Multitasking on iOS4 was designed wrong?

[mpt-matthew]

I had multitasking before IOS4, I used backgrounder.
When IOS4 came out i unjailbroke because steve told us all how much more efficient his multitasking was.

My main problem is that now when i close an app, it doesn't actually close. Yes i know this is so i can multitask, but why do i want to multitask every single app I open! I end up with loads of apps "open" and my phone runs slow, every few days i notice the slow, either when an app tells me i am running out of memory, or when i unlock my phone it takes a bit longer to load the unlock screen.
I then have to close all my apps which usually freezes for a few seconds while closing them all.

Now i can just about manage this, but my mum and dad (both owners of iPhones) and happy with apples usual simple approach find it a little complicated when and how to close the apps that they have opened (i just tell them when it gets slow, restart it).

Just an extra annoyance.

Solution?:

Backgrounder i have to say, worked better.
When i clicked home, my app closed (gone! no memory), and lets say i was in Trails and wanted to switch to my music, I just held the home button and that's it, backgrounding was activated, and only Trails was taking up my memory, not some game from 2 days ago, or youtube, or the odd utility app, etc.


Anyone else either have this problem, or think that apple should update their multitasking feature.

 

[tico24]

I absolutely do not have this problem. If memory is beginning to get low, iOS releases memory from the least used application.

If you really can prove that your phone is slowing down (which i'd argue is probably in your head anyway), I'd probably suggest that it's the fault of a particular 3rd party app developer (leaving something hogging the processor rather than saving it's state as Apple suggests in the SDK).

If I were you, I'd try and work out which app is causing the slowdowns and contact the developer.

 

[dojoman]

Here we go again. All the apps in the background are NOT actually running, they're just paused, only certain api like navigation or messaging is running. It has not affects on memory. iPhone is smart enough to release the RAM when needed. You can test it yourself. Open a game like Angry Birds and press home button. Normally when you go back the game resumes from where you left, now open lots of other apps and go back to Angry Bird. It will not resume because other apps take back the RAM. Backgrounder is NOT good. It drains the battery like hell.

 

[camarobh]

The Apple method of multitasking works perfectly for me. Stop worrying about memory, applications left "running", and just use the iPhone. It will take care of itself.

 

[iphone1105]

You're confused....

Apps aren't really backgrounding like you think

Apps are mostly in a "saved state" and theyre not really running

It's that hard to double tap and hold to close???

Either way you're wrong or I am wrong but to me their backgrounding seems fine, they way they have it.

If your phone is slow, reboot! Or clear some memory again not hard to do

good luck

 

[MisterDisney]

My problem is that some apps don't update changes unless you go in and really close them first, then re-open. But I guess it beats rebooting the phone every time.

 

[Small White Car]

Either way you're wrong or I am wrong

You're right. The OP is wrong. There may be something wrong with his phone, but it's not multitasking. He should get it exchanged if it's broken instead of trying to make up things to explain what's wrong with it.

OP, if it doesn't work, take it back and get a new one. What you've described has nothing to do with multitasking. "Running out of memory" isn't something that should be happening.

 

[dojoman]

You're right. The OP is wrong. There may be something wrong with his phone, but it's not multitasking. He should get it exchanged if it's broken instead of trying to make up things to explain what's wrong with it.

OP, if it doesn't work, take it back and get a new one. What you've described has nothing to do with multitasking. "Running out of memory" isn't something that should be happening.

Something wrong with his phone because it's jailbroken. It's ironic because he JB to get backgrounder and it's backgrounder is screwing him with memory hog. I bet you your iphone is way low on memory because backgrounder is constantly running in the back.

 

[boxstboy]

Yes there's a difference between having an app running in the background and having it frozen in RAM. Backgrounder (which now uses iOS4's method of multitasking) allowed an app to use CPU cycles, which consumes battery, while apps in a frozen state do not.

 

[mpt-matthew]

You're confused....

Apps aren't really backgrounding like you think

Apps are mostly in a "saved state" and theyre not really running

It's that hard to double tap and hold to close???

Either way you're wrong or I am wrong but to me their backgrounding seems fine, they way they have it.

