Question about battery life and multitasking!

[Nipz]

Ok so im running 4.0 and when i close a normal iPhone app like mail or phone its added to the multitasking dock (the one when you press the home button twice).

Now my question is are the apps like phone and mail and sms message app using more battery life whilst in this new dock or are they using the same as if i quit them completely (by holding the icon until the little red icon comes up).

It seams a massive pain to have to go into the new dock and hold the icons until they shake and then to close them one by one!

Any ideas?

 

[Saberon]

They aren't running in the background (unless its playing music like Pandora will) when they are in the dock. They are sitting there in a frozen state waiting for you to open them, so you don't have to worry about killing them to "save battery and performance".

 

[Nipz]

They aren't running in the background (unless its playing music like Pandora will) when they are in the dock. They are sitting there in a frozen state waiting for you to open them, so you don't have to worry about killing them to "save battery and performance".

Awesome.

When 3d party apps like Skype or a radio app etc are updated that are playing audio in the background, this is when they are using more battery?

 

[STEVESKI07]

You shouldn't think of it as a multitasking dock because then it will confuse you. Think of it more as a recently visited list, because that is really all that it is. The multitasking part is completely unrelated to the fact that your most recently used apps get put into that dock. Also, at this point, there are no apps out that are using any of the new multitasking API's and there won't be until the 21st.

Yes, it will use more battery if Pandora is running in the background then if it wasn't running at all, but the only processing that is going on is just retrieving the data and then playing it through the speakers. When it is backgrounded, none of the GUI or anything else is running in the background, so essentially it would use less battery then it would if you had the app open and were going through the different screens.

 

[Saberon]

It's hard to say for sure, but *IF* there is more battery drain, it would be a very tiny amount. It's not going to be cutting it in half or anything like that.

 

[Nipz]

You shouldn't think of it as a multitasking dock because then it will confuse you. Think of it more as a recently visited list, because that is really all that it is. The multitasking part is completely unrelated to the fact that your most recently used apps get put into that dock. Also, at this point, there are no apps out that are using any of the new multitasking API's and there won't be until the 21st.

It's hard to say for sure, but *IF* there is more battery drain, it would be a very tiny amount. It's not going to be cutting it in half or anything like that.

Thanks guys whatever it is its amazing and makes using the iPhone so much faster!

 

[jtara]

Now my question is are the apps like phone and mail and sms message app using more battery life whilst in this new dock or are they using the same as if i quit them completely (by holding the icon until the little red icon comes up).

For one, phone, mail, and sms have always run in background. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to receive a phone call, email, or SMS message while running another app.

Additionally, I'm not sure there is any practical advantage to keeping them on the multi-tasking dock anyway. All of these apps have always maintained their state - their UI's come up in whatever state you last left them.

So, why clutter the multi-tasking dock unnecessarily? Is it any faster to access them from the multi-tasking dock than to just launch them as you always have?