As I understand, once you have opened an app it stays open in the background consuming some power. If you double-click the bottom button, all open apps appear so you can see them by swiping. If you press and hold one then a red close button appears, and the apps can be closed one by one.
This is a bit tedious. Is there another method to close selected apps, or even a 'task killer' app as there is in Android?

I open the little task thing and get them wiggling, then just tap all the X's, it's pretty quick for me but I only have a handful of apps that I use.

However them running in the background does not consume additional resources, because they're not running, they have a 'save state' which is merely a few kilobytes specifying where you were and what you were doing.

You understand partly wrong. Unless the app has a specific background task, like music or GPS, it is frozen in RAM and consumes almost no power or cpu. The OS will generally remove the app from RAM if the system is running low. Occasionally it is helpful to remove the first few apps in the multitask bar to free up RAM before launching a RAM hungry app. All but last few apps have long ago been removed, and simply have their run state stored for reloading. Most of the time it makes no difference at all.

When I go through the admittedly tedious process of removing all the apps in the multi-task bar it's all about aesthetics. There is no built in way to remove all the apps at once, thought eh Jailbreak community may have a solution.

If you are willing to jailbreak there is a very nice SBSettings toggle to close all background apps with one button press. It is called "RemoveBG".

There is also another one that requires a jailbreak. It's called MultiCleaner.

Originally Posted by saguaro

There is also another one that requires a jailbreak. It's called MultiCleaner.

I had a problem with this one, though: when I started up the ipad from being powered off, my wallpaper was reduced in size and in the upper left corner, the icons were spread apart and missing from the dock. Respringing solved that, but it was a nuisance.

Originally Posted by twerppoet

You understand partly wrong. Unless the app has a specific background task, like music or GPS, it is frozen in RAM and consumes almost no power or cpu. The OS will generally remove the app from RAM if the system is running low. Occasionally it is helpful to remove the first few apps in the multitask bar to free up RAM before launching a RAM hungry app. All but last few apps have long ago been removed, and simply have their run state stored for reloading. Most of the time it makes no difference at all.

When I go through the admittedly tedious process of removing all the apps in the multi-task bar it's all about aesthetics. There is no built in way to remove all the apps at once, thought eh Jailbreak community may have a solution.

Thanks for the explanation, i guess there is no way of quantifying 'almost no power' when to my dismay I have found over 20 apps featuring in the multiple-task bar. I only raised my concern as I am relatively new to Apple, and on my Android phone it is evidently enough of a problem to have several very effective (and free) apps to shut down all selected apps, which can stay selected for each use.
In the absence of an App Store approved app for this purpose can we infer that as you have indicated, it is not really necessary except for aesthetic reasons?

Really no reason to bother killing apps most of the time. Go visit an Apple store and check out one of the demo units. Performance is excellent and they have tons of backgrounded apps running from people trying them out all day.

Originally Posted by pauladev

. . .on my Android phone it is evidently enough of a problem to have several very effective (and free) apps to shut down all selected apps, which can stay selected for each use.

Slightly off topic: If you are running Android 2.2 or higher, you should check out the discussions on Task Killers. You may be hurting yourself there too. Rather than go any further off topic, just ask and I'll send you a personal message with a couple links to look over.

Originally Posted by twerppoet

[ Rather than go any further off topic, just ask and I'll send you a personal message with a couple links to look over.

I am unable to pm you because of the 6 post qualification. Sorry it is off topic but just wanted to send this:

Thanks for your note about the Android Task Killers. I have read those threads on the Android and HTC Forums (Fora?), and have to say that I don't agree with the gainsayers from personal experience.
Once I had installed Advanced Task Killer on my HTC, I found that I had the perception that the battery life was distinctly improved. Nothing scientific about my test, but I have been using it for about 8 months, and have no problem with continuing as the updates are improving.
A free iPad Task Killer would be welcome - even if only for aesthetic reasons!!