Multitasking Confusion

[vMwMv]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Im a little confused. I bought the iPhone 4S on launch day and prior to this, owned a BB. I used to use an iPhone 3GS but before the more functional OS came out. I've been experienced subpar battery life recently and figured I'd turn off wifi and location services and it's a little better. However, from my understanding - double tapping the home button shows the multitasking section I.e. apps runnin concurrently with each other. I've tried. Losing these (to hopefully see nothing there but core apps) however failing to do so. Could someone explain how I 1) fully close app 2) what apple version of 'multitasking' actually is, as it appears to be mislabelled. Cheers.

 

[reckless2k2]

I'll try to help you on this.

iOS multi-tasking isn't true multi-tasking. It more so holds apps in the last state for quick recall directly from the task bar. It does consume memory and therefore energy draining the battery but at a much reduced state than true multi-tasking.

As far as battery life, I don't know what you mean subpar battery life since the phone is more or less brand new.

Some things to consider:

How many push alerts you have setup. Remove any unnecessary.

Turn off Ping from the Restrictions menu if you do not use it.

Turn off Bluetooth if you don't use it.

Consider how many open Safari tabs calling out to the net. I usually wipe them all when I'm done and save bookmarks if I want to refer back. Reading List is good for that now too.

Consider what is using location services that may not be necessary. They can be a battery drain.

It doesn't hurt to clear that task bar each time. The necessary apps will make the calls needed regardless of being in the task bar like email.

There are a few other things that I'm sure people may chime in on or correct me since I've posted.

 

[vMwMv]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

I'll try to help you on this.

iOS multi-tasking isn't true multi-tasking. It more so holds apps in the last state for quick recall directly from the task bar. It does consume memory and therefore energy draining the battery but at a much reduced state than true multi-tasking.

As far as battery life, I don't know what you mean subpar battery life since the phone is more or less brand new.

Some things to consider:

How many push alerts you have setup. Remove any unnecessary.

Turn off Ping from the Restrictions menu if you do not use it.

Turn off Bluetooth if you don't use it.

Consider how many open Safari tabs calling out to the net. I usually wipe them all when I'm done and save bookmarks if I want to refer back. Reading List is good for that now too.

Consider what is using location services that may not be necessary. They can be a battery drain.

It doesn't hurt to clear that task bar each time. The necessary apps will make the calls needed regardless of being in the task bar like email.

There are a few other things that I'm sure people may chime in on or correct me since I've posted.

Thanks for that. You've cleared things up a little but! How do I go about 'clearing' the task bar then to reduce the amount of memory being used?

 

[sammich]

I'll try to help you on this.

iOS multi-tasking isn't true multi-tasking. It more so holds apps in the last state for quick recall directly from the task bar. It does consume memory and therefore energy draining the battery but at a much reduced state than true multi-tasking.

Memory being used != extra energy. Memory consumes battery just sitting there (provided the device is on).

It's limited multitasking, apps not open will time out (10 minutes) and release memory.

Consider how many open Safari tabs calling out to the net. I usually wipe them all when I'm done and save bookmarks if I want to refer back. Reading List is good for that now too.

Consider what is using location services that may not be necessary. They can be a battery drain.

Whenever something is using your location (ie GPS) it'll let you know with a little compass arrow near the battery icon in the top right. And anything that has used it in the past 24 hours will have an arrow in the Location Services settings menu.

It doesn't hurt to clear that task bar each time. The necessary apps will make the calls needed regardless of being in the task bar like email.

It's a waste of time to 'close' these apps in the multitasking dock. After a while I'll have filled up that 'dock' to the max (4x25 pages). My phone must be running really really slow and needs charging every hour. No. Apps stop running in the background after a maximum of 10 minutes, barring GPS apps and other types.

Don't close apps unless you want to restart an app for whatever reason. Otherwise it's a futile exercise. iOS manages memory very well.

There are a few other things that I'm sure people may chime in on or correct me since I've posted.

You're welcome

 

[wadawow]

NP- you press the icon until it wiggles... then click on the "-" to delete it from the task bar

 

[blackNBUK]

Memory being used != extra energy. Memory consumes battery just sitting there (provided the device is on).

It's limited multitasking, apps not open will time out (10 minutes) and release memory.

I think you are mixing up two concepts here. There isn't an arbitary limit for now long Apps can stay suspended. Instead Apps will stay in memory until iOS needs the memory for something else. The 10 minute limit comes in with Task Completion, where an App can request extra time to complete a task like an upload or download.

To OP the best advice I can give is to not worry about manually managing Apps. Instead if your losing battery life look at what things are happening in the background. If you have a Sat-Nav or music steaming App still doing it's thing in the background then they will use power. However just having Apps suspended should have very little effect.

 

[jsh1120]

Sammich and BlackNBUK are both correct. (The British Commonwealth is apparently chock full of people who know what they're talking about.)

iOS is capable of true multi-tasking. Apple intentionally limited its capabilities in order to save battery life and provide a consistent (non-laggy) user experience with a limited performance cpu.

Ironically, virtually identical discussions go on all the time over in the Android world where users insist on second guessing the memory management of the OS (where more comprehensive multitasking is supported.)

Bottom line. Don't worry about "killing" apps. The OS knows better than you do how to deal with memory management. On the other hand, if you experience problems with battery drain, turn off features of your device that truly drain the battery. These include virtually any service that communicates with the outside world, e.g. GPS, bluetooth, etc. Those features are not "multitasking" in the usual meaning of the term, but they do drain power.

 

[TC25]

Sammich and BlackNBUK are both correct. (The British Commonwealth is apparently chock full of people who know what they're talking about.)

Or they are more tolerant of answering a question that's been asked dozens of times before.

 

[sammich]

I think you are mixing up two concepts here. There isn't an arbitary limit for now long Apps can stay suspended. Instead Apps will stay in memory until iOS needs the memory for something else. The 10 minute limit comes in with Task Completion, where an App can request extra time to complete a task like an upload or download.

Right you are. An association I made a while back and I guess it's come back to haunt me Yes, apps stay suspended in memory until they're needed elsewhere. I still love it when I can hide a game like Infinity Blade, use the phone for the day, and tapping the game at the end of the day and it opens instantly.

To OP the best advice I can give is to not worry about manually managing Apps. Instead if your losing battery life look at what things are happening in the background. If you have a Sat-Nav or music steaming App still doing it's thing in the background then they will use power. However just having Apps suspended should have very little effect.

Music streaming in the background is obvious from the sound and possibly the spinning 'data loading' wheel in the top left. GPS is the compass icon in the top right, and the rapidly falling battery percentage