For those using multitasking- Should Apple change the use of the home button?

[EssentialParado]

Heresy, I know, to even suggest such a thing. But I'm just curious who out there finds the home button clicking becomes a little bit frustrating with multitasking.

Maybe it's just me and i'm retarded, but I always take a breath before trying to bring up that multitasking bar; performing that double click just feels like too much effort. I used to be able to comfortably lean my thumb down and hit home, but now, if I want to use the multitasking bar, I have to re-position my hand to prepare to hit that button twice in perfect succession. It seems to happen too often I might do it too slow and return to the home screen accidentally. I'm also afraid I end up pushing the button overly hard to ensure I get both those clicks in, and it give the button a shorter life. Another thing i've noticed in the beta is how the response to the home button has been artificially slowed down now, giving it time to check if you're going to press the button a second time and so waits a second before returning to the home screen, but all this does is make the button feel sluggish now.

So what if Apple changed it? Let's say Steve said double-clicking is gone, and instead you press the home button only once to bring up the bar. And now, if you want to return to the home screen. you just push it while the multitasking bar is showing.

What do you think? Is multi-tasking used often enough that it should become the primary function of the home button and require a single button-press or am I making silly suggestions and it should it stay as is?

 

[miles01110]

I don't find it to be an issue at all. Double clicking is pretty simple.

 

[MacDawg]

Not a problem for me either

 

[EssentialParado]

I guess I rambled a bit in my post and could've been more clear, but it's not so much that I have issues with it, I just find it uncomfortable. I seem to be using multitasking bar to switch & launch apps more now than I need go to the home screen, which is much less often. So in my mind it might make more sense to make a single button press launch the multitask bar. But I suppose it depends how many others are like me in this way. (if any!)

 

[Ksane]

What would've been sooooooo hard about them giving us the option (like Cydia's Activator does) of allowing us to use our gesture of choice to bring up that bar? I'm with you about hating to overuse the home button. I HATE there being only ONE way to do any one thing. I just wish we had a choice.

 

[Night Spring]

What would've been sooooooo hard about them giving us the option (like Cydia's Activator does) of allowing us to use our gesture of choice to bring up that bar? I'm with you about hating to overuse the home button. I HATE there being only ONE way to do any one thing. I just wish we had a choice.

Agreed. On my jailbroken ipod touch, I used Activator to set the multiswitch bar to pop up with a "short hold" of the home button. Much, much better than double click! I have the exact same issue with double clicking as the OP. Very glad to know I'm not alone in feeling this way.

 

[Merthyrboy]

Haven't really tried it on the iPad but I have on my old iPhone 3GS and I didn't find it uncomfortable but I did miss the nice blue box to change music on my iPod.

 

[Mitchrapp]

Double click with the thumb. Easy peasey. I actually like how they multitask. Not sure there is a better way.

 

[johndoe588]

Options are always nice. I use Activator to bring up Circuitous with a pinch when on home screen or a swipe up from the bottom anytime. There are lots of ways this could be implemented besides the home button.

 

[darngooddesign]

What would've been sooooooo hard about them giving us the option (like Cydia's Activator does) of allowing us to use our gesture of choice to bring up that bar? I'm with you about hating to overuse the home button. I HATE there being only ONE way to do any one thing. I just wish we had a choice.

Are you kidding, most people can't grasp that just because an app is in the task bar doesn't mean its running. Can you imagine how confused they would be with another option.

 

[lozpop]

The Home button is the Home button!
Anyway, I think Apple should let the user decide how to call the Multitasking, because I really have the fear to damage the home button, double clicking a lot of times.

 

[George Knighton]

I don't think I would ever use multi-tasking enough to be worth that kind of switch.

Even with iOS 3.2, most of the time that I go to the home screen, activate another application, and then go back to the first application, it's at the place where I left it anyway.

At this particular moment, I think the whole multi-tasking thing for the iPad is a little over rated, and people assume a usefulness that will not really be there...at least not at first.

If you jailbreak and use Backgrounder and Multifl0w to do all these fancy things, or configure applications to run in the background as if they were in the foreground, most of the time you're just depleting your battery and taking processor power to no good purpose.

From what I have seen of iOS 4.2 so far, versus what I've seen with Backgrounder + Multifl0w, I'm comfortable leaving these things to Apple to decide what is the most common sense approach.

 

[Jeff Flowerday]

I do think they should add a long hold option to close an app down completely.

.02

 

[jclardy]

I found the double clicking to be very lenient, I can double click fairly slowly and it will bring up the multitasking menu. The only time it is an issue is if I have it on a desk with a lightweight stand.

 

[xraytech]

Heresy, I know, to even suggest such a thing. But I'm just curious who out there finds the home button clicking becomes a little bit frustrating with multitasking.

Maybe it's just me and i'm retarded, but I always take a breath before trying to bring up that multitasking bar; performing that double click just feels like too much effort. I used to be able to comfortably lean my thumb down and hit home, but now, if I want to use the multitasking bar, I have to re-position my hand to prepare to hit that button twice in perfect succession. It seems to happen too often I might do it too slow and return to the home screen accidentally. I'm also afraid I end up pushing the button overly hard to ensure I get both those clicks in, and it give the button a shorter life. Another thing i've noticed in the beta is how the response to the home button has been artificially slowed down now, giving it time to check if you're going to press the button a second time and so waits a second before returning to the home screen, but all this does is make the button feel sluggish now.

