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I don't believe it. Backgrounder allows Pandora and a twitter app to run in the background while browsing Safari on my 1st Gen 32 GB iPod touch and there is no lag at all.

They plainly took the most requested new feature away from older hardware to force upgrades!

The iPhone 3G is already sluggish enough with 3.0... I do believe it won't be able to do multi tasking. In any event, you'll buy the new iPhone anyway. :)
 
Hey guys,
Does anybody know if its just the SDK being released or are they releasing OS 4 beta for developers to run live on their phones? :)

Both. I've installed iPhone OS 4, and now iTunes is synchronizing around 12GB of data... ouch... takes houuuuurrss....

So the only novelty I could see was the grey raindrops wallpaper during the iPhone OS 4 flash ^^

And meanwhile, I'm downloading the SDK.
 
Folders will be nice-- the paging metaphor is breaking down with large numbers of apps.

It'll be nice to be able to keep Skype running while doing other things.

iAd is the beginning of the end. I hate ads in applications, and if they're going to be there, they should be sourced from a third party. Having Apple integrate this in at the OS level not only codifies in-app ads as respectable, but sets up some horrible conflicts of interest within Apple's product planning.

I find ad-based financing offensive. It undervalues my time. On a format like the iPhone, it also undervalues screen real estate.
 
Which models get multitasking seems a bit arbitrary:

1st gen: iPhone and iPod Touch 412Mhz (too slow, I'm sure)

2nd gen iPod Touch/iPhone 3G: 533Mhz (not supported...what the hell?)

3rd gen iPod Touch and iPhone 3GS: 600Mhz (fully supported)

I seriously doubt the seriously better GPU in the 3rd gen (Cortex A8) helps at all with multitasking, so are they seriously saying just 67Mhz less in clockspeed is too slow for multitasking? 12%???

Its not the clock speed that makes the difference, its the amount of RAM that makes the difference. On my jailbroken 3G I can multitask two apps but it does crash quite a bit, on my 3GS I NEVER have any troubles running three or four apps at once.
 
Which models get multitasking seems a bit arbitrary:

1st gen: iPhone and iPod Touch 412Mhz (too slow, I'm sure) 128MB RAM

2nd gen iPod Touch/iPhone 3G: 533Mhz (not supported...what the hell?) 128MB Ram

3rd gen iPod Touch and iPhone 3GS: 600Mhz (fully supported) 256MB RAM

I seriously doubt the seriously better GPU in the 3rd gen (Cortex A8) helps at all with multitasking, so are they seriously saying just 67Mhz less in clockspeed is too slow for multitasking? 12%???

It is rather blatant forced obsolescence. I haven't jailbroken my 2nd gen iPhone devices yet---but when iPhone OS 4.0 comes out, I will definitely do this if it gives me flexibility over the missing OS 4.0 features like multitasking, which is HUGE. My hope is that the jailbroken models may restore features to these only slightly slower models that are plenty fast enough for features like multitasking --- except for the fact we haven't been upgrading fast enough for Apple.

FTFY: You forgot about the ram restraints in each of these devices. I think that would be a major limiting factor.
 
Which models get multitasking seems a bit arbitrary:

1st gen: iPhone and iPod Touch 412Mhz (too slow, I'm sure)

2nd gen iPod Touch/iPhone 3G: 533Mhz (not supported...what the hell?)

3rd gen iPod Touch and iPhone 3GS: 600Mhz (fully supported)

I seriously doubt the seriously better GPU in the 3rd gen (Cortex A8) helps at all with multitasking, so are they seriously saying just 67Mhz less in clockspeed is too slow for multitasking? 12%???

It is rather blatant forced obsolescence. I haven't jailbroken my 2nd gen iPhone devices yet---but when iPhone OS 4.0 comes out, I will definitely do this if it gives me flexibility over the missing OS 4.0 features like multitasking, which is HUGE. My hope is that the jailbroken models may restore features to these only slightly slower models that are plenty fast enough for features like multitasking --- except for the fact we haven't been upgrading fast enough for Apple.

It has little or nothing to do with cpu speed, it's all about the RAM. The iPhone 3g typically has little to no RAM free in its current state. Jailbreak it and try to run an app in the background; it may or may not work because there just isn't enough RAM.
 
Multitasking is fail. Android 2.1 on a powerful phone like the HTC Evo 4G is still superior - no BS, true multitasking.
 
