I have been getting to know IOS4 on my iPhone 4 for the last 24 hours now.  For the most part, I am very pleased.  I have been lucky enough to have not experienced any of the screen or antenna issues others have been seeing.

I have mixed feelings about how Apple has implemented multitasking.  I love that I can multitask natively.  For at least the past year, I have been using Backgrounder on my jailbroken 3GS and have loved it.  To be honest, I actually prefer the way Backgrounder implements multitasking.  At a single press of your home button, you are in control of whether or not you want to kill the app or keep it in memory.  This is one of my gripes about IOS4 multitasking.

Too Many Steps To Kill An App

I am a Systems Administrator by day.  I am all about efficient systems.  The same goes for my phone.  There are times where it is very beneficial to keep an application in memory as to not loose your settings/input or just to play Pandora in the background while you do other tasks.  However, when I am done with and app, I am done.  I want it out of memory.  To do this with IOS4, I need to:

- double tap the home button
- tap and hold one of the app icons until they get jiggy-with-it
- tap the minus sign on the app I want to kill

Apple could learn a thing or two from Backgrounder.  With Backgrounder, it is simple:

- If I want to background an app, I hold the home button down (a few seconds) until it tells me that backgrounding is enabled.
- When I want to disable backgrounding, I open the app and hold the home button down (again, a few seconds) until it tells me backgrounding is disabled.
- If I want to exit an app and not background it at all, I just tap the home button as normal.

What Apps Do I Have Running?

I am still getting used to using the double tap of the home button to navigate through my already running applications.  But how exactly do I know what is running without double tapping home first?  How many apps can I have running in the background?  When does IOS4 determine when to shutdown an app to make room for another.

What I am finding is that I am double tapping home button only to find that the app I want isn't in the background, so I have to go to the home screen anyway to access the application I wanted in the first place.  That is too many steps in my opinion.

Apps Have To Be Coded Specifically To Utilize IOS4 Multitasking

I get why Apple does this.  They have waited to implement multitasking until it can be done in an efficient manner.  I would whole heartedly agree that their implementation is by far the best I have seen on a phone.  Most phones (particlulary WinMo and Android) will put so many applications in the background the the phone gets sluggish to the point of not being able to make or answer phone calls.  Eventually, either the app or the phone just crashes.  IOS4 does not do this.  But, in order to resume a backgrounded application where you left off, you need to code your application to utilize this feature.  This isn't necessarilly a bad thing.  It does mean however that until your favorite applications get up to speed with multitasking, you will have interesting behavior when going in and out of that app.

All in all, I am happy with IOS4 on the iPhone 4.  I have tested and used numerous devices in an enterprise environment over the past six years.  It is nice to have a phone that just works and works well (with sincere apologies to those who have screen and antenna issues :-) ).

-boogybren