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How many apps?

  • 0-5

    Votes: 6 24.0%
  • 6-10

    Votes: 5 20.0%
  • 10+

    Votes: 14 56.0%

  • Total voters
    25

rye9

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 20, 2005
1,347
77
New York (not NYC)
If you were to check your multitasking bar, how many apps are in there "running"?

How often do you close and which apps do you close?
 
not all of those apps are "open", most are just recent apps

Not necessarily. It shows the most recent apps if a specific app has not been updated to support multitasking features. If an app has been updated to support multitasking, it is sitting there in a "frozen" mode, waiting to be activated by the user.

I usually have Safari, Mail and Music open. Other than that, I close it (unless I know I'll be going back to it).
 
None of them are open.

You only run one app at a time.

That is the fast-task switching manager. All those programs have their last open state saved so you can toggle between programs quickly. They are not running in the background.

Some programs do access background APIs, but no programs ever run in the background fully. Again that is the fast-task switching manager. When you leave a program it saves it to memory. If you want to go check your spreadsheet and then go back a pdf you leave the spreadsheet, it saves it open exactly as you left it, and closes it out, and loads the pdf reader. When you bring up the fast task switcher, and select the spreadsheet program, it will save the pdf reader in its current state, close it out, and then reload the spreadsheet program so you are right back where you left off.

The spreadsheet and PDF were never running at the same time.

However this accomplishes a significant chunk of what people want when they say they want multitasking, and that is being able to toggle back and forth between programs without losing their place or having to reload them from scratch.

I believe programs have to be updated to function correctly with fast task switching.
 
If the apps are frozen, do they consume much RAM? I'm slightly worried about this multitasking feature, as when I bought my iPhone the Apple Store employee had told me to be wary as it drains battery fast... so I've been closing almost all of my apps obsessively, however now I've got 12 in the background since I decided I was being a little too crazy before. 2 games, facebook, and 9 of the stock apple apps (messaging, phone, mail, safari, camera, photos, settings, iPod, maps). And I've been keeping these open down there as they are used most... should I close some?
 
Having apps in the fast task switcher does not drain your battery. They are not using up resources.

The only thing to be weary of are apps using background APIs like using music, navigation etc etc that can be running while you are using a different app.
 
If the apps are frozen, do they consume much RAM? I'm slightly worried about this multitasking feature, as when I bought my iPhone the Apple Store employee had told me to be wary as it drains battery fast... so I've been closing almost all of my apps obsessively, however now I've got 12 in the background since I decided I was being a little too crazy before. 2 games, facebook, and 9 of the stock apple apps (messaging, phone, mail, safari, camera, photos, settings, iPod, maps). And I've been keeping these open down there as they are used most... should I close some?

I would recommend closing at least some of them. However, most apps will not take RAM and CPU resources while they are in "frozen" mode, but some may still.
 
Having apps in the fast task switcher does not drain your battery. They are not using up resources.

The only thing to be weary of are apps using background APIs like using music, navigation etc etc that can be running while you are using a different app.

So then are these what the Apple employee was warning me about? Idk, I'd like to not assume he was telling me to worry for no reason... even though many people are not closing apps it seems.

So then which do I need to worry about? Turn by turn direction apps and Pandora?
 
Having apps in the fast task switcher does not drain your battery. They are not using up resources.

The only thing to be weary of are apps using background APIs like using music, navigation etc etc that can be running while you are using a different app.

... and as there are only (three?) APIs that can be used in that way (background music, VOIP and GPS - with the former two not being able to run at the same time for obvious reasons) the number of Apps that can actually PROPERLY run in the background at any one time is very limited.
 
People are still confused on how multitasking works??? You don't need to worry about frozen applications using up CPU cycles as they are FROZEN. You don't need to worry about the amount of RAM they use as the RAM frozen applications use will be purged as necessary.
 
So then are these what the Apple employee was warning me about? Idk, I'd like to not assume he was telling me to worry for no reason... even though many people are not closing apps it seems.

So then which do I need to worry about? Turn by turn direction apps and Pandora?

Steve Jobs, "If you see a stylus, they blew it. In multitasking, if you see a task manager, they blew it"
In other word, you don't need to worry about it
 
So then are these what the Apple employee was warning me about? Idk, I'd like to not assume he was telling me to worry for no reason... even though many people are not closing apps it seems.

So then which do I need to worry about? Turn by turn direction apps and Pandora?
If you see Pandora or a turn by turn application in the fast application switching tray there's no need to worry about battery life unless Pandora is currently playing music or your turn by turn application is giving directions, and so in that case obviously they would be using resources. In my opinion Apple didn't need to include a way to kill applications from the task bar, it's just a way to completely clear an application as it will have to relaunch the next time you start it instead of immediately being where it was when you left it.

... and as there are only (three?) APIs that can be used in that way (background music, VOIP and GPS - with the former two not being able to run at the same time for obvious reasons) the number of Apps that can actually PROPERLY run in the background at any one time is very limited.

Seven. There are seven background APIs
http://snowball4u.wordpress.com/2010/06/20/ios4-multitasking/

Background audio – Allows your app to play audio continuously. (i.e. Pandora)

Voice over IP – Users can now receive VoIP calls and have conversations while using another app. (i.e. Skype)

Background location – Navigation apps can now continue to guide users who are using other apps. (i.e. Foursquare)

Push notifications – Receive alerts from your remote servers even when your app isn’t running. (i.e. Yahoo! Messenger)

Local notifications – Your app can now alert users of scheduled events and alarms in the background, no servers required. (i.e. FarmVille)

Task finishing – If your app is in mid-task when your customer leaves it, the app can now keep running to finish the task. (i.e. Flickr)

Fast app switching – This will allow users to leave your app and come right back to where they were when they left – no more having to reload the app. (i.e. Tap Tap Revenge)
 
Trapster...

...or any app that leaves the location icon up next to the battery will drain it...fast. I used Trapster, then went into work...2-3 hours later the phone was a little warm and the battery was 35% and falling fast.
 
Ugh. I hate the "multi-tasking" The quicklaunch bar is completely pointless. Its supposed to make it easy to switch between apps. If I have every app I have used on the bar, why is that any different than just going to the homescreen? How is that easier? :confused:
 
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