Inside iOS 9: Apple's iPad-exclusive split-screen multitasking will enhance productivity

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  • Reply 41 of 115
    sockrolidsockrolid Posts: 2,789member

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    ... including an all-new split-screen multitasking mode that will allow users to more easily accomplish two tasks at once.

     

    I think the real benefit won't be seen until Apple rolls out their "real" television solution.  With multiple apps for streaming different channels, or whatever they are planning for the future of the TV industry.  Especially the picture-in-picture mode.

  • Reply 42 of 115
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    rogifan wrote: »
    gumbi wrote: »
    Well, considering that from the description this sounds like an almost exact copy of the original windows 8 implementation, they didn't have to try to hard to get it right...

    Hmm...from what I've read this is different than Windows 8 implementation and better executed. And since Apple has been working on this for several years I highly doubt they were looking to Windows to copy anything.

    So what did they use to test it if no current device has the necessary 2 GB of RAM?
  • Reply 43 of 115
    nolamacguynolamacguy Posts: 4,758member
    appex wrote: »
    Productivity with the iOS toy? For real productivity, just get a real computer: MacBook Air.

    hey, did you know you spelled "Apple" wrong in your username?
  • Reply 44 of 115
    nolamacguynolamacguy Posts: 4,758member
    I always had to laugh at Microsoft. First they labeled the iPad as a "consumption" device, while calling their steaming pile of electronics (the Surface) as a "creation" device. Then they demo the surface showing how you can watch a movie on it... Hello??

    At least the iPad can shoot the video and then edit it, caption it, and add in background music... While the surface is too heavy and bulky to tote around for shoot a video, and then needs to be plugged in to a power source to run the power-gobbling video editing software which was designed for desk top use...

    agreed, home video editing is pretty sweet on ipad. ive made some great vacation vids and it couldnt be easier.
  • Reply 45 of 115
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by dasanman69 View Post



    So what did they use to test it if no current device has the necessary 2 GB of RAM?



    Would you stop it with this FALSE DILEMMA of "2GB OR FAIL" ?

    Operating systems like Linux, NeXTSTEP and Windows NT were fully capable of running multiple apps and windows on just megabytes of RAM.

  • Reply 46 of 115
    rayzrayz Posts: 814member
    gumbi wrote: »
    The implementation is almost exactly the same as in windows 8 - which is also intuitive and obvious once you've seen it. 

    Face it, Apple whole sale copied this from existing implementations - slide over and split screen are almost entirely from Windows 8 and PIP, that's from Samsung.  I'm not saying that's a bad thing.

    Samsung and Windows copied Continuity wholesale. Why don't you bleat on about that?
  • Reply 47 of 115
    libertyforalllibertyforall Posts: 1,418member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by jason98 View Post

     

    Too bad it is not available on iPhone 6 Plus.




    My thoughts exactly -- inexcusable in my book!

  • Reply 48 of 115

    I think activating Split View when the iPad is in portrait orientation should stack the app views vertically. Would result in better usage of screen estate, and offer a good use-case for rotating the screen. Also, seems more symmetric to the landscape behavior described above.

  • Reply 49 of 115
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    dasanman69 wrote: »
    So what did they use to test it if no current device has the necessary 2 GB of RAM?


    Would you stop it with this FALSE DILEMMA of "2GB OR FAIL" ?
    Operating systems like Linux, NeXTSTEP and Windows NT were fully capable of running multiple apps and windows on just megabytes of RAM.

    Isn't Apple saying that the iPad needs more RAM to run this? If they've been testing it for years then they obviously used devices that they're now claiming can't run it.
  • Reply 50 of 115
    I think the new iPhone 6+ will support it since it will have 2GB ram.

    I was just about to post the limitation is probably RAM. Besides who wants split screen on a phone? Even a 5.5" screen seems small for that.
  • Reply 51 of 115
    jason98jason98 Posts: 768member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleFanPro View Post





    I was just about to post the limitation is probably RAM. Besides who wants split screen on a phone? Even a 5.5" screen seems small for that.



    I do. One of my most frequent use cases is dialing a webex meeting passcode from email or calendar. I have to either memorize it entirely or switch back and forth between dialpad and email. Such a pain! There are many more others (e.g. FaceTime, youtube, notes, and so on)

  • Reply 52 of 115
    siretmansiretman Posts: 117member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by IndyFX View Post

     



    Apple (post Jobs return Apple) does things right. Sometimes that means they they aren't first. Windows8 and Samsung tablets are barely usable pieces of crap. (and the public obviously gets that)

    iPod was not the first digital music player, the iPad not the first tablet nor was Apple Watch the first wrist device, but they were the first done right (which is why the iPod dominated and the early wrist devices fell flat on their face(s) Why the apple watch has been a stunning success. I have no doubt that the split screen features will be similar to "multitasking" android was first out of the gate however Apple's implementation (introduced later) actually worked without complexity, "task managers", performance drain or sucking the life out of your batteries.

