Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
It's not a myth? If I keep apps open on my Nokia I get noticeably less battery life.

Are they actively processing? If so, then it should be no surprise to you.

If they are like most apps, which are 99% idle when the user doesn't interact with them, you won't notice less battery at all.
 
Are they actively processing? If so, then it should be no surprise to you.

If they are like most apps, which are 99% idle when the user doesn't interact with them, you won't notice less battery at all.

There are a few apps where active processing in the background is unwanted... like if you're watching a video. You'd want the video to pause and then resume when you switch back, not carry on in the background.
 
The icon disappearing and the app closing are two different things. :rolleyes:

You're partially correct. For apps that don't support multi-tasking, the app isn't even running to begin with. The icon is just there, states are not saved, no background tasks are running.

I don't have any true multi-tasking apps to test if removing them from the task switcher actually stops their background processes or not. If you happen to have some insight, feel free to share.
 
There are a few apps where active processing in the background is unwanted... like if you're watching a video. You'd want the video to pause and then resume when you switch back, not carry on in the background.

Ok, but not what I was talking about...

Those apps that cause you to notice less battery life on your nokia - what are they actively processing in the background? If they were idle they would be using a very small percentage of CPU (<5%) and would not affect battery life in a noticeable way.
 
When I read what they were doing with multitasking I don't think it is true mutlitasking at all.

Well, I don't think true multitasking, in the way you are thinking of it, is possible at all on a 3.5" screen. Do you *really* want multiple windows open on a small screen? Multitasking in that regard just isn't feasible in the current form factor. I actually think it would be difficult on the iPad as well.
 
I don't get it, if you close an app does it automatically do the backgrounding

Like pandora, how do i choose if i just want to go back to the home screen or if i want to go back to the home screen and have it still play music????
 
Ok, but not what I was talking about...

Those apps that cause you to notice less battery life on your nokia - what are they actively processing in the background? If they were idle they would be using a very small percentage of CPU (<5%) and would not affect battery life in a noticeable way.

Games, videos, web pages that continually refresh, apps with animated GUIs, flash apps. All of those can run in the background on a Nokia.
 
I don't get it, if you close an app does it automatically do the backgrounding

Like pandora, how do i choose if i just want to go back to the home screen or if i want to go back to the home screen and have it still play music????

You will have to click Pause or Stop to get it to stop playing music. Is it that difficult? On your home computer, don't you have to do the same to get music to stop?
 
You will have to click Pause or Stop to get it to stop playing music. Is it that difficult? On your home computer, don't you have to do the same to get music to stop?

No i guess if thats the case thats fine.

hmm, so they send any app you quite to your backgrounding dock... and then only keep your recently viewed apps... (maybe)

I guess that makes sense
 
No i guess if thats the case thats fine.

hmm, so they send any app you quite to your backgrounding dock... and then only keep your recently viewed apps... (maybe)

I guess that makes sense

Not quite.

Steve ran 12 apps and they were all accessible in the background dock. Somebody else in this thread mentioned that if you press and hold an app on the background dock, a little "-" icon appears where the "x" usually does when you want to delete icons. Pressing the "-" removes the icon from your dock.
 
You're partially correct. For apps that don't support multi-tasking, the app isn't even running to begin with. The icon is just there, states are not saved, no background tasks are running.

I don't have any true multi-tasking apps to test if removing them from the task switcher actually stops their background processes or not. If you happen to have some insight, feel free to share.

I'm only getting my information from the presentation. It appears that no third party background processes will be allowed in OS 4.0. Any background processing would be through the 7 services that Apple mentioned in the presentation.
 
Ugh, I hope not. What a swing and a miss.

Some apps are best if they don't save state.

Take the settings app, for example. Suppose the last time you went into settings it was to check your usage. You exit the app right from the usage screen. Somewhere down the line, you want to turn off WiFi. When you launch settings, you don't want to be back at the usage screen, making your have to navigate all the way back to the top of the hierarchy.

On the other hand, what if you are in the middle of setting up an email account and have to cross reference all your account information with Safari (ingoing/outgoing server info, port settings, account info)? In that case, you don't want to start at the beginning screen each time and lose your place.

Take the USAToday app. When you launch the app, it always starts at the front page so you can see all the updated news for the day. You don't want to have to navigate backwards each time from when you last quit the app within an article from three days ago.

But then again, what if you want to look up something from a story in Safari? You want to get back to your place in the article when you return.

I don't think Apple gets it.

You know apps right now support save states? It's up to the App developer to save the state when you close the app. They just have better support for it so more apps will be able to do it. As long as developers are intuitive this will only make things better.
 
Games, videos, web pages that continually refresh, apps with animated GUIs, flash apps. All of those can run in the background on a Nokia.

Ok, so apps that are actively processing in the background just as if they were in the foreground and being used by you.

No surprise that you will see less battery life, and it's not because of multi-tasking.
 
Ok, so apps that are actively processing in the background just as if they were in the foreground and being used by you.

No surprise that you will see less battery life, and it's not because of multi-tasking.

That's an odd distinction to make. Of course it's the apps running in the background that use resources. No one is suggesting that multitasking itself is resource intensive. The iPhone has always had active multitasking.
 
I'm only getting my information from the presentation. It appears that no third party background processes will be allowed in OS 4.0. Any background processing would be through the 7 services that Apple mentioned in the presentation.

Honestly I can't think of all that much I care about that can't be handled through those seven channels. I'd love to hear some examples, though, since people seem to still be complaining about it.

Not you in particular.
 
Honestly I can't think of all that much I care about that can't be handled through those seven channels. I'd love to hear some examples, though, since people seem to still be complaining about it.

Not you in particular.

Yea, me neither. Sounds good to me. I just wish I had a phone that could use it now. :)
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.