You heard that right, people --
iPhone OS 4 just brought multitasking to the platform! Apple says they've figured out how to implement third party multitasking without hurting performance or battery life, and they're demoing it now -- you just double click the home button and see a list of your apps, and you can just tap to switch between apps. The system actually runs the services apps need in the background -- the apps don't need to do them individually, so it's not a "true" multitasking system, but it seems plenty effective. There are seven services: background audio, which allows you to use the standard pop-over iPod controls, Voice over IP, which can receive calls in the background, location services for GPS and social networking (there's an indicator if any service is tracking you), updated push notifications with local notifications, task completion so you can finish things like uploads in the background, and fast app switching, which lets apps sleep and resume instantly. Notably missing? Anything for managing a conversation, like IM or Twitter, which is a big omission. Win some, lose some, we suppose.
Update: Here's a big "lose some" -- only the iPhone 3GS and 3rd generation (late 2009) iPod touch will support multitasking. The iPhone 3G and below won't -- Steve says the hardware doesn't support it. Sad face.
Developing...
Make sure to check out the
ongoing iPhone OS 4.0 liveblog!
posted April 8th 2010 2:05PM
At long last!
@pple Hopefully Apple will do it best.
@werty1432k Its like a mac dock!
@pple
All hating aside, I'm really looking forward to this!
@werty1432k
I guess it took time to perfect and implement properly.
@pple
Multitasking!
A disturbance, I sense in the force.
Welcome to 5 years ago Apple!
@Yoda
You're no Vader.
@pple
as far as i can tell, all its doing is pausing the application (sort of like WP7) i could be wrong, but from the text demo i am reading, thats what it looks like. then it has the dock to switch between apps
@pple
the question is, how good does it work?
number of apps at once?
means of switching between apps?
saved state? or constantly active processes?
if the answers to all these questions are good answers, then let the games begin.
@Evan
its as if they saw the slide that microsoft showed for thei mobile version of multitasking and realised what multitasking was XD
either way, was this really worth a new BREAKING article when theres already 2 others (well more, but recently) on the iphone OS?
@pple
Ino! Apple have finally got their finger out of their ass with this one =]
@pple Wonka just delivered a golden ticket in the form of multitasking.
@HoldenMccrotch Hell yeah! This really exciting, I don’t care how many braking news posts the have – i'll read ‘em all!
@xxhonkeyxx That really makes no sense cause they are showing Pandora now and that would not be pausing. So they have to have some kind of background processing going on.
@xxhonkeyxx It might be multitasking (For apps like Pandora). Ryan says it's like app switching.
" 10:18AM - “Very simple, very very simple.” Applause. Opens eBay app, “I’m right to where I left off.” Tap Tap Revenge: “Alright, I’m not winning here.” He’s moving back and forth between apps fairly quickly, but we’re not seeing how this is actually multitasking though — what Steve is showing right now is just app switching. "
@xxhonkeyxx
Errrr.. Unless you have more than 1 core, that's only way to do multitasking. You can't have more than one process running at a time in a single processor. You are confusing multitasking with multiprocessing.
@xxhonkeyxx Thats exactly what i was going to say. If you are just pausing an app to run another is that tru multitasking. They are showing Pandora running but i feel like you may have to get special approval to get that kind of multitasking. We will see i guess.
@pple
your move, microsoft.
@xxhonkeyxx Actually I may have been wrong it does look like it pauses the app, but lets audio play. Kinda sad, why not just implement it Apple. It cant be battery problems cause I have a Nexus One that has more RAM and a much bugger processor and full multitasking yet I still get better battery life than I did on my 3Gs. I call foul sir!
@pple
At long last indeed it took them some years to do it but they manage to get into competition now.
But i believe that we the "anti-apple" consumers we deserve a thank from the Apple funboys because if it weren't for us you would never seen multitasking. You have this bad habit of not question ANYTHING from Apple.