Ditto buddy

Are you being serious? There isnt a face-palm big enough for your post. The 3Gs uses a completely different processor. MHZ doesnt mean jack. You should update yourself on computer knowledge.

Not completely differently, slightly more efficient ARM at a slightly higher clockspeed. Don't exaggerate and don't be nasty. It is unnecessary.

Taking this out of the realm of subjectiveness (namely, "what is a completely different for a CPU"), jailbroken 2nd gen iPod Touch/iPhone 3G multitask just fine with added software. In contrast, Apple's service approach is actually much more efficient than what is used on the jailbroken models, so OS 4.0 multitasking should work even better and with more responsiveness.

So please, update yourself all you want. Instead I plan on updating my 2nd gen iPod Touch with multitasking once the jailbreakers let me use the more efficient Apple approach coming with OS 4.0.
 
Precisely what I think (for those wondering why Jobs said 4.0 wouldn't be released for the iPad until the fall).
If I called myself an analyst I'd say the outlook is very likely.

I might return my iPad because I feel the same thing. The new iPhone (4th gen) will probably double RAM to 512mb and so will iPad 2G...multitasking with 256MB of RAM is useless...
 
Probably already been said

But...here I go anyway,

I am a huge Apple fan (I am typing this on my shiny new iPad) but I am a little concerned about the life span of their new mobile devices. I am thrilled multitasking is final here and I understand that it is processor heavy BUT this means that the iPhone 3G has had a pretty short life span. This isn't really a problem for a mobile phone but is this life span a sign if things to come for the iPad? I would hope to get longer than 2 years out of a device that costs $500 before I start getting locked out of certain features!

Just a thought :)
 
Looks like a solid update! Now we get to wait for the 4th Gen iPhone...

Now that backgrounding and multitasking have been taken care of, what will people complain about?

On a side note, what happens to iPod Controls (when you currently double-click home)?

For me...nothing.

I'd take a look at an iPhone with Evo like specs in the summer if one came out.

To me, they caught up to what they were missing...i mean, the app store is what kept the iPhone "competitive" (i just mean in a feature based reason).... every other OS just looks better to me. But now it looks pretty solid.
 
Guys, as a developer, I just took a look at the API diff and "what's new in iPhone OS 4" docs, and I saw some gems Steve didn't talk about !

For instance, Grand Central Dispatch is now integrated to iPhone OS 4 (!!!!!!!), and UIKit is now "thread safe"... those two tips make me think that the next iPhone will probably be MULTICORE! :)

Another interesting point in the doc, is the description of the new framework, accelerate :

"The Accelerate framework (Accelerate.framework) contains interfaces for performing math, big-number, and DSP calculations, among others. The advantage of using this framework over writing your own versions of these libraries is that it is optimized for the different hardware configurations present in iPhone OS–based devices. Therefore, you can write your code once and be assured that it runs efficiently on all devices."

I don't know you, but the word "DSP" is flashing red before my eyes!

Now that Apple master their own CPU production, I bet that the next A4 evolution that will ship with the new iPhone will be multicore and will get a DSP or the equivalent to the MMX addon the x86 have!

Thank you for posting one of the very few relevant posts so far. These are gems to say the least.
 
Precisely what I think (for those wondering why Jobs said 4.0 wouldn't be released for the iPad until the fall).
If I called myself an analyst I'd say the outlook is very likely.

I'll bet you any amount of money the next iPad will not be out this fall.
 
Other mobile platforms already do this. Why not make it an option for those who want more information displayed at once?

Remember, Apple does no market research. How do we know whether or not such an interface change might appeal to users unless they're asked?

This is not how you develop products used by millions.

People are stupid (sad but true when it comes to technology). They don't know what they want. They don't know how they want it. If you ever decide one day to make a product and ask people what they want, you are doing it wrong. The iPad would have never seen the daylight if they would have asked people what they wanted.
 
and that's why the Palm PRE and Android are masters of not much...I've used both and pretty underwhelming. I would rather the app i'm using work well then have 2 apps and have them sort of working well, but to each their own. Seems like os4 has solved it...now I just wish someone would come up with some new lingo for the cliche crowd...epic fail...frak me...how about Epic WIN WIN.:apple:

Perhaps, but Apple is all about turning complicated systems into easy to use ones.

And have you ever used a jailbroken iPhone? The iPhone has more than enough power to provide useful multitasking for a few apps at once.
 
