iPhone OS 4.0 to Bring Exposé-like Multitasking?

[MacRumors]

AppleInsider offers some details on multitasking in iPhone OS 4.0, which would allow users greater ability to run multiple apps at a time and easily switch between them. According to the report, multitasking on iPhone OS 4.0 will utilize an interface similar to the Exposé function found in Mac OS X.

Those familiar with the design of iPhone 4.0 said that the user interface will resemble Apple's desktop Expose feature, in that a key combination -- reportedly hitting the Home button twice -- will trigger an expose-like interface that brings up a series of icons representing the currently running apps, allowing users to quickly select the one they want to switch to directly. When a selection is made, the iPhone OS zooms out of the Expose task manager and transitions to that app.

While Apple currently offers limited multitasking for apps that ship with the iPhone operating system, it has yet to implement true multitasking for all applications despite it being one of the highest profile requests from users. Apple developed a workaround with Push Notifications, launched last June, which allow applications that are not currently running to serve alerts to users via a remote server.

Talk of true multitasking in iPhone OS 4.0 surfaced in the weeks leading up to the iPad media event in late January as some observers expected the updated operating system to be demoed there. Additional claims arrived earlier this month, and Daring Fireball's John Gruber also hinted earlier this week at the capability for iPhone OS 4.0.

Today's report also notes two other features that have reportedly been observed in iPhone OS 4.0: a "global mailbox view" and the ability to place individual contacts to the device's home screen. Neither of these advancements are a particular surprise, however, as Apple CEO Steve Jobs himself recently claimed that a universal inbox is under development, and a patent application published in January revealed Apple's interest in adding contacts to the home screen.

Article Link: iPhone OS 4.0 to Bring Exposé-like Multitasking?

 

[dissdnt]

This would be an A+ in my book.

 

[McGiord]

nice feature! what else could he expect for OS 4.0?

 

[Data]

I love it , bring it on, the sooner the better, finaly taking calls while using navigon in the car ;-).

 

[dwman]

With multi-tasking out of the way, people can find some other missing feature to bitch about.

 

[sammich]

Hot damn! So like in lectures I can flip back and forward between PDF's and the Pages app?

Come on Apple, I've got my parents CC waiting on the pricing to be released in Australia!

 

[Enuratique]

Intriguing...

This may be enough to get me to upgrade from 3.0.1 and lose tethering in the process. Don't know if I'm willing to part with that functionality as I was able to have a mobile office on an 8 hour road trip recently. I'm used to only running one app at a time at this point.

Come on AT&T, open up tethering already, you assholes.

 

[swagi]

And all of a sudden, the iPad makes more sense

Only question is how to evoke - press and hold the home button?

 

[-Ryan-]

Just what the Home Button needs; double clicking. They're flimsy enough already!

 

[DaveGee]

This makes me both happy and sad...

Happy that I'll have the ability to run multiple apps at the same time.

Sad that developers might become somewhat lazy in their programming that could result in a greatly reduced battery life. It might not have been the perfect solution to all but force developers to rethink their app to make use of them if they wanted an 'always on' feature... It was clearly a big win for the devices battery life.

 

[andrewsd]

Yeah I might actually stay on the ship an upgrade my 3g if this is true.

 

[blackcrayon]

And all of a sudden, the iPad makes more sense

Only question is how to evoke - press and hold the home button?

SBSettings (jailbreak) on an iPhone uses a swipe across the menu bar to invoke from anywhere- maybe something to that effect.

 

[Alisstar]

I'm not complaining about the Push Notification system, but I wonder if Apple is adding this to iPhone OS to kill Push Notifications for good. I also wonder if multi-tasking will be of better use with a slightly larger screen. Maybe the current size will do, who knows.

 

[Elzlaik]

I understand the use of app icons for expose on the iPhone since there isn't much space, but I hope iPad will show cards like mobile safari.

 

[Gav2k]

Remember the blank key on the keyboard dock for the ipad? Well there is a use fo it now

 

[GeekLawyer]

Welcome news for iPhone and iPad!

 

[Cougarcat]

Cool. Isn't there an app for Jailbroken iPhones that does exactly this?

 

[francisq]

And all of a sudden, the iPad makes more sense

Only question is how to evoke - press and hold the home button?

hitting the Home button twice

 

[bigcat318]

I can't wait for them to fully implement multi-tasking. Not so much because I want it, but more so people will stop whining about it.

 

[Bevz]

I'd be happy with that!

 

[DaveGee]

With multi-tasking out of the way, people can find some other missing feature to bitch about.

Perhaps not a missing feature but how many people who screamed for this feature are now gonna scream even louder when their battery starts draining MUCH faster than it had before.

Like I said above I'm certainly happy to see Apple roll this feature out but my concern is this... No matter how much effort they put into making multitasking as energy efficient as possible it's still going to be a bigger drain on the battery based on how the developers code their apps moving forward.

 

[Enuratique]

I'm not complaining about the Push Notification system, but I wonder if Apple is adding this to iPhone OS to kill Push Notifications for good. I also wonder if multi-tasking will be of better use with a slightly larger screen. Maybe the current size will do, who knows.

Did you even read the linked article? It said they're keeping notifications so that many of the use cases that would otherwise require an app to be run in the background (eg: polling for updates) can still be done using notifications which is much more battery-friendly. Now that devs have written their stuff to use notifications (eg: Facebook), they can keep it like that... Only apps like Pandora should then actually use the full-blown multi-task API.

 

[Ports]

Being able to do two things at once is a scary thought for this cowboy

 

[DaveGee]

Remember the blank key on the keyboard dock for the ipad? Well there is a use fo it now

Nice catch!

 

[blackcrayon]

I'm not complaining about the Push Notification system, but I wonder if Apple is adding this to iPhone OS to kill Push Notifications for good. I also wonder if multi-tasking will be of better use with a slightly larger screen. Maybe the current size will do, who knows.

I wouldn't think they would kill Push notifications.. .It still allows a "one cpu process" way for multiple applications to receive small updates from a server so it should still be more efficient than having a twitter client, growl, a chat client, and a third party SMS client all have to run individual background processes (or worse, stay open all the time).