RIM to launch "Playbook" to "rival iPad"

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by yads

How about apps needing to rely on push notifications. Ie an IM app can't poll for new messages. How about automated sync in the background (eg. Astrid can sync your tasks with Remember The Milk). You guys seriously can't think of situations in which background work might be a good thing? There's a reason we're not all still using a single process OS on our PCs, why be limited on our portable devices?

IM apps can run and receive messages in the background on the iPhone. I think you need more research.

[Barnes]

How long could it possibly take a to do list to sync with Remember the Milk that it would require running in the background?

[yads]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

IM apps can run and receive messages in the background on the iPhone. I think you need more research.

That's right, if they use push notifications. As far as list syncing i'm not talking about it taking a long time, I'm talking about it running completely in the background with no need to manually open it. Multitasking is all about having services running in the background that may at times wake up and do something useful.

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by yads

That's right, if they use push notifications. As far as list syncing i'm not talking about it taking a long time, I'm talking about it running completely in the background with no need to manually open it. Multitasking is all about having services running in the background that may at times wake up and do something useful.

Mmm... kay?

Have you actually used iOS?

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by yads

That's right, if they use push notifications. As far as list syncing i'm not talking about it taking a long time, I'm talking about it running completely in the background with no need to manually open it. Multitasking is all about having services running in the background that may at times wake up and do something useful.

Again, your research is lacking.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Oh good, another non-apple thread that is now an apple thread. With the usual suspect as the culprit.

[Ducay]

Yads, don't worry, FanIn80 is just the apple equivalent of mykalberta.

Of course there is nothing that apple's "multitasking" cant do
There is obviously no reason that the homebrew community has made scores of multitasking apps. Nope, no reason. iOS is perfect. All hail herr Jobs.

Come on now, there are tons of limitations to iOS's multitasking (SMS, background services, steaming music(I know Pandora can stream now) ). Yes, some of the API's provided in iOS4 touch on these, but its still horridly limited.

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

Oh good, another non-apple thread that is now an apple thread. With the usual suspect as the culprit.

There are other people in this conversation beside me, jackass. Stop being a dick. I didn't even start any of this either.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by yads

That's right, if they use push notifications. As far as list syncing i'm not talking about it taking a long time, I'm talking about it running completely in the background with no need to manually open it. Multitasking is all about having services running in the background that may at times wake up and do something useful.

Why do you need a list syncing in the background? How is that “useful”? If it’s not onscreen you can’t see or access the contents anyways.

I use SimpleNote to handle hundreds of notes, and Omnifocus, which handles what is probably approaching 1000 tasks across six clients, plus home stuff.

These two apps sync within a second or two of launch on wifi, within 3-5 seconds on 3G.

Finally, if you have a list app that is syncing with the cloud, that cloud service could easily deliver push notifications if you really needed that list kept up to date in real time.

This example of a requirement for standalone multitasking makes no sense to me.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

Oh good, another non-apple thread that is now an apple thread. With the usual suspect as the culprit.

The irony of course, being that the Playbook was compared to the iPad in this thread, rather than being discussed on its own merits, followed by an inaccurate description of the capabilities offered in iOS for background processing.

It’s also hilarious that ANY of us are talking about the Playbook - the videos of this device are just that, made up videos. RIM hasn’t shown this running on any hardware ANYWHERE.

Right now the whole thing is nothing but a fancy marketing video set to a soundtrack.

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by Ducay

Yads, don't worry, FanIn80 is just the apple equivalent of mykalberta.

Of course there is nothing that apple's "multitasking" cant do
There is obviously no reason that the homebrew community has made scores of multitasking apps. Nope, no reason. iOS is perfect. All hail herr Jobs.

Come on now, there are tons of limitations to iOS's multitasking (SMS, background services, steaming music(I know Pandora can stream now) ). Yes, some of the API's provided in iOS4 touch on these, but its still horridly limited.

Hyperbole aside, how is it limited? With apps fully running in the background or only certain services running with local and server push, the end results are the exact same except one is more efficient in the mobile space.

[Torture]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

The irony of course, being that the Playbook was compared to the iPad in this thread, rather than being discussed on its own merits, followed by an inaccurate description of the capabilities offered in iOS for background processing.

It’s also hilarious that ANY of us are talking about the Playbook - the videos of this device are just that, made up videos. RIM hasn’t shown this running on any hardware ANYWHERE.

Right now the whole thing is nothing but a fancy marketing video set to a soundtrack.

Yeah. We're CRAAAAZY to talk about the Playbook after RIM makes an announcement telling us what it's specs and whatnot will be.

[sclitheroe]

Let’s re-frame the multitasking discussion this way:

Look at your PC in front of you right now. Which applications are running, that are actively doing calculations or work of some kind? Which applications are simply there, waiting to respond to external stimulus that could be provided by OS or server push notification rather than the polling they probably use today?

Me:
- Browser. Idle in background unless downloading a file
- Mail. Receives push notification via Exchange, idle otherwise
- Calendar. Idle until it needs to notify me of an event
- Contacts. Idle until I need it
- Word. Idle until I need it
- iTunes. Playing music in background
- MSN, OCS, and Skype messenging apps - idle until incoming notification
- Omnifocus task organizer - idle until I need it or it alerts me to an event
- Notational Velocity - idle, syncs every minute with SimpleNote
- Terminal window. Idle at present, but needs background processing when running commands
- Remote Desktop windows (3x) - needs background processing to retain the session (although it could technically disconnect and reconnect if needed with no loss of session server-side)


When I look at that list of stuff running on my laptop currently, every single app there could have its needs met with the API provided by iOS. None of these apps have any pressing need to run threads of execution in the background. A quick glance at Activity Monitor shows that most, if not all of these apps are already not consuming any CPU at present.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Torture

Yeah. We're CRAAAAZY to talk about the Playbook after RIM makes an announcement telling us what it's specs and whatnot will be.

They’ve told you what they want it to be, not what is currently built. Or did you believe all the hype about Windows Vista before it came out too?

[McG]

the playbook ticked alot of tech demo boxes; no home runs but lots of hardware and software singles and doubles that, properly deployed and executed, will be a credible tool in the office marketplace.

now...will it deliver all of that, battery life, and at a competitive price? that's the challenge. and speaking of challenge...

due to the delay from announcement to delivery, every competitor out there will have the opportunity to, at a minimum, benchmark...and i expect them all to exceed that in the next 6 months.

you know what i want? lots of ram. lots of processing. lots of battery. heh. and then i will move away from the laptop.

[Flames0910]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

Oh good, another non-apple thread that is now an apple thread. With the usual suspect as the culprit.

Erm, it's more of a "how should multi-tasking be handled on a mobile/portable device where battery life is in issue" discussion.

Just because we've always done it one way doesn't mean it's right. Because mobiles are building operating systems from the ground up we have a new opportunity to check what works and what doesn't.

I think it makes sense for the cloud service to push notifications and the device to receive. Less work on your device means better battery life. Let the powerhouse server with dedicated power do the lifting.