Oh, wonderful. Apple users will be forcefed hundreds of ads per day, and this will be embedded at the OS level.
<snip>
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.
<snip>
Um, wow. The world must be a horrible place for you. Apple would never do this in their native apps. This is for third party developers to use. If you don't like the idea of an app with ads, don't download it - it's that simple. But if you're willing to support developers who make apps for free but with ads, at least the new ads look slick and have cool functionality. Better than a lame banner that, as he said, completely disrupts what you're doing when you click on it and quits the app to take to to Safari.
 
So because I don't have an iPhone 3Gs I won't be able to multitask. My phone is just over a year old. Absolutely stupid.

I just can't wait for this contract to end.
 
this is huge. no need for an iphone anymore. get an ipod touch or ipad and a verizon mifi and jus use skype for your calls.

threaded inbox rocks too.
 
FTFY: You forgot about the ram restraints in each of these devices. I think that would be a major limiting factor.

Yep. And people pointing out how other devices (and jailbroken) phones can run a few apps at a time without slowing down or crashing should revise the statement: they can do so sometimes without slowing sown or crashing. And then they hit the point where it doesn’t work. And so they have to manage which apps are running and which are not, manually working around the RAM and CPU constraints. That’s fine if you want to do that, but it’s undeniably a bad solution in many ways. Apple’s solution solves all that. Process management? You don’t even have to know what it is! Thank goodness. I want my handheld to work for me, not the other way around.

People like to point out the iPhone’s compromises as if other systems don’t have compromises. They do—and painful ones. Mobile devices always require compromises. Apple simply chooses theirs based on real-world usability, not bullet points on paper (and certainly not to please trolls). And they take their time to do something right rather than rushing to play catch-up.

Perhaps, but Apple is all about turning complicated systems into easy to use ones.

And have you ever used a jailbroken iPhone? The iPhone has more than enough power to provide useful multitasking for a few apps at once.

Yes it does—but (with the 3G and original) only sometimes. Maybe it’s good with the certain apps you most use. Or maybe you’re seeing crashes that you just don’t realize are jailbreak-related. But others ARE having crashes from low RAM due to jailbreaking. (Don’t get me wrong—it’s a cool thing to do from a hobby perspective. Just not great for usability for most people.)

We all have certain games that push the very edge of the iPhone’s RAM limitations. Look in the app store and you’ll see bad reviews about apps crashing. Many of them are from jailbreakers who have no idea that their custom setup is using any RAM at all. But it is. I can imagine the frustration of developers who get blamed for crashes caused by people trying to do 1900s-style brute-force multitasking on a device with too little RAM.
 
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.

You are either a totally naive undergraduate or worst high school student or a bitter senior engineer displaced from younger and cheaper talent. Apple doesn't give a ratt's butt to the technical elite for approval. If you want start-of-the-art, edge-running hardware, get a Linux handheld and patch your own kernel and try to impress girls with that.

The limitations are there for a reason. Most is user experience which is top of the needs of the customers. If there was no limitations to processor time for background tasks, users like you would load it up with about a hundred app, everything would be slow down to the gester recognition and it would not be functional.

This is a good step upward to providing multitasking without have a background task hog up memory and processing time as on other platforms.

One final burn, if this unit had an anti-gravity feature so it would float down to the floor when you dropped it, you'd probably complain that it didn't adjust itself to different gravities if you were taking it off planet. Remember to pack your light saber!
 
Yep

I don't believe it. Backgrounder allows Pandora and a twitter app to run in the background while browsing Safari on my 1st Gen 32 GB iPod touch and there is no lag at all.

They plainly took the most requested new feature away from older hardware to force upgrades!

RAM and CPU excuse BS aside, you can do true multitasking on "older" iPhone devices now. Apple's approach is LESS CPU/memory intensive than that. It is a services model that multitasks only key tasks (the ones that matter); they did this to save on battery live, CPU power, etc. So they either did a really bad job with the services so they need more resources than true multitasking (which I doubt) or this is the usually forced obsolescence we see from Apple from time to time.
 
So because I don't have an iPhone 3Gs I won't be able to multitask. My phone is just over a year old. Absolutely stupid.

I just can't wait for this contract to end.

You bought it just before the new generation was released. The 3g barely has enough RAM without multi-tasking. All people would do is bitch about how slow 4.0 made their 3g if Apple made every part of it available with no thought as to how it would affect the user experience.
 
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