In case you missed the live coverage that was all over the Internet mid-day today about Apple’s media event announcing the forthcoming update to the iPhone operating system for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, here’s a round-up of the new features you can look forward to.

• Multitasking
  Topping most people’s lists for features they’d like to see, developers will now have access in the SDK to seven different multitasking services, allowing Apps to run certain things in the background while supposedly not sacrificing battery life and performance. This will be available only to the iPhone 3GS, latest generation of iPod Touch, and all iPads. I shed a small tear that I shall never see this on my iPhone 3G.
• Folders
  It really doesn’t get much more straightforward than being able to organize your Apps in to folders. This was a fantastic feature on the Palm Pilot more than a decade ago, so no one is really sure what took so long for Apple to include it. I, for one, can’t wait to reorganize my dozens of Apps in to folders. This will also increase the limit of Apps to 2160, a huge leap from the prior limit of 180.
• Mail Improvements
  Can anyone say unified inbox? This has long been a great feature of Apple’s Mail client for the Mac OS X and those that use it deeply enjoy having it on my phone as well. In addition, you will be able to switch between mail accounts more quickly, reorganize messages in threads, and open attachments in third-party apps.
• iBooks
  Apple’s fledgling eBookstore for the iPad will now also have a native app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It will allow you access to the full book store as well as any books you’ve purchased for your other iPad.
• Game Center
  Not a ton is known yet, but developers will have access to new “GameKit APIs” that will help them develop for the “Game Center”, a social gaming network that Apple plans to roll out later this year. You can bet there will be a lot more buzz about this in the coming months.
• Enterprise Improvements
  If you’re a business customer, it will now be more appealing than ever to make the switch from your Crackberry to an iPhone (and, Apple hopes, other Apple hardware). There are new improvements to security, encryption, scalability, and cross-platform compatibility. You can finally even have more than a single Exchange email set up on the phone.
• iAds
  Here’s the biggie. According to Apple, “iAd is a breakthrough mobile advertising platform from Apple. With it, apps can feature rich media ads that combine the emotion of TV with the interactivity of the web. For developers, it means a new, easy-to-implement source of revenue. For advertisers, it creates a new media outlet that offers consumers highly targeted information.” Long story short, Apple is about to make a boatload more cash with what is almost guaranteed to be a hugely popular next-generation advertising platform across their various mobile devices.
• 100+ New User Features
  The above list is a small slice of what Apple claims is a laundry list of new user features. No solid word yet on exactly what all of them are, but as developers get their hands on the new SDK, details will continue to emerge. Don’t be surprised if not all of the features will be included on older devices.
• The Bad News
  For those of you using first generation iPhones and iPod Touches (iPods Touch? Neither looks right.), you don’t get any of the 4.0 love. The update will only be available for iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and the 2nd and 3rd generation iPod Touch sometime this summer, with the iPad update coming in the fall.