[Spyke]

Can we please drop the word True Multitasking? I think webOS got advance app switcher. And I think Playbook got better multitasking than webOS. For example, on Playbook, you can use different apps while you play movie on the TV. Can TouchPad or Pre actually play 2 apps at the same time?

It seems to be true multitasking to me, in that I can kick off a YouTube video then switch to load a game, and the audio of the YouTube video keeps playing while the game loads. Then I can switch back to the card with the video and the picture updates to the correct point in the stream, while the game keeps loading in the background.

What doesn't happen, at least reliably, is for apps to continue updating the card view as you switch away (they do for a while in some cases) - which would be true multitasking if you choose to define it as having two windows open at once and watching both update (though presumably an app like Glimpse is presenting the data from various feeds in this way).

If you run the stopwatch in Glimpse it continues to run in the card when you swipe out of the app, but gets interrupted if you switch to a card that needs more resources, like a video - or, more dramatically, Angry Birds. When you return back to the Glimpse card the stopwatch is behind time. When you go back into the card it fast forwards to catch up.

Spyke

[retroblu]

Can we please drop the word True Multitasking? I think webOS got advance app switcher. And I think Playbook got better multitasking than webOS. For example, on Playbook, you can use different apps while you play movie on the TV. Can TouchPad or Pre actually play 2 apps at the same time?

i believe it can

[doctj]

Can we please drop the word True Multitasking? I think webOS got advance app switcher. And I think Playbook got better multitasking than webOS. For example, on Playbook, you can use different apps while you play movie on the TV. Can TouchPad or Pre actually play 2 apps at the same time?

webOS does have true multitasking. It's the only platform where you could run for eg an ssh client in a card and leave it running without any further intervention. iOS will not allow that to run in the background once you move from that app, android (without a 3rd party app task manager) will for a while until it terminates in the background.

[Spyke]

android (without a 3rd party app task manager) will for a while until it terminates in the background.

While strictly speaking that's true, my understanding is that Android would only terminate the application if it had run out of system resources for the task you're currently asking the device to perform - so under normal use you could leave a client running happily in the background.

Spyke

[doctj]

While strictly speaking that's true, my understanding is that Android would only terminate the application if it had run out of system resources for the task you're currently asking the device to perform - so under normal use you could leave a client running happily in the background.

Spyke

That's the point, you don't have control over when Android terminates the application unlike webOS.

[koolkid09]

That's the point, you don't have control over when Android terminates the application unlike webOS.

That's like saying the card crashes/too many cards error and you have to get rid of it on webOS.

[Spyke]

That's the point, you don't have control over when Android terminates the application unlike webOS.

Well, while your device has sufficient resources to run the multiple tasks that you want, both webOS and Android are multitasking as described above. The difference is that when you push the device over the limit, webOS will crash the one you're trying to start, Android will crash one that's been running for a long time in the background without being touched by the user.

I'd call that a design choice rather than a reason not to call what Android does 'true multitasking'.

Spyke

[vszulc]

After comparing my Touchpad with a 300$ 7 inch Acer tablet, I gotta say: Android multitasking wins hand down.

On the Acer I don't get the annoying "Too many cards" notifications, and everything else, especially browsing is a lot faster. Whether I multitask or not.

[Mikey47]

After comparing my Touchpad with a 300$ 7 inch Acer tablet, I gotta say: Android multitasking wins hand down.

On the Acer I don't get the annoying "Too many cards" notifications, and everything else, especially browsing is a lot faster. Whether I multitask or not.

Note: I have no technical knowledge to backup what I am about to say, but seems to be the case based on personal experience:

webOS lets you open up as many cards as possible until it runs out of resource and you get the TMC errors. Even if you can open up 50 cards and have things actually running on those cards it will decrease the performance of every other card you have open.

Android, at least 2.2 and beyond, manages your applications so that you do not run out of resources. So if you open 50 applications in a row not all 50 will necessarily stay running. Based on when Android determines more memory or CPU cycles are needed for the most recent applications started it will start to close those that are older and thus you will never see the equivalent of a TMC error.

Personally, I never understood these people who say "My Pre 2 allows me to open 50 cards, Android can't do that!!" Sure you can open 50 cards but how are YOU, the lowly human, going to manage keeping track of what those 50 cards are doing?

Some of you may have heard of the Magic Number, 7 plus or minus 2. It is meant to represent the number of things that your mind can hold in working memory. To me that is what Android it shooting for -- keeping the last 5 to 9 applications running and available to you, and it is perfectly acceptable to me.

[LCGuy]

Can we please drop the word True Multitasking??

Um, how's about "Nooooo!" (think Dr Evil's voice here).

By far, it is the one OS that allows the user to manage many things at once, without any one task having to suffer. It encourages, not just "is capable of" running and sharing information between many applications at the same time: listen to music in the background, open an email, reply to it, after opening a web site and grabbing the url to paste into the email, get a text message and answer it, answer a phone call and then append that email with the shopping list your wife just gave you, send the email and THEN go back to playing Agnry Birds.

Therefore, it allows the user to truly multitask.

