For the most part I am ambivalent towards the multitasking feature added in the new OS. It really doesn't change how I use my device for the most part. I have however found one issue with memory usage that I think is relevant to the conversation.

I am a big Netflix user. I would guess that watching "Dexter" or "Weeds" probably consumes at least 75% of my usage right now. I have found that Netflix will get stuck loading when I try to run the app if I have too many "frozen" applications. I have seen this numerous times. I can try to run the app any number of times and it simply never gets past the loading screen. If however I double tap the home button and close all of the frozen tasks the app loads right up and works great. From my simple observation, those apps that are frozen are taking up resources. It could be that some apps have not been updated to play well with iOS 4.x and this might go away. At this time however I am not willing to say that frozen apps have no effect on system performance.

Same here, Dave. If I have an app that keeps crashing, my first step is to close out all the bacgrounded apps. It may not be doing any good, but it seems to help.

And yes, I know, one anecdote does not make it so; I may be experiencing a "placebo" effect...

Marilyn

Originally Posted by DaveSt

For the most part I am ambivalent towards the multitasking feature added in the new OS. It really doesn't change how I use my device for the most part. I have however found one issue with memory usage that I think is relevant to the conversation.

I am a big Netflix user. I would guess that watching "Dexter" or "Weeds" probably consumes at least 75% of my usage right now. I have found that Netflix will get stuck loading when I try to run the app if I have too many "frozen" applications. I have seen this numerous times. I can try to run the app any number of times and it simply never gets past the loading screen. If however I double tap the home button and close all of the frozen tasks the app loads right up and works great. From my simple observation, those apps that are frozen are taking up resources. It could be that some apps have not been updated to play well with iOS 4.x and this might go away. At this time however I am not willing to say that frozen apps have no effect on system performance.

I agree, some apps stick... Just like we saw on the iPhone when 4.0 came out. That is why the apps in the bar have the - so you can close the ones that are not playing nice. I dont really call fault to apple on this tho...it's just a lot of apps and not all are a 100% finished product.

Originally Posted by Dannyboy85

Stay tuned for my next video I will do my best at explaining this.....

Great! Popcorn ordered.

Hey, Danny ~is there a way you can do a video on a particular App?

Im finding myself having OCD closing apps soon as I use them. I have been so accustomed to blackberry and android for so long that it was just habit. Must not double tap, must not double tap on iPad.

Damn I must be lazy but I pay no attention to whats held in memory.
If it's need by an open app the pad will just unload the older items from memory.
Can't say I've noticed any decline in it's performance since the upgrade so I'll continue to ignore them and their pretty little X's.......

I would love to see an icon at the start of the list of running apps that lets you close everything in one go instead of closing them all down one at a time.

Seems to be a lot of misconceptions about how OS 4.x multitasks.

Some seem to think nothing stays in memory. Not true. Apps that are updated for fast app switching stay in RAM so they can be opened again instantly.

When you "leave" an app, say by pressing the home button, one of several things can happen: if the app is designed to work in the background, and it is actively doing something it will still perform those functions while you do something else. These functions could be GPS navigation, audio streaming, running a timer of some sort (cooking app), skype or similar, or many other things (if ReelDirector, for instance, was encoding a movie it will continue to do so in the background). Still, not many apps need to do anything in the background so this would be the least likely scenario--usually.

If the app has not been updated at all for OS 4.x it will terminate as it did before 4.x.

If the app has been updated for fast switching it will stay in RAM, but not actually doing anything (unless it is also has a need for background operation).

So then, if apps are staying in RAM what happens when there is no more RAM and you are trying to open another app, which is not in RAM? Well in theory iOS should efficiently close anything it needs to in order to run the foreground application.

But in practice this does not always work, especially when trying to load a memory-intensive app. iOS may "think" it has enough RAM for the currently loading app but the app actually needs more. Boom. It crashes or does not function properly. This is what was happening in the Netflix example given previously by DaveSt. So closing apps in memory will free up RAM and let Netflix run properly.

Unfortunately iOS doesn't make it easy to know what is actually running. So you have to just close whatever is out there. This of course takes the app out of the switcher too, and I personally like having my recently used apps there. So since I am jailbroken I use SBSettings to close out apps if for some reason I am having trouble getting a large app to load. I don't make a habit out of it, because usually iOS is able to do the job OK on its own, but it's nice to be able to see what is going on and close apps if I need to.

The apps in the pic below were currently loaded in RAM when the screen shot was taken. BUT, those apps were NOT the first apps in the task switcher bar. So if I just went and closed the first few apps in the switcher it would not have freed any RAM.






Michael

Originally Posted by donka

I would love to see an icon at the start of the list of running apps that lets you close everything in one go instead of closing them all down one at a time.

I would have hoped we had that functionality but alas Apple chose not to do it. I do, however, use a jailbreak app that adds to the functionality of the task switcher. SwitcherPlus, among other cool features, adds a "->" icon along with the usual "-" icon--when you tap and hold an app in the switcher bar. Tapping the "->" icon will close that app, as well as all the apps to the right of it. So if I want to quickly clean out the list I just do it to the first app there... and presto, they are all cleared out. But I don't often do this as I do like having a list of recently used apps handy... and I as I mentioned in previous post I close apps using SBSettings--which does not remove it from the switcher bar.






Michael

Originally Posted by SweetPoison

Originally Posted by Dannyboy85

Stay tuned for my next video I will do my best at explaining this.....

Great! Popcorn ordered.

Hey, Danny ~is there a way you can do a video on a particular App?

Sure pm me and I'll see what I can do.