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iPad = no multitasking; iPhone 4G = ?
- Thread starter arctic
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I fail to see how this thread differs significantly from all the other 4G/multitasking speculation threads. But I will repeat what I have said elsewhere:
I believe that Apple will continue its efforts to meet most people's multitasking needs without offering true multitasking. As Small White Car suggested, this will probably take the shape of a framework for streaming non-m4a audio in the background or in Safari. This will allow apps like Pandora and Last.FM to stream in the background in the same way that WunderRadio streams m4a radio stations. Combined with push notifications for IM, and perhaps improved saved states for paused applications, this will easily take care of 95% of what most users would do with multitasking.
I believe that Apple will continue its efforts to meet most people's multitasking needs without offering true multitasking. As Small White Car suggested, this will probably take the shape of a framework for streaming non-m4a audio in the background or in Safari. This will allow apps like Pandora and Last.FM to stream in the background in the same way that WunderRadio streams m4a radio stations. Combined with push notifications for IM, and perhaps improved saved states for paused applications, this will easily take care of 95% of what most users would do with multitasking.
Not on the best network I believe, and a bunch of the features won't work. Also don't really want to pay full price. Milestone just came out 2 days ago but I'm not a big fan of that. Whatever, anything could change by june/july.
Only time will tell.
Haven't you heard? The iPhone does multitask!
Say you're on a call with a friend and they ask, "Where's the movie theater?"...
Haha... Just kidding of course.
I agree with thelatinist in that Apple will probably try and work around it. It'd be too far in the wrong direction if after all of this they just went back on what they said. It'd basically be like them admitting they were full of crap when they left it off in the first place.
Say you're on a call with a friend and they ask, "Where's the movie theater?"...
Haha... Just kidding of course.
I agree with thelatinist in that Apple will probably try and work around it. It'd be too far in the wrong direction if after all of this they just went back on what they said. It'd basically be like them admitting they were full of crap when they left it off in the first place.
I don't understand everyone's fascination with "multi tasking" I have never once wanted to have two applications running at the same time on my Phone. Sure, it'd be nice to listen to a radio app in the background every once in a while, but it's not that big of a negative considering it helps maintain battery life and application stability.
I would love it for chatting purposes. I want to be able to respond to someone's message, then go back to browsing the web or something, then be able to read and respond again quickly.
My phone is jailbroken, so I just use iRealSMS, but I guess that is "cheating". But I would not like my phone without it.
If the next iPhone is as fast as I think it will be then opening and closing the programs will be that fast.
So there's no need for multitasking there. (If I'm right about the speed, that is.)
you're wrong buddy. That was 2 years ago when the competition was well non existent with touch screens. That is not the case now. People have options jus as good as an iphone and if they leave out Multi-tasking it's only going to give people reasons to try a nexus or droid phone. I have a blackberry and i have several apps running all day, 8 plus hours and i get home with 50% battery life left. Apple needs to stop ********ting their customers before they lose them. apple isn't sitting pretty on top of the mountain anymore. Blackberry curves outsold the iphone this past qtr so if you think people aren't passing up on Iphones you better think twice.
Well yeah I'm talking without jailbreaking.
And Small White Car...that would have to be pretty fast. We can hope though!
I've read about this "semi-multitasking" concept a few weeks ago. I was quite excited about it. But since we didn't see any shape or form of this in the iPad's SDK, I'm not holding my breath. I hope it comes but analyzing Apple's movements from the past, I'm not very optimistic.
i think the ipad pretty much confirms no multitasking. if they can sell a tablet as a web browser/content reader without allowing the user to have, for example, a messenger app open at the same time as safari then i'm pretty sure they can get away with it again with the iphone. push notifications are great, but they don't deal with the annoying bit, closing and opening apps all the time. would be far better if you could quickly flick between them.
like many i use jailbreak to do this currently but there is obviously going to be a period where 4.0 cant be jailbroken and where some of the apps wont work on the new OS. as great as jailbreaking is i'd much rather the OS did just some of its benefits out of the box..
My bet...
Is that OS4.0 is going to bring most (or all) of the benefits of multi-tasking to iPhone.
By benefits, I mean instant app-switching with no loss of context.
And possibly some ability to run code in background.
