Apple Announces Multitasking in iPhone OS 4.0

[MacRumors]

Image courtesy of gdgt.com

At its 'Sneak Peek Into the Future' media event today, Apple announced several major feature additions, including multitasking and an in-app ad network, to iPhone OS 4.0 for release this summer.

The most significant new feature of iPhone OS 4.0 highlighted by Jobs is multitasking, which recent rumors had indicated might be coming. Apple had not previously implemented this feature out of concern for battery life and overall performance, although Jobs said that the company had found a way to implement multi-tasking without these negative effects.

Providing a demonstration of multitasking, Jobs showed a pop-up tray at the bottom of the iPhone's screen - which is triggered by double-clicking the home button - with the icons of all currently-running apps displayed. Clicking on the desired app opens it without closing the other apps. Scott Forstall, SVP of iPhone Software, described the multitasking feature in more detail, claiming that the company "distilled the services" that third-party apps need to run in the background, and these services are available as APIs to developers.

The seven multitasking APIs now available to developers are: background audio, voice over IP (VOIP), background location, push notifications, local notifications, task completion, and fast app switching. Demos highlighting the new APIs used Pandora, Skype, TomTom, and Loopt. Incoming notifications can be shown just below the status bar or in a pop-up dialogue on the home or lock screen.

While the iPhone 3GS and late 2009 32 GB and 64 GB third-generation iPod touch will be fully-compatible with iPhone OS 4.0, earlier models of the devices will not support all of the features announced today. Notably even the iPhone 3G and second-generation iPod touch will not support multitasking. iPhone OS 4.0 will also come to the iPad in the fall.

Article Link: Apple Announces Multitasking, iAd Mobile Ad Service and More in iPhone OS 4.0

 

[funnyent]

Multitasking looks awesome!

 

[litteraround]

jailbreaking gone!

jailbreaking is pretty much obsolete now other than for those who pirate, or those who use apps like gvoice, i.e not available in app store.

 

[anubis]

While the iPhone 3GS and late 2009 32 GB and 64 GB third-generation iPod touch will be fully-compatible with iPhone OS 4.0, earlier models of the devices will not support all of the features announced today. Notably even the iPhone 3G and second-generation iPod touch will not support multitasking. iPhone OS 4.0 will also come to the iPad in the fall.

Not surprising, considering the 3GS is significantly faster than the 3G and multitasking is probably very processor intensive. The 3G probably wouldn't be able to handle it or it would be unbearably slow

 

[macsimcon]

Is it even multitasking?

Pausing apps in the background isn't multitasking. Why can't my Twitter app be getting tweets in the background? Why can't Mail be downloading mail from my various accounts in the background?

Why can't I run two applications on the screen at once? I'd love to have Mail on the top two-thirds, and my Twitter feed on the bottom third.

This is completely unimaginative. Apple should be ashamed to develop such an underwhelming OS update.

FAIL.

 

[imagineer2000]

Nice!

Apple addressed nearly every geek complaint - with the exception of that pesky Adobe plug-in. More than I ever dreamed of.

Go !

 

[moneyman118]

Ehh....

I'm not too impressed. I hope they have really good hardware or else this is going to be a pretty lame summer........

 

[Grimace]

A+ update for sure.

Sorry for the iPhone 3G folks, but you can't do much more if the hardware won't support it! Strange that the iPad has to wait until the fall.

 

[blackpond]

This will be a great update!

 

[DoNoHarm]

So now the question is will I be able to hold out until summer or will android prove too tempting...

 

[ocrts]

If Jobs had given us only Folders and unified inbox, Dayenu! Is it summer yet?

 

[E.Lizardo]

Makes me very happy!
All I'll really use is Folders and Pandora multitasking though.
I wish it was coming to the iPad sooner though.

 

[bludodge]

i wonder how many 3G's are out there being used, and how many 3GS's? I'm guess the majority of iPhones are 3G.s. Big loss for us, but understand why its the case. So I am predicting some 3Gers will be upgrading.......

 

[daddywags214]

3g

I know a bunch of people with 3G iPhones who are going to be mad! I suppose I understand the reasoning, as the older iPhones are much less powerful. Glad I upgraded.

 

[nagromme]

12 apps per "folder"

By my math, 2160 apps means that we still have the same max of 180 home icons (4 in the dock plus 11 pages of 16). Only now, every single icon slot (even in the dock) can be a folder, and each folder is limited to 12 apps. 180x12 = 2160. Not bad!

