Multitasking: Do you use it?

I sure appreciate the 'frozen state' aspect of it. There are many apps that now return me to where I was last when I got back to them. That's nice.

I also like that many apps that upload media (like adding a photo to Twitter) will work in the background so I can hit "send" and then go right to some other app and not have to sit there and stare at it uploading for 10 seconds. (And once you start talking about apps that upload video the advantages are even greater.)

Actually, multimedia is the main benefactor in all this. It's great to be able to hit the "save" button in Photogene and then leave the app instantly. A few seconds later my saved photo goes to my camera roll no matter what I'm doing now. In the old days you had to sit and wait for it to finish processing the photo before you could go and do something else.

They're little things, but they add up.

Nope, no reason at all.

 

no. it's stupid.

 

I thought it was an un needed feature until I started doing a lot of cut and pasting for blog entries and what not as I use stickies as a master for the longer ones that I don't want to lose if things go awry with a connection.

For that alone, i love it.

 

I like being able to switch between apps quickly using the multitask bar. I also agree with Small White Car, it really helps speed up tasks involving multimedia.

 

It's nice that it's there but I use it maybe a couple times a week at most.

 

Well you said it--Pandora--I guess that's a good enough reason and really the only one I use.

 

Like others here I mainly use it for multimedia--photos and whatnot--but really like it for frozen state. Nice to be able to look up an address from a web site in Safari then go right back to Google Maps, then maybe switch to email to copy down directions. As Small White Car said, the little things really do add up.

 

I use it quite frequently actually. There are lots of times when I am playing games or reading email and I get a text that I want to reply immediately to. It's nice to have whatever you were working on last waiting there for you when you are done. However I note that most games actually close when you switch out, most of them sort of pause when you bring the load back up, some you lose your spot which kind of sucks.

I also found it handy from getting out of the phone screen and web surfing while having conversations. But since this is my first iphone, I don't know if you could do that in the past.

WW

 

Unless the app had a specific background task when it went into the background, playing audio, gps tracking, downloading a file, it consumes no resources at all in the background.

It's just a fast app switcher list of recently used apps.

I really like that it freezes the state of them for as long as it can so I can switch between apps without them going through a full startup process each time.

 

Skype and CoPilot Live NA

 

It's pretty much like the phone's take on the OS X Dock, and yes, I use it often.

 

If you are not using multitask 20 or more times a day you don't need an iPhone, even with Apple's limited multitasking. Ahh, limited multitasking, AVRCP, A2DP, Cut and Paste, Folders, All Inbox view and Slingbox over 3G on a Retina display, what I have been waiting 3 years for.

 

Honestly I keep forgetting about it. Only use it when I remember. Not often. I'm not so lazy that I won't go back to a home screen.

 

Me too. It never occurs to me to "use it". The only time is if I'm travelling somewhere and I set up a map to the place where I'm going. Then it's nice to flick backwards and forwards between other apps and the map to see where I'm going.

I put "use it" in quotes because I assume that the OP was either asking how often people play music or something else in the background, or double click the home button to get the app switcher. Those of us who forget about the app switcher and keep going back to the home screen are still using multitasking though. If you launch the contacts app, go off and do other stuff, and then relaunch the contacts app then, whether you invoke the app via the home screen or by double clicking the home button and selecting it from the app switcher, you are still using the multitasking switcher to go back to the currently active instance of the contacts app so either way you are using the state save and resume feature of multitasking.

- Julian

 

So far multitasking provides little benefit and significant problems for me. If I forget to close the Co-pilot GPS App in the multitasking tray, the battery is drained after three or four hours. I suppose we need Apps that are written for multitasking and it would be nice to have a global App that closes all open Apps in the multitasking tray.

 

I only use it to close Skype from the multitasking bar pretty much.

 

With my jailbreak I can blacklist certain apps from backgrounding and I also have a one touch toggle to remove all apps from memory.

 

I use it all the time with Radiobox, Pandora, Copilot live, Colloquy, angry birds, facebook, iTap RDP etc. etc.

 

I use it all the time

 

me too. except for going from home screen to safari, ipod, messages, or phone cause those apps are all on the dock so. it's usually when i'm switching from a game to something else i use it. so often.

 

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That's a very important point.

You're often using the multitasking feature even if you're not using the multitasking tray.

Having the state of an app saved is very nice with SMS apps, settings, photos, etc.

 

I don't use multitasking as much as I thought I would. Like others have mentioned, I use it for Pandora, but I really don't listen to Pandora on my iPhone all that often. I will admit it is nice switching from typing out an email to going into the text app to reply to a text message you received. However, during a week span, I probably use multitasking a handful of times.

 

Exactly what i was going to say

 

Hate it. Disabled it.