iPhone multi-tasking concept borrows heavily from webOS 43
Tue, 13 Oct 2009 4:14 pm EDT
[ youtube link ]
If you thought the activity cards metaphor used to manage multitasking on webOS was unique, think again, as it could very easily be looked at as an extension of Apple’s iTunes-originated Cover Flow. While we do fully believe that webOS was not developed with an eye on the less-than-spectacular iTunes interface, there’s no denying the flipping through items aspect that bridges Cover Flow and webOS.
With Cover Flow already a part of the music app on the iPhone, it seems like an only logical step to extend it to handle multitasking apps in a similar manner to webOS, as Ocean Observations thought. In fact, with the exception of the Coverflow Interface and ringed app icons, the whole affair is remarkably similar to that of webOS, right down to dragging/tossing apps off the browser to close them. While we as webOS supporters rather like the concept and find it very familiar, we’d like to think that if Apple were to pursue multitasking on the iPhone that they’d take it in a direction all their own. The iPhone OS is quite intuitive, so let’s not muddy the waters by stealing concepts from your [perceived] strongest competitor.
[via: Mobile Crunch, via: The iPhone Blog]
43 Comments
Well, in that case, webOS multi-tasking originated with the mechanical page-flipping in jukeboxes.
tisk... tisk... I guess if you cant beat them copy them
Oh, c'mon! Good for me, but not for thee?
How many things did pre "copy" from iPhone?
* pinch to zoom
* gestures
* multi-touch capacitive touch screen
If apple does this, good for them. We in the pre community really have nothing to complain about copying.
The Pre did not copy these things buddy, because Apple did not invent them!! Pinch to zoom, gestures, and multitouch UI screen were around years before the iPhone!! Why do you think Apple is currently being sued by a Taiwanese company over multitouch technology!! Luckily, Palm's multitouch technology is different. http://www.pcworld.com/article/162821/apple_slapped_with_multitouch_laws...
Thanks!
Ok, but that misses the point entirely. WebOS copied many features from other providers after they were determined to be market successes. Now it's suddenly not OK that apple does the same?
This is a step in the right direction for the iPhone, but Apple would never do like this, because it is vastly different from anything the iPhone has been, from a UI-standpoint. Look at how cluttered the interface would be, with the tiny cover flow thumbnails AND icons all of the top of screen. How could anyone find that attractive or user friendly? I mean, with Pre, you can go to the cardview and REALLY view everything in each card just like it was maximized to single-cardview, unlike this demo. Apple would never change iPhone this drastically unless they completely reinvent iPhone to be an ACTUAL multitasking device.
Windows Aero anyone???
Rolodex???
Spiral Notebook???
Deck of Cards???
All the same idea IMO.
if WebOS copied how mobile safari handled Tabs, how can Apple be copying WebOS, furthermore this is a concept from a company and has nothing to do w/ Apple.
How iPhone handles webpage tabs are HIGHLY different that WebOSs card system. For example, if you switch from one "tab" to another in iPhone, the tab must then be reloaded/refreshed when switching back to it. The tabs are not really running full-tilt simultaneously, like WebOS card-apps! Huge difference. Plus, the card view of the Pre is it's home-base screen, which is vastly more interactive than Safari's tab-view. Just because you see thumbnails in one OS, and thumbnails in another doesn't mean they copied from each other!
And what does the fact that pages refresh have to do with the design of the UI? Hate to break it to ya but Webos's deck of cards UI is lifted stright from mobile Safari and works exactly the same way from a UI perspective.
ha, now everybody think that they had some sore of multitasking before but they didn't even know it.. (that's pure jelaousy)
if they did, why they never implemented it
Apple most likely wouldnt do this because it would begin to lag like our pres do when you have multiple cards and or background apps open.
That would then become a detractor from the device or could even cause it to lag more especially since everything is very large objective c code.
Interesting concept though... Now apple fanboys can say that apple had multitasking abilities first.
But is this true multi-tasking or just another look alike with screen shots that don't actually do anything. The iPhone has had the ability to play music in the background for a while, nice attempt at a demo.
