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Video Showing How Apple's Unfinished Split Screen iPad Multitasking Works

Multitasking on tablets just looks like a mess. The screen is already small enough for browsers, it would not make for a good experience having half that space for any one app.
 
cdmoore74 said:
That video was utter garbage. This is how the Note 3 does it. You don't need 2 fingers to resize either. The separator line has a little control ball that you can pull for resizing, switching and closing. And because I have a custom Rom I can add any app within multiscreen.
Not one iDevice has over 1 gig of Ram so I could only imagine what the performance would be like. Before I got the Note 3 I had an iPhone 5s and even that was crashing with memory errors. I don't know why Apple did not go with at least 2gig's of Ram in their flagship devices last year.
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I have tried multiscreen once on my GS5! Garbage and very annoying! Had to disable it very quickly!
 
childlost said:
Why do we even need that?
What's all this multitasking craze?
If there's one thing that iPad does well is to let you focus and enjoy what you're doing, without any clutter around and behind it.
That's the beauty of it.
Why on earth would you want to create a stressful experience on a device meant to be enjoyed?
It's really sad.
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If that is all you want to do with your iPad I highly doubt this new feature will stop you. Simply don't use it.

For others like myself who would like to do more with their iPads (because we like using this device) this feature will really help. Being able to read something and simultaneoulsy take notes would be fantastic. I find it far more 'stressful' when I want to get something done on my ipad and I can't do it efficiently because of restrictions in iOS. THAT is stressful!

If you don't want to see the iPad expand in function beyond a strictly single-task consumption device I'm surprised that you want to use an iPad at all. There are plenty of low tech options if you want the simplest experience with no flexibility at all.
 
BornAgainMac said:
It could be saved for iOS 9 next year.
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Most likely. Such a big feature would definitely be mentioned on WWDC. Not only must screen size support be added to all apps (especially 1/4 modus might require some creativity), Apple also needs to figure out how to drag information from one app to another, how to start and stop apps, etc.

And third party apps also need to add this support. So definitely a no go for version 8.
 
There were rumors of a 12" ipad air. I say, it's not an ipad air. I say it's a MBA that runs iOS but is somehow really cool.. not sure how yet. Quote me when it comes out.
 
mazz0 said:
Regarding the demo - that can't be how they're expecting it to work when implemented, apps use two-finger swiping internally.

Edit: Sorry ONH, I sounded kinda harsh there, I know tone isn't conveyed well on the internet so you probably didn't mean it like that.
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As long as there is not realy a demo of it on an iOS device itself. I expect the state of the feature not even in its childhod. So after all irrelevant to suggest how it works, if the normal user will get it.

I'm shure someone could implement this inside an app, using the webkit without interface and loade a mokup of the Safari interface as html page inside and a page resize function like ff has it in the dev tools, match them together and make a video, shouldn't be that difficult.

If he would post the actual feature, he would violate apple terms of use.
 
Just to get everyone's hope up on a lager iOS device :rolleyes:

I believe stuff in articles when i have it with my own hands... The rest is a imagination.

At least rumors anyway :)
 
I would say this approach looks somewhat better than Sansung ui, but not nearly as good as windows8 modern multitasking.

I am a little surpised to th MR posters weigh in for multi-tasking. C'mon apple--pen, multitasking, addressable file finder.
 
i0Nic said:
Really, who says that?
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People who use Windows 8 and actually try to use the Metro side instead of just installing Classic Shell and ignoring it.

Unless you think Windows 8's metro interface is good? Because I don't know how you're going to argue otherwise. It's all the full-screen, non-intuitive, goodness of Windows 8's new full screen apps, only now you have two at a time and have to worry where the window controls really are. Do they exist in the same screen gesture areas they did before (utilizing corners and edges of the screen), or are you now supposed to consider the divider between the two an "edge of the screen".
 
SeaFox said:
People who use Windows 8 and actually try to use the Metro side instead of just installing Classic Shell and ignoring it.

Unless you think Windows 8's metro interface is good? Because I don't know how you're going to argue otherwise. It's all the full-screen, non-intuitive, goodness of Windows 8's new full screen apps, only now you have two at a time and have to worry where the window controls really are. Do they exist in the same screen gesture areas they did before (utilizing corners and edges of the screen), or are you now supposed to consider the divider between the two an "edge of the screen".
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The start screen GUI was designed for touch interfaces, and for that, it works quite well IMO. For a desktop/laptop it's absolutely horrendous and indeed, I've forgotten it's even there on my desktops since I do have Classic Shell and don't bother with it.
 
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I think the main thing I'd like to use split screen multitasking for is for watching a video podcast on one half of the screen, while playing a game, reading forums or web browsing on the other half.
I also find recipe ideas and like to track them in Evernote, so I could have Evernote open on one half and a web browser in the other half.

I suspect that this kind of feature would be an API that will be available to apps, so when (or if) it comes out, developers will need to enable the feature in their apps. I speculate that it may work by scaling back from retina to non-retina, so apps that support both could perhaps enable this feature on retina devices.

Anyway, until such a feature is available for any selection of apps....there are a few in the App Store already that enable split screen. There are some for viewing 2 web pages at once or 2 PDFs, but the one that I like enables notes on one side and web browsing on the other. Check out:
PaperHelper - Easiest Essay Writer by RumbleApps

Sorry, I cannot remember the cost, since I already have it (and purchased it in AU dollars anyway).
 
SeaFox said:
People who use Windows 8 and actually try to use the Metro side instead of just installing Classic Shell and ignoring it.
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I don't know of anyone that tries to use metro unless they are on a surface rt. But I'm the business audience, so maybe consumers try to.
 
aloshka said:
I don't know of anyone that tries to use metro unless they are on a surface rt. But I'm the business audience, so maybe consumers try to.
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Yes, they do. And then they wonder why Windows 8 Mail is so difficult to use.

There used to be a trick of going to Microsoft's site and downloading the Windows Live Essentials installer, since Windows Live Mail was a part of the package you could get the plain desktop version that way. Microsoft must have heard of this because in January they updated the installer so when it checks your system it now counts Windows 8 Mail as being a newer copy of Windows Live Mail (even though it's not the same at all), so the installer now refuses to install the classic program.

This is a net-based installer -- it only downloads the files of the components you choose to install. There have been no changes to Windows 8 Mail or Windows Live Mail (classic) to make them incompatible with each other. If you can get a copy of the previous installer it still will allow the install of WLM 2012 on a Windows 8.1 machine. Just Microsoft trying to force people into using Metro.

Because of the installer change, I've just started having users install Thunderbird to get a mail experience closer to what they had on their Microsoft client from their old PC -- so Microsoft just shot themselves in the foot with the installer change.
 
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