Am I the only one who doesn’t understand the new iPhone iOS4 Multitasking feature? I gather certain apps may require the facility to do background execution (task completion), get location updates and deliver audio. In the olden days home-buttoning an app closed it, or apparently closed it since it seemed to be gone. I didn’t actually care about the implementation (whether the app was actually closed) since the effect was clear. Apps that might have wanted to continue to do stuff were denied that privilege, and it was clear that if I closed an app that was busy working away it would die.
Now, when I home-button an app it is totally unclear what that means. If I home-button Mail, it seems to resume where it was before (which it always did). If I home-button Safari I gather it is suspended and allowed to continue running certain tasks. But if I home-button the calculator, what does that mean?
Double-tapping the home button seems to bring up a list of all the programs that I have recently used, with no indication as to the meaning of the list. They can be removed from the list by holding down on one, and then pressing the red minus. I have a list of apps sitting there that doesn’t *seem* to mean anything. It is totally unclear what that list represents. What on earth is the Clock app doing down there? What does it mean if I close it? What is the meaning of the calculator icon down there? Should I close that? Is it using memory? Surely it makes absolutely no difference whether I close it or not, since it remembers the result of the last calculation anyway? If it makes no difference, why am I given the choice? Is this supposed to be a list of recently-used apps, then? If so what is the point in that – it takes longer to go and see if the app is in there than it does to find the original app from where it belongs!
People look for common functionality between things they are used to. When something is presented to a user that is very much like something they are used to, the concepts will converge in their mind. To save time repeating old learning they will naturally assume it is much the same metaphor/functionality as that other thing. It is quite hard to understand a new concept if it is apparently similar to an old one but functionally different. We are used to closing Microsoft Outlook when we are done with it, and having it sit at the bottom right when it is just quietly waiting for email. How does this map to the multi-tasking on the iPhone? Do I have to close apps with the little red minus sign when I no longer want to hear from them? How can I tell the apps for which multitasking has meaning, and which just hang around in the tray?
Finally, how do I get back my double-tap ‘phone shortcut? When I need the actual phone function (remember that?) in a hurry (to call someone walking away from me rather than running after them… to call the police?) it takes quite a lot of time to bring it up, and lots more time waiting for animations to complete that kick off when I double-tap rather than triple-tap-double-hop and skip. Ugh.