To be honest if they make a good hardware upgrade to the iphone in summers i will seriously consider one !!!!!
@pple Shit, is my iphone 3gs obsolete?
@angermeans It's pretty much the same thing that WP7 does, but the implementation doesn't look that bad, and most of these apps will have integral background processing, so it's fair to say users will like this.
@skyblaze why, copy Apple, of course.
@max1001 Well people are stating multitasking in the since of the true meaning of the word being doing more then one thing at once.
@GarkKrag Complete and utter plum! Why be an arsehole?
@Sor1
What's Multitasking???
@pple Except... its not really multi-tasking. *facepalm*
@angermeans
Why would you want an app to not pause while you're using a different app?
Thats like saying I'll leave my car running so I can go inside and brush my teeth real quick. That would be very inefficient.
@pple Even with this WebOS > Iphone OS 4.0.
The folder thing is pretty cool though.
@cherryboom
The iPhone is no the end all to cell phones. Get over yourself.
@pple
Let me guess: Apple will patent the apps switching.
@pple
Wow, amazing, sucks it still doesn't cure cancer
@pple I love how it basically gives us the functionality my Pre has had for a year now! Pandora while surfing the web?! Unified inbox?! GET OUTTA TOWN!!
@xxhonkeyxx
I think it will depend on the App. A game will pause for example but an App like Pandora or TomTom continue to run in the background.
@Evan Although they may have been lacking in Multitasking other Companies have been lacking at different functions as well. W7 wont even come with Copy and paste.
I tip my hat to Apple on this. Finally.
but still, WinMo7 Rulez!!!!
.
@pple Looks like big bad Apple is free of the ever growing fragmentation are they! They are going to have the same problems as Android. Come June 4 different iPhones that can all do different things. Oh wait, I thought that was something that iPhone fanbois thought that only Android was dealing with?
@xxhonkeyxx It pauses the app unless the app is providing a certain service. In that case that service continues. I believe the examples were talking (skype), music (pandora), directions (tomtom), uploading (flickr)...there may have been others.
@WestindiesKing
Why would you need special approval? They detailed the process of tapping into one of the background services.
@juanvaldez Copy Apple? That's funny, considering that most of these "tent poles" are things that other people have already implemented. Multitasking? Unified email? Game center? Fast app switching? Ebook reader? It's all been done, some of it 10 years ago or more. But since it's apple, it's innovative.
Anybody does anything even remotely like apple, and they are no good copy cats that deserve to be sued and can't innovate their way out of a paper bag.
@angermeans
Fanboys buy anything Apple releases, right? I mean, that's what we're always told by 16 year old tards like you. So haven't all those people bought a 3GS already?
You fail
@MrX8503
If an IM program is in the background will you continue to receive incoming IMs? I know right now if you're using IM+ for example, and you want to do something else with your iphone you actually have to exit the IM+ program (assuming you haven't jailbroken and aren't using backgrounder)
Personally I think Apple should have just copied the way Palm does their multitasking. WebOS's multitasking really seems like the best multitasking any phone OS has done before.
@DizWhiz
lmao a pre
@Marijuana By the looks of it, it just pauses. Like they said, not real "multitasking". So the programs aren't actually running. Just saved and you can open it up in the same place you left off.
Looks like Apple will make even more money from people with 3G and down... otherwise they're left out. =O
@WestindiesKing
The devs can make their core functions ready for background-running und the rest sleeps. Skype works normally, you're still online and all, but the most processes (wich aren't needed in background) aren't running.
@werty1432k They won't. It seems just like the cludgy multitasking interface in Android.
@max1001 Yes you can. Sure, only 1 process will be being executed by a particular segment of a CPU at a time, but with parallel pipelineing and context switching, a modern CPU can (and does) work on multiple processes at the same time. Sure, at any particular point in time, it appears serial, but aggregated over a period of time several will be executed side by side (time sharing, it's been used since the '50s or '60s)...
@max1001
Errr... No.