Please, People.
I wish people would stop getting so hung up on the double-click mechanism. It has virtually nothing to do with multi-tasking. It is (a) the list of most recently used applications, (b) a shortcut to music controls, brightness and volume on iPad, and now the orientation lock (c) the latest in Apple's attempts to hide the means to shut down a rogue application.
You can still switch applications by going to the home screen and results are identical to using the double-click for quick switching. You don't need to teach an existing user the new gesture to switch apps. Frequent users might find it handy to get back to a recently-used application but it's just a shortcut and it doesn't actually guarantee that the application won't be launched from scratch. Incidentally, for those who continue to insist that this is somehow the multi-tasking interface you should note that if you have used a few heavy apps and are short on memory the list will likely contain applications that aren't open at all.
The music controls were available by double-tapping home in earlier releases of iOS already. You've always been able to adjust volume and skip tracks with other peripherals like Apple's headset with a built-in clicker. This is just another approach to the same thing and it's an option - with the exception of the orientation lock. Apple really should make that available elsewhere, like in the Settings application. Luckily it's a feature a lot of casual users never use.
As for quitting applications? Forget about it. Lots of Apple's apps stayed open in the background in 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 and you didn't give it a second thought. The means to kill them have changed (hold down the home button initially, then hold down home while the power switch is visible later, now you can do it from the recently used application list. You're still not supposed to need it, ever, if things are working properly.
I just don't get the angst. There is no good reason not to upgrade and there are plenty of good reasons to upgrade.
I wish people would stop getting so hung up on the double-click mechanism. It has virtually nothing to do with multi-tasking. It is (a) the list of most recently used applications, (b) a shortcut to music controls, brightness and volume on iPad, and now the orientation lock (c) the latest in Apple's attempts to hide the means to shut down a rogue application.
You can still switch applications by going to the home screen and results are identical to using the double-click for quick switching. You don't need to teach an existing user the new gesture to switch apps. Frequent users might find it handy to get back to a recently-used application but it's just a shortcut and it doesn't actually guarantee that the application won't be launched from scratch. Incidentally, for those who continue to insist that this is somehow the multi-tasking interface you should note that if you have used a few heavy apps and are short on memory the list will likely contain applications that aren't open at all.
The music controls were available by double-tapping home in earlier releases of iOS already. You've always been able to adjust volume and skip tracks with other peripherals like Apple's headset with a built-in clicker. This is just another approach to the same thing and it's an option - with the exception of the orientation lock. Apple really should make that available elsewhere, like in the Settings application. Luckily it's a feature a lot of casual users never use.
As for quitting applications? Forget about it. Lots of Apple's apps stayed open in the background in 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 and you didn't give it a second thought. The means to kill them have changed (hold down the home button initially, then hold down home while the power switch is visible later, now you can do it from the recently used application list. You're still not supposed to need it, ever, if things are working properly.
I just don't get the angst. There is no good reason not to upgrade and there are plenty of good reasons to upgrade.