    Apple's products (and software) work well. Apparently not as simple a task as it seems, and something no one else has been able to pull off. I am assuming this feature will follow suit.


    Beautifully said and to the point. These trolls still don't get it notwithstanding intelligent comments like yours. Put it on the bumper sticker:

     

            Apple is not first but Apple is best.

  • Reply 53 of 115
    iscaroiscaro Posts: 3member



    You are right...

    They should give the iPhone 6 Plus this feature too!

  • Reply 54 of 115
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    Even now iPad sales lead all other tablet sales. I haven't heard of the Surface even pushing past some of the better-named Android brands in sales. However Microsoft is better at monitoring their inventory... this year's pile to be buried is much smaller than the steaming pile of Surfaces buried during Ballmer's tenure.

    Surface Pro sales in Q4 2014 made around 400 million dollars in revenue, by Q2 2015 it was over a billion dollars. Yes it's still a long shot from what Apple is doing but it is also a far cry from failing. Regardless of your feelings about the Surface line, it's a fairly successful product and will continue to grow in market share. Microsoft will no doubt start actually making money on them very soon, not yet, but they are definitely heading in the right direction. Especially after Windows 10 and the Surface Pro 4 is released.
  • Reply 55 of 115
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member

    Would you stop it with this FALSE DILEMMA of "2GB OR FAIL" ?
    Operating systems like Linux, NeXTSTEP and Windows NT were fully capable of running multiple apps and windows on just megabytes of RAM.

    Well yes but OS's and the apps that ran on them have also changed a whole lot. I mean Photoshop 4 on my SGI machine took up less room than an Angry Birds install. iOS takes up more than 50% of available RAM before even starting an app, with only 1GB of RAM, running 2 apps at once, side by side will definitely be a fairly substantial drain on resources, yes, I'm sure it could run it but but how well. 2GB should have really been standard two years ago and I don't care how many times I hear how good the memory management is in iOS, all I have to do is open up Safari, type up a post similar in size to this one, before posting, navigate away from from Safari for a minute, only to come back to a refreshed page. I actually think 2GB isn't enough, for the amount of money I'm spending on an iOS device, I would really like to see 4GB of RAM.

    My Google Tango tablet has 4GB, multitasking or running apps in the background is absolutely flawless, zero lag, smooth as butter. I can have a terminal app opened that is compiling on a remote server, while, casting a film to my TV, downloading a 4GB file, convert a Divx file to MP4 while typing up a spec sheet in Word without so much as blip, yes, it actually works. Multitasking (running multiple apps at once and not just app switching as many here think is multitasking) is awesome. I use it all the time and now that iOS is starting to wake up from it's coma I might actually start using it for something other than just music creation. I'm so sick of reading posts that simple state, well I don't use or need those things, my iPad works for me. Yeah okay, well I'm happy that your happy (I'm not talking to you directly by the way), but the last time I used an OS that couldn't run apps in the background was in the 90's with Mac OS, even my Nokia Communicator could do it. So when people ask me, why would you want this, I look at them as if they're joking and most of the time their not which tells me that they have been either brain washed or don't know any different. I hope it's the latter but I don't thinks so, people are just excepting to things thst shouldn't be as the norm. Even if you don't use these features, there are many that do.

    Holy crap I am off on a tangent, sorry about that, more memory is good, 2GB is the bare minimum in 2015, keep saying that, 2015, 1Gb of memory is simply rediculous. And no, it doesn't make a huge impact on battery, my Blackberry Passport lasts almost as twice as long as an iPhone 6 and it has 3GB of memory, maximizing profits, forcing app developers to stream line their apps, whatever the reason why it's so low on iOS decices, it needs to change. Well, actually I guess it doesn't as people will just buy these product's anyway, I personally think it sucks though.
  • Reply 56 of 115
    knowitallknowitall Posts: 1,648member
    jungmark wrote: »
    Why would you want to do that? So it'll drain your battery faster? Consume more data faster?

