Apple iPhone OS 4.0 to introduce Multitasking, 100 other features

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  • Reply 141 of 273
    tomohrtomohr Posts: 60member
    I was really hoping for a shipping date on the ipad 3g... I am waiting, but the more days that pass that they don't lay down a firm date.. the sadder I get
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  • Reply 142 of 273
    tulkastulkas Posts: 3,757member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by anonymouse View Post


    Actually, it seems to me like a mix of "traditional multitasking" (e.g., background audio) and some tricks (like local notifications and fast app switching) to simulate behaviors that don't really require "traditional multitasking", but can be handled in more efficient ways.



    By traditional multitasking, I meant having multiple apps up and running at the same time. None of these new services seem to allow that. In fact, that seems to be the point. Even the music/voip/location services seem like OS functions that you can hook into through the API, allowing the OS to handle these processes. So, these apps also close and the OS picks up the work. That's what it sounded like to me anyway.



    I like the concept. Having a multitude of apps actually running would chew through memory and make the UI sluggish. This sounds like a much better balance.
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  • Reply 143 of 273
    cmf2cmf2 Posts: 1,427member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rishio View Post


    So as an example,



    I launch the memo app. I quit the memo app pressing the home button. I go to 5 different apps in the meantime but I want to keep memos running so I can make a quick note when I need to. Now I'm in the browser and I want to quickly go to memo app so I double tap the home button..



    Now I have to go through all 2000 apps in the multitask dock to find memo since there was no way to tell the iphone that I didn't want to quit it?



    There won't be 2000 items in the multitask dock. They didn't explain how it works, but there would either be a limit to the number of items in the dock or apps would be removed after a certain period of time. The OS will take care of it. Again, that is the point of this system. Even if your memo app was removed from the list you should still be able to open it instantly from the home screen to exactly where you left off because the OS supports saved states.



    I can't answer everything with absolute certainty since I don't have a device with the OS in hand, but the big point is that you as an end user won't have to worry about it at all.
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  • Reply 144 of 273
    josh.b.josh.b. Posts: 353member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Nicol1980 View Post


    P.S Would you expect windows 7 to work on your 3 year old PC running XP?



    Well, actually, yes. Why wouldn't it? Driver issues?



    3 year old hardware is generally fine for Win7. Netbooks using the equivalent of 5 year old hardware run Win7 just fine.
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  • Reply 145 of 273
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rishio View Post


    yeah, but how do you get an app on the multitask dock? Either there is someway to not quit an app and keep it in dock when you run the app or the multitask dock is simply a list of every 2000 apps running. confused..



    You won't ever do anything yourself for this. The phone handles it.



    If I understand correctly then the task switcher just shows the last few accessed applications.



    If you don't understand anything about this and don't know any better then pressing the home button and "restarting" your app from the home screen has the same effect. The new bar is just faster if you know you were using something recently.



    Effectively you could use 4.0 exactly the same way as 3.0 and never notice any difference except that some apps "restart" faster because now they were just paused, not quit. I am sure that 4.0 will only ever quit apps when memory starts getting low.
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  • Reply 145 of 273
    cmf2cmf2 Posts: 1,427member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tulkas View Post


    By traditional multitasking, I meant having multiple apps up and running at the same time. None of these new services seem to allow that. In fact, that seems to be the point. Even the music/voip/location services seem like OS functions that you can hook into through the API, allowing the OS to handle these processes. So, these apps also close and the OS picks up the work. That's what it sounded like to me anyway.



    I like the concept. Having a multitude of apps actually running would chew through memory and make the UI sluggish. This sounds like a much better balance.



    That's how I understand it too, although I would say suspend instead of close. Either way they aren't actually running in the background.
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  • Reply 147 of 273
    daharderdaharder Posts: 1,580member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tomohr View Post


    I was really hoping for a shipping date on the ipad 3g... I am waiting, but the more days that pass that they don't lay down a firm date.. the sadder I get



    The iPhone 3g was released some 2 years ago...
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  • Reply 148 of 273
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rishio View Post


    So as an example,



    I launch the memo app. I quit the memo app pressing the home button. I go to 5 different apps in the meantime but I want to keep memos running so I can make a quick note when I need to. Now I'm in the browser and I want to quickly go to memo app so I double tap the home button..



    Now I have to go through all 2000 apps in the multitask dock to find memo since there was no way to tell the iphone that I didn't want to quit it?



    No, I would guess that you jump to the multitask dock, check that memo now is no longer in the dock because the phone quit it due to low memory and then you have to press Home and then find it there again.
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  • Reply 149 of 273
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by chronster View Post


    In WM I use copy and paste a lot, whether in email or from web to email, or from web to navigation, or from navigation to text. It all works. I didn't know Android and WebOS had problems with such things...



    Windows Phone 7 isn't out yet so there is no applicable OS from MS to compare. So far, they don't even have a traditional copy/paste design for WP7, it simply forces you to move the content to the next app bypassing the clipboard altogether. Despite this limitation it's more intuitive and complete than anything Android or WebOS are shipping.





