Anyone disappointed with multitasking?

[Givmeabrek]

I just realized how hard it is to reply to posts with the amount of venom and vile hatred as is seemingly required to post on macrumors...don't know if I want to be a part of this place. I tried.

Takes time to work up to it. Start out slowly and soon you will build up a blast of hatred and profanity that will match the best. It helps if you hold all of your frustration of the day in until you hit macrumors. Then just let it rip.... Doesn't really matter what the subject is..

 

[wirelessmacuser]

Perhaps it's my sense of humor.

This is the only forum where I've seen so many negative, judgmental people who go out of their way to rip into others & critisize their posts.

Silly me, I thought this was a forum of free expression, of public opinion, not grade school.

It's laughable.

To the topic: While limited, Apples version of multitasking is better than nothing.

 

[SpankWare]

I look at the multitasking from two different perspectives: a developer and a user.

As a developer I think the implementation is fantastic. What Apple is done is identify the key categories of threads a developer might want running in the background and engineered a way to allow those threads without having an entire application soak up resources. The idea is great and I think as more apps are released to take advantage of it this whole notion of "it's not real multitasking" will go away.

As a user I am beyond excited to move up to iOS4. No longer will you have to endure load time while switching between apps, like Words with Friends and TextFree. Each will store it's state while you work in other programs. I don't need either of these apps to work in the background as I will be notified of any updates through PNS.

 

[thelatinist]

I don't understand why it's so hard for people to understand the difference between multitasking and the fast app switching taskbar. I'm not a huge fan of the latter, to be honest; I wish I could turn it off and use double-click home to bring up upod controls. But I know that it really has nothing to do with multitasking.

 

[Sean4123]

I've got an idea. don't update to iOS4.

 

[treyjustice]

nope.

 

[na1577]

I'm fine with Apple's multitasking system, but like many others I'm not too thrilled with fast app switching clogging my multitasking dock.

 

[GfPQqmcRKUvP]

Anyone that isnt a fanboy, yes.

Thanks for thinking you speak for everybody who isn't a fanboy.

*Switching from my Nexus One back to iPhone. Can't wait.

 

[mac jones]

Forget multitasking

Think 'multiparagraphing '

 

[spyda]

I have yet to test out the new OS, but its disappointing to know that chat clients can't function in the background without disconnecting when switching between apps. Half-ass multitask is more suitable.

 

[GfPQqmcRKUvP]

I have yet to test out the new OS, but its disappointing to know that chat clients can't function in the background without disconnecting when switching between apps. Half-ass multitask is more suitable.

What more do you want? Most of them have push notifications for when you're not in the app, and opening them back up is as easy as clicking "view" on the pop up message.

 

[steverd]

caril

Hey I really agreed..Its really difficult to read. Even I couldn't do it..

 

[spyda]

What more do you want? Most of them have push notifications for when you're not in the app, and opening them back up is as easy as clicking "view" on the pop up message.

Yeah, but it disconnects. What more do I want? I don't want it to disconnect. Haha, but it is what it is I guess.

 

[Dcuellar]

I look at the multitasking from two different perspectives: a developer and a user.

As a developer I think the implementation is fantastic. What Apple is done is identify the key categories of threads a developer might want running in the background and engineered a way to allow those threads without having an entire application soak up resources. The idea is great and I think as more apps are released to take advantage of it this whole notion of "it's not real multitasking" will go away.

As a user I am beyond excited to move up to iOS4. No longer will you have to endure load time while switching between apps, like Words with Friends and TextFree. Each will store it's state while you work in other programs. I don't need either of these apps to work in the background as I will be notified of any updates through PNS.

I agree. As soon as the developers start taking advantage of the multi-tasking in iOS4 people will calm down about this.

I am really excited about this phone. Almost as exciting as getting my first iPhone.

PS...Go Lakers!

 

[marksman]

tl;dr

Seriously though, just breezing through the first paragraph or so, double-tapping has s been part of the functionality of the iPhone from almost the very beginning, so I am not sure what you are really talking about OP.

It is not like they just added double tapping functionality to the home button, it has been there almost since inception.

 

[ARF900]

I don't recall the very first iPhone having the button take you to the first page. I thought that came along with apps (which was 3G) because why else would you need to get to the first page if you only have one page?

You should be a detective, this is true, in fact it wasnt even implemented at launch, it came in an update months after the 3g was out.

