Android vs. upcoming iPhone multitasking

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RickD

280 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 8

#60663 29-Apr-2010 23:59

Hi,

I checked out the Telstra HTC Desire in Aussie and am quite keen on getting this handset but just want to know a little more about the multitasking in Android.

Can you run multiple background apps that use data and can bring up alerts (make the phone beep, show a msg on the home screen) at the same time. E.g. leaving gmail and a twitter client running in the background all the time while also playing music?

From what I have read of the iPhone OS this won't be possible? I.e. you won't be able to leave Tweetie running and updating every 30sec while playing music or using maps or any other app?

Cheers

teihoata

100 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 6

#325042 30-Apr-2010 00:40

Yeah this should be no problem for Android. I'm currently running touiteur in the background refreshing my tweets every few minutes along with gmail and my other email account all syncing and running in the background.
You can play music which shows up in the slide down notification bar and use google maps or browse the web at the same time. However using and having all these apps sync in the background takes a lot of resources. Ram will be used up and also the power will drain a lot faster as opposed to having no apps. The desire already has sense ui running on top of the android system effectively draining a lot of ram so the amount of programes you can run at any one time will be limited.
I hope this answers your question

NZCoderGuy

513 posts

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Kiwi Dev Studios

#325044 30-Apr-2010 00:57

From what I saw when watching the OS 4 demo from Apple, you can play music and switch between apps, and when apps are not in focus, they will run in a low power/cpu usage mode - still allowing certain functionality to continuly run - such as Skype, keep it running in the background, but always online - and listening to incoming calls etc.

I'm quite impressed with OS 4 for the iPhone, but haven't seen the Desire yet - so it could be better.

--
Stephen
twitter/ NZCoderGuy / KiwiDevStudios

Linuxluver

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#325091 30-Apr-2010 08:53

RickD: Hi,

I checked out the Telstra HTC Desire in Aussie and am quite keen on getting this handset but just want to know a little more about the multitasking in Android.

Can you run multiple background apps that use data and can bring up alerts (make the phone beep, show a msg on the home screen) at the same time. E.g. leaving gmail and a twitter client running in the background all the time while also playing music?

From what I have read of the iPhone OS this won't be possible? I.e. you won't be able to leave Tweetie running and updating every 30sec while playing music or using maps or any other app?

Cheers

I won't be buying any Apple phones or music devices for the simple reason you can't swap a fresh battery in when you need to and when the lithium battery fades (400-500 charges - about 18 months) your phone is effectively worthless unless you pay serious money to have surgery done on it. So much for re-sale value....

However! I made a video a few months ago of Android multi-taking on my HTC Magic - downloading files via ftp (can't do that on iPhone - and actually USE the file) and playing a song...and playing a video...at the same time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RXR1hrWmHw

This was made on a 528MHz phone with 192MB of RAM. If you bought a Google nexus One or Sony Xperia 10, which are twice as fast and have double or better RAM, then scale the power up accordingly from what you're seeing here.

I have two batteries for my Nexus One....and can thrash all the cool stuff all day and just swap a new on in if I need to. Apple can't do that. Android phones do it for no extra charge (except for the battery, of course).

_____________________________________________________________________

I've been on Geekzone over 16 years..... Time flies....

julius

112 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#325111 30-Apr-2010 09:23

Hi,

I've written a few applications which run in the background. There is a notifications section at the top of the screen in which events show up and notify you of events created by the applications. You can swipe from the top of the screen to see more information on the notifications and select one to go into the application. You may for example have email notifications, twitter, chat, GPS events etc. all coming in from applications (services) at different times.

That said, if you have a small amount of memory on your phone then this can be a problem and you will want an application or task killer when you run low on memory. I don't expect this to be a major problem in the future though as memory becomes larger. (I have a G1 so not much to work with)

I'm not familiar with the 4th version of the iPhone OS so I can't compare that to be fair (from usability or programming points of view).

HTH

Of course my vote is go Android so you can pick what you want, build apps easily, hack it, put on your own ROMS etc.