The iPhone and iPad are beautiful trailblazers, but as things stand right now, they lack something alot of their rivals boast: multitasking support, even for third party apps. But a new report claims the expected iPhone 4.0 OS update will finally open them up to run whatever apps you want, whenever you like, simultaneously. Huzzah!
According to AppleInsider, citing sources with a “proven track record”, Apple’s iPhone 4.0 software will allow for full multitasking, something companies such as Palm with webOS, and Nokia with Maemo 5, have used as selling points for their smartphone rivals to the iPhone and the iPad.
Currently, the iPhone OS powering the iPhone and iPad is capable of multitasking, but only allows for core applications to run in the background. Any thing downloaded from the App Store closes when you press the home button, and while push notification alerts for closed apps have made instant messaging a lot easier, there’s still no way to listen to Spotify, say, while browsing the web, as you can on Android.
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It’s not clear at this point how multitasking on the iPhone and the iPad would be implemented, or what impact on battery life and performance it might have, but we’re very interested to see what Apple can come up with, though unfortunately no launch date for a new iPhone OS is mentioned. Could a multitasking iPhone 4 beat the HTC Legend? Fingers crossed.
Out TBC | £TBC | Apple (Via AppleInsider)