    Lots of reasons, but combined, I would say that I would like to use it as a normal computer.
    But to give you an example: when I use specific client or server apps like BitTorrent, nzb download or VLC clients, I would like to have them running (and all connections to stay open) all the time and be able to use at least two other apps at the same time. That seems reasonable for a computer doesn't it?
  • Reply 57 of 115
    knowitallknowitall Posts: 1,648member
    relic wrote: »
    Well yes but OS's and the apps that ran on them have also changed a whole lot. I mean Photoshop 4 on my SGI machine took up less room than an Angry Birds install. iOS takes up more than 50% of available RAM before even starting an app, with only 1GB of RAM, running 2 apps at once, side by side will definitely be a fairly substantial drain on resources, yes, I'm sure it could run it but but how well. 2GB should have really been standard two years ago and I don't care how many times I hear how good the memory management is in iOS, all I have to do is open up Safari, type up a post similar in size to this one, before posting, navigate away from from Safari for a minute, only to come back to a refreshed page. I actually think 2GB isn't enough, for the amount of money I'm spending on an iOS device, I would really like to see 4GB of RAM.

    My Google Tango tablet has 4GB, multitasking or running apps in the background is absolutely flawless, zero lag, smooth as butter. I can have a terminal app opened that is compiling on a remote server, while, casting a film to my TV, downloading a 4GB file, convert a Divx file to MP4 while typing up a spec sheet in Word without so much as blip, yes, it actually works. Multitasking (running multiple apps at once and not just app switching as many here think is multitasking) is awesome. I use it all the time and now that iOS is starting to wake up from it's coma I might actually start using it for something other than just music creation. I'm so sick of reading posts that simple state, well I don't use or need those things, my iPad works for me. Yeah okay, well I'm happy that your happy (I'm not talking to you directly by the way), but the last time I used an OS that couldn't run apps in the background was in the 90's with Mac OS, even my Nokia Communicator could do it. So when people ask me, why would you want this, I look at them as if they're joking and most of the time their not which tells me that they have been either brain washed or don't know any different. I hope it's the latter but I don't thinks so, people are just excepting to things thst shouldn't be as the norm. Even if you don't use these features, there are many that do.

    Holy crap I am off on a tangent, sorry about that, more memory is good, 2GB is the bare minimum in 2015, keep saying that, 2015, 1Gb of memory is simply rediculous. And no, it doesn't make a huge impact on battery, my Blackberry Passport lasts almost as twice as long as an iPhone 6 and it has 3GB of memory, maximizing profits, forcing app developers to stream line their apps, whatever the reason why it's so low on iOS decices, it needs to change. Well, actually I guess it doesn't as people will just buy these product's anyway, I personally think it sucks though.

    I completely agree, 4GB is the absolute minimum when apps multitask.
    Maybe Apple should use magnetic memory that uses zero energy to retain state and far less energy than conventional RAM to switch state.
  • Reply 58 of 115
    knowitallknowitall Posts: 1,648member
    Four apps to unlimited number of apps...
    If "unlimited number" was possible, you would then ask to run "unlimited + 1" just to keep moving that goalpost.

    Eh, no I wouldn't, that would be insane.
    Are you insane?
  • Reply 59 of 115
    knowitallknowitall Posts: 1,648member
    <span style="line-height:1.4em;">the smart people are arguing the limiting factor is CPU.  The Air2 has that 3rd CPU, thus giving it a lot more head room for processing.</span>

    <span style="line-height:1.4em;">If that is the case, my guess is we'll have to wait until there is a 4-6-8 processor Ax chip before we see more concurency.   </span>


    <span style="line-height:1.4em;">But your point about screen real estate is also needed.  That's probably part of the reason the iPhone 6's aren't going to allow concurrent displayed apps (again processors is part of this, especially with phones which must always allow for handling the chore of actually being a phone) [the other reason... Apple has made iPads too good.  They need to start creating reasons to upgrade more frequently than once every 4 years, so only the top top end will get these cool capabilities].</span>


    Would be nice if we all won the lottery tonight too.  But it's not going to happen any time soon.  Part of it is designing a system that can be easy to use, part of it is not overengineering the system for the 1-5% of the people who can visually multitask.   The key 'job to be solved' here is, "I need to move information from one app(document/window), to another."  my guess is <span style="line-height:1.4em;">90% of the users will find 2 concurrent apps plenty... and my guess 20-30% will find 2 or more apps on the same screen confusing.  </span>

    Your right about usability, but the dock on the Mac is really usable and a few 'tiles' on a screen can be compared to that.
    Nice thing about the big Mac (iPad) is that it's screen is 12.9 inch...that's exactly A4!
  • Reply 60 of 115
    knowitallknowitall Posts: 1,648member
    jungmark wrote: »
    Fair enough. And my comment was geared towards unlimited apps running simultaneously. There has to be a limit. Perhaps not 2 but definitely < 10.

    Unlimited is a lot, I agree, but a normal desktop or server OS allows 2^16 or more processes and that can be perceived as so.
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