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Saturday, June 12th, 2010
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 | Posted by Editor - Blog News Service

Apple seeks iOS-4-ready, multitasking-enabled apps

Apple seeks iOS-4-ready, multitasking-enabled apps

Apple seeks iOS-4-ready, multitasking-enabled apps

A little more than a week ahead of the expected release of the latest version of the iPhone OS, Apple is opening the floodgates to applications that take advantage of the latest iOS 4 features. Topping the list, of course: multitasking.

TechCrunch reports that Apple has fired off a series of e-mails to developers, inviting them to submit their iOS-4-compliant apps to the App Store for review before June 21, the slated release date for the new OS.

Though the big new feature in iOS 4 is multitasking for third-party iPhone apps, the only apps that’ll be multitasking come June 21 are those that have already been updated with the proper code, as Pocket-lint pointed out in a recent post. So it could be “a very long time” before your favorite app is updated for iOS 4’s multitasking capabilities, Pocket-lint warns.

Well, perhaps, although TechCrunch counters that “it’s not that hard” to add the needed code to existing apps: Some of the most popular iPhone apps (including Pandora and Foursquare) were showing off their multitasking capabilities at the WWDC demo area after Steve Jobs’ iPhone keynote Monday. Guess we’ll find out soon enough.

Another thing to keep in mind when it comes to iOS’s multitasking features: In order to preserve battery life, not all apps will be allowed to run wild in the background.

As Jobs explained back in April, music, VoIP and location-tracking apps will be allowed to keep select processes running while you’re in another app. For example, you’ll be able to crank tunes on Pandora while you’re browsing the Web, or take a Skype call while scanning Google Maps. Location-focused apps like Loopt will also be able to track your position (only if you so choose, of course) while you’re otherwise occupied.

Other apps will go into a “suspended” mode that saves their state when you switch from one app to another. Ideally, that means if you’re, say, busy landing airplanes in Flight Control and you want to quickly check your e-mail, you’ll be able to double-tap the Home key, switch to the e-mail app, and return to Flight Control (suspended in the background while you were checking your messages) exactly where you left off.

Again, however, that’s assuming developers have added the necessary multitasking “hooks” to their apps. It’s encouraging to hear from TechCrunch that it’s “not that hard,” but I’m just hoping that developers submit — and Apple approves — their updated apps with all due speed.

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