[iPhone SDK] Only One iPhone Application Can Run at a Time...

[RiqTosh]

Users can only run one application at a time, and if they leave an application it quits. That doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it means that you can’t switch away from an application and have it continue to do things. That’s a big issue with the current support for websites on the iPhone - as soon as you leave the browser the connection is broken. With the iPhone, the hope was that an installed application could continue to run in the background and, most usefully, gather and send information from and to the web.

Only one iPhone application can run at a time, and third-party applications never run in the background. This means that when users switch to another application, answer the phone, or check their email, the application they were using quits. (p. 16)

This will be a serious problem for some developers. For example, say a developer wanted to take location information from the iPhone (created via the iPhones cellular triangulation feature) and dump it into FireEagle to keep track of where you’ve been. Well, that won’t work unless you keep the application open at all times, and don’t use the iPhone for anything other than that. Another example: instant messaging applications (we saw a demo of an AIM version at the event today), can’t run in the background and collect messages while you are doing something else. Leave the application to take a phone call, and it shows you offline. The bottom line is - any application that wants to periodically interact with the web to do stuff, won’t be able to on a continual basis.

Perhaps future versions of the iPhone, with additional CPU and memory resources, won’t have this limitation. But for now, whole classes of applications are useless, or are significantly less useful than they otherwise would be.

Source (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/07/iphone-sdk-some-of-the-details-arent-great/)

The AIM thing is a big disappointment. Not sure how taxing an AIM application can be while you do other thing with the phone. I can understand that once a call comes in the EDGE connection drops, but shouldn't you be able to use other apps that are not EDGE dependent while you have a session of AIM (or any other client) running?

[question.com]

im also disappointed about that. whats the damn point in having aim, if you can only use it while the app is open? i really hope they change thier minds about that

[xcesivemastub8ah]

what's the damn point of being older than 12 and having a penis if you're still going to use "IM" and cry when you cant get it on your phone?

[wlp5]

Well, I'm sure a way will be found to allow it/hack it.

I can understand Apple's point though. Just look around in this forum, tons of people are installing apps or messing up the phones because they are trying to install or do things over their heads without having a basic understanding. One of the "feautures" of OSX is that it is much harder to install and have running all sorts of crap. Result? A much faster and more stable OS (true, that's not the only reason but it's still an important one). It's easily conceivable that people would start bashing apple and the iphone for being too slow or not working properly after they installed a bunch of crap and couldn't figure out the difference between a background process and a terminated app. Especially, since they predict thousands of apps , most of them propably not coded in the best way.

Anyway, I'm sure a hack will come along to allow those that want to run apps in the background to achieve it. Installer will probably survive and be the place to get these sort of apps.

[SaberSHO]

Well, especialy with AIM, there are ways around the problem. AIM already works with txt messages, so its not impossible to have a split delivery system: if the app is on, then you recieve via wifi/edge, if the app is off, it would recieve as a txt and open the AIM app automatically or something like that. There woud need to be a setting to "keep you available" or something like that.

It is definatly a limitation, but im sure that they will have thought of a way around it, especially for the AIM application.

just my thoughts anyway.

[)law(]

I am a bit dissapointed awith aim but when I think about it I only use the appllo app to see who's online and then I shut it down because I have aol just say that my phones online so who ever wants to message me can. If anything we should be mad about mms or copy and paste

[question.com]

what's the damn point of being older than 12 and having a penis if you're still going to use "IM" and cry when you cant get it on your phone?

so only little kids use aim huh? grow the fuck up

[cab_]

this evening i was entering some stuff in the calendar on the iphone, then a call came though answer it. after the conversation i return back to the calendar to carry on typing more stuff. i cannot belive the info i type before the call had gone.

its the same as it is now ... and it be with sdk apps

how dumb

[Zf_]

I'd advise to take that with a large grain of salt - they are just guidelines, and I've seen sub-optimal (to be kind) parts of UI guidelines for other platforms such as Windows Mobile where it's officially forbidden to quit an application (orly ?), and well, those parts are worth approximately as much as the paper they have been printed on :D we've already seen that the system can handle background applications anyway, so it's not a hard limitation (unlike the typical phone Java VM)

[xcesivemastub8ah]

so only little kids use aim huh? grow the fuck up

little "girls" to be more specific......

[fuiyo]

but how come all these apps still run on my 1.1.4,

maybe it differs, some apps dont need this,

while some need, for instance iPod & safari =)

[iloveqtchickz]

I'm sure there are way to have apps run in the background, as MobileScrobbler is a prime example as it continually runs in the background as it collects information. On top of that the SDK allows you to dig deep into its 4 prime layers, including its Power Management core allowing to keep edge on if you wish to do so while AIM is running in the background. Its the same tools Apple uses so I'm sure people will find a way to get it running as its only been released for 2 days... Jumping to conclusions already is a mistake.

[MattCairns]

I'm sure there are way to have apps run in the background, as MobileScrobbler is a prime example as it continually runs in the background as it collects information. On top of that the SDK allows you to dig deep into its 4 prime layers, including its Power Management core allowing to keep edge on if you wish to do so while AIM is running in the background. Its the same tools Apple uses so I'm sure people will find a way to get it running as its only been released for 2 days... Jumping to conclusions already is a mistake.



And mobilescrobbler is easily one of the best applications!

[wlp5]

And mobilescrobbler is easily one of the best applications!

... and one of the best made, settings in the settings area of the phone, never crashes, caches songs to send them over wifi whenever it finds it instead of edge and other minor details. I am very impressed by that app.