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Multitasking...I don't get it.

ODog4523

ODog4523

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 11, 2009
187
0
This looks like another work-around rather than true multitasking/backgrounding the way we think of it.

So how will this work? Every app that supports any of the 7 background features will be running all the time in stasis until they're brought to the front? Or is there a way to add or remove apps from the multitasking UI that pops up? Example, when I'm done listening to pandora I want to completely close it out so I can clean out the multitasking que of anything I don't want or need that quick access to.

Am I understanding that right? Maybe he just glossed over some of the finer details in the interest of making the point clearly.

So it'll be up to developers to build this into their apps, otherwise the feature won't be available.

Kind of a letdown that we still won't have true native multitasking.
 
ODog4523 said:
This looks like another work-around rather than true multitasking/backgrounding the way we think of it.

So how will this work? Every app that supports any of the 7 background features will be running all the time in stasis until they're brought to the front? Or is there a way to add or remove apps from the multitasking UI that pops up? Example, when I'm done listening to pandora I want to completely close it out so I can clean out the multitasking que of anything I don't want or need that quick access to.

Am I understanding that right? Maybe he just glossed over some of the finer details in the interest of making the point clearly.

So it'll be up to developers to build this into their apps, otherwise the feature won't be available.

Kind of a letdown that we still won't have true native multitasking.
Click to expand...

But...what are the downsides, again? Give me a situation in which these APIs won't be sufficient.
 
gloss said:
But...what are the downsides, again? Give me a situation in which these APIs won't be sufficient.
Click to expand...

The only situation I can think of, if is I use an app to remote into another computer, I am assuming the connection would be lost.
 
PhoneI said:
The only situation I can think of, if is I use an app to remote into another computer, I am assuming the connection would be lost.
Click to expand...

I'm curious if there's a way that the connection could be worked into the task completion API.
 
gloss said:
But...what are the downsides, again? Give me a situation in which these APIs won't be sufficient.
Click to expand...

I guess the main limitation I see right now is that it's up to developers to build this into their apps, as apposed to the OS natively being able to put something into the background while it continues to do it business.

As long as the app makers get on top of this, I guess it'll be fine. I just don't dig the idea of every app that supports backgrounding APIs always being in the dock (if that's the case). What if every app on the phone supports one or more of those APIs? Or even half the apps? We're gonna have 20 or 30 icons to flick through in that backgrounding que? Are they gonna let us put folders in there too? :)
 
ODog4523 said:
I just don't dig the idea of every app that supports backgrounding APIs always being in the dock (if that's the case). What if every app on the phone supports one or more of those APIs? Or even half the apps? We're gonna have 20 or 30 icons to flick through in that backgrounding que? Are they gonna let us put folders in there too? :)
Click to expand...
On the demo videos floating around YouTube, they show how you can press/hold to remove an icon from the "background dock". What they don't explain is if the app actually stops running in the background, or if you've just removed the icon so you don't have to flip through it. :confused:
 
ODog4523 said:
Or is there a way to add or remove apps from the multitasking UI that pops up? Example, when I'm done listening to pandora I want to completely close it out so I can clean out the multitasking que of anything I don't want or need that quick access to.
Click to expand...

I read (I think on Engadget) that in the multitasking dock, you hold an icon (like when you rearrange on a home screen), and a minus sign appears in the corner of the icon to close it.
 
aristobrat said:
On the demo videos floating around YouTube, they show how you can press/hold to remove an icon from the "background dock". What they don't explain is if the app actually stops running in the background, or if you've just removed the icon so you don't have to flip through it. :confused:
Click to expand...

Hopefully that is how to completely close the app out.
 
ODog4523 said:
I guess the main limitation I see right now is that it's up to developers to build this into their apps, as apposed to the OS natively being able to put something into the background while it continues to do it business.

As long as the app makers get on top of this, I guess it'll be fine. I just don't dig the idea of every app that supports backgrounding APIs always being in the dock (if that's the case). What if every app on the phone supports one or more of those APIs? Or even half the apps? We're gonna have 20 or 30 icons to flick through in that backgrounding que? Are they gonna let us put folders in there too? :)
Click to expand...

Here's how it works:

You can multitask with all the apps right now, even 3rd party apps. When you use any app and you press the home button that app goes to that multitasking dock. The app is not running in the background, it's sort of suspended and you can switch to it quickly.

If you want to remove an app from there you do like when you want to delete an app from your phone, you press and hold and a little "-" appears on it and you click to delete it.

When the apps are updated with the streaming API and the VOIP API besides being in the "suspended" state those apps will have those services running in the background.

skitched-20100408-200028.jpg
 
anjinhamarota said:
Here's how it works:

You can multitask with all the apps right now, even 3rd party apps. When you use any app and you press the home button that app goes to that multitasking dock. The app is not running in the background, it's sort of suspended and you can switch to it quickly.

If you want to remove an app from there you do like when you want to delete an app from your phone, you press and hold and a little "-" appears on it and you click to delete it.

When the apps are updated with the streaming API and the VOIP API besides being in the "suspended" state those apps will have those services running in the background.

skitched-20100408-200028.jpg
Click to expand...

