Microsoft Releases Fourth Anti-iPad Ad Highlighting Windows 8 Multitasking Capabilities

[Michael Scrip]

Exactly this is what I've spoken about. WinRT is pretty much handicapped ATM (low-res screens etc.). However, the snap mode is absolutely excellent and it's a pity Apple doesn't want to implement something similar. There would indeed be a need for windowed mode - see the numerous split-screen apps in AppStore and also the success of Quasar.

But what I'm saying is...

The iPad does not have a windowed mode... and look at how many they sell!!!

Or are you saying if Apple added a windowed mode... they'd sell even more?!?!

Hell yeah... do that! (but if they don't... the iPad will still be a wonderful machine for most people)

 

[Menneisyys2]

yes iOS starts and stops apps. Beautiful apps. iOS itself is the weak link, it should be able to do a lot more (multitasking, sharing, apps running in the background to name a few).

They could easily add a "Simple / Advanced mode" switch, as did Samsung in S4.

However in order to keep all mums and dads on board, Apple won't allow too many features in iOS.

Hope some iOS fanboys won't attack you for this

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The iPad does not have a windowed mode... and look at how many they sell!!!

Or are you saying if Apple added a windowed mode... they'd sell even more?!?!

In the future, many power users may jump ship to WinRT / Android because of Apple's unwillingness to intoduce power user / geek features to iOS, unlike Google / Microsoft.

Apple has offered by far the best tablet for us up until the Nexus 10 - that is, for 2.5 years. This is why I have all iPads models for private use too (and haven't gone for Android), not only at work. However, if Android 5 indeed introduces proper windowing, I may indeed jump ship to Android and the Nexus 10's successor, if it's considerably better than the Nexus 10.

I'm sick of not being able to use split-screen windowing - particularly now that my fav app, Quasar, couldn't be make iOS6-compatible.

 

[Steve121178]

Of course since nobody is actually using a Windows tablet they are actually doing 0 things at once.

People are using them. I've seen a lot of cheap ones floating around and a few Surface's. One of my friends has the Surface Pro and it's an amazing device. Windows 8 is a fine OS and 8.1 is a really solid update.

I'm going to wait until Surface v2.0 when it's running on Haswell before I buy one as the current IB model gets about 3 hours on battery which is not ideal. Haswell is perfect for tablet devices so it makes sense to wait.

What Microsoft have done with Surface is set the benchmark ridiculously high. Other manufactures need to step up and stop trying to mug the public off with cheap plastic rubbish.

 

[iancapable]

AudioBus in the video is still an iOS app, so it's leveraging iOS capabilities that Apple provided in some form. Furthermore, inter-app audio is an official feature of iOS 7.

I believe the pausing video is due to iOS freeing up the camera for other apps to use. Maybe this is a limitation of iOS and/or the hardware camera on iOS devices... that multiple apps can't access the camera simultaneously. Let's hope that this is being worked on.

I was simply talking about the ad itself... Jamstick looks wicked!

 

[MH01]

Gotta love these posts, its like flys swarming to a new turd that hast just been dropped.

Though geez we Apple fans are such hypocrites, The Im am Mac/PC ads were heralded as brilliant, though as soon as someone else has a shot at Apple it considered pathetic.

Fact is, the Im a PC/Mac ads were full of **** just like these ads are, its called marketing, no need to get in debates over it.

Ipad are by far the most successful product, by a huge margin!!!! Just accept that the competition does some aspects better then the ipad, like multitasking. Overall the ipad is a much better product!

 

[mumph]

Apple should respond with a exact same ad but extend it so Microsoft guy runs out of battery and Apple guy signs up more players

 

[Ries]

Anyone who develops for iOS knows that you can use any and all C or C++ libraries (as long as they compile for ARM), which kinda makes any points about API shortcomings moot. Non-devs sure do like to whine for us though.

Ehhh no, what do you think is going to happen, if you use one of the undocumented IOS api's? And would like to see how you're going to use a c/c++ library, that is OS specific, on an apple IOS device... Cause libraries that calls DirectX just works on apple, right?

 

[stampax]

Not sure how anyone can argue wit hthis - ms are much better at multitasking. full stop. it IS a limitation of the ipad.