If your phone is slow, reboot! Or clear some memory again not hard to do

good luck

Ok, that's probably true, i'm not a developer or anything.
As i said i do notice a slower unlock time when I see lots of apps open in the list. (the backlight comes on right away, but just black for like half a second).
I also notice things run less smoothly, like when i flip to search it is flickery (not smooth). And when i load some apps (like GoSkyWatch) it tells me that i am low on memory and i should restart my phone (I close all apps then open it again and it runs fine).

As mentioned in previous replies, it could just be a buggy app, i will check.

And regarding the double tap and hold, sometimes it can take some time sometimes to get though all the open apps.

Perhaps the reason i never had any problems with backgrounder was because i only backgrounded apps with navigation or messaging.

Thanks for the advice, i will go buggy app searching.

 

[mpt-matthew]

Something wrong with his phone because it's jailbroken. It's ironic because he JB to get backgrounder and it's backgrounder is screwing him with memory hog. I bet you your iphone is way low on memory because backgrounder is constantly running in the back.

My phone isn't jailbroken. It was, but then when iOS4 came i unjailbroke.
I only used backgrounder for a few apps like navigation.

 

[dojoman]

My phone isn't jailbroken. It was, but then when iOS4 came i unjailbroke.
I only used backgrounder for a few apps like navigation.

You don't need backgrounder. iOS4 multitasking works flawlessly. Navigon works in the background all the time, you can still hear turn by turn voice even when you put iphone in standby mode, saving battery. Trapster works the same. Which trail running app are you using? RunKeeper works with multitasking. Maybe the app you're using hasn't been updated to work with multitasking. Not all apps are updated.

 

[ianray]

And when i load some apps (like GoSkyWatch) it tells me that i am low on memory and i should restart my phone (I close all apps then open it again and it runs fine).

I think the GoSkyWatch App is making assumptions about memory availability based on iOS 3.x -- in other words: if memory is low you need to restart or close some Safari tabs

In iOS 4, those assumptions are no longer valid; the system will free up memory on-demand. I hope this clarifies things

 

[iFanaddic]

There should be a way to close all apps, have you ever tried turning them off one by one.. it can take me 30-45 seconds when I don't do it for a day or to..I know it doesn't take up memory, but it ruins the functionality if I have to flick the dock 10 times to get to the app I want..

Long story short all im saying is that they should add a close all toggle. Oh and why not add screen lock in landscape mode while you're at it.

 

[itsmemuffins]

I have never had any problems with Apples implementation of multi tasking and have had my iP4 for over a month now.

 

[kmpoboy2]

TS, what IPhone did you have?... If it a 3G then that's were the problem may be. There are reports of 3G becoming slower when upgrated to IOS4.

Also, maybe you have a corrupt file, if you use your jailbroken back up after the upgrade to IOS4.

 

[kel86]

i think apple should make a way to close all the app in the multitask bar at one go

or make it easier to close the app in the bar.

and does anyone know it there any app in the cydia that can close all the app in the multitask bar ??

 

[jdwebby]

Im not going to totally agree with what OP said. But there is one issue that I found that might make multi-tasking not perfect. I downloaded WSOP Texas holdem. Great game love it. The problem is that one day my battery was draining alot faster then before. I usually go to usage to see how much is being used. I saw that the standby time was the exact same time as my usage. So I started go threw my apps to see what was still running full program in the background. After trail and error it was WSOP that was running all the time.

I think that the program doesn't close cause it is not optimized for multi-tasking and doesnt go into a standby mode.

This is the only program that has this flaw, and I am not using it till they come out with a fix for this, because there are times that i might forget to close it and not use my phone and drain the battery.

 

[narimonk]

backgrounder literally raped the battery, the save state system apple uses is much more efficient for extended use....

 

[brianktsui]

TS, what IPhone did you have?... If it a 3G then that's were the problem may be. There are reports of 3G becoming slower when upgrated to IOS4.

Also, maybe you have a corrupt file, if you use your jailbroken back up after the upgrade to IOS4.

Multitasking isn't slowing down your phone, but the combination of old hardware + more memory-intensive software is. Good luck!

 

[tuan time]

i think apple should make a way to close all the app in the multitask bar at one go

or make it easier to close the app in the bar.

and does anyone know it there any app in the cydia that can close all the app in the multitask bar ??

i think there is a tweak in cydia that disables iOS4 multitasking. I'm not agreeing with the OP, but whenever I have safari backgrounded, the available memory reading in SBsettings is pretty low. Jus' saying..

And I dont have any themes or anything. Just custom sms tones.