Unfortunately, Apple decided it would be a good idea to change the “Delete” button to an “Archive” button for GMail accounts under iOS 4. I don’t really need to keep messages about my server’s recent five minutes of downtime for any length of time, so I thought this was kind of stupid.

I was able to find a fix, however. Open your settings and navigate to the “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” page. Tap on your GMail account. Then turn off the slider for “Archive Messages.”

I don’t mind the idea of an Archive option in the Mail app, but not to the exclusion of a Delete function. Some things just don’t need to be kept.

What’s so special about iAds? For starters, clicking on one of the small banners doesn’t take you out of your application. It just opens an overlay with an HTML5-powered “mini application” from the advertiser, which you can then exit at any time.

The page displayed when you tap an advertisement is very interactive. Video and sound can be streamed to you, freebies like iPhone wallpapers can be downloaded. You can even play little HTML5 games.

Another example Jobs showed-off a few times was using the location tools to help find nearby store or movie theater locations. Imagine clicking a Pizza Hut or Dunkin Donuts ad and having it show you where to find the nearest franchise location.

The interactivity is the key feature of the platform. Instead of being an annoyance, the ads are supposed to be useful and interesting to the end user. The HTML5 framework enables advertisers to build ads that look and act like native applications, even tying in to hardware APIs.

I think Apple has found the secret to modern advertising: shake things up. Do what “traditional” ad networks are afraid to, or just unwilling, to try. If they keep to a similar ethos as Fusion Ads, only serving-up the highest quality of advertisement, and in moderate quantities, they might push the entire industry in the right direction.

A lot of people commenting online seem to be under the impression that Apple is going to be displaying their ads everywhere around the phone and making billions of dollars. That couldn’t be further from the truth. The ads will only be displayed in applications where the developer specifically enables them, and the developer will receive 60% of the revenue.

I think that Apple’s revolutionary new ad platform is going to help give the industry a kick in the right direction. The best type of ads are a win-win-win scenario: the users find them useful and interesting, the publisher makes money, and the advertisers get their word across. (Contrary to popular belief, advertising is about informing people that something exists, not tricking them into buying it.)

Anyway, watch the keynote and see for yourself.

The integrated ebook store (or iBooks, as Apple prefers to call them…) places the device as a competitor to the Kindle, and already they have the support of several major publishers. The form factor makes it perfect for sitting in a chair and reading, whether your content be an ebook or a web page. It also has a version of the iWork suite available that takes advantage of the touch interface.

Already, there are predictions circulating that the device will be a miserable failure. I will tell you now, so we can all look back at this and decide who gets the last laugh, that my forecast is the opposite. Apple knows their market, and the iPad will sell.

Why? Isn’t it just an iPod Touch that doesn’t fit in your pocket?

At a glance, yes. However, each device has its own strengths — and the iPad’s give it a niche that will enable it to carve out a space between the laptop and the smartphone.

It’s not meant to be a primary computer for most people. It’s a device that you keep in your living room to check IMDB while you watch TV, a device you use to read books in bed, a device you use to read the news in the morning, a device you use to watch movies on a plane. It’s primarily a media consumption device, a digital magazine, newspaper, and book rolled into one.

I like to carry my iPod in my pocket, so I can hop on free WiFi hotspots and check in on my email and Twitter streams. It works wonderfully for web browsing, better than any device of comparable size, but the screen is small enough that it’s a pain to use for longer lengths of time. The iPad’s 10-inch screen is big enough that you could comfortably read longer articles on.

With the “iBook Store,” Apple is obviously trying to place the device as a competitor to a Kindle. While the Kindle’s E-Ink display must be easier on the eyes than a backlit LCD, it’s still a one-trick pony. I think most people will see the iPad as a better value, since they get a full web browser and the ability to run iPhone apps in the same package.

Watching the applications they demoed in the keynote, I’m more convinced that the iPad is the third classification of device that Jobs talked of. The New York Times app looked pretty good, and the Brushes painting software looked interesting. The MLB’s baseball application I found particularly intriguing, not for interest in the sport, but for what they did with it. They had it play archival clips from old matches, and the app was able to pull-up player’s statistics over the video with a couple of taps. Interactive video. Imagine Hollywood movies being encoded with metadata that would let you tap actors to run IMDB lookups while you watch. No more wondering, all the way through the film, who that familiar-looking actress is…

Apple redesigned the applications built-in to the iPhone to fit the new, larger display. In doing so, they made them that much more useful and easy to use. While the YouTube application on the iPhone is tuned to make video-watching possible on the small screen, the iPad version gives you a rich, full YouTube experience. The Calendar app is the same. Rather than simply presenting your appointments in a way suited to fit in your palm, the iPad version gives you a full-blown planner look. The added screen real estate gives applications room to do more.

I think we’ll soon start to see some killer applications developed specifically for this device. Can you imagine a touchscreen version of World of Warcraft? It seems like it would be a good candidate, game-wise. How about a MIDI sequencer, or a app/dock peripheral that turns it into a mixing board? I’m sure you can imagine an application that would be nothing short of spectacular on a large touchscreen.

The iPad will certainly be big in the game market. Journalists who got their hands on it for a few minutes have said that the A4 processor is very fast, far snappier than the iPhone’s. Coupled with the large screen, there are so many opportunities waiting. Flight simulators, FPS games, whatever you like. Surely a high-resolution 1024×768 display would make them that much more impressive and detailed than you would get on a pocket-sized iPod. Some games would be more apt for the iPhone (e.g. bowling games and quick puzzles), but the iPad seems like a better fit for others.

On the other end of the user spectrum, I think the iPad is a good device for those people who don’t really use computers. I’m sure you know someone who just reads their email, does some web browsing, and checks their Facebook feed. It seems like a good fit for them.

The iPad is an interesting device with a market that’s not quite apparent yet. It will become clear in the coming months, though. Between media consumption and yet-to-be-developed “killer apps,” the iPad will find its niche.

For those in the design business, this is a big issue. Do the designs you make work on the iPhone, and how long until your customers start asking if it will be iPhone-compatible?

I’ve been thinking about this for the past few weeks, as well as wondering how my own sites function on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

A few days ago, I discovered a post about Apple’s iPhone Simulator.

Designing websites that take advantage of the iPhone web environment requires more than simply designing for a smaller screen size. The iPhone automatically scales websites when needed. iPhone readers use multi-touch gestures to zoom or move around the page. Flash isn’t supported, and neither are larger animated GIFs (a surprise to me).

Tucked away in Apple’s free iPhone Software Development Kit is a terrific iPhone Simulator you can use to test and preview your websites. In the full version of this tip we’ll show you where that iPhone Simulator application is hidden, and include a few tips on how to test various iPhone features.

The Simulator allows you to see how the page will be rendered on the iPhone/Touch platform, and try-out Pinch and Double-Tap functionality. Basically, it’s the entire iPhone browser on your desktop.

The catch? The Simulator only works on the Mac OS. What about those of us who don’t have Macs (yet)? So, great, you don’t need to buy an iPod Touch to test sites…as long as you have a Mac. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck spending $300. I think a lot of us, especially professional designers, will need to do this in the future, as the iPhone gains market share. If Apple really wants to increase the number of iPhone Web Apps, and sites fully compatible with the device, they should probably release a Windows version of the Simulator.