Will Microsoft have egg on their face...

[dguy6789]

I don't understand why all the restrictions against multitasking. I think the better approach would be to limit the amount of programs able to run to an arbitrary number, say 3. When you want to open program 4, the OS asks you to double tap a program to close first.

I think a better option is to let the user run as many programs as they want. If they want to run multiple applications at once, then they should be able to. Maybe they believe the battery life hit is worth it. I don't think anyone on here would be happy if Windows would tell you that you can't open more applications because it would use more battery on your laptop.

 

[iahk]

there are many angry people in this thread.

 

[erwos]

...when the next iPhone OS has multitasking and Windows Phone 7, which comes out in the fall, doesn't? It seems like they are copying Apple verbatim but they are always playing catch-up.

About as much as Apple had on theirs from WinMo < 7, I imagine. I rather enjoy the multitasking in 6.5, and I'm sorry that they're dropping it from 7.

 

[Nebor]

I can't believe they're going from having multitasking in 6.5 to none in 7. That just doesn't make sense. I'll still buy one, but I won't be happy about it.

 

[QueBert]

I can't believe they're going from having multitasking in 6.5 to none in 7. That just doesn't make sense. I'll still buy one, but I won't be happy about it.

They're copying Apple almost to a tee, I mean I have a WM 6.1 phone which is old as shit and I can multi-task, and I can install whatever the hell I want. I wonder if the Apple haters who buy a W7 device will be able to admit that it's basically MS's version of the iPhone. This isn't Windows Mobile at all, everything about it is 180.

 

[DivideBYZero]

I cannot get angry enough about this to post anything other than 'big deal'.

 

[ed21x]

it's not a limitation of the processor. same damn thing in the Pre and Droid. It's purely Apple wanting to control the user experience. And for 90% of the ppl who have iPhones, it works perfectly fine. One might argue the Pre's slowness is because of supporting multiple apps, and to an extent, yes. But it's clearly also no where near as optimized as iPhone OS.

Also, check the jailbreakers out, seems to be working for them. Multitasking was a control move. And for Apple's original target, it really didn't matter because everyday people didn't give a damn.

it is definitely a limitation of the processor, i mean c'mon, it's a RISC processor- there's no such thing as parallel processing with those. =P When people say they want multitasking, many of them don't actually mean multitasking... alot of people just want to be able to SUSPEND one program in the background while working on another, and have the ability to switch between tasks by keeping processes stored in the ram. The other OS's largely support this, albeit at a slight performance hit as the processor does have to do a bit of shuffling. Microsoft is actually implementing a technique where the phone will process the minimized program in the background with its spare cycles whenever you are not using processing cycles on your current program (ie looking at a loaded document/web oage).

I'm assuming from Apple's perspective they'd rather not take the performance hit with the above technique and just address the whole "single vs multi program" as a single complaint rather than giving people the option of running multiple programs and then having to deal with complaints about system slowdowns, instabilities, etc...

 

[tatteredpotato]

it is definitely a limitation of the processor, i mean c'mon, it's a RISC processor- there's no such thing as parallel processing with those. =P When people say they want multitasking, many of them don't actually mean multitasking... alot of people just want to be able to SUSPEND one program in the background while working on another, and have the ability to switch between tasks by keeping processes stored in the ram. The other OS's largely support this, albeit at a slight performance hit as the processor does have to do a bit of shuffling. Microsoft is actually implementing a technique where the phone will process the minimized program in the background with its spare cycles whenever you are not using processing cycles on your current program (ie looking at a loaded document/web oage).

I'm assuming from Apple's perspective they'd rather not take the performance hit with the above technique and just address the whole "single vs multi program" as a single complaint rather than giving people the option of running multiple programs and then having to deal with complaints about system slowdowns, instabilities, etc...

Er, I think you're confusing "Multitasking" with "Multiprogramming"...

This IS a matter of Apple (and perhaps Microsoft) controlling the user experience. These devices can definitely run a few processes at the same time, however it's the scenario that you're running 12+ apps that might make the device become sluggish that makes them remove the feature entirely.

 

[Narmer]

it is definitely a limitation of the processor, i mean c'mon, it's a RISC processor- there's no such thing as parallel processing with those. =P When people say they want multitasking, many of them don't actually mean multitasking... alot of people just want to be able to SUSPEND one program in the background while working on another, and have the ability to switch between tasks by keeping processes stored in the ram. The other OS's largely support this, albeit at a slight performance hit as the processor does have to do a bit of shuffling. Microsoft is actually implementing a technique where the phone will process the minimized program in the background with its spare cycles whenever you are not using processing cycles on your current program (ie looking at a loaded document/web oage).

I'm assuming from Apple's perspective they'd rather not take the performance hit with the above technique and just address the whole "single vs multi program" as a single complaint rather than giving people the option of running multiple programs and then having to deal with complaints about system slowdowns, instabilities, etc...

No, they're playing favorites. Only their programs can multitask. Third party apps are not allowed to multitask, which isn't fair.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

For some reason I think you're full of shit. You would be absolutely pissed off if you had to choose to close a program in order to open another one.

How many apps do you need running at once?

1) GPS
2) Web browser downloading
3) Streaming radio
4) Social networking - questionable because push notifications/background notifications that Android and iPhone use already solve this. You don't need multitasking.

Shrug. I think multitasking is overrated. Those first 3 categories is probably the most you need for. Everything else can be done with push notifications/saved states. To the user it makes no difference. As long as when you open the SMS app up again, you're where you left of. This is how Handcent on Android works anyway.

In the end you can only have 1 window open. Can you have side by side browser and Twitter on a phone? Probably not, so I see no reason for you to have both at the same time. Now if you need to download, that's one of the categories I mentioned. If you need tweets coming through, thats what push notifications are for.

 

[gorcorps]

Gotta say, after switching to the iphone I don't miss the multitask nearly as much as I thought I would. I don't use pandora enough and that's the only thing I can think of where I'd need the multitasking.

 

[dguy6789]

There's lots of applications that don't really benefit from multi tasking. But there are plenty that do.

I like to have aim(or any IM client) running, music playing(don't want to be limited to using just the default music client either), and a web browser going. I like being able to alt tab between the browser and the IM client without having to close anything. I like being able to copy and paste the url of an article I am reading and post it in my conversation.

I like being able to talk on speakerphone to someone while web browsing too.

If I'm traveling somewhere and not driving, I like to check the GPS often, if not leave it on the entire trip, so add another program on top of all of those.

 

[Deeko]

On the Pandora subject...couldn't Pandora implement a hub? I seem to recall during the WP7 introductions that the hubs are data-connected and always on. So couldn't Pandora write a hub that streamed your music & displayed the song, if you wanted to switch it, tap it and open up the full app?

If hubs really are data connected and always on, I think smart devs can get around the multitasking issue on WP7 for a lot of tasks.