iFunia News Blog

With iPad preorders officially starting tomorrow, attention has shifted to iPhone 4.0 software and what features it might bring to both the iPad and future iPhone models.

Apple Insider is now adding fuel to the long-standing rumors that the next big update to Apple’s iPhone OS will feature support for multitasking — that is, the ability for third-party apps to run in the background.

As anyone with a jailbroken iPhone knows, the multitasking limitation for third-party applications in the iPhone OS is purely artificial. Whether it is for security purposes, performance or battery life, Apple has chosen not to allow third-party developers (or even third-party Apple created apps) to run concurrently in the background.

Push notifications have mitigated some of the need for many use cases for multitasking — but it’s not a true solution.

According to  the report, that’s going to change this summer. Apple will introduce a “full-on solution” to multitasking in version 4.0 of the iPhone operating system. Details are slim, but multi-tasking (a.k.a. background) apps are allowed to run after the home button is pressed (which currently quits most apps). Only a limited number of (mostly Apple) apps allowed to run in the background, including  Calendar, Clock Mail, iPod, Messages, Nike+, Phone and Voice Recorder.

But questions that remain once Apple flips the multitask switch:

• How the iPhone will conserve resources and battery life
• How the interface will manage notifications and switching between apps
• If there will be a limit to how many apps a user can have open
• What part push alerts will play now that apps can run in the background

One of the most requested features for the iPhone, multitasking has been falsely rumored to arrive on Apple’s handset numerous times (1, 2, 3) over the last year, but never came to be.