If they stick to form and release 4.0 in March - that means the iPad will not be launched with OS3.2
My guess is that OS 3.2 is purely a placeholder OS to give developers a chance to create launch apps for the iPad. When the iPad launches it will come with 4.0
C.
Is that OS4.0 is going to bring most (or all) of the benefits of multi-tasking to iPhone.
By benefits, I mean instant app-switching with no loss of context.
And possibly some ability to run code in background.
If they stick to form and release 4.0 in March - that means the iPad will not be launched with OS3.2
My guess is that OS 3.2 is purely a placeholder OS to give developers a chance to create launch apps for the iPad. When the iPad launches it will come with 4.0
C.
Apple doesn't release iPhone OS versions in March, only developer releases. You're right that 3.2 is a placeholder, but it'll probably be around for 3 months or so.
The hope is that now the accounting ballsup in the US has been resolved, they can offer free updates to iPad and iPod users for free.
M.
You are right, but I would not be totally surprised if Apple messed around with the dates a little this year.
C.
They released the SDK now for the iPad and the devs are now working with its upcoming apps. With that said, there is no shape or form of multitasking in this SDK for the iPad.
Like niuniu replied in the previous page, there's no way Apple is gonna be criticized with this if the multitasking is just around the corner a few weeks after the iPad is released without it. If the iPad is gonna be released with multitasking like you said, Steve Jobs would have made a big deal dramatizing it in the keynote since this is one of the most sought after features of iPhone critics since the release of the 3G.
On the other hand, we might see 4.0 released only for the iPhone and not the iPad, but of course that would make it more preposterous since the iPad seriously needs even a small form of multitasking while you're editing your documents or copy pasting from a web page or while you're in an important email correspondence. I'm not even talking Pandora here.
Apple knows that once they give you something they can't take it back. That's why cut and paste took so long. They really wanted to be sure it was how they wanted it before they gave it to us.
I suspect that Apple realizes that they have very little idea of how people will use the iPad. I'm betting that they really want a whole year to observe how the iPad is used before they start adding features like this to the software.
If they put it in now, it'll mostly be based on guesses and then they'll be stuck with it.
How many Apple products start out really slowly?
iPhone started with no 3G
The iPod Touch started with no camera
Even before the iPad was announced I had a strong feeling that iPad 2.0 will be the one everyone wants. I still think that'll be true.
So don't discount multitasking (or something like it) just yet.
it multi tasks just fine!
I can have the stop watch/alarm clock running in the background of any of the apps!!
WOOHOO!
I can have the stop watch/alarm clock running in the background of any of the apps!!
WOOHOO!
My guess is that Apple will introduce two methods which allow the benefit of multi-tasking, without the downsides.
The main one; is allowing apps to stay resident in memory, will not require any changes to existing apps.
C.
I think you vastly overrate how important multi tasking is to the majority of consumers. By a huge amount. Like seriously gargantuan proportions.
Not many people care about it at all. After all, you can only actually use one application at a time. They might loose some whiney tech geeks (who, lets be honest, the only people who will care) that think the ability to run multiple apps is the most important thing ever, but I doubt they'll care. The iPhone has so much mass market appeal that the loss wouldn't be noticed.
More people might be persuaded to go elsewhere due to other handsets having better cameras and other features than by lack of multitasking.
Not to mention memory management issues. The reason I went from a HTC Hero to the 3GS was performance alone, Apple really have one of the smoothest and easiest OS' out there.
But when using Android you realise that the function to auto close apps when memory gets low just isn't good enough, you get massive performance deficits before any background processes are auto-closed. Jumping in and out of a task manager is not the way forward, Apple would need to implement a system that made it easy to know what apps were open and how to close them. I just don't see how they could easily do this without a complete re-design of the OS.
Well I can see Apple, instead of putting multitasking in, introduce a native IM app (iChat?). Most, if not all, complaints of multitasking involve IM clients.
If Apple includes iChat, and that runs in the background, I can see a lot of complaints disappear.
If Apple includes iChat, and that runs in the background, I can see a lot of complaints disappear.
I think apple will introduce multi-tasking. They have gone through 3 Generations of leaving out multi-tasking. Now with everyone phone and their moms phone with multi-tasking, like video, apple will succumb to the pressure and add it. But Apple will once again leave something out so we can all go "Man they didnt include this, I can't wait for next iteration"