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Rumor: Multitasking coming to iPhone OS 4
The Palm Pre does a nice job with multitasking, and a lot of people want the same for the iPhone.
(Credit: David Carnoy/CNET)"And it's about damn time!"
Sorry, that was just my excited utterance upon reading Thursday morning's AppleInsider story about iPhone OS 4. It cites "people with a proven track record" in claiming that multitasking will finally make its debut.
Multitasking, of course, refers to the operating system's ability to run more than one app at a time and let you switch between them at will, just like you can do in Windows, Mac OS, Android, Palm WebOS, and just about every other OS on the planet--mobile or otherwise.
The iPhone OS currently offers limited multitasking: You can listen to music while, say, reading a book, and keep a phone call active while browsing in Safari, but that's about it.
According to AppleInsider's sources, "Apple plans to deliver a multitasking manager that leverages interface technology already bundled with its Mac OS X operating system." Sounds good to me.
Of course, only Apple knows if, when, and how that will be implemented. Personally, I just want a way to organize my ever-increasing app library--though hopefully that will go hand-in-hand with whatever interface changes bring multitasking.
How about you? Are you champing at the bit for this long-overdue feature, or do you have other items on your wish list? While you're mulling that over (and writing up insightful comments), check out David Carnoy's iPhone 4G: 25 most-wanted features. Hopefully we won't have to wait long for at least some of them.
Rick Broida, a technology writer for nearly 20 years, is the author of more than a dozen books. In addition to writing CNET's The Cheapskate blog, he oversees BNET's Business Hacks. Rick is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CBS Interactive. Disclosure. Deals found on The Cheapskate are subject to availability, expiration, and other terms determined by sellers. Follow Rick on Twitter at cheapskateblog. 
as if the rest of us wanted to be limited by Apple's OS, app store, and interface. There are better browsers for phones, especially smartphones I would recommend doing a little research about Netfront which supported tab browsing and flash lite. Nokia Ngage series (the only things it lost to Apple on was marketing, it seems Apple simply took the Ngage, added a touchscreen, and did a better job marketing) had a plethora of games, apps, media player, and even a multipage browser was simply poorly marketed but far more open phone. Heck the nokia phone on some apps not only offered visual voicemail but also mms and copy and paste when it initially came out and you didn't even have to wait for a software update. Nokia Ngage also had other factors (plural) that the iphone lacked besides what I mentioned previously such as bluetooth audio streaming, tethering by both bluetooth and cable, and voice dialing. Touchscreen isn't everything, you can do everything with buttons as well, and the way it flipped thru icons, well the ngage supported that with themes.
LOL you mean apple stole the idea from a Korean company.
Oh, you mean like JAILBREAKING???
I wonder if this means iPhone 3G owners will be left out? Conceivably, the multitasking would only be for the 3GS and whatever their upcoming one is.
The PowerPC processor was mainly in use before Jobs returned - and from a technical standpoint early on, it was faster than a comparable Intel processor of the day. They began to shift away from it when Jobs returned, and PC standard hardware and OSX were slowly introduced - and it became apparent the PowerPC chip suppliers couldn't keep pace with Intel as far as keeping it running fast, cool, and efficiently.
As for hardware requirements, I imagine the earlier versions of the iPhone and Touch would be able to run it - when I first put OSX on a 300mhz Mac, I was impressed at how much snappier it operated as opposed to OS 9.2 - usually a OS upgrade bogs the machine down. But Apple seems to have some people who know how to write solid code for their hardware these days.
The PowerPC was a better processor. Then Intel created the "Core", don't you remember just how much better the Core processor was than all the x86 processors that had come before?
Now Apple had been pretty selective about the benchtests they'd used to hail the PowerPC, basically concentrating on floating point maths, but for quite a while the PowerPC was the chip to be on if you wanted to do things like video encoding. To be totally fair to the PowerPC it is still a mighty powerful processor, but IBM want to use it to build servers, so there isn't really a viable version for Apple to use in a MacBook.
It won't be long now. What a jerk Jobs is!
Multitasking has a legitimate place as long as it doesnt crash my phone.....like it does occasionally with my NexusOne.
I agree, Flash is horrid(compared to HTML5) but right now it's king, so we have to use it until it dies the death it deserves...
The iPhone only did one thing: make every other product look better, and act better. Everybody stepped up their game and competition is better now. Apple dug a hole it thinks it's out of...(technically they are, but if they wanted to be truly out, they would have to squash Android(NEVER going to happen) and BlackBerry(NEVER going to happen)).
If you haven't used and depended on your iPhone, then just continue on with your ignorance, but those of us who have a phone that works will keep going and be just as happy you won't be in line when the latest and greatest iPhone comes out.
Until then, you should concentrate on your real competition, Android or Windows Mobile 7. iPhone has been in another league for year's now, and their next release will propel them that much further.
Oh yes they have been in their own league...little league.
And yes, Android is gaining market share. It's hard to go down from where they were, but hey, good job. Apple has a proven product that millions and millions of people use and rely on everyday.
The sad thing is that Apple could cure cancer and you haters would feel the need to insult the accomplishment.
