I'm not sure I get the purpose of "Multi tasking" on Iphone 4

[rotobadger]

Ok, I know you need it to run apps in the background (like Pandora) but why must it put EVERY app you open in the multi tasking menu? I checked my notepad...why would it need to run in multi tasking? And everything else?

Essentially, "Multi-tasking" simply looks like a "here's everything you looked at lately" folder.

It doesn't open Facebook any faster. Or iPod. Or...well, you get the idea.

Am I missing something here?

-Badger

 

[Whorehay]

It's not true multitasking.

So apps need to be updated to support the multitasking features.

 

[tuatha]

Ok, I know you need it to run apps in the background (like Pandora) but why must it put EVERY app you open in the multi tasking menu? I checked my notepad...why would it need to run in multi tasking? And everything else?

Essentially, "Multi-tasking" simply looks like a "here's everything you looked at lately" folder.

It doesn't open Facebook any faster. Or iPod. Or...well, you get the idea.

Am I missing something here?

-Badger

Yeah it's a very limited implementation, even more limited than Android's, in fact (which itself isn't 'true' multitasking)

But it's designed with ease of use and, more importantly, your battery life in mind.

It's best for stuff like Pandora. Though you may see some useful implementations from other app designers in the future.

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

Apps that support multitasking such as Pandora still get kicked off by newly opened apps that don't, is that correct?

 

[VTAb182]

The thing I don't like about multi tasking (note that I don't have an iP4/iOS4 yet) is that everything is set to multitask when it closes, and you have to go in and fully shut it down on your own. I think it should be the other way around (i.e. Backgrounder from Cydia) where it is just like the old way if you close it normally, but if you, say, hold the home button for 2 seconds, then it just runs in the background.

 

[ryank808]

I completely agree with this.

I really don't like going into the "multitasking" and removing every app from there either.

 

[Zaft]

Ok, I know you need it to run apps in the background (like Pandora) but why must it put EVERY app you open in the multi tasking menu? I checked my notepad...why would it need to run in multi tasking? And everything else?

Essentially, "Multi-tasking" simply looks like a "here's everything you looked at lately" folder.

It doesn't open Facebook any faster. Or iPod. Or...well, you get the idea.

Am I missing something here?

-Badger

it makes switching between apps alot better.

 

[rotobadger]

it makes switching between apps alot better.

That make sense if EVERY app you opened didn't end up in "multi-tasking". If I have to scroll through my multi tasking folder to open an app, how is that different from scrolling to an app in your regular folders?

 

[Amnesia87]

Ok, I know you need it to run apps in the background (like Pandora) but why must it put EVERY app you open in the multi tasking menu? I checked my notepad...why would it need to run in multi tasking? And everything else?

Essentially, "Multi-tasking" simply looks like a "here's everything you looked at lately" folder.

It doesn't open Facebook any faster. Or iPod. Or...well, you get the idea.

Am I missing something here?

-Badger

That's because the "multitasking" tray IS a recently used programs list.

Whether you open the program from there or from the home screen makes no difference to the phone if the app supports save state it will load as it was when you last used it, the only point of that tray is to switch between a few programs that you are alternating between. Like you want to change a setting on your phone and then get right back to what you were doing.

The only other thing you can really do with that tray is delete those save states if you REALLY don't want the program to open where it was when you exited it.

 

[Zaft]

That make sense if EVERY app you opened didn't end up in "multi-tasking". If I have to scroll through my multi tasking folder to open an app, how is that different from scrolling to an app in your regular folders?

something about not going back to the home screen makes it feel faster.

 

[TroyBoy30]

I wish the bar would only show apps that are either capable of running in the back ground or fast switch capable. I don't need to see all of the others there

 

[Mike84]

Essentially this is what it is

Back when the 3G and 3Gs were available without iOS4 there was an app called memstatus. Now, there were other similar apps like memstatus. The point of these apps was to clear the memory that was running in the background and free up some space. Essentially, this is what multitasking does. You can double-click the home button and clear out previously opened apps. That is pretty much the option you have gotten with iOS4 that you didn't have with any other OS. Of course, 3G never got the multi-tasking option.

 

[kas23]

I like it for the most part, but it does feel cumbersome and like more work sometimes. What ever happened to the "if you need a task manager, you've failed" philosophy?

 

[ColReb22]

Multitasking

So far, in my one day of use, multitasking is ok but it's not something I couldn't do without. But before I got my 3G in April I had a HTC Hero and the iPhone 4 kicks its butt. It had no battery life and if you had more than 1 app opened at a time it was so slow (the phone was sluggish anyway). I had to delete my texts messages at least once a day and turn it off every 5-6 hours even with task killer. The ip4 (and the 3G for that matter) leaves the HTC Hero and its "multitasking" in the dust.

 

[sniffies]

It's NOT multitasking!! It's an app switcher!! Why dontcha get it already?!

Of course, it's Apple's fault for calling it 'multitasking'. Had they called it 'app switcher', they would have avoided million questions asking what it's about.

 

[elchup]

Go a whole day without closing any of the apps. It doesn't seem to change battery life at all (with the the apps that support multitaskings 'quick-switching' too). They designed this multitasking with 'not so smart users' in mind. All it really does (except for apps like Pandora and navigation), is leave the app in the memory, and put a stop on it's thread. This wastes NO power. There's a reason it has so much RAM.

The reason you can forcefully close an application is if the app becomes unresponsive or just isn't working, you can force it to start up again (much like a computer). If you look at Apples iPhone iOS 4.0 guides, you'd see that they don't even show you how to close applications forcefully! That's because it's use and forget. Trust your iPhone to handle it's 512 MB of memory. Being OCD about what's running in the background is useless. The only case it isn't, is with apps that actually DO run in the background.
So to stop Pandora, pause it. Navigation, close it.

And on another note, apps that don't support multitasking at all will still show up in the mulitasking tray, so they will still have to load like they normally would every time they start up. This is for consistency.