I think webOS got advance app switcher. And I think Playbook got better multitasking than webOS. For example, on Playbook, you can use different apps while you play movie on the TV. Can TouchPad or Pre actually play 2 apps at the same time?

You can think whatever you like; the facts are that WebOS is the closest OS to a PC desktop regarding multitasking, hands down. Task switching is only part of that capability.

As for the Playbook, yep, they did a pretty good job there with QNX, so good, that it looks and works exactly like.. um... er....

WEBOS!

Wow, hows about that?

(If WebOS dies, QNX just might be something to consider, then, cause its such a clone of it!)

[nappy]

You're forgetting that webOS 3.0.2 now suspends execution of timers in background apps "in order to improve performance for the foreground application" which is...well, one giant step away from "true multitasking."

[laingman]

Can we just give webos its props and be done with it. Most productive Os on a phone no doubt. Hell, with the advanced gestures, and the advanced patches it does email better than my pc.

[vszulc]

listen to music in the background, open an email, reply to it, after opening a web site and grabbing the url to paste into the email, get a text message and answer it, answer a phone call and then append that email with the shopping list your wife just gave you, send the email and THEN go back to playing Agnry Birds.

That sounds truly amazing! Except, oh that's right... You can do the same on iOS and Android. I certainly don't have any problems with listening to music while browsing, copy pasting etc. etc. on my Android phone. Sure, the cards is a nice and elegant way to implement it, but functionally its pretty much the same.

Except that multitasking when it comes to the browser, seems faster and more functional on Android from my experience...

You're forgetting that webOS 3.0.2 now suspends execution of timers in background apps "in order to improve performance for the foreground application" which is...well, one giant step away from "true multitasking."

Yes. And with very good reason. We're talking about mobile devices here. Usage scenarios and the interface is very different from desktop computers, and multitasking isn't as important as on a PC.

You can still only do ONE thing at a time, on a small cellphone/tablet screen, so talking about "real multitasking" is nonsense.

95% of users or thereabouts doesn't need anything more than the ability to listen to music while browsing, or a similar usage scenario, which makes multitasking as implemented on the iPhone perfectly adequate.

Of course, if you belong to the tiny minority who feel the need to watch two movies at the same time on a 3.7 inch screen, you're out of luck. That still doesn't change the fact that they admit they prioritized wrong on webOS (which the change in 3.0.2 is an admission of). If they had spend more time on getting webOS to be faster, rather than to implement useless "true" multitasking, the Touchpad might still have been alive.

[nappy]

Yes. And with very good reason. We're talking about mobile devices here. Usage scenarios and the interface is very different from desktop computers, and multitasking isn't as important as on a PC.

You can still only do ONE thing at a time, on a small cellphone/tablet screen, so talking about "real multitasking" is nonsense.

95% of users or thereabouts doesn't need anything more than the ability to listen to music while browsing, or a similar usage scenario, which makes multitasking as implemented on the iPhone perfectly adequate.

Of course, if you belong to the tiny minority who feel the need to watch two movies at the same time on a 3.7 inch screen, you're out of luck. That still doesn't change the fact that they admit they prioritized wrong on webOS (which the change in 3.0.2 is an admission of). If they had spend more time on getting webOS to be faster, rather than to implement useless "true" multitasking, the Touchpad might still have been alive.

Oh, I agree. I always thought the preemptive multitasking model is a poor fit for mobile devices because you're at the mercy of unpredictable CPU usage, memory usage, and power draw. Apple and Google have a far more elegant multitasking model that gets you about 95% of the way there, anyway.

I just thought it was funny that it took the webOS team this long to figure that out and now they're moving away from "true multitasking" when webOS no longer matters.

[laingman]

What you don't know cant hurt you, that's why 95 percent of users are fine with an iphone.

After my old sony stereo bt headset broke, I searched for a replacement and ended up buying a jabra halo. It had very good reviews and it took me one day to realize how much it sucked. Obviously the reviewers had never spent time with a real user friendly device before. And I have a friend who has an iphone and she has no idea that her notifications suck. She just assumed that iphone is the best and that's how it should work

[koolkid09]

There is a difference between multitasking and task switching. WebOS multitasking is not the best. Not by a longshot. But the task switcher is possibly the best out of all the smartphone operating systems. People here have been getting that confused since the beginning of webOS.

Sent from my EVO Shift 4g using Tapatalk

[koolkid09]

Can we just give webos its props and be done with it. Most productive Os on a phone no doubt. Hell, with the advanced gestures, and the advanced patches it does email better than my pc.

Productive?

Sent from my EVO Shift 4g using Tapatalk

[etx]

Aint over till the fat lady sings.

And in this case the fat lady is Leo! Am i right?

[Bohh]

I've owned Android, iOS, and webOS in that order. Off them all the daily usage and simple things are so much more polished in webOS it's hard to understand how the other two are so popular. I guess that's what marketing and a name can do.

[Titan078]

Can we please drop the word True Multitasking? I think webOS got advance app switcher. And I think Playbook got better multitasking than webOS. For example, on Playbook, you can use different apps while you play movie on the TV. Can TouchPad or Pre actually play 2 apps at the same time?

thats true...did the playbook get an email client yet? Facepalm.