More New iPhone OS 4 Features: File Sharing, App Closing

[shervieux]

That's the problem with the iPhone/iPod/iPad.

Apple seems intent on making the way you access them the same on Windows as on the Mac which seems to be giving us the lowest common denominator - the bloated, clunky, cross platform Carbon crap that is iTunes.

By not trying to make Windows users second class citizens, all they've done is also make Mac users second class citizens.

On the Mac they should be using AFP, Bonjour and SyncServices and NOT iTunes.... or as someone said earlier, just buy/clone DropBox or Ovi Files.

The iTunes file sharing kludge is ridiculous.

I can see both sides of the argument. For people who know computers and file systems, etc. I can see why we want the freedom. but to those who do not know much about them, then the itunes was is easier for them. They just drag it to the app they want. and when they sync. bingo it is on the ipad/pod/phone.

For the person who asked about backing up documents that are in apps, I think it does when you sync with itunes. my current phone usage shows 1.44 for apps, 53mb photos, 100mb music, 800mb other. Since I have no movies on my phone, I can only assume the other are my documents in stanza, air sharing, mobilestudio, and my library files for my bible software. The other tends to accumulate more mb's used as I bring books into Stanza. Also, I notice my harddrive space on my macbook does drop when I create something on my phone and sync to itunes.

So I am for the file sharing as it should make an easier way to drag and drop between my macbook and device.

Ok, off to write my next sermon on my iphone.

 

[iPaf]

Regarding to quiting apps - I think a better way would be just to drag them off the dock into a puff of smoke - like you do on the mac.

I'm glad I'm not the only one asking for this improvement!

 

[ttftw]

Is there a way to close an app without it going to the multitask pane? I have over a hundred apps and don't want them all on my multitask pane. This will kill the usefulness of the multitask pane if I have to scroll through a bunch of apps in order to get to the one I want to switch to. I might as well have to find it on the home page.

there is NO difference from launching it from the dock or the home screen. remember, this isn't REAL multitasking in the sense that you ever need to worry about "closing" an app. If it was one of your last few apps, then use the dock, if it wasn't then launch it from the home screen.

if you switch from an app and relaunch it from the home screen, it will still resume where it left off like you would expect it to from the dock. hell, you can take full advantage of "multi tasking" without ever looking at the dock.

 

[ttftw]

Yes i can. Although not all apps seem to restore all the time. Can't quite figure it out. Some apps always restore, some sometimes do and others never do (mainly games.)

Might be a bug...

i would say it's not a bug...it's the fact that only apple apps are designed to use the fast app switching apis. same reason pandora still shuts off when you close it. =)

 

[blackNBUK]

OK, it sounds like the best way of using the new fast-task-switching is to just use the iPhone and let the OS decide which Apps should be in memory. This sounds great and makes a lot of sense to me.

However what I don't understand is why they made the "Close" icons on the App-switcher so much more prominent in this Beta? If there is no need to use them 99% of the time why make them so obvious?

Edit: Opps, I really should of read the OP most closely! The "Close" icons only appear when you press and hold on an icon. That makes much more sense to me; it keeps the function hidden away normally but if you decide that you know better than the OS it makes it easy to close multiple Apps at once.

 

[ttftw]

i've also noticed when you swipe to the ipod controls, it has the ipod icon next to the controls, but when you use youtube, the youtube icon replaces the ipod icon and the widget controls youtube and can go forward and backwards through playlists and videos using the forward and back arrows. youtube quits playing audio when you background it, but when you pull up the widget and hit the forward arrow, you can see the title of the next video, but it still won't play till you open the app..then the new video is cued up. (i'm hoping apple will let youtube play audio in the background in the final release!)

it seems that the last app that uses the audio, that app icon will be next to the control widget and you will be able to control the tracks and see what track is playing. i assume, once pandora implements this, you will see the pandora icon next to the widget and you will be able to navigate tracks and see what is song is playing.

 

[ttftw]

OK, it sounds like the best way of using the new fast-task-switching is to just use the iPhone and let the OS decide which Apps should be in memory. This sounds great and makes a lot of sense to me.

However what I don't understand is why they made the "Close" icons on the App-switcher so much more prominent in this Beta? If there is no need to use them 99% of the time why make them so obvious?

well, i think it's JUST IN CASE you need to clear out the saved memory state of the app? if you close the app, it will start totally fresh the next time. maybe as a way to force-close an app?

