Multi-tasking

[Ipheuria]

I was watching a Pre add today touting the multi-tasking feature. I thought to myself is it really multi-tasking? I guess it depends on what you consider multi-tasking but to me having multiple apps open doesn't mean multi-tasking it means multiple apps are open. Multitasking to me means being able to work in more than one app at the same time. Something you can't do on the pre or any other smartphone as far as I know. You can open more than one app but when you need to work in an app it takes up the whole screen, if you need to work in another you flip the one you're working in away and go to the other app to me that's not multi-tasking. I consider multi-tasking like using biteSMS on the iPhone so I'm in email and an SMS comes in and my email is behind the SMS and I can type in the SMS without closing or switching away my email. Once I finish the SMS it's right back to the email. What do you guys think??

[Alli]

I agree with you. I held on to the same argument all the years I was on Palm and people told me to switch to WM due to its multi-tasking capabilities. I found once I switched to WM I was very careful to close, rather than merely minimize, apps to avoid this multi-tasking. Multi-tasking more often than not leads to crashing, and with few exceptions, it's really unnecessary.

It's nice to load a web page while you do something else, rather than have to watch the rendering. It's nice to have background applications - different from multi-tasking? Beyond playing music in the background with some other app (ie Pandora), it's overrated.

[Brickman]

Multi-tasking....just try to watch the Pre look up an email while on the phone. It can't do it. Now to be fair this is a limitation of the network. Like Alli said, multi-tasking of apps leads to crashes with most devices. All you have to do is read some of the reviews.

Overrated iMHO, but Pandora would be nice though.

[Ipheuria]

I agree with you guys and that's why although I'd love multi-tasking on the iPhone it's my one thought. We as users have to realize there is always a trade off so if we get multi-tasking we have to understand that it means crashing. So if you calculate you have one user with a single task phone and he closes his app and goes into the second and then goes back to the first. Now at the same time you have a user with multi-tasking but when he switches the apps crash so he has to restart them and do the work can you say it's really faster? the single task user might actually end up being faster or on par since he doesn't have to deal with the crash and restart. Then you get into crashing causes corrupt files and all those heahaches is it really worth it? The iPhone is my first real smartphone so I'm a bit new on some of these things but just my thoughts.

[Rene Ritchie]

I don't listen to Pandora, so according the technorati, I have no need to multitask (outside the apps that already do, like Mail, Phone, SMS, iPod, etc.)