Looks like a poor imitation to me...
FAIL!!
I think this is just a concept. Nothing real. An imagining of what multitasking on iPhone OS could look like. Not anything that exists in software anywhere.
Do the apps that are not in focus continue to run in the background? If not, that is not multi-tasking. That is task-switching.
no-where near the cleanliness of WebOs..& lets not forget Notifications; all is visible in WebOs. Nonetheless, Palm should take this as a warning shot, and beef the updated with more "to par" smartphone features (video, memo rec, message FWs, etc) and official fixes (Memory cap, tethering, :-) etc..). Point is; Palm could take over at anytime....the Pre has the hardware and the OS to do it. Palm just needs to tie up the loose ends fast as possible.
Take it to em' Palm :-)
The thing is that palm needs to do it in stages. What they dont want is to spiral out of control doing what IBM does and throw money at everything. A controlled development process is much better, money wise and defect wise.
here,here!
the iPhone would lag much more. iPhone apps though they rin smooth due to one app at a time buta cocoa apps use a lot more resources than javascript/CSS/HTML. I think the video looks good and I would love to try it. The Pre needs a speed bump for sure. Scrolling is too skippy and there can be a lot of lag at times. It is the same OMAP3 as the 3GS so it is a flaw in the OS. I hope it can be fixed soon. Either way I'll buy the Pre 2 if it has an OMAP 4 or snapdragon or tegra :) I would be so excited.
iPhone and multitasking... hahaha. Good luck getting that from Apple. People have been asking for multitasking on iPhone from day one.. and what does Apple deliver... a lame a** push notification. Palm did copy a few parts of cover flow but it took it a level up and delivered something intuitive and something customers desired.
What did Apple do at this last iPhone release... again a lame a** chip upgrade. People were asking for HD screen and a iPhone nano which would be the same size as regular iphone but with smaller circuit board leaving more space for battery.
Apple obviously doesnt want to give people what they need. I am happy with Palm which has an array of phones coming ... giving me a great choice among its devices(and carriers in a few months)
I am not sure that is true, the idea is much more than cover view, they could have come up with it, using a.... umm
Deck of cards.
I've been saying it all along: if Apple ever releases a multitasking phone like this, they'll act like they invented it, just like cut and paste... and everyone will be like "WOW, do ou see what the iPhone can do?! This is cutting edge!"
... Sadly, iPhone will no doubt do a MUCH better job at marketing something like this than Palm did.
wtf...this worries me quite a bit.
one of pre's major advantages are/were the card feature for multi-task...could this hurt pre sales?? oh before anyone says ... yeah i know that was a demo and not released by apple ... however, do we really think apple isn't thinking about implementing a feature like this?? question is, can the current hardware support it? if so, do we see a iphone 3gSS in the making?
on that note, when is the pre camera going to be able to shoot the video?
The Pre and WebOS have only been around for 4 months (June, July, August, September... yeah, 4). We are only on 1.2.1. Palm has said repeatedly that they will be adding video capture and a slew of new features in the future and by the end of the year, to be more specific. Don't be so fickle, why would a multitasking iPhone bother you? Did you see a keyboard attached to it? Did you see SYNERGY demo-ed? Did you see quick launch bar demo-ed? Did you see a notification and dashboard? I could go on and on. The iPhone has a long way to go to catch up to Pre when it comes to OS and UI functionality, while Palm and Pre continue to better themselves.
"Did you see SYNERGY demo-ed?"
who cares about synergy? a possibility to synchronize my data on the phone with the ones on my pc would be of much more help -- at least for me.
Am i on the right webs site. is this iphonecentral.net. They talk about the iphone or itunes more then the pre up here. come the f**k on. who cares.
you're right,buddy! My phone is a Preeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
I read an article that iphone will not pursue multitasking due to life batterie, well I guess they changed their mind.
EEEEUUUUUU
Reminds me of vista...
Okay,
I know that this is not from apple, but it's a good concept design. HOWEVER Apple will make themselves look like Jackasses with the fact that for 3 versions of the iPhone OS, they were asked to put in multi-tasking. But apple failed to deliver that because they believe in Push Notifications. They did "extensive research" with the differences of multi-tasking vs push notifications and they are going for the push, thus putting down multi-tasking.