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

well, i think it's JUST IN CASE you need to clear out the saved memory state of the app? if you close the app, it will start totally fresh the next time. maybe as a way to force-close an app?

As somebody mentioned earlier (or in another thread; can't recall really) you may end up in a sub-sub-sub menu in the settings app and would prefer not to start there the next time you open it.

 

[auburnfan24]

kind of a minor change...but still pretty useful.

 

[ttftw]

As somebody mentioned earlier (or in another thread; can't recall really) you may end up in a sub-sub-sub menu in the settings app and would prefer not to start there the next time you open it.

well, to me that would be an issue in the app design. because as sure as hell don't want to have to force-close an app because i don't like where i left off. i shouldn't need to close an app to easily get it to reset. that's just bad design imo. even in the settings app, it's easier to just click the back arrow than it would be to double-tap for the dock...tap...hold...wait...tap the x...and relaunch.

 

[iPoodOverZune]

I think it's finally time to upgrade my 1st gen.

Yea. And I just bought a 1st gen phone for $80; j/l;unlocked; on T-mobile. I am so much loving it. Don't even want to see the face of my ****** Razr v3m any more.

Checking missed calls is so much better! Aha, a poor man can get joy from even simplest things!

 

[wassupdoc]

Regarding to quiting apps - I think a better way would be just to drag them off the dock into a puff of smoke - like you do on the mac.

that would be a huge improvement over the hold and delete that's there now. But people are right. I hardly ever go in and delete apps from the App-switcher. Wonder if it would be better if they actually had a lock so that some apps are always available on the task switcher?

 

[aegisdesign]

I can see both sides of the argument. For people who know computers and file systems, etc. I can see why we want the freedom. but to those who do not know much about them, then the itunes was is easier for them. They just drag it to the app they want. and when they sync. bingo it is on the ipad/pod/phone.

For the person who asked about backing up documents that are in apps, I think it does when you sync with itunes. my current phone usage shows 1.44 for apps, 53mb photos, 100mb music, 800mb other. Since I have no movies on my phone, I can only assume the other are my documents in stanza, air sharing, mobilestudio, and my library files for my bible software. The other tends to accumulate more mb's used as I bring books into Stanza. Also, I notice my harddrive space on my macbook does drop when I create something on my phone and sync to itunes.

So I am for the file sharing as it should make an easier way to drag and drop between my macbook and device.

Ok, off to write my next sermon on my iphone.

I disagree. I know plenty novice users who don't understand that they have to sync data and don't understand that files, email and contacts aren't magically accessible from everywhere.

Wouldn't it just be easier for the sync to happen 'magically' in the background when you're in proximity with your Mac/PC? Like TimeMachine backs up your laptop without you really knowing it.

That would be easier still than the current USB cabled sync scheme. I'm sure Apple are clever enough to do for syncing what they did for backing up data. The current scheme in the beta/iPad seems so half baked.

There's a few third party tools that do it now - Mark/Space Missing Sync for example has a bluetooth proximity sync - http://www.markspace.com/

 

[Rhalliwell1]

New feature for me "Replace...", don't remember it from OS 3.0 or 4.0 beta 1 and 2.


Edit
Still can't set a wallpaper on the homescreen for a iPhone 3G, before there was a button "Set Both, Set Homescreen and Set Locksceern" (or smth like that) but now theres just "Set" and it sets the lockscreen.

Since Beta 1 but i noticed the blue writing on the spell checker yesterday. That might be new to beta 3.

kind of a minor change...but still pretty useful.

Since beta 2.

 

[TrickyTree1984]

Didn't jebbs say that any smartphone with a task manager blew it?

Also, the file sharing will suck...... Because you have to use iTunes which, well, sucks. Simply the most unstable application on a PC.

 

[bretm]

i've not used os4, so i cant really comment from experience (other than backgrounder on my jailbroken phone) but double tapping the home button just seems clunky for something that is probably going to get a lot of use. and the way the dock seems to get pushed up looks a bit weird. i hope they change that, and i hope they come up with a gesture for bringing up the switcher. at the moment none of it really seems all that "apple". even this new killing of apps. why not flick them off the switcher like removing stuff from the OSX dock?

[edit] scratch that, it needs to be a physical button since other apps might already use any combination of gestures and could overlap. i still think its clunky though.

Yeah, cuz double clicking brings up favorites for me. It's a phone and computer. I don't need the iPod very much.