Thank you for the explanation!

Now what if I have an app open and just want to quit and go home like normal by pressing home once? Would I still have to go into the multitask dock and kill it from there too?
 
anjinhamarota said:
Here's how it works:

You can multitask with all the apps right now, even 3rd party apps. When you use any app and you press the home button that app goes to that multitasking dock. The app is not running in the background, it's sort of suspended and you can switch to it quickly.
Click to expand...

Ok, so the multitasking dock is just a "quick launcher of recent apps + improved suspended status in 4.0".

But how many "recent apps" does it hold? There must be a limit, or people will eventually have 100 apps in that launcher.....
 
aristobrat said:
Yeah. Better than before, but you still aren't going to be able to let your bittorrent client run in the background 24/7. :D
Click to expand...

PhoneI said:
The only situation I can think of, if is I use an app to remote into another computer, I am assuming the connection would be lost.
Click to expand...

While I haven't tried it with the API yet, Apple did mention in the keynote about "task" completion where if you are uploading a photo to like Flikr, it will continue to upload in the background. Based on how uploading works now (simply a connection), that means that it will be a continuous connection in the background. So that's covered. Even your bittorrent client xD.

But yeah, I can't think of any application that needs more than these seven things. Basically what Apple took out of true backgrounding was the UI running in the background. So while your app has to refresh the screen and maybe redownload (if like a buddy list), it will save a good amount of battery and performance.
 
vizkiz said:
I read (I think on Engadget) that in the multitasking dock, you hold an icon (like when you rearrange on a home screen), and a minus sign appears in the corner of the icon to close it.
Click to expand...

I thought Jobs just said, "If you need to use a task manager, you're doing it wrong."

Clicking on a representation of a running app to get a kill option, sure sounds like a task manager to me.
 
kdarling said:
I thought Jobs just said, "If you need to use a task manager, you're doing it wrong."

Clicking on a representation of a running app to get a kill option, sure sounds like a task manager to me.
Click to expand...

This:

image015.png


is a far cry from this:

500xiphone40software98.jpg


Of course most people posting on MacRumors would find the Windows Mobile task manager as easy to use as anything else. That's not true if you're like 95% of people who buy iPhones, whose interaction with their computer consists of checking email and surfing the web.
 
even though the apps are in the dock they aren't using memory or battery life, its just like a save state and the app does not run anymore. its actually annoying though cause say you are in settings then go out and then go back into settings it takes to wherever you were last in there. and even more annoying if you end a call and don't let it go back to phone screen and just hit the home button because next time you go back to the phone it shows the end call screen.
 
bova80 said:
even though the apps are in the dock they aren't using memory or battery life, its just like a save state and the app does not run anymore. its actually annoying though cause say you are in settings then go out and then go back into settings it takes to wherever you were last in there. and even more annoying if you end a call and don't let it go back to phone screen and just hit the home button because next time you go back to the phone it shows the end call screen.
Click to expand...

True, but I bet you can override the save state by starting the app again from the home screen instead of from the fast-switch screen.

If you start from the home screen it will probably restart the app.
 
bova80 said:
even though the apps are in the dock they aren't using memory or battery life, its just like a save state and the app does not run anymore. its actually annoying though cause say you are in settings then go out and then go back into settings it takes to wherever you were last in there. and even more annoying if you end a call and don't let it go back to phone screen and just hit the home button because next time you go back to the phone it shows the end call screen.
Click to expand...

What you call annoying, I call it AWESOME.

So did they create a REAL SNAPSHOT-LIKE RAM-FREE BRUTE-FORCE DEVELOPER-UNAWARE suspension state?? If yes, it's great. I think that having in mind the 3GS as a MINIMUM HARDWARE helped a lot while developing this "enhanced" suspension state.

In 3.0 the way an app resumed was somehow up to the developer (e.g. some games would go back to the main menù, some others would get you directly into the game), how does it work in 4.0? Is there a brute-force snapshot-like suspension EQUAL FOR EVERY app?
 
I think a much more intuitive way to close apps completely would be to just be able to "flick" them off the multitasking bar and have them disappear in a puff of smoke. Kind of like how you can drag bookmarks off your bookmarks bar in Safari (on a computer) and they just disappear. I would imagine that this "flick" would be more efficient.
 
bova80 said:
nope it starts it the same as fast-switch
Click to expand...

Does this apply to every appstore app too? So it overrides the suspension settings of the particular app? (in 2.0 and 3.0: some apps --> main menù, other apps --> straight into action).
 
sportsfrk214 said:
I think a much more intuitive way to close apps completely would be to just be able to "flick" them off the multitasking bar and have them disappear in a puff of smoke. Kind of like how you can drag bookmarks off your bookmarks bar in Safari (on a computer) and they just disappear. I would imagine that this "flick" would be more efficient.
Click to expand...

That would be cool.

I agree the holding and closing would get old.
 
I'd sure like to see every developer build a Quit button into their apps, if that is an option available to them.

For me, I think multi-tasking will be the exception, rather than the norm.
 
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