Multitasking

iMore show 338: Pre-post-PC

By Rene Ritchie, Monday, Feb 25, 2013 a 10:55 am

Rene and David Chartier talk about Google getting into premium hardware with Glass and Pixel, much as Apple has moved into services with iCloud. Also, the case for user-defined default apps, and wether multitasking matters on the iPad.

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iOS 6: Is it time for Apple to revamp the multitasking fast app switcher?

By Rene Ritchie, Tuesday, May 29, 2012 a 5:30 am

At Macworld 2007 Steve Jobs showed off mobile Safari's Page switching interface, but despite the operating system as a whole crying out for similar treatment, to this day Pages haven't expanded beyond Safari. At the iOS 4 event in the spring of 2010, the iPhone added limited 3rd party multitasking and a fast app switcher interface, but rather than Pages or even an Exposé-esque grid interface, it locked to the Dock.

And as far as showing currently open apps, making those apps as visually distinguishable as possible, and making them as fast as possible to switch between, that's where iOS has remained. Even on the iPad's far larger screen.

Is it time for something more?

Reminder: You really don't need to manually manage apps for iPhone or iPad

By Rene Ritchie, Friday, Jan 6, 2012 a 11:07 pm

About a year ago I wrote a post explaining why you don't have to kill multitasking apps in iOS. iOS 4 had been introduced, bringing multitasking to iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, and because Apple added the ability to jiggle and close them in the fast app switcher, some users decided to do just that. All. The. Time.

Zephyr updated to version 1.0.1 [jailbreak]

By Allyson Kazmucha, Sunday, Jan 1, 2012 a 9:49 pm

Zephyr by chpwn has been updated to version 1.0.1 to add a few enhancements and fix a few existing bugs. Among the changes are fixes to disable multitasking gestures within apps such as Cut the Rope or Words with Friends where you may not want gestures to be active.

SwitcherCleaner helps clean up the multitasking Fast App Switcher [Jailbreak]

By Andrew Wray, Thursday, Dec 22, 2011 a 8:56 am

SwitcherCleaner is new jailbreak mod in Cydia that changes the behavior of the multitasking Fast App Switcher to only show apps that are actually running in the background, and keeps the quit button visible at all times.

Daily Tip: How to kill background apps in iOS 5

By Andrew Wray, Tuesday, Dec 13, 2011 a 12:08 am

iPhone or iPad feeling kind of sluggish or an app freezing up on you and wondering how to manually force-quit multitasking apps to free up memory? iOS 5 does a great job automatically pausing or killing background tasks, but once and a while a big game, rogue process, or similar situation can drain resources or tie up memory. Luckily, iOS 5 makes it easy to quit these apps any time you like.

Daily Tip: More ways to speed up a laggy iPhone and iPad

By Allyson Kazmucha, Thursday, May 12, 2011 a 9:39 pm

While iOS may have one of the smoothest user experiences, that certainly doesn't mean it isn't immune to some of the same issues other phones and electronic devices suffer from. I've definitely experienced slowdowns on my iPhone or iPad from time to time. There are a few things you can do to help speed up a sad iOS device. Hit the jump for a few common and more advanced suggestions. Here are some more tips on speeding up your iPhone or iPad.

White iPhone 4 showing off prototype iOS 4 fast app switching, folder UI?

By Rene Ritchie, Tuesday, Apr 19, 2011 a 9:50 am

Vietnamese site Tinhte might just have gotten their hands on an official white iPhone 4 from Apple... running a previously unseen version of iOS! While it could also just be a clever set of Jailbreak tweaks, the video shows a new version of the multitasking fast app switching that replaces the dock icons in iOS 4 with miniature tiles of the actual apps, sort of like Exposé for iPhone.

Whether this is something destined for an interim iOS 4.4, our first hint at iOS 5, or some Jailbreak wizardry only Apple knows for sure. But it is interesting that it shows up on the anniversary of the Gizmodo iPhone 4 leak, isn't it?

UPDATE: Per comments, yes there are some old icons but also some Apple internal test icons. Weird. Second video from the same source that shows off, among other things, 64GB, a new rendering for Folders, and Facebook built into settings.

UPDATE 2: This might just be a prototype iPhone 4 running an early test version of iOS 4 which included Folder and Fast App Switching UI Apple later decided against implementing (going with what we see now in the release version of iOS 4.)

Check out the video after the break and let us know, real, fake, or really fake? And if real, what do you think?

[Tinhte via Engadget]

TiPb Answers: No, you don't need to kill all the apps in your multitasking dock

By Rene Ritchie, Friday, Feb 18, 2011 a 12:55 pm

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One of the most frequent questions we're getting these days is how to close all apps at once -- basically how to force quit or kill every app from the new multitasking/fast app switcher dock Apple introduced in iOS 4 for iPhone and iPod touch and iOS 4.2 for iPad.

The short answer is you don't need to. Really. If you've been worried about it, relax. It's all good.

For the long answer, read on after the break!

iPad competitors: Will the true multitasking please stand up?

By Rene Ritchie, Sunday, Feb 13, 2011 a 1:41 pm

One of the most persistent complaints levied against the iPhone and iPad were/are the lack of multitasking. This, of course, has always been silly. However, now that BlackBerry QNX PlayBook</a >, Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablets like Xoom, and HP webOS 3.0's TouchPad are set to launch, "true multitasking" is again finding its way into the bullet points of competitively positioned slide decks and ad campaigns. It's still silly but it's also more complicated now.

Does iOS offer "true multitasking", does its competitors? Let's take a look, after the break.