Apple rumor twofer: Expose-like multitasking in iPhone OS 4.0, international iPad launch on April 24th
By Ross Miller 
posted March 31st 2010 6:51PM
posted March 31st 2010 6:51PM
Taking a step back to focus on the actual hardware for a moment, iPad in Canada is hearing that local Apple store employees have been told April 24th is a "black out period," meaning no one is allowed to take that day off. That usually coincides with major product launch, and we did hear the international iPad debut would be late April, but Apple's yet to make its non-US plans concrete. It is the last Saturday of the month, however, and perhaps it'll coincide with the other countries as well. As always, none of this is confirmed and shouldn't be taken as gospel in any way, shape, or form. We can't stop you from getting your hopes up, but don't blame us if those dreams get shattered by a sucker punch of reality.
Oh the irony!!
The iPhone os is.... WRITTEN IN JAVA!
lol!
@HighestRanked2
Well, given the UNIX underpinnings of OS X, my bet would be that a lot of it is written in plain ol' C. That said, any valid C code is also valid in Objective-C so you can take this how you like.
iSnooze. Too little too late. Between android, webos and dare I say windows mobile apple is showing up way too late to the party.
@Kinte Kunta Why do you think it's not called Windows Mobile? Because it's not Windows Mobile! Hard to grasp, I know.
@Darkseider
"Too little too late"
For who? If multitasking was *really* important to customers then it would have been there on Day #1.
@Kelmon yup just like copy & paste, right?
@Darkseider
Well, yes. In the grand scheme of things, copy/paste is not THAT important. It certainly didn't stop people buying the device and it is universally acknowledged that the solution that was delivered is the best one out there at present. Copy/paste is certainly useful but it is not something that I personally use very often. The idea that you have to provide what everyone else does before you start adding anything new is, frankly, wrong.
How did we get 124 comments in with nobody pointing out that the 3G models are expected to ship in Late April? Like, maybe April 24th?
@DHowett
No-one's mentioned 3g as the article is about the iPad in Canada. The only way it can be considered indicative of the 3g launch is if Apple plans to release the wifi & 3g models concurrently in Canada (while releasing the 3g model in the US to keep them up to date). The iPad supply seems like its going to be stressed as is and they might try to stretch out the release to allow for a ramp up in production to better meet the demand.
There is the possibility of course that they might want to get the 3g model out there as soon as possible since they don't want to loose 3g sales to the wifi only model since there's more money to be made on the 3g model.
so like.. i used the double tap all the time to get to my favorites call log. I guess this feature pretty much screws that all up huh? I guess thats apple for you and their infinite 1 button wisdom
expose on a mac is by far the best way to multitask
@CupertinoSweat
sorry but noone gives a shit
@CupertinoSweat
I hope apple is paying you well because your head is soo far up their ass it's rediculous . FANBOY!!!!
@TheEdge hey suck my dick troll
@CupertinoSweat
It's pretty, for sure, but I don't tend to use it because it always seems faster to use Cmd+Tab instead. That said, the iPhone is not getting Expose. What you are apparently getting is a hybrid of Cmd+Tab (or Alt+Tab, depending on your particular brand of poison) and Expose; you'll get the icons displayed like Expose but you won't get live views of each application's current state.
@CupertinoSweat
a homosexual Fanboy at that....you guys are hilarious
@mrt2
has just pwned this forum and the dellusional Apple bashers. Great post!!
I just wanted multitasking PERIOD, but if this pans out then this is even better. An Expose-like way of doing so sounds like the perfect solution. Rumor Gods, please let this be true, at least the multitasking part.
Funny, didn't htc just implement this kind of feature with their desktops on sense? AFAIK thats also patented to HTC.
You know where this is going.
@stsfin
No I don't, since Apple owns the patent to Exposé. If it works like Exposé then how would HTC have grounds to sue Apple on anything?
I don't know about you guys but I multitask all the time on my Xperia X1. A common setup is a chat client running while doing something else. I'm not a heavy multitasker (4-6 programs at once is common although) but I clearly miss it on my ipod touch. Let face's it, being able to properly multitask is a good idea.
This news worries me. I am perfectly comfortable with the iPhone OS preventing multitasking of 3rd party applications today and the addition of it is potentially going to add more problems than it solves. Yes, it will be terrific that Pandora can run in the background like the iPod application does but will every 3rd party application be allowed to? How much resource will a background application take up that is effectively idle because it doesn't do anything without user interaction? How can I see which applications are consuming resources and therefore need to be "killed"?
Honestly, I think this is asking for trouble for the simple reason that this will add complexity that isn't necessary.
@Kelmon Complexity! Oh, the horror!
Look, despite whatever Apple told you guys, applications in the background DO NOT use the CPU when they are idle, thus having no impact on the battery life.
Android-based devices last almost as long as the iPhone, and they do multitask. I heard the same is true for Windows Mobile.
@dragossh
Yes, the horror. Sorry but complexity = bad, particularly when there isn't a good reason to add it. I absolutely agree that a background application does not (or certainly should not) consume CPU time but does it not also consume RAM? Can I open every application I can fit onto an Android phone and still expect the device to be as responsive as when just one application is running?
Seriously, how much do you actually NEED multitasking and for what? As soon as you add multitasking then you need to be able to either kill applications or continue running them in the background. You need to be able to see what is currently running and make decisions on what should still be running and what should be stopped. Basically, you need to add but I highly doubt that these additions actually bring a benefit.
Just because other devices do something does not make it right. One of the best things about the iPhone is that it is simple and I see no reason to change that just to appease the tech-heads who think this stuff is important. If you want a more complicated device that enables full multitasking then just buy something else and don't assume that the iPhone is going to magically better with it because it won't.
I am an iPhone developer, and this is definitely not code for the iPhone or iPad because it is not written in objective-c.
jailbreak
sigh... can't we all just get along and let Apple haters be Apple haters and Apple lovers be Apple lovers