Multitasking on the iPhone (a developer's view)

[Carniphage]

First they were "just" web pages. Now they're "just" Java apps. What will they be next? I have more than a few friends who will be sad to know that in the year's they've spent developing with Java they weren't creating "real" programs.

There's a difference between an application running in the native code of the processor - and a web-page with some interpreted Java code.

It's a subtle difference to be sure. And one that most users simply don't care about.

But if you are unaware of such a subtle difference, perhaps you will equally unaware of the implementation difference between one type of multi-tasking and another.

What we want is to be able to swiftly switch between applications with no loss of context. - And for some apps to maintain a certain type on ongoing activity, even when not in foreground.

How that functionality is achieved is irrelevant, unless the implementation is so bad that the device has to come with a task manager and a pocket-protector.

C.

 

[Rudy69]

P.S. I'm glad the original poster posted this, and am glad he gave a real life example (even if it did show him to be a little niave for what his users would want). I don't see this as a plug and think it's stimulating some interesting debate.

Thanks, personally I'm glad it brought such a good discussion about multitasking . And to be honest this "plug" did exactly what I thought it would do, nothing. Sales for my game didn't go up or down and same for the traffic to my blog (why would it, the full article is posted in my first post). I never meant to turn it in a plug, I was just interested in spreading my opinion and get feedback from users (which is something hard to do on the AppStore).

 

[SXR]

I disagree that iPhone users are battery managers. I do use my iPhone A LOT every day , but I usually get trough the day without charging it. Only in the late evenings it does get under 20%.

I would like to see this multitasking as maybe an option that you could toggle on/off. Im sure that will make it awesome , if they will do it at all.

 

[Rudy69]

I disagree that iPhone users are battery managers. I do use my iPhone A LOT every day , but I usually get trough the day without charging it. Only in the late evenings it does get under 20%.

I would like to see this multitasking as maybe an option that you could toggle on/off. Im sure that will make it awesome , if they will do it at all.

My personal experience is that if I don't play game I can usually go a few days without charging but if I play anything I need to charge it during the evening

 

[SXR]

I find that to be true aswell. The game and some applications just drain the battery , and if you tend to use those things a lot, then yes, you will have to become a battery manager.

 

[Rudy69]

I find that to be true aswell. The game and some applications just drain the battery , and if you tend to use those things a lot, then yes, you will have to become a battery manager.

I'm not really complaining about it....anything that will play games or something will need to be charged every day or two (my psp and ds are the same)

 

[SXR]

luckily i dont find myself every day playing a game till my iPhone dies..

but using IM is a battery drain aswell. What i've found is that Push Notifications for things like eBuddy work really really well. At least that has been my personal experience. Just launching the app and loggin in again is annoying to wait on.

another thing that multitasking could address though.

 

[QCassidy352]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

IMO the iPhone does need multitasking to keep up with the competition. But what really needs it is the ipad (iWork without multitasking? Not gonna work). and since they share an OS... I'm sure apple can implement it in a simple, user-friendly way.

 

[SXR]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

IMO the iPhone does need multitasking to keep up with the competition. But what really needs it is the ipad (iWork without multitasking? Not gonna work). and since they share an OS... I'm sure apple can implement it in a simple, user-friendly way.

I totally agree with that , working on a spreadsheet without a browser along side is useless... at least for me. I also agree with the fact that the iPhone needs multitasking to keep up with the compettion. ' Software that is at least 5 years ahead of whats on other mobile devices ' - SJ < that doesnt mean that you can lay back and change nothing. I was gonna say do nothing instead of change nothing , but they are improving the iPhone, its just that i want to see some other things. iPhone is a terrific device, but it needs some improvements, when i saw the lock-screen on the iPad for the first time it is exactly the same as the one on the iphone.... BUILD IN UPCOMING EVENTS, MESSAGES whatever just on the lock screen , Apple! Do it for the iPad, but also for the iPhone!

This is one of the features in 4.0 that i hope for.