 

[Menneisyys2]

Not sure how anyone can argue wit hthis - ms are much better at multitasking. full stop. it IS a limitation of the ipad.

Apple fanboys will state anything, even the most illogical / crazy things, to defend their beloved company

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Anyone who develops for iOS knows that you can use any and all C or C++ libraries (as long as they compile for ARM), which kinda makes any points about API shortcomings moot. Non-devs sure do like to whine for us though.

Are you an iOS developer? Highly unlikely. Otherwise, you wouldn't have stated anything like this.

1. on the subject of windowing: How would you implement windowing between two independent(!!!) apps in iOS, even by using native C/C++ code? That's what's the WinRT snap mode is all about (of, for that matter, Samsung's windowing implementation / the iOS5-only Quasar JB tweak). You cannot.

You can surely emulate true windowing (as did, back in 2009, for example Ignacio Bononi's myDesktop) or split-screen mode (as is in several AppStore apps like CineXPlayer or Video DS - DualScreen Video Player) but it's a far cry away from running two independent(!!) apps parallelly, in split-screen mode.

2. on the subject of generic API calls: you just can't make third-party open source etc. libs, even when compiled for iOS / ARM, access hardware (e.g., the camera, audio etc.). This is why using open source libs on iOS, generally, is restricted to, for example, video decoding, multimedia container parsing etc. (see FFmpeg). That is strictly software-only stuff not interfacing with any hardware component of the iPhone - basically, you just delegate for example TS parsing (which is very hard to implement from scratch) to an external lib.

All in all, even when used in your own programs (and not wanting multi-windowing), use of 3rd party libs is very-very restricted.

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Ehhh no, what do you think is going to happen, if you use one of the undocumented IOS api's? And would like to see how you're going to use a c/c++ library, that is OS specific, on an apple IOS device... Cause libraries that calls DirectX just works on apple, right?

DirectX surely can't be used. However, there are libs that are ported to iOS and used in many AppStore apps; for example, FFmpeg.

Nevertheless, ConCat's original post was completely wrong (see my above answer).

 

[Freida]

am I the only one who actually think that this ad is done well? I mean I don't like M$ and their awful halfbaked product as they simply can't come up with anything that would be pleasurable to use but judging just this ad I an say that it was done well. In fact, they copied the idea from Apple with those I'm a Mac/PC guy as those were pretty much the same but nevertheless the ad is still good.

 

[Menneisyys2]

Apple should respond with a exact same ad but extend it so Microsoft guy runs out of battery and Apple guy signs up more players

WinRT has acceptable battery life - not worse than that of Retina iPads. (Non-Retina full-sized iPads are certainly better.) It's only Win8 Pro that has considerably worse battery life. Hopefully the latter will be fixed by Haswell.

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I mean I don't like M$ and their awful halfbaked product as they simply can't come up with anything that would be pleasurable to use

Yup, the current first-gen WinRT tablets aren't particularly good, hardware-wise. That low-res screen... awful. (As is anything non-Retina, including non-Retina iPads.)

 

[Piggie]

Or maybe it's because people agree with the reasoning behind Apple's decisions? After all, who in the past three years has said that proper multitasking wouldn't be a nice thing to have? The reason why people are defending the iPad's lack of true multitasking is because of the positive effect that has on battery life. It's one reason that the iPad has the best battery life of any tablet without a bulky battery attachment. I assume Microsoft failed to mention battery life in their ad.

And if people defending Apple irritates you... why are you on a forum dedicated to Apple? Whatever you personally feel about Apple, obviously plenty of people here feel differently.

It's not that it irritates me, it saddens me and makes me wish people has a little more independent thought than just what a company produces.
It is almost exactly like a religion for many where you are not supposed to question what the leader of the faith had degreed is the case.

Search these very forums:

iPhone 4 = Was classed as a cheap Chinese knock off, poor design, nasty looking when it was seen in sneak photos, but when it became clear it really was the new iPhone attitudes almost swung 180 degree's overnight.

iPad Mini = No way would Apple product a smaller iPad, and they should not, any smaller would be terrible, and unusable. Now so many people are saying how amazing it is, and some even downgrading from their full size iPad to the mini version.

Is the iPhone 5 aspect ratio wrong still now as it was deemed any such change would be wrong?

