APPLE
Multitasking is very important, think about having to close your web browser to use Microsoft Office . Apparently Apple didn’t get multitasking yet. At least not as promised by Steve Jobs when he demoed the iPhone OS 4. According to pcworld.com, iOS 4 puts all apps that should be working in the background to sleep mode, “with the exception of certain functions. Music, for instance, can play in the background, VoIP apps can answer calls and GPS apps can give directions.”
But most apps won’t do anything except go to sleep, which means one of the classic tricks of multitasking, loading one task while you perform another, is not available unless the developer adds that function under a special task completion API. Some apps, such as Flickr, may take advantage of this feature for large file transfers, but others won’t. Waiting for a YouTube video to buffer over a 3G connection? It won’t go anywhere unless you’re staring at the loading screen.
Then there’s the issue I’ve seen acknowledged most often: Developers must add multitasking functionality themselves, and the majority have yet to do so. This will fix itself with time, but the lack of support dampens the initial impact of iOS4′s marquee feature.
What bothers me the most, however, is the sloppy implementation of iPhone multitasking. Every time you open an app, it gets added to the tray, and the only way to close it is by pressing and holding any app icon, then clicking the top-left corner of the apps you want to close. If you don’t micromanage, the tray quickly becomes overrun with clutter, making it hard to find the apps you really need.
[Via Pcworld.com]
