You’ve all moaned and complained about it for the past couple of years and now you’re finally going to get it, but, is it really that much different to what we already have? (Note: I specifically referring to the way you can switch between apps, not the other features like background sounds/alerts/notifications etc).
Right now, if you’re in “App A” and you want to ‘switch’ to “App B”, all you do is tap the ‘home’ button and then tap the icon for “App B” on you homescreen. In OS 4.0 you’re in “App A”, and you double-tap the ‘home’ button and then tap the icon for “App B” in the switcher thingo (provided it was already running). Isn’t that pretty much the same thing, except now its complicated with the double-tap?
Yes, I’m aware that this new method should be more seemless as apps will retain their current ‘state’ as you switch amongst them. But shouldn’t good apps already have been written to work like this in the first place, whether you were switching to the app or relaunching it completely?
Maybe I’m missing the point, doesn’t really matter though because OS 4.0 on the whole looks pretty awesome, now we just have to wait for the new iPhone itself to be revealed. I’ll take one that has an aluminium back like the iPad, and loses the chrome rim that all iPhones have had thus far, thanks.
It’s far better in the case that you’re switching between apps that are on different pages of the home screen. [Double-tap, tap] is much better than [tap, swipe, swipe, swipe, tap], and way better than [tap, swipe, swipe, where was that thing again?, swipe the other way, swipe, swipe, swipe, grrr, swipe, swipe, found it!, tap]. :-)
My hope is that the switching will be faster than restarting the application.
Even the best apps right now take 10 to 20 seconds to restart themselves. During a session of Bookworm while having an SMS conversation with my wife, this can get really annoying!
~Shawn
Yeah I agree, I so want an iPhone that has the same “shell” as a iPad.