So what if Apple changed it? Let's say Steve said double-clicking is gone, and instead you press the home button only once to bring up the bar. And now, if you want to return to the home screen. you just push it while the multitasking bar is showing.

What do you think? Is multi-tasking used often enough that it should become the primary function of the home button and require a single button-press or am I making silly suggestions and it should it stay as is?

I agress with you, I prefer a single press of the Home Button to activate the App Switcher. That's how I set up ProSwitcher HD on my Jailbroken iPad.

 

[Merthyrboy]

I do think they should add a long hold option to close an app down completely.

.02

It did use to be like that but they changed it. Now just hold down the power switch until the slide to turn off comes on then take you're finger off that and hold down the home button until it returns you to the home screen.

 

[Googlyhead]

I really have the fear to damage the home button, double clicking a lot of times.

I'd think apple have made the home button pretty reliable/durable, seeing as it's expected to get a lot of use just exiting apps, and going to the home screen.
If it can't handle an extra couple of clicks per day, there would have been an awful lot of returns of the first couple of iPod and iPhone models already!

That said; mechanical buttons!?! C'mon. Get a peizo sensor in there or something suitably 'the way of the future'...

 

[Night Spring]

That said; mechanical buttons!?! C'mon. Get a peizo sensor in there or something suitably 'the way of the future'...

All touch interfaces are software controlled. You need at least some hardware buttons/switches to take control in case the software fails. You know that in order to reset your iDevice in case of a software freeze, you press and hold the power switch and home button togther? If the home button was a touch interface, that wouldn't be possible.

 

[lozpop]

I'd think apple have made the home button pretty reliable/durable, seeing as it's expected to get a lot of use just exiting apps, and going to the home screen.
If it can't handle an extra couple of clicks per day, there would have been an awful lot of returns of the first couple of iPod and iPhone models already!

That said; mechanical buttons!?! C'mon. Get a peizo sensor in there or something suitably 'the way of the future'...

In fact I wrote that because I know people that returned the first generation iPhone and the 3G because of that problem. But I think Apple has done a better job in the last hardware.

 

[xraytech]

... mechanical buttons!?! C'mon. Get a peizo sensor in there or something suitably 'the way of the future'...

Peizo is too sensitive, you'd be accidentally exciting apps left and right with a peizo sensor as a button.

 

[EssentialParado]

I found the double clicking to be very lenient, I can double click fairly slowly and it will bring up the multitasking menu. The only time it is an issue is if I have it on a desk with a lightweight stand.

Yeah, trying to double click while the ipad is on a surface or table is another issue I have with the double clicking.

I don't think I would ever use multi-tasking enough to be worth that kind of switch.

Even with iOS 3.2, most of the time that I go to the home screen, activate another application, and then go back to the first application, it's at the place where I left it anyway.

At this particular moment, I think the whole multi-tasking thing for the iPad is a little over rated, and people assume a usefulness that will not really be there...at least not at first.

I used to think the EXACT SAME until I started using the beta. I always said that multitasking wasn't needed, and I still agree. But what I ended up absolutely loving about Apple's implementation of it is nothing to do with multitasking at all, it's this nice little 'recent apps' list. I've begun using it almost exclusively for switching apps, because 95% of the apps I use are the same apps I used yesterday, so they're going to be in this list. Never in my life have I used those 'recent' menus on computers, but on the iPad: wow, it's easily replaced the home screen for most of my app switching and I think a lot of beta users would concur.

Honestly, I've hardly seen the home screen the last few weeks. This is really why i wonder if the home button could someday become the multitasking button. (However it seems poll results say otherwise, so maybe not.) Going further though, I wouldn't be surprised if the home screen disappears entirely from iOS someday. All Apple needs to do is add a spotlight search (maybe even voice activated search) area to the multitasking window (and trust me, there's plenty of room there) and the home screen will effectively become deprecated entirely. - That would change the feel of iOS quite a bit, but it would make it more efficient and streamlined. Maybe for nostalgia's sake, and if you simply wanna look through what apps you've got, they could add a little App icon to the multitasking screen that, if selected, will expand all your apps into a scrollable list, similar to opening an iOS folder. But to me, this little multitasking window has become the true hub of iOS now, and I want to predict Apple thinks of it the same way and builds on it, adding a Spotlight area, and maybe even widgets too.

 

[Dr Kevorkian94]

Personally I like the way the multitasking in the iPad has been done, the fact that it helps only to switch between apps is helpful. So far anything else has not been apparent

 

[ciaran00]

One of the big reasons why I jailbreak is to get a "soft" home button - dbl click the taskbar to multitask.

 

[kenypowa]

I guess I rambled a bit in my post and could've been more clear, but it's not so much that I have issues with it, I just find it uncomfortable. I seem to be using multitasking bar to switch & launch apps more now than I need go to the home screen, which is much less often. So in my mind it might make more sense to make a single button press launch the multitask bar. But I suppose it depends how many others are like me in this way. (if any!)

I have both Nexus One and iPad running 4.2 beta. The implementation of switching apps on Nexus One is definitely superior and more intuitive. All you have to do is press and hold the home button and a list of 8 recently used apps.

That being said, the way iPad/iPhone handles multitasking is fine. I don't see Apple add any more button onto the devices. They will get ride of the Home Button if they could.