Steve Jobs' QOTD
 

Q: How do you close applications when multitasking?

A: (Steve Jobs) It's like we said on the iPad, if you see a stylus, they blew it. In multitasking, if you see a task manager... they blew it. Users shouldn't ever have to think about it.

Because thinking is hard!

Re: Steve Jobs' QOTD
 

If Apple-users could think, they wouldn't be Apple-users, right? It's not that thinking is hard in general... it's just that Apple found a perfect market niche.

Re: Steve Jobs' QOTD
 

Was this a direct quote? I'm not even sure what he's saying..

Re: Steve Jobs' QOTD
 

10% of the population have 90% of the wealth, its the same with intelligence.

Nokia are going after the 10%, Apple are going for the other 90%.

Re: Steve Jobs' QOTD
 

People who do not have time to think or to whom thinking is hard combined with excess money means huge profit.

Re: Steve Jobs' QOTD
 

http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/08/j...-they-blew-it/

If Engadget posted it, it must be true.

Re: Steve Jobs' QOTD
 

You know what would make more sense, strategically, at this point?

Make sure that Apple's OS4's implementation of multitasking doesn't kick our butt when it's released. Especially in the areas that they've claimed superiority on (power consumption). I can already see the comparison tables of results written by the media and bloggers showing a few choice apps concurrently (online radio streaming, background downloading, etc).

I also agree that wasting resources (cpu cycles, battery power) on 'hardworking' background apps that you don't use is a waste. (3d games, videos, etc). So for practical reasons, they got this thing right.

Re: Steve Jobs' QOTD
 

Am I the only one who does not understand WTF Jobs is talking about in that quote? He sounds like he's senile and rambling.

Re: Steve Jobs' QOTD
 

Their form of multitasking is inherently power efficient, just like WP7's, because the applications in question -cease running.- You can do the same thing with an app you start from the console by hitting Ctrl-Z. The application halts and returns you to the console. Won't start again until you type fg, and in the interval it uses RAM but no CPU.

The only difference now is that they aren't unloaded from memory. Their solution for applications that do things in the background is to pass off a closure to Grand Central that continues running. Now, this isn't impossible. Objective-C compiles down to C so the fundamental means by which they do so could easily be repeated in C or C++.

I suppose you could make this a requirement for posting to Ovi, or whatever vendor-specific App Store crops up and optional for community applications.

Best do it quickly, before they carpet-bomb the patent office with submissions on backgrounding and sleeping a process and start suing everyone who tries to do the same.

Re: Steve Jobs' QOTD
 

I think that's a twofold problem. First is the OS itself, while the second is app. Apple has the second part easier since any official app (e.g. not installed thru Cydia or something) they can check if the app doesn't use too many resources or comply with a pause on 'hardworking' background apps.

For example, I think Bounce and the default media player [for video] will pause if you take focus away from them. While other games or say video players may continue to use resources. Thus any comparision will be flawed unless carefully controlled.

Re: Steve Jobs' QOTD
 

They do. All foreground processing halts until you proceed back, but this is voluntary behavior. Xchat and the browser, for instance, will do a live update on the window.

There is nothing terribly -new- about Microsoft or Apple's approach to multitasking. The only remotely "innovative" bit is handing processing out to Grand Central, which has some (probably severe) RAM and CPU caps that it enforces.