Is iOS7 still going to remain looking terrible to most people here?

Will Apple produce a widescreen Tablet ever, which also has been said would be terrible?

Again it does not irrigate me, it saddens and in a sad was amuses me that too many people are unable to have a independent opinion on something.

And Black can be terrible and white amazing today because Apple make white but not black.
And yet in a week time when Apple stop white and change to black, then Black will be Amazing and White terrible.

Reading these forums over the years this happens again and again

As I say, it's just as if they are in church and they dare never question the teachings of the holy one, as the holy one always knows what's right.

 

[nascimento]

The ad is absolutely correct. You can, indeed, do two things at once with a Windows 8 tablet. High five.

What I'm saying is... that might not be as big a feature as you think it is.

Apple has sold over 100 million iPads that don't have "proper multitasking"

Are we to believe there are tons of people who are saying "OMG it's finally here! The tablet I can run two apps side-by-side!!!!"

Or... you can ask it in another way:

Was the iPad a failure this whole time because it couldn't run two apps side-by-side?

Because I certainly didn't notice that...

Bit of a flawed argument there, things evolve!

Ipad was the "first" fully functional easy to use tablet. It also has the app store ecosystem. this does not mean that multitasking and connectivity is not the future! I have both so I can tell you that when I travel will always take Windows because of USB port and Im affraid I have to say this...it works with Flash.


If flash dies, apple puts a USB port that u can transfer files and lets u have office for free then I would opt for having only one tablet and it would probably be the Ipad (yes even without multitasking)

 

[superlatic]

wait a minute; when did the surface (I think is the win 8 tablet shown in it) get 3G? If not then they need to show the full ad

Just thought I would point out (after about 10 pages of ranting about Surface) that the Windows 8 tablet in the advert is actually a Dell, not a surface

I believe around April the XPS10 (which I am sure is the tablet featured in the ad) got 4G?

 

[Menneisyys2]

umm since when was mobile safari only able to use mobile websites? get your facts straight. im using the regular version of this website right now.

Safari doesn't let for changing the U-A, only third-party browsers. Which have always been let down by Apple's restrictions resulting in very frequent checkboard effects / stuttering scrolling and JS execution speed limitations.

 

[Michael Scrip]

Apple fanboys will state anything, even the most illogical things, to defend their beloved company

It's not so much "defending" as it is trying to explain that it's one feature.

It might be the feature you've been waiting for... and you would never own a tablet without True MultiTasking™

But come on... other tablets don't have that feature either... and people seems to like them.

Maybe, just maybe, iPads and Windows 8 tablets can coexist.

If you absolutely need True MultiTasking™ there is a Windows 8 tablet for you.

And if multitasking isn't at the top of your list... the iPad will be there too.

Oh... I hope we're not forgetting that the Blackberry Playbook also had spectacular multitasking capabilities too. They played a video... switched to another app... and the video continued to play in the background!

Remember that? It was kind of a big deal back then. Here's a demo of these amazing capabilities: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgANBGyLt4g

But True MultiTasking™ couldn't save the Playbook... will it be the best feature of Windows 8 tablets?

 

[Menneisyys2]

Bit of a flawed argument there, things evolve!

Exactly this is what most iOS fans tend to ignore. The competing OS'es (most importantly, Android and Windows RT / Phone 8) are evolving much faster than iOS itself. Multiwindow execution, far-far better API's (Android 4.x has much-much better and more flexible API's than even iOS7) etc. And what's Apple's answer? No to windowing and they even refer to 60 fps recording (removed in iOS6, reintroduced in iOS7) and anti-aliasing on low-res iPads' iPhone 2x mode (removed in iOS5, reintroduced in iOS7) as "brand new"...

Pretty ridiculous. Apple should indeed add a Basic / Advanced switch to the OS to allow power users have much more freedom at, among other things, parallel execution. After all, the Samsung GS4 also has this switch and it works just great - the "Basic" mode effectively dumbs down the OS interface to an app launcher (as is iOS) so that it's much easier to handle by non-geeks.