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post


    I don't think the 2G/3G phones can do it well. They can barely single task well, I feel like I'm limping along with my 3G. I can't wait to get the 3GT or whatever the next model will be.



    They can technically do it, but it's mostly useless and detrimential to the average end user. Even without jailbreaking your iPhone you can test this on the first 2 iPhone by running the iPod app, Safari with multiple pages and then switch between Mail and other apps. You'll see a performance hit, perhaps even Safari reloading pages when you go back in because it had to drop the RAM. At worst the iPod app with freeze for a second.





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jodyfanning View Post


    What were the original models, 128MB instead of 256MB like now?



    Yes, they are 128MB for the first two and 256MB for the 3GS. As it's been explain ad nauseum the first two have little extra RAM leftove when you check the stats. The 3GS has about 64MB left, on average when running basic processes without running 3rd-party background apps.



    Other phones did backgrounding years ago with less RAM, but they also were using much lighter, simpler mobile OSes, not a stripped down desktop OS. Apple did amazing things with Mac OS X to make it iPhone OS, but it's still a hog compared to older mobile OSes.
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  • Reply 150 of 273
    chronsterchronster Posts: 1,894member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by the cool gut View Post


    HAHAHAHAHA!



    yes, let's see how you really do it ...



    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLejYAbOxD4



    what a retard.



    Not only do you pull out some random video of a device I don't own, you go about calling me a retard for it? Amazing. Hi there [!]

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Josh.B. View Post


    I perked right up when Steve started in on battery life and sluggish performance. I thought the next guy was going to explain how they avoid it while multitasking. But he never went into it in any depth. Indeed, he never once mentioned those topics.



    Maybe the message was implicit in the demos, but I'd appreciate it if somebody could explicate things.



    That's far too technical mumbo jumbo to share with people at an event like this. Just trust that only Apple knows how to do this while everyone else has done it horribly.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by iBill View Post


    No. I think you're the one with the pretentious bullshit. Have fun with all the other putz's in my ignore list.



    OH NO! iBill WON'T SEE MY COMMENTS ANYMORE? ROOOOOOOFL

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jodyfanning View Post


    The problem is that no one here actually understands multitasking at all. They all seem to have this dream that apps in the background are stuck in some for loop all the time using 100% of CPU. Obviously no one ever looks at the task manager on their Mac or PC and notices that 99% of all processes are actually using 0% of CPU.



    With the introduction of this "multitasking" in 4.0 Apple just opened up the iPhone to all the same battery sucking problems all other phones have. Keeping network connections alive, especially over 3G, is what kills your battery.



    Yes! Thank you. Finally someone with some sense. What I find drains the battery the most in terms of apps running in the background is anytime the radio is used. It's NOT THE CPU. Even when an app is using more than 5% cpu, it has no noticeable impact on my battery life.



    When me and solipsism talked about this a little while back, I ran a bunch of apps. 10 I believe. One of the apps was msn messenger, and since I hadn't signed on in a while I kept getting IMs all day long. This thing obviously used the radio and is what I point to for whatever increase in battery drain I saw.
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  • Reply 151 of 273
    nasseraenasserae Posts: 3,167member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DaHarder View Post


    Tasks-switching appears to work much the same way as it does on the Android platform, except I gather that instead of holding the home button, the iPhone OS requires the user to double-click the home button to bring up all currently running apps.



    As far as there being only 4 apps displayed in the 'task managing dock', maybe that's all Apple allows, which would explain the 'we take of that for you statement' (?).



    I was able to place more than 4 icons in the simulator.



    Quote:

    Additionally: This picture clears show that the example 'device' has a (near) 16:9 display, as neither the home button, nor any of the icons show any form of distortion, yet the display works out to approximately 16:9 when measured in Photoshop.



    Check this icon (and every other large enough icon) from the site you posted previously. If you are using a Mac use grab tool to measure the dimensions of the icon. On my MBP I am getting 160pxl wide by 170pxl in height (they should be square). As I stated before this is normal when you build your presentation using wide screen and use a standard projection. I know because I do a lot of presentations. If that don't convince you then I don't know what will.



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  • Reply 152 of 273
    iguesssoiguessso Posts: 132member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jodyfanning View Post


    You won't ever do anything yourself for this. The phone handles it.



    If I understand correctly then the task switcher just shows the last few accessed applications.



    If you don't understand anything about this and don't know any better then pressing the home button and "restarting" your app from the home screen has the same effect. The new bar is just faster if you know you were using something recently.



    Effectively you could use 4.0 exactly the same way as 3.0 and never notice any difference except that some apps "restart" faster because now they were just paused, not quit. I am sure that 4.0 will only ever quit apps when memory starts getting low.



