With the introduction of Apple's "multitasking" in iOS 4 is the Cydia app "Backgrounder" still useful? Does it handle multitasking better than Apple's implementation? I confess I am a little confused about how Apple's multitasking works as so many apps seem to remain in the background. If "Backgrounder" adds additional or better features I would install it. Thanks!
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Is "backgrounder" still useful/needed with iOS 4 "multitasking"
- Thread starter user843
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yes, as lots of apps are not capable of utilizing apple's implementation.
backgrounder plays very well with it, anyways.
Look here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/11239810/
Except instead of using "Remove Recents" I now use "SwitcherMod" with "Recent App Icons" set to "Remove".
Scott
Great post! Thank you. Can you elaborate on "Remove Recents"? I didn't see it mentioned in your post. Also, What does Switcher Mod bring to the table?
I would also suggest doing some searching, but for instance what has been described above is only one of many "extensions" of the built-in multitasker. By using the remove recents functionality in SwitcherMod, you will only get the active applications that are capable of sitting in the background versus a list that includes everything that was every initialized, even if it is not capable of multi-tasking under the Apple iOS.
I see your point, however Google search results no longer yield the targeted results they used to. With blogs writing 100+, short two sentence "posts" with no real information on whatever on topics it is difficult to find real information or reviews from users. Forums, such as this, usually contains lots of information from people looking to help others out and share knowledge rather than trying to gain the 1,000+ page clicks. To that end I still feel it is useful to ask others to expound upon details I am not clear on. If they are so inclined, then all benefit. If not, well we can understand that people are busy so I am thankful for what information they can provide.
I also understand where someone of your limited reading ability finds it challenging to read extra posts from those asking for more information. I might suggest some "Sesame Street" episodes or reading primers to help get you past your current hurdles. Best of luck.
Just to clarify the differences between the two:
Backgrounder: It will run any application in the background. Unfortunately, it will eat your battery alive if you run too many at a time.
iOS4 Multi-tasking: Apps written to use the API's (Navigation, Music, Downloading/Uploading, etc) can run in the background. Otherwise they can be made to suspend on closing which saves battery life. It's really a great compromise.
The only benefit backgrounder will give you is if have an app that hasn't been updated to use the new multitasking API's or you have an app that would benefit from multitasking but doesn't fall in the any of Apple's multitasking API categories (I haven't found one yet but that's just me).
Backgrounder: It will run any application in the background. Unfortunately, it will eat your battery alive if you run too many at a time.
iOS4 Multi-tasking: Apps written to use the API's (Navigation, Music, Downloading/Uploading, etc) can run in the background. Otherwise they can be made to suspend on closing which saves battery life. It's really a great compromise.
The only benefit backgrounder will give you is if have an app that hasn't been updated to use the new multitasking API's or you have an app that would benefit from multitasking but doesn't fall in the any of Apple's multitasking API categories (I haven't found one yet but that's just me).
Thank you very much for that clarification. It is a nice summary of "why" to use Backgrounder. I agree with you, I don't like to run too many applications in the background. Primarily it is just instant messaging (IM+) and then only when I need it to be running.
I guess for me, the thing that bothers me most about iOS 4 multitasking is that apps that are not even running anymore (like "recent" applications) are still displayed in the "multitasking" display. When activating the multitasking display I would like to see ONLY those apps that are running in the background so I could choose to close or switch to them. I was thinking "Backgrounder" was the way to accomplish this, perhaps I am wrong. Any suggestions?
As others have mentioned you can use SwitcherMod. It can either hide non-running apps or make them transparent (my favorite).
By the way, IM applications are a great example of why backgrounder can still be useful.
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I see your point, however Google search results no longer yield the targeted results they used to. With blogs writing 100+, short two sentence "posts" with no real information on whatever on topics it is difficult to find real information or reviews from users. Forums, such as this, usually contains lots of information from people looking to help others out and share knowledge rather than trying to gain the 1,000+ page clicks. To that end I still feel it is useful to ask others to expound upon details I am not clear on. If they are so inclined, then all benefit. If not, well we can understand that people are busy so I am thankful for what information they can provide.
I also understand where someone of your limited reading ability finds it challenging to read extra posts from those asking for more information. I might suggest some "Sesame Street" episodes or reading primers to help get you past your current hurdles. Best of luck.
Do a google search for "remove recents"
let me know what the first link is
Did you really read my the post for which I provided the link? Also, the post clearly references "Remove Recents". I suggest you read the post through again.
"Backgrounder", by itself, does not solve the problems I had with iPhone multitasking. The addition of "Remove Recents" did solve the problem. All you really needed to do was go on Cydia and look up "Remove Recents". That would have explained what it does and that "SwitcherMod" does the same thing plus more. If you are iOS 4.2.x, "Remove Recents" doesn't work anymore anyway.
Scott
its people like you that make a forum community useless. why even bother asking ANY question at all on a forum if you can just google it? people are here because of the COMMUNITY. as in, people we can speak to about things.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)
+100
or why even bother answering it if the answer would always be "google it"
neenja said:
+100
or why even bother answering it if the answer would always be "google it"
Backgrounder is also great for getting rid of the apps that are frozen per iOS multitasking. I really don't need to pick up my game exactly where I left off four days later!
By the way I followed sidewinders post a while back and it has worked very well ever since.
By the way I followed sidewinders post a while back and it has worked very well ever since.
As others have mentioned you can use SwitcherMod. It can either hide non-running apps or make them transparent (my favorite).
By the way, IM applications are a great example of why backgrounder can still be useful.
I actually really like that. I'm going to check that out for sure.
I am wondering if a Mix of both can be used in such a fashion?
- Prevent 'Mail' from showing up automatically - It keeps appearing in Memory even when I have not yet setup any email a/cs.
- Have certain list of apps go Native iMultitask background and PREVENT certain list of apps from slipping into Native iMultitask Background... UNLESS.. specially triggered..
- Specific overriding way to make an application go Backgrounder Background (battery consuming?) instead of Native iMultiTask.
Some automated and manual controls and configurations for all these apps.
- Prevent 'Mail' from showing up automatically - It keeps appearing in Memory even when I have not yet setup any email a/cs.
- Have certain list of apps go Native iMultitask background and PREVENT certain list of apps from slipping into Native iMultitask Background... UNLESS.. specially triggered..
- Specific overriding way to make an application go Backgrounder Background (battery consuming?) instead of Native iMultiTask.
Some automated and manual controls and configurations for all these apps.
IM+ doesnt need backgrounder to work, it works fine with push and you get the messages no matter what other app you are in. Why would you use backgrounder with IM+?
Anyway i used to use backgrounder a lot under ios 3.x but i havent had it installed in quite some time. Now that 4.0 has been out for a good while all the apps seem to take advantage of the native multitasking features they need, i cant think of anything that needs backgrounder now.
i was the same. i used backgrounder early on in ios4 but have no need for it now and had it removed since 4.1.