 

[Michael Scrip]

Exactly this is what most iOS fans tend to ignore. The competing OS'es (most importantly, Android and Windows RT / Phone 8) are evolving much faster than iOS itself. Multiwindow execution, far-far better API's (Android 4.x has much-much better and more flexible API's than even iOS7) etc. And what's Apple's answer? No to windowing and they even refer to 60 fps recording (removed in iOS6, reintroduced in iOS7) and anti-aliasing on low-res iPads' iPhone 2x mode (removed in iOS5, reintroduced in iOS7) as "brand new"... pretty ridiculous.

Maybe we're fans of what iOS does have...

Just a thought...

 

[macplay]

In every fitght, the one whois losing will scream the most... so goobeye windows 8 touch...

 

[Menneisyys2]

And if multitasking isn't at the top of your list... the iPad will be there too.

It is as it allows for much more effective tablet usage. This is why I've purchased Quasar for the iPad right when it was released.

Nevertheless, as I've pointed out above, the current WinRT hardware just sucks, this is why I haven't jumped ship. I wouldn't touch a tablet with a low-res screen. They all suck.

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Maybe we're fans of what iOS does have...

Just a thought...

Well, Android and WP / Windows has die-hard fans too - just look around at, say, WPC or XDA-Devs

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

You must be really annoying to be behind at a traffic light. If it takes you 6 seconds to actually start moving your car your license (if you're old enough) should be taken away.

If your 3-6 second theory was correct you'd be dead the first time you got on a highway.

Quit making excuses for a the lack of iOS. It's 2013 not 2007.

Advice for the future. Go to the DMV and turn in your license and stay off the roads.

Those tasks were all "driving". No swapping of tasks was involved. But all people are dangerous when they swap between using their phone and driving, which is a change of tasks that takes several seconds.

 

[APlotdevice]

These ads will have little to no effect IMO. Features like this mostly appeal to "power users", whom make up only a small percentage of consumers overall.

Put another way, Microsoft has a very serious conundrum on their hands: For most people the iPad and android tablets are already more than adequate. Their best hope was for the Windows brand to sell RT, and that has clearly failed.

 

[Michael Scrip]

Well, Android and WP / Windows has die-hard fans too - just look around at, say, WPC or XDA-Devs

Oh wow... with all this talk about Windows 8 tablets and the iPad... I completely forgot about Android tablets

 

[Menneisyys2]

Their best hope was for the Windows brand to sell RT, and that has clearly failed.

They must have known right from the beginning that sub-par hardware won't sell. They made a cardinal mistake by not going for a high-res screen right in the first gen.

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Oh wow... with all this talk about Windows 8 tablets and the iPad... I completely forgot about Android tablets

You shouldn't - Nexus 10 is an excellent piece of hardware. I'll definitely get the successor if Android 5 indeed gets true windowing (as is rumoured).

 

[locust76]

yes

You don't understand what multitasking is. Being able to see two things on the screen is not the only form of multitasking.

True multitasking in the sense of computer technology is the computer's ability to switch between processes (threads) so quickly that it all appears to happen simultaneously. In the modern age of multi-threaded, multi-cure CPUs, the machine can actually do multiple things at once, but before this, it was all an illusion.

Without multitasking, the web browser on a phone would take ages to load any page even on fast WiFi, because every single element would have to individually be downloaded, stored in memory, pulled out of memory and rendered. Instead, because the system can multitask, it can load up hundreds of elements in parallel, moving the bits around the system one at a time, but extremely quickly while executing something else during idle cycles.

The iPhone has been able to play music and surf the web/email/text etc... since it's original introduction. For all intents and purposes, the original iPhone was a multitasking capable device, however the original iteration did not allow 3rd party apps to run in the background (whereas most 1st party Apple apps did have some kind of background processing enabled, such as making a telephone call and writing an email at the same time).

So, in conclusion, multitasking =/= seeing two apps on the screen at once. Multitasking is being able to have one program actively doing something in the background while doing something else with another program in the foreground. The example where the guy did a live remix of Get Lucky was a perfect example of this: He had several apps running in the background all generating streams of audio that were being fed into another app that was doing final processing and outputting the sound through the hardware. In many ways that's a breakthrough, because you not only have apps doing things at the same time, but cooperating with one another becoming something greater in the process.

To assert that the iPad absolutely cannot multitask because you can only have one app on the screen at a time is simply asinine.