    I bet you are correct. Although having every app's state saved would tend to chew up a lot of storage if you have a lot of apps.
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  • Reply 153 of 273
    tulkastulkas Posts: 3,757member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jodyfanning View Post


    The problem is that no one here actually understands multitasking at all. They all seem to have this dream that apps in the background are stuck in some for loop all the time using 100% of CPU. Obviously no one ever looks at the task manager on their Mac or PC and notices that 99% of all processes are actually using 0% of CPU.



    With the introduction of this "multitasking" in 4.0 Apple just opened up the iPhone to all the same battery sucking problems all other phones have. Keeping network connections alive, especially over 3G, is what kills your battery.



    Well, then having a single process owned by the OS keeping these connections open would be a logical benefit. That plus not having tonnes of apps running means not chewing up all you memory, which you know, sort of makes performance sucky for everyone.



    To claim having multiple apps running will never result in more CPU usage in just silly. On your desktop, opening a page with flash in your browser, load up a couple movies in Quicktime and rip a DVD in the background while you work on your word processor. Those background apps will keep on using the CPU. Sure you could find examples that would just idle in the background, but it is just as easy to find examples that wouldn't.
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  • Reply 154 of 273
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by iGuessSo View Post


    We should know soon, when the updated 4.0 SDK docs get digested. But I'm definitely confused for now. How will the OS "just know" which app I want to keep available for fast switching and which ones I don't?



    And I fail to see (at least at this point) how the bad! bad! you blew it! task manager is different than the good! good! dock full of running apps' icons, other than one is usually vertical and this one is horizontal.



    I'm pretty sure the phone has no idea which ones you want to keep for switching. It will just keep as many in memory as it can and start dropping them in some particular order (oldest?!). So if you really wanted to keep memo in memory and you launched 12 apps and 2 games after that, then well tough, it will be long gone.
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  • Reply 155 of 273
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jodyfanning View Post


    The problem is that no one here actually understands multitasking at all. They all seem to have this dream that apps in the background are stuck in some for loop all the time using 100% of CPU. Obviously no one ever looks at the task manager on their Mac or PC and notices that 99% of all processes are actually using 0% of CPU.



    Oy vey! The main limitation is with RAM usage, not with active CPU cycles. Why try to twist the issue? There is no virtual memory on the NAND for obvious reasons so everything you want to run has to be loaded in RAM.
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  • Reply 156 of 273
    rishiorishio Posts: 24member
    That's too bad. I like the idea of always having a recorder app available quickly when I need to record notes. even if I access it after 10 different app launches. What apple is doing is putting the control of which app you want quick access to in the hands of the iphone instead of the user. I can't rely on the recorder app always be there for quick access. I like the way webos handles multitasking - I'm having doubts about the iphone way..



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jodyfanning View Post


    No, I would guess that you jump to the multitask dock, check that memo now is no longer in the dock because the phone quit it due to low memory and then you have to press Home and then find it there again.



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  • Reply 157 of 273
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by chronster View Post


    Yes! Thank you. Finally someone with some sense. What I find drains the battery the most in terms of apps running in the background is anytime the radio is used. It's NOT THE CPU. Even when an app is using more than 5% cpu, it has no noticeable impact on my battery life.



    When me and solipsism talked about this a little while back, I ran a bunch of apps. 10 I believe. One of the apps was msn messenger, and since I hadn't signed on in a while I kept getting IMs all day long. This thing obviously used the radio and is what I point to for whatever increase in battery drain I saw.



    I have a Nokia E71. The battery lasts for a couple of days no matter if the calendar, notes, web, etc are open and all running in the background. I start Skype and the battery is dead in 4 hours.



    Welcome to my world.
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  • Reply 158 of 273
    anonymouseanonymouse Posts: 7,123member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post


    It's interesting that iPad owners won't get to use this for about 4 months after iPhone users given that it's pretty much the same OS - I guess they'll have to do extra testing.



    I think that's because it's not so much the same OS, but a related OS that shares a lot of code with other iPhone OSs.
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  • Reply 159 of 273
    jupiteronejupiterone Posts: 1,564member
    Anyone know if this double press Home button for dock, will be added as an option to the current Settings > General > Home settings or will it replace it altogether? Did they mention that?
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  • Reply 160 of 273
    daharderdaharder Posts: 1,580member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by NasserAE View Post


    I was able to place more than 4 icons in the simulator.



    Check this icon (and every other large enough icon) from the site you posted previously. If you are using a Mac use grab tool to measure the dimensions of the icon. On my MBP I am getting 160pxl wide by 170pxl in height (they should be square). As I stated before this is normal when you build your presentation using wide screen and use a standard projection. I know because I do a lot of presentations. If that don't convince you then I don't know what will.



    Your effort is sincerely appreciated, but the discrepancy that you noted is simply not enough to account for the dramatic difference between the the display device featured on the slides, and the iPod 3GS sitting right in front of.



    We'll See Soon Enough... until then let's just agree to disagree
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