Window Phone 7 Won't Support Multitasking

[mx2138]

Its a phone. what do you need multitasking for? the screen is too small to get any REAL multitasking done. do you need to text and talk at the same time while driving?

 

[jimmysmitty]

[citation][nom]smeker[/nom]Lol MS fanboys braze for impact So much trash talk about how iPhone does not have multitasking and now MS just slapped them in the face with a wet and dirty towel.Now let hear all the justifications of how actually multi processing is bad for the battery life, something that Apple said a year ago. Ironic...[/citation]

How bout that the iPhone is a closed software and hardware platform? Windows 7 mobile can go on any phone that the devs design. That means you get choice. Unlike with the iPhone where you are stuck with one phone, no ring tones oh and Apple deciding what content can be sold in the store.

Remember, they don't allow indecent apps unless its from a really large company that can line Apples pockets.....

[citation][nom]datawrecker[/nom]I would like to know what of Apples iPhone are they copying. There is nothing about the look and feel of the UI that is remotely as bad as the iPhone.[/citation]

People have this notion that what Apple did with the iPhone is original and everyone is copying them when in reality, the iPhone just copied a lot of other phone makers out there.

Even if WM7 doesn't have multitasking, if its a good phone OS and stups up the WM game it will compete against the iPhone.

 

[SneakySnake]

[citation][nom]dman3k[/nom]Microsoft won't initially support multitasking.But it is very likely to change at WP7 launch due to Apple's iPhone 4.0 OS supporting multitasking.[/citation]

so since it's not initially it's totally ok ??? if an apple fanboy said what you just said, we'd have so many thumbs down so quick, but since the MS boys are so biased you've managed to get some thumbs up - good work

 

[dman3k]

[citation][nom]SneakySnake[/nom]so since it's not initially it's totally ok ??? if an apple fanboy said what you just said, we'd have so many thumbs down so quick, but since the MS boys are so biased you've managed to get some thumbs up - good work[/citation]That's because Microsoft said that they are implementing this feature, but it probably won't make the launch date as they are working on making other features like XBOX games compatibility work better. Apple tells people NOBODY NEEDS MULTITASKING from the get-go and sat on it, and now look at what they're doing. The difference is honesty. Not saying Microsoft is an honest company, it's just they are far more honest than Apple. Apple's products are all scams in my book. Why are people paying more money for inferior products? God, I love that Apple marketing team.

 

[zorky9]

I've had WinMo for the longest time. And now to think about it, the only apps I really do run in the background are battery monitor stuff. If I'll have excellent battery life, it'll defeat the purpose of running such apps in the first place. I got no problem with that.

“We do not allow third-party applications running on the phone to execute in the background."

Key word is third-party. Does that mean we can still run MS apps simultaneously? Hope so. Nevertheless, I'm still excited about the new platform.

 

[tayb]

Multi-tasking on your phone absolutely destroys battery life. Microsoft is making the much smarter decision at the moment. There are certainly some applications that I would to see be allowed to run in the background (Pandora) but overall battery tech is not ready for a phone to be doing so many things at once. I'd much rather have my phone last all day long than half a day multi-tasking with it.

Sorry, it's still a phone. I can live with doing one thing at a time. Even on my iPhone I still don't really care about multi-tasking. The screen is so small. It's not in my top three of things I wish the iPhone did.

 

[cadder]

I'm not sure I understand fully but here is my understanding:

iphone: If you have an app running and you start another app, the first one terminates. iphone apps have to be written so that sudden termination doesn't lose data, etc.

Windows Mobile 6.1: (I have this on my current phone, I also have several old PocketPC's that use previous versions of this OS.) My understanding of the WM OS is that when you launch a new app, the old app stays in memory it just isn't running anymore, and if you switch back to it then it is still there and picks back up where it left off. Does anybody know if this is true?

I don't know very many reasons why you would need true multitasking, i.e. the background tasks remain running, but if they would stay in memory ready to resume where you left off that might be good enough.

 

[brendano257]

It drains on the battery, so you make it an OPTION for the user. OPTIONS give you the best sales, no argument there.

 

[dwave]

Why don't they offer a option to turn multitasking on or off, so people can choose when to save battery life or not. Give us the choice, don't decide for us.

 

[descendency]

no multitasking? no copy-paste?

What next, no SMS?

 

[razor512]

lack of multitasking is more annoying than poor battery life.

allow multitasking and just put a warning that multitasking may reduce battery life.

also multitasking depends on the app thats running, some apps just sit in the background and pretty much just use memory.

the main problem with mobile devices is if you try to run too many apps, an important app may end up crashing due to lack of memory.

this can happen on the android os, iphone os , and windows mobile

there 2 ways to fix this though. Most of these devices have a very limited amount of RAM but worst, they also do not have virtual memory, so theres no using the internal nv memory as virtual memory, or using a sd card for virtual memory (in which background apps can be pushed to when a active app needs more memory)

if they could remake the PS to allow for virtual memory, it will fix the crashing problem

solution 2 which probably apple is planning, limit the OS to like 2 or 3 apps to run at the same time.