This is very typical of Apple to put down one technology to favor another... PowerPC vs Intel anybody? Then looked what happened... they ditched PowerPC, slapped an Intel CPU and started marketting how much faster their OS is when they were doing power/number wars against Intel all this time.
I know I'm trailing off here, but Apple is totally hypocritical if they decide to go with multi-tasking.
this is not nearly as slick as webOS. and we all know before the iphone there was the treo 300 and 350 that looks just like a iphone with a cover with multi-touch and a virtual keyboard and internet. i will post a picture on twitter. but i am really sick of the itunes/pre battle. they need to have their own video/tv/music store. partner with netflix and rhapsody that would solve a lot of problems.
i'm just sayin'...
Funny, I've been using multi-tasking on my jailbroken iPhone OS for sometime now. Using an app called "Backgrounder" it's rather simple. You hold the home button for 2 seconds until a notification "Backgrounding Enabled" comes up. The app then "minimizes" with a little black circle next to its icon and runs in the background.
There's one big problem with this though: PERFORMANCE. The iPhone OS and hardware just aren't built to run more than 2-3 apps simultaneously. If you start running more than that, the OS just bogs down horrendously. Without more memory, the phone simply can't do it, no matter what software interface you slap on it. I must admit though, this is a sexy concept.
never going to happen - apple's design philosophy has always been simplicity almost to the point of ridiculousness. I don't see that changing any time soon.
I'm not slamming them, I know why they do it and they do it effectively. They design simple user interfaces that everyone can use
Is this the best they can come with? "Multitasking in the Youtube" It is a lame-duck, a dirty patch job.
My phone is a Preeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Uh, IDIOTS --- the iPhone already multi-tasks its core apps (about 7 of them). It's just clunky to switch between them using the home button and icon. But the apps are all running live in the background, and the OS has had this multi-tasking support from day one. In addition to the core apps, there are dozens of other UNIX daemons and processes also running in the background.
Adding a cover-flow interface on top of the multi-tasking would be trivial.
Also, there was an erroneous comment above that tabs in iPhone Safari are not live, but they *are* kept alive and active as long as memory allows. You can have multiple web apps and pages running within Safari this way.
The lack of iPhone multi-tasking is the worst myth perpetuated on this site.
Thats like saying "PalmOS plays music in the background, therefore its a multi-tasking system". Errr no. Just because Apple allows core apps to run in the background doesn't mean its multi-tasking system. When any app can be run in the background, then it will be. Right now it seems to be PalmOS Style of saved state programs.
ahhh good ol' days with pTunes :D
But yeah, i agree with LupeV, i wouldnt call PalmOS a multi tasking OS only because it can have alarms or music running in background... thats what it is, background.
I don't know what all the fuss is about the i Phone is not a phone ? Its a toy with high cool factor.
Dear Apple
Yes you are cool but stick to iPods and Computers , leave the Smartphones to the Smart people !
I am so over the iPhone....
Dear Palm
We all love the Pre even though some of us don't have one yet (ME!) but when you launch your new device please ensure it kills the iPhone once and for all !
Apparently what's good for the touchscreen mobile is good for the desktop. Check out the video of the 10/gui concept and tell me if you see no similarities...
http://10gui.com/video/
ATTENTION
FOR DOES OF YOU THAT DONT KNOW!!!!
the guy that Made the palm pre .. ALSO invented the Ipod/Iphone
He left apple and Perchased PALM with Bano ( w/e ) the guy from U2
they fired haff the palm staff N hired new programers right out of school
SO YEAH!~!! shit might look alike! lol
PS: the plam pre is a much better and reliable phone then the Icrap
I like precentral. I appreciate the news I get from this site. But seriously, reading through these comments is sad. It's. A. Phone. If you guys are developers at Palm or Apple, have at it hoss. But if you're some sad lonely person sitting in your one bedroom apartment, playing with your new phone, please, go outside.