That said, what can you do on your Nexus One or Droid that I can't do on my jailbroken iPhone? That's an honest question, as I don't have a Nexus One or Droid or one of those other models mentioned. I'm actually curious.
1. Can you turn your iPhone into a wireless router and therefore tether any device that uses WiFi to your phone's data connection? No? Oh that's right, my android device can.
2. Can you run applications as services and broadcast receivers in the background? No again?? Hmmmm weird, my Android device can.
3. Can you put widgets on your homescreen? Nooooo??!?!?!? OK this is getting creepy, because I surely can on my Android device.
4. Can you run OpenVPN on your jailbroken iPhone? Yes? Oh drats, I was wrong... No again. I can on my android device.
5. Can you use animated wallpapers that even respond to touch input?? I can :)
6. Can you run custom versions of the operating system that developers can release the same day as Apple submits new code to their repository? WHAT WHAT? Apple's OS isn't open source?!?!?! That's a shame as I've already added 10x the functionality to my Nexus One since it's initial release in January that devs, such as Cyanogen, have kindly integrated into their own work before Google can even officially release it :).
Do you need me to go on?
With that said, the bigger point I think is that you shouldn't have to jailbreak a phone at all to get functionality that is standard on the majority of other smartphones.
Wow, man, that is embarrassing. Because you know what the funny thing is? You actually can do all those things and more with a jailbroken iPhone! Look it up! Haha wow.
I mean do you even know what Cydia /is/? xD
Even if they were charging, it would only be business as usual for a non-free software company. Look at the repeated respins of MS Office. I'm not sure I've found anything I couldn't have lived without in anything newer than Office '97, but it's how MS make money. Apple are no different, except maybe that their OS upgrades are much cheaper ;-)
http://www.fakesteve.net/2010/03/do-not-believe-reports-about-multitasking-in-iphone-os-4-0.html
In other words, my iPhone 3GS and my wife's ancient iPhone 2G work just great today w/ what I'd call "essential" multitasking. Today I can listen to music or an audiobook while doing anything else including apps that use the Internet/phone like Google Maps, email, etc. And should a phone call come in, the iPhone ramps the music/audiobook volume down so I can take the call then, when the call ends, the music or book begins right where it left off (very nice for audiobooks). I can also update my apps in the background while another app is running. In other words, for those of us who aren't addicted to up-to-the-millisecond Facebook/Twitter "status updates", who cares if the iPhone doesn't really multitask. It multitasks for the essential services and keeps potentially rouge apps from running multi-amok and making the core apps less responsive. In other words, it was a good design decision -- and I say that as a software developer.
and have since windows mobile 5
Since I switched to iPhones, I've had no such problems. I really don't miss multi-tasking for average daily use. When Apple comes up with a good solution that is able to keep apps from running rogue, then that would be different.
Oh, by the way... how do you like that Task Manager in WinMo? I hope you check it often. Just like Windows on a PC, you end up with crap running in the background that you have no clue what it is unless you do a Google search online for the technical terms. In the meantime, you're PC runs like crap, and you can't figure it out without some level of computer know-how. I couldn't wait to unload my WinMo phone. And WinMo 5 isn't compatible with Windows Vista? LOL what a joke!
I'll stick with my iPhone, and be patient and happy when new features roll out.
Personally, I disagree with this philosophy and would like the option, but I don't have that option and if I don't like it, I can always buy a different phone. Its not like there's some big conspiracy here. I'd also like a native Google Voice client (and a pony;-))
Like it or lump it, the iPhone is what made the smart phone a consumer item. Whether it continues to be the consumer smart phone or not depends on how well it markets itself and controls the features.
Only Linux geeks care about whether or not the iPhone as a terminal, whether or not you can compile a new kernel (whatever *that* means), or whatever else. The bulk of users (people who can't tell the difference between GPL 2 & GPL 3) are happy with their iPhones.
These comments have the odor of "sour grapes."
So go crazy Apple - add whatever you want. This little phone (I'm on my third) has been working fine for me for close to 3 years now.
If the next one makes me breakfast, I may upgrade a third time to the new 3GS+4xxx or whatever you want to call it.
Steve, remember 1984? You are now on the wrong side of that novel.
It's like that old saying, "I may be fat, but you're ugly and I can lose weight."
Apple will get multitasking and the competition will still be ugly, with or without multitasking.
- by March 11, 2010 1:57 PM PST
- If you call adding a couple features here and there catch up, then you are correct. I used to love Windows Mobile phones, but until my company switched to the iPhone, I haven't looked back. I have never used a WInMo phone that integrated so well with Exchange, played my music, browsed the web, played movies, played games, and even place calls as well as the iPhone has. I completely agree that almost every product that Apple has come out with is extremely over priced. But to continually say the iPhone is playing catch up is retarded. What about every phone that is trying to implement multi touch? Are they playing catch up to the iPhone? The iPhone was one of the first phones to be all touch screen (if not the first). Look at all the phones playing catch up there. What the iPod did to the mp3 player industry is what the iPhone did to the mobile phone industry.
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- by Firehazel March 13, 2010 7:00 PM PST
- How are the new features being added each year to the iPhone not retarded? They should have been there in the first place!
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