 

[hexonxonx]

It's not what I expected multitasking to be. I press the home button twice to get to the multitasking screen and I open my XM app. Ok it starts playing music. I go to check email and the XM app stops playing music and I have to go and open it again until I do something else.

None of the apps in the multitasking screen seem to stay open except one or two and not the ones I really want.

Any ideas?

 

[LoganT]

It's not what I expected multitasking to be. I press the home button twice to get to the multitasking screen and I open my XM app. Ok it starts playing music. I go to check email and the XM app stops playing music and I have to go and open it again until I do something else.

None of the apps in the multitasking screen seem to stay open except one or two and not the ones I really want.

Any ideas?

Yeah the apps have to be updated with the iOS4 API's.

 

[GfPQqmcRKUvP]

Yeah, but it disconnects. What more do I want? I don't want it to disconnect. Haha, but it is what it is I guess.

I still don't get what you mean. It disconnects? I mean, people still see you're online, they can send you messages, and you can read them instantly and reply by jumping right back into the app. I must be missing something...

 

[DoFoT9]

I don't understand why it's so hard for people to understand the difference between multitasking and the fast app switching taskbar. I'm not a huge fan of the latter, to be honest; I wish I could turn it off and use double-click home to bring up upod controls. But I know that it really has nothing to do with multitasking.

me neither, the switching task bar seems wierd - steve himself said they think they "have it right" this time, so we will see i guess!

i am a bit worried though, i am already getting low memory warnings using my iPad (GRRR@256MB RAM), i sure hope they optimise the MMU

Forget multitasking

Think 'multiparagraphing '

i really lol'd at that. thanks

 

[nlr]

No It isn't REAL multitasking but if developers put it in their applications it will act like REAL multitasking and wont drain the battery life, I personally think its a win win situation.

 

[DoFoT9]

No It isn't REAL multitasking but if developers put it in their applications it will act like REAL multitasking and wont drain the battery life, I personally think its a win win situation.

haha well goodluck with that, i sure hope the developers know what they are doing - they cant even manage that on computer OSs lol

 

[TrickyTree1984]

As the iPhone continues to evolve, I find myself feeling underwhelmed by the implementations of new features, such as multitasking. When the iPhone was first released, the Home button only had one function: to bring you back to the home screen. The initial awe towards the iPhone was not only because of its industrial design or even the beauty of the user interface, but because of how simply everything worked. One tap on the Home button and you're back to the home screen. The iPhone was easy to use because navigating through it worked around the singular function of the Home button. In iOS 4, however, Apple finally added multitasking to the iPhone, which seemed like a godsend to us. But as I sit here trying it on my iPhone, it feels rather unnatural and hacked on to the software. Double-tapping the Home button to bring up the list of currently running apps doesn't make the Home button a "Home button" anymore. To me, the addition of multitasking breaks the entire paradigm of the simple-to-use singular function Home button that Apple introduced to us three years ago. And, it's not even real multitasking in the way that we consider it to be. Instead, as many others before me have pointed out, multitasking on the iPhone is more like a list of recently used apps. I think that the interface for it on the iPhone is greatly flawed and would probably be easier to use if currently running apps were presented to us in a list form that took up more of the screen, but that's another discussion. One of the reasons we wanted multitasking was because we wanted the convenience of not having to go back to the home screen to launch another app. But the implementation of multitasking presents another problem. What if you're currently running, let's say, 30 apps and you want to go back to another app that is all the way at the back of the list? You have to scroll all the way to the end and then launch it. That doesn't sound very convenient to me. Ok, maybe that wasn't a typical use case, but I think you know what I mean. While the iPhone is certainly a great device, I feel that some things, especially multitasking, could be done better.

Have you heard of paragraphs?

I do not think there is a limit of 4 apps in multi tasking

 

[DoFoT9]

I do not think these is a limit of 4 apps in multi tasking

i think maybe that assumption is made because when you bring up the quick switcher, it only shows 4 apps at a time. IIRC you can swipe along to show more.

 

[Fraaaa]

When people will stop saying that is not true/real multitasking and actually go learn what multitasking is before stating this?

On the argument that the home button was more user friendly, you still keep do that, end of the problem.

Scrolling millions of app to get back on what you had left? No. Because you are most likely to use few apps, and they get sorted to what you used last in the first bar, which has 4 apps, and other 4 apps are just 1 swipe away, do you really use 256 apps that you have to swipe that much? No, I don't think so.