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iOS 8 Likely to Bring Split-Screen Multitasking to the iPad

What's next, widgets?

Please give me quick reply for IM clients instead.
 
Reason077 said:
Ugh. Do we really need this? It's the kind of feature where the idea seems better than the reality. The vast majority of users would never bother with it.

The iPad needs multi-user support much more desperately.
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Both are very over due updates. I can tell you that on screen multitasking can be very useful. At least it is in my experience with Surface 2.
 
xFerrr said:
that aint happening since most of iDevices are for personal use.
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Do you really believe that? or apple Made you to believe that? (until they introduce the feature as revolutionary).

I guess nobody uses the iPad as a family device, where 3 o 4 people, including children, have access to it. I also assume this hypothetical people don't mind the child deleting random apps, or changing the home screen layout or sending twits with the father account.

:rolleyes:

I have a Surface 2. It is my "personal" device, but many times my wife will use it at home, and she likes to use many apps that I don't care about, as well as having cute pink backgrounds and things like that. Thanks Gates for multi user accounts, haha :p

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hassoon said:
it doesn't matter if they copied it or not, what matters is doing it right
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Unless it is Samsung or Microsoft (or anybody else) that we are talking about. Of course!! :cool:

I even heard several people saying that MS should give up Windows Phone because in the latest update they included a notification center and a interective voice asistant (among 100 other things), and that is the final proof that they are too late and there is no hope. At all.:rolleyes:
 
pgiguere1 said:
Seriously though, this would require more RAM as two apps would have to be kept active. If Safari for iPad already struggles to keep a couple tabs opened without refreshing when you switch between them, I can't imagine what it would be like if you have, say, a game running next to it and using lots of RAM as well.

At least the way it is currently, an app in background can easily free some memory by releasing all the visual stuff that can be reconstructed when the app comes in foreground again (that's what UIViews typically do when they receive a low memory warning). With this split-screen feature, the two active apps would have to "share" memory all the time even down to the visual elements.
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That's the problem with adding this system wide change as an afterthought.
I would not be surprised if this is only possible with new hardware (iPad Air 2, or New iPad Air, or iPad Air Reloaded :p).

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njsapple2012 said:
I tried [on-screen multitasking] out on a Samsung Pro 12.1 in my local Asda Walmart last night and it was nowhere near as fluid as it should have been.
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Try a Surface 2. Fluid, and multitasking was part of the original design, not an add-on from an OEM.
 
GregAndonian said:
That sounds great in theory, but what if you're using an iOS app that doesn't have an OSX equivalent?

And before this could even be attempted, iOS would have to be re-written for x86, or they'd have to somehow use two different CPUs in the same device...
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Not defending the hybrid device theory, but iOS already runs on x86.

When running in the iOS simulator, iOS apps are compiled to x86 code and run natively on a Mac using the x86 version of the iOS frameworks. The simulator is just a window into native x86 iOS apps with some artificial limitations on resolution and other things to make it behave like iOS hardware. It would take a few minutes for Apple to enable full screen iOS apps on Macs.

iOS itself is more than likely written on x86 Macs and then compiled for ARM to test and deploy on actual hardware.
 
Unggoy Murderer said:
Microsoft did it well with their Snap function, and I think it's mandatory(?) - I could see something similar working on the iPad, but definitely not a 50/50 split, and for the love of God, FORGET the draggable split.
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Yes, all apps support side by side "Snap" in Windows. 50-50, 40-60 and 30-70 (the last one great for, say, having a twitter list or a Skype chat -30- while you watch a Tv show or read the news -70-). And why you don't like the draggable split bar? Makes so easy to change the split ratio, and tells you which app is active for interaction, altough I would like it to be a little thinner.
 