 

[jackleung]

[citation][nom]cadder[/nom]Windows Mobile 6.1: (I have this on my current phone, I also have several old PocketPC's that use previous versions of this OS.) My understanding of the WM OS is that when you launch a new app, the old app stays in memory it just isn't running anymore, and if you switch back to it then it is still there and picks back up where it left off. Does anybody know if this is true?I don't know very many reasons why you would need true multitasking, i.e. the background tasks remain running, but if they would stay in memory ready to resume where you left off that might be good enough.[/citation]Your understanding is completely wrong. A processes are running even they are in background. For example, you could let CorePlayer playing MP3 at the background and run iGo8 (GPS) in the foreground. That's why it may feel sluggish sometime if too many processes running together.

Some people may not need multitasking for a phone. But many more users need it for many other reasons (e.g. GPS + MP3). I would not consider WP if multi-tasking is not supported.

p.s. WM does support virtual memory.

 

[razor512]

[citation][nom]cadder[/nom]I'm not sure I understand fully but here is my understanding:iphone: If you have an app running and you start another app, the first one terminates. iphone apps have to be written so that sudden termination doesn't lose data, etc.Windows Mobile 6.1: (I have this on my current phone, I also have several old PocketPC's that use previous versions of this OS.) My understanding of the WM OS is that when you launch a new app, the old app stays in memory it just isn't running anymore, and if you switch back to it then it is still there and picks back up where it left off. Does anybody know if this is true?I don't know very many reasons why you would need true multitasking, i.e. the background tasks remain running, but if they would stay in memory ready to resume where you left off that might be good enough.[/citation]


for the most part this is true, in windows mobile, when a app is in the background, it pretty much goes in a sleep mode unless it is actively doing something that cant be paused.

for example if you start up a simple game and it is using like 20% CPU usage just sitting in the main menu, if you minimize it, it uses 0% CPU usage, but it's memory usage does not change.

the problem is suppose you only have 128MB ram and the game is using 100MB of RAM, but you now decide to launch fennec which is a resource hogging browser (that wants like 60+ MB all to it's self, since it is the active app, the game running in the background will have it's task ended automatically

the only time when a background app will hurt battery life is if it is something that will have a constant CPU usage while in the background, for example one of those crappy apps that does like a running water effect on the task bar

or a bit torrent app for windows mobile (which will use CPU cycles while it runs in the background)


Most windows mobile apps go into a sleep state when put in the background

Microsoft probably wants multitasking but is probably still thinking about how to do it in a way that wont cause apps to crash when low on memory. They probably also don't want to rewrite the kernel to allow for virtual memory

either that or just like with each new version of windows mobile, the OS uses more memory with each new version, and windows mobile 7 probably uses so much that it can only reliably run 1 app at a time. Mobile devices are low on ram and increasing the memory will also increase the cost, which will hurt profits when trying to be competitive as the average smart-phone user doesn't even know the specs of their smart-phone. At my college when I help some students out with their windows mobile based phones, many of them didn't even know that the smart-phone used RAM

 

[sactownbwoy]

WM 6.5 gives you the option to completly close a program or have to go to the background when you press the x button. Personally I love being able to have stuff run in the background.

Also WM was originally aimed at buisness folks who are doing stuff on their phones. I have looked at spreadsheets, word docs all kinds of stuff.

The iPhone is an entertainment phone. Also my 3gs has crappy battery life. It lasts a little longer than my Touch Pro and I am always running stuff in the background of the Touch Pro whereas the iPhone is doing nothing

 

[JohnnyLucky]

It sounds interesting but I'm not sure how practical it would be.

 

[anamaniac]

[citation][nom]apmyhr[/nom]Whether or not this sucks depends on how Microsoft implements their version of fake multitasking. From what I have heard, it sounds like when you switch from an application, that app's current state will be saved into memory and re-loaded next time you start it up. Basically, every time you leave an app, it pauses. Supposedly the App can still receive notifications using the Push Notification API service. So if this is implemented really well, it could actually be better than multitasking. Consider your playing a game and you get a call, it would be nice if when you leave the game its essentially paused and does not use up any energy while you are on your phone call or checking your email or whatever. But yeah, on the other hand I can see a lot of scenarios where you would want the application to be able to keep running in the background.[/citation]
Like how the PSP can pause a game? I find it extremely convenient.
How about locking it by default, but allow it to be uncapped in advanced settings? I know I'd lock it on my mother phone. She doesn't even realize she has 10 browsers with 10 tabs each...

 

[hillarymakesmecry]

Multi-tasking does drain the battery quickly. And I have to go shut down a bunch of annoying apps all the time that are just trying to track what I do elsewhere on the phone so they can sell me things, or steal my personal info. Sometimes multi-tasking is annoying.

 

[Guest]

well... personally i think multitasking on a PHONE is STUPID. But it's essential on a PDA! Yes, a device that is not a phone but a connected device that is no "always on" but in suspended mode most of the time. Just drop the "smartphone" shit already

 

[Guest]

I read somewhere that Windows mobile 7 didnt support Copy/Paste? WTH is MS doing?

 

[joe gamer]

*facepalm, And that is why I'll be sticking with android, MS is copying the champ (who's growth has stagnated at +.03%) when they should be looking at the whole market to see who's actually gaining market share in the face of the I-phone juggernaut (android +4%)I changed from Rim to android and never been happier with a phone, my best friend gave up his I-phone for a Droid and he wont shut up about how much better it is.