while adding a little gravy on top in the form of a nice hint feature and slick sound and visuals.

One disappointing aspect of the game is that it can be a little difficult to tell what level the pieces are on, but overall it’s quite playable despite this drawback. The hint feature is helpful if you’re lazy, or stuck, and need to get things moving.

As I mentioned previously, the sounds are quite slick in the game. They can get annoying to others in the same room if they’re trying to do something else and don’t want to be distracted by calming zen tones. After a few nonverbal hints from my wife that she was getting annoyed with the sounds I found that I could turn the sounds off.

iMahjong will also let you know when you’re out of moves and there is a handy little timer at the bottom of the screen so you can keep track of your times and try to beat your personal best to give the game some replay value.

The game will show you ads when you start a new game, not a bad trade off. I would recommend picking this one up, you have to try hard to find an app that not at least worth trying out at this price point.

After just a short wait in line this morning at the South Tampa Best Buy store, I finally got my hands on an iPad. Unfortunately the store had no accessories so I’m currently going commando with my lovely new tablet. Hopefully I can avoid any nasty accidents until I get some sort of protective gear.

So far the greatest advantage of the device has been the beautiful apps designed intentionally for the iPad. In particular, I really enjoy reading articles in the USA Today app. Additionally, Disney’s Toy Story storybook app is likely to quickly become a favorite of my one year old son.

Where I have been disappointed with the device is in the lousy upscaling of iPhone / iPod applications. I guess I should just thank my lucky stars that the great all-knowing turtlenecked one has allowed me to use my iPhone apps on the iPad.

This brings me to my most interesting concern with the iPad platform, Openness. So far I have to admit that I have been impressed with what Apple has allowed on the iPad.

The iPad tuned version of the Kindle app was one such pleasant surprise. My puny mortal mind can only interpret this decision by Apple in one word, aggressive. It seems as if Apple is saying, “Sure, we’ll let your boring eBook reader app on our new device, but don’t be surprised when our eBook platform makes yours an also ran.” I have been using the Kindle app for a couple months now to read while using the cardio equipment at the gym, and have really appreciated the convenience of it. I still need to poke around the iBook app a little more, but my initial impressions are pretty good from looking at the free Winnie the Pooh book.

Another interesting move by Apple was to allow the Netflix app on the platform complete with streaming video. While this could threaten the usefulness of Apple’s own video store, it also is one move that sealed the deal with me. I’m sure I’m not the only person who thought this was a dealmaker, and that may be why Apple was willing to potentially cannibalize one of their own businesses.

With the device only existing in the wild for less than 24 hours at this point, there’s really no way to know what Apple’s openness strategy will be with the iPad. I, and probably most of my fellow early adopters, hope that this is a sign of an open iPad platform that will be a place for creative and dynamic software to strive for years to come.