I have about 500 apps on my iPhone now, and must access many of them via Spotlight (with a Notepad list for reference) since they’re past the last page.

I’d love unlimited apps per folder (or nested folders) but the 2160 limit suggests otherwise. Only 12 I think. (So I’m sure I’ll sometimes have 2 to 4 folders in a row for a single category, then... like Tower Defense But it will be worth it—I’ll have a lot fewer home pages to thumb through.)

OS 4.0 plus rumors of front-facing camera and high-res 960x640 screen are leaving me even more excited about my next iPhone than about the iPad!

 

[barkomatic]

I think this means the new iPhone hardware this summer is going to be a big step up from the 3GS. I can hardly wait to pair this new update with a new iPhone. Multitasking and folders will be a huge, huge improvement.

 

[adammull]

Now that I have an iPad I could give a crap what they do with the phone. Honestly. I haven't used an app on my phone but once this week.

 

[Rooftop voter]

Almost no reason to jailbreak now. Almost.

 

[Velin]

Oh, wonderful. Apple users will be forcefed hundreds of ads per day, and this will be embedded at the OS level.

Apple itself confirmed it. From today's meeting:

"The average user spends over 30 minutes every day using apps on their phone. If we said we wanted to put an ad up every 3 minutes, that's 10 ads per device per day. That would be 1billion ad opportunities per day."


Translation:

We don't give a damn if you are suffocating under tons of ads. You will bend over and enjoy taking it as we forcefeed ads to your Apple products, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it.

Also, today Apple unveils its new corporate motto:

Consumers = Apple's bitches. Steve Jobs = master pimp.

 

[Robert M.]

I'm shocked that the iPhone/Touch is getting iBooks. I figured they would want to keep that an iPad exclusive. This will only add fuel to the "it's a large iPod Touch!" arguments...

Well, I'm loving my large iPod Touch haha

Anyway I can't wait for 4.0! I'm most excited for Game Center!

 

[diamond.g]

By my math, 2160 apps means that we still have the same max of 180 home icons (4 in the dock plus 11 pages of 16). Only now, every single icon slot (even in the dock) can be a folder, and each folder is limited to 12 apps. 180x12 = 2160. Not bad!

I have about 500 apps on my iPhone now, and must access many of them via Spotlight (with a Notepad list for reference) since they’re past the last page.

I’d love unlimited apps per folder (or nested folders) but the 2160 limit suggests otherwise. Only 12 I think. (So I’m sure I’ll sometimes have 2 to 4 folders in a row for a single category, then... like Tower Defense But it will be worth it—I’ll have a lot fewer home pages to thumb through.)

OS 4.0 plus rumors of front-facing camera and high-res 960x640 screen are leaving me even more excited about my next iPhone than about the iPad!

What about folder within a folder? That would be pretty sweet.

 

[ggt]

All looks really good but i'm really disappointed at the lack of a new notification system.

 

[dwd3885]

Multitasking looks good. Seems like you can switch between apps really
fast. GameCenter is actually interesting as well. Basically like xbox
live but on the iPhone. *I like folders the best. It'll make
organizing apps much easier. *Would've liked to see better
notification system and widgets or something similar though.

Don't think it's enough to switch back to the new iPhone when it comes
out, but definitely can't wait for 4.0 on the iPad in the fall. *One
downer is that my wife's new 8gb touch, she won't be able to get
multitasking-only for 3GS and 32/64 touch. Also kind of lame iPad is
last to the update because the multitasking feature would be most
important on the iPad.

 

[jpjandrade]

However, no filesystem was demonstrated, which means that simple things like viewing PDFs in your iPhone / iPad still require some work. I hope there will be improvements to the PDF viewer, though. I'm sick of opening a 170 pages PDF document and having to scroll all the way down to reach page 120.

 

[law guy]

ads within apps - and we're supposed to be excited about that? I love Apple, but I'm not a fan of creating their own content space, which began with the control of the content approval process and pricing a la iTunes and then Apps - Apple controls what you can see on the device and the price and has a stake in the revenue stream. Those are great in and of themselves, but them seem to be getting woven together into an Apple-controlled content world. It reminds me of going back to the AOL space... without all of the free AOL 5,000 hr! diskettes/CDs littering the house.