I have mixed feelings about this. iPad as an information appliance is undoubtedly a large part of it's success as far as I see it, the more features and complexity that is added, the harder it will be to keep it simple.
 
dec. said:
You mean that the majority likes and approves what Apple is doing? Yes, great, I agree. And if it's really "the majority" it shouldn't be THAT difficult to find those overlapping posters who "change their opinion" and use them as an explicit example, don't you think?
Luckily enough a lot of people prefer to discuss positive things over negative ones, that could be one of the reasons why new features are very welcomed on here as opposed to the pathetic "samsung.. steal... bla" stuff (from both sides)
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I'm done with it. I have explained it quite clearly yet you keep twisting it to something I didn't say. You know exactly what I meant.
 
dec. said:
You mean that the majority likes and approves what Apple is doing? Yes, great, I agree. And if it's really "the majority" it shouldn't be THAT difficult to find those overlapping posters who "change their opinion" and use them as an explicit example, don't you think?
Luckily enough a lot of people prefer to discuss positive things over negative ones, that could be one of the reasons why new features are very welcomed on here as opposed to the pathetic "samsung.. steal... bla" stuff (from both sides)
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No, no, no! You've got it all wrong. It's much easier if we just forget that the forum is made up of over 890,000 members, all with differing opinions. Anytime somebody likes something Apple does they must have hated it before Apple did it and are just changing their mind because it's Apple. It's just much easier to moan about fanboys that way. ;)
 
MarkCollette said:
The vast majority of my post was explaining how it makes sense why people change their position over time. With the march of progress of technology, it would be odd to hold the same opinion over time.
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Yes, and I agree with you, especially with the bit about Apple engineering out the negatives associated with other companies' products features before implementing similar features in their own.

There is a difference between you and I changing our minds over time as technology changes, and recognising how Apple's implementation of whatever feature differentiates itself from its competitors (liked your iPad mini examples, being that it is an 8" tablet, not a 7" and that the retina was engineered so well that those who were against it because they were afraid it would introduce too many compromises in weight, form factor and battery life were instantly won over because Apple brought them retina without compromising any of those things.) and the type of user that I described in my original reply to you. Unfortunately they are more vocal.
 
MyopicPaideia said:
You're not, but the article is talking about a rumoured iPad only festure of iOS 8. Phones aren't being discussed at all. Four finger swipe is another iPad only festure of iOS.
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We were talking about iOS in general, which includes the iPhone.
 
GregAndonian said:
That sounds great in theory, but what if you're using an iOS app that doesn't have an OSX equivalent?

And before this could even be attempted, iOS would have to be re-written for x86, or they'd have to somehow use two different CPUs in the same device...
Click to expand...

An A7 processor is under $30, if I remember correctly. It wouldn't be a large expense on a $1000+ device. Just put the SSD and RAM in the tablet portion and you are good to go. Have an Intel processor in the keyboard portion. There are some challenges to that approach, but I think it is doable.

Alternatively, making iOS run on x86 would not be impossible. Android did it, and apple has done it in the past for OSX.

iOS has an app that will open almost every file type you can think of. Just because there isn't an exact same app doesn't mean that another iOS app can't open the file. Apple would have to set some defaults on which app opens which file type and possibly give the user the option of picking a different app as a new default. I envision that, for instance, every pages file on the SSD would be indexed and available for viewing/editing on iOS, regardless of the location on the drive. All new pages files would go into a default folder (ex. /Users/xxx/Documents/Pages).
 
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Bjb568 said:
I like apple specifically because they don't put features like this in.
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I doubt you will be forced to use it.

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thermodynamic said:
Well, only Apple can copy others.

Anyone copying Apple - well, that's a sin worse than anything scribbled into any religious text...

I'm surprised Samsung didn't patent the split screen multitasking...

Heck, given how long Apple lagged on any form of multitasking (even downloading updates in the background), this turnaround is certainly interesting...
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How could Samsung patent something Microsoft already had? Plus this has existed on the desktop for ages. So Apple wasn't the first to bring it to a tablet or phone. Big friggin deal.
 
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