Apple iOS4: Multi-tasking, eh?

Full disclosure: the author has a history of selling multi-tasking ever since DESQview was introduced on PC memory expansion boards; my employer of the day, AST Computers, included a copy of DESQview with each “Enhanced” memory expansion board that would take a PC all the way up to 3MB (yes, that’s MB). Techies were enthusiastic about being able to run Lotus 1-2-3, Harvard Graphics and WordPerfect concurrently. Following a nationwide tour presenting to both end users and resellers, AST Canada was the only country where AST sold as many of these “Enhanced” memory boards as conventional 384K memory expansion boards.

The subsequent introduction of 386 processors with a virtual machine architecture opened up new horizons at the time in terms of what could be accomplished; developers loved it because they could edit, compile and test their software without the need to close and open programs. Bring up the DESQview 386 menu and you could instantly transition to bring another program to the foreground. Windows finally got to this level of  multi-tasking sophistication with Windows 2000 released about ten years ago. More disclosure: the author was subsequently employed by Quarterdeck, selling multi-tasking via DESQview and QEMM for five years until the launch of Windows 95.

BlackBerry owners have been able to have the same experience ever since the launch of BlackBerry ten years ago when RIM used that same Intel 386 processor for the initial BlackBerry models. And, as emphasized at their Annual General Meeting two weeks ago, RIM has worked purposely to ensure each subsequent model continued to have what they now call “seamless” multitasking. From most menus select “Switch Application”, select the desired application and away you go. Opened applications will continue to run in background, only coming to the foreground when the user switches back or has an important “notification” to pop up. But, once in an application, there is always an “Exit” or “Close” option in the application menu to close the application.

It should also be noted that RIM leverages this multi-tasking notification into their “push” features; the best example of the benefit of “push” on the BlackBerry was the launch of Skype mobile on Verizon where Verizon could seamlessly “push” out Skype mobile downloads to their BlackBerry customers’ with no need for customer intervention in terms of requesting the downloads and dealing with all the frustrations of loading and installing a new program.

Finally BlackBerry leverages their multi-tasking architecture to manage battery life effectively by having background applications only running when they absolutely have to.

Apple’s MacBooks appear to operate in a similar way; there is always a way to Exit and application and shut it down completely. But the iPhone has been a different experience. Initially they talked about some form of “notification” feature that never came into real existence; with iOS4 they talk about multitasking as a new feature.

So when Skype launched the iOS4 version of Skype for iPhone last week, it was with interest that I noticed these comments amongst the “known issues”:

• There is no elegant way in iOS 4.0 to exit/close the app anymore. We advise that you set Skype to ‘Offline’ to reduce data traffic and battery while not using Skype. We are looking in other ways to implement this. Other ways to quit Skype include: Hold the application icon on the task bar. That should bring up the remove badge icon. Press it and the application process should be terminated; Hold down the Lock button until you get the power down slider, then hold down Home button.
• A Skype call continues while you listening music using the iPod app.
• Skype audio is mixed with other audio channels if there are any.

“No elegant way in iOS 4.0 to exit/close the app anymore”. A dead give away that Apple still has not mastered the art of true multi-tasking. I would expect any multi-tasking device to be able to easily Exit an application.

Why would one want to Close Skype? To preserve battery life. To top it off, I am having difficulty keeping my iPhone 3G S battery life beyond four or five hours with Skype running in the background. As a recent Mood Message from one of my Skype contacts recently said, “iOS4 ate my battery …”; it’s eating mine too.

And it’s not just Skype who’s having an issue. Today I received from Truphone an email, Background calling on iPhone 4 and iPod 4.0:

Recently we released Truphone for iPhone 4.0 & iPod 4.0, which performed in background mode, allowing you to receive calls regardless of what other task you were performing at the time. We believe it’s a great feature that really expands the way you can use Truphone and make calls for free or next to nothing – but a few weeks into it, we are not happy with the way the app has been performing in background mode.

So, we’re doing something about it. We just pushed a new version into the App Store that has all the features you know and love from Truphone, but temporarily it doesn’t have the feature that allows people to call you even when the app isn’t open. We’ll add this great feature back in as soon as we’re satisfied that it’s performing properly. You will however still be able to surf the internet and write emails whilst on a call – only the incoming call feature is affected.

When you get the same tone of information from two independent vendors, there’s obviously work beyond “antennagate” for the Apple engineers to do to demonstrate that they really understand multi-tasking. Let’s hope that RIM and Skype are figuring out a way to bring about a carrier-agnostic Skype for BlackBerry soon so we can see a truly multi-tasking Skype on a mobile device with multi-tasking in its DNA. One other candidate could be the much-anticipated Skype for Android. (Truphone for BlackBerry is currently an outbound calling only application but it does pop up automatically when I make calls outside Canada.)

(In the interests of complete disclosure the author started managing the sale of multi-tasking mini-computers about thirty years ago. This feature meant the associated InfraRed and Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy instrumentation could collect and process data concurrently -  a major productivity step forward at the time in the scientific instrumentation market. And the author has held a minuscule number of RIM shares since 1998.)

Related articles by Zemanta

• Multitasking Comes to Skype’s iPhone App (mashable.com)
• Skype iPhone update: Multitasking, no additional charges for calling over 3G (blogs.skype.com)
• Skype for iPhone Adds Multitasking (pcworld.com)
• Skype for iPhone Update Supports Multitasking and Fee-Free 3G Calls [Downloads] (lifehacker.com)
• Skype for iPhone gets iOS4 background multitasking in version 2.1 (tuaw.com)