Comments on: iPad Revolution http://paulsolt.com/2010/02/ipad-revolution/ Putting the Inc back in Solt since 2005. Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:04:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Paul Solt http://paulsolt.com/2010/02/ipad-revolution/comment-page-1/#comment-1742 Paul Solt Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:54:33 +0000 http://paulsolt.com/?p=420#comment-1742 Good article on multi-tasking: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/02/18/inside_apples_ipad_multitasking.html Good article on multi-tasking: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/02/18/inside_apples_ipad_multitasking.html

]]> By: Paul Solt http://paulsolt.com/2010/02/ipad-revolution/comment-page-1/#comment-1741 Paul Solt Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:16:53 +0000 http://paulsolt.com/?p=420#comment-1741 <a href="#comment-1739" rel="nofollow">@Ziyan Zhou </a> If every app ran in the background, then nothing would be faster. You either put all your power in one app and make it fast, or you slow them all down. There is limited RAM on the device, so you can't keep everything in memory. @Ziyan Zhou
If every app ran in the background, then nothing would be faster. You either put all your power in one app and make it fast, or you slow them all down. There is limited RAM on the device, so you can’t keep everything in memory.

]]> By: Paul Solt http://paulsolt.com/2010/02/ipad-revolution/comment-page-1/#comment-1740 Paul Solt Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:14:26 +0000 http://paulsolt.com/?p=420#comment-1740 Until the application model on the iPhone OS I don't see significant changes to Apple's stance. Maybe iPhone 4.0 will bring those types of changes. Based on other Flash discussions I have read, Apple is most likely avoiding Flash because they don't have control of the source code. If there are bugs then users will have crashing devices and Apple will not have the ability to fix the issue. It makes them rely on a third party to fix the offending code. Avoiding dependencies is a good thing from a software development perspective. In a similar fashion, background 3rd party applications could crash and render a mobile device very slow and unresponsive. Without the "taskbar" interface users would not have the ability to shut down and stop these applications. Thus third party background applications are a bad user experience. It's not that developers can't be trusted, it's that Apple would then have to wait for the developers to fix a bug or Apple would have to remotely disable the unstable application. Neither scenario is good for users. Until the application model on the iPhone OS I don’t see significant changes to Apple’s stance. Maybe iPhone 4.0 will bring those types of changes.

Based on other Flash discussions I have read, Apple is most likely avoiding Flash because they don’t have control of the source code. If there are bugs then users will have crashing devices and Apple will not have the ability to fix the issue. It makes them rely on a third party to fix the offending code. Avoiding dependencies is a good thing from a software development perspective.

In a similar fashion, background 3rd party applications could crash and render a mobile device very slow and unresponsive. Without the “taskbar” interface users would not have the ability to shut down and stop these applications. Thus third party background applications are a bad user experience.

It’s not that developers can’t be trusted, it’s that Apple would then have to wait for the developers to fix a bug or Apple would have to remotely disable the unstable application. Neither scenario is good for users.

]]> By: Ziyan Zhou http://paulsolt.com/2010/02/ipad-revolution/comment-page-1/#comment-1739 Ziyan Zhou Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:48:32 +0000 http://paulsolt.com/?p=420#comment-1739 If developers can be trusted (apparently they cannot be), they can write apps that consumes very little resource while they are "inactive". The memory for the inactive apps can be paged out and the restart up time for an inactive app can be practically eliminated (staring at that splash screen for ~2 seconds between switching is still not good enough). And this quote comes to mind: "No one writes perfect code in the first time, except me ... but there is only one of me ..." If developers can be trusted (apparently they cannot be), they can write apps that consumes very little resource while they are “inactive”. The memory for the inactive apps can be paged out and the restart up time for an inactive app can be practically eliminated (staring at that splash screen for ~2 seconds between switching is still not good enough).

And this quote comes to mind: “No one writes perfect code in the first time, except me … but there is only one of me …”

]]> By: Paul Solt http://paulsolt.com/2010/02/ipad-revolution/comment-page-1/#comment-1738 Paul Solt Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:00:34 +0000 http://paulsolt.com/?p=420#comment-1738 Thanks for the data. The next question would be what are these applications doing? Thanks for the data. The next question would be what are these applications doing?

]]> By: Ziyan http://paulsolt.com/2010/02/ipad-revolution/comment-page-1/#comment-1737 Ziyan Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:31:56 +0000 http://paulsolt.com/?p=420#comment-1737 So after I open preference, I have the following process running: Joes-iPhone:/var/mobile root# ps aux | grep .app root 8040 3.0 0.1 264832 272 s000 R+ 8:30PM 0:00.01 grep .app mobile 8010 0.0 4.1 318508 10608 ?? Ss 8:28PM 0:01.72 /Applications/Preferences.app/Preferences mobile 1595 0.0 26.7 668088 69212 ?? Ss 31Jan10 23:03.81 /Applications/MobileSafari.app/MobileSafari mobile 1337 0.0 2.2 326632 5608 ?? Ss 29Jan10 0:02.43 /Applications/MobileMusicPlayer.app/MobileMusicPlayer mobile 74 0.0 10.4 627828 27056 ?? Ss 25Jan10 8:50.77 /Applications/MobileMail.app/MobileMail mobile 73 0.0 3.5 332556 9176 ?? Ss 25Jan10 1:03.31 /Applications/MobilePhone.app/MobilePhone mobile 32 0.0 9.3 387996 24064 ?? Ss 25Jan10 74:29.88 /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/SpringBoard After I close preference and run Mail, I have the following processes running: Joes-iPhone:/var/mobile root# ps aux | grep .app root 8040 3.0 0.1 264832 272 s000 R+ 8:30PM 0:00.01 grep .app mobile 8010 0.0 4.1 318508 10608 ?? Ss 8:28PM 0:01.72 /Applications/Preferences.app/Preferences mobile 1595 0.0 26.7 668088 69212 ?? Ss 31Jan10 23:03.81 /Applications/MobileSafari.app/MobileSafari mobile 1337 0.0 2.2 326632 5608 ?? Ss 29Jan10 0:02.43 /Applications/MobileMusicPlayer.app/MobileMusicPlayer mobile 74 0.0 10.4 627828 27056 ?? Ss 25Jan10 8:50.77 /Applications/MobileMail.app/MobileMail mobile 73 0.0 3.5 332556 9176 ?? Ss 25Jan10 1:03.31 /Applications/MobilePhone.app/MobilePhone mobile 32 0.0 9.3 387996 24064 ?? Ss 25Jan10 74:29.88 /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/SpringBoard Note the PID of Mail, Safari, iPod stays the same? So after I open preference, I have the following process running:
Joes-iPhone:/var/mobile root# ps aux | grep .app
root 8040 3.0 0.1 264832 272 s000 R+ 8:30PM 0:00.01 grep .app
mobile 8010 0.0 4.1 318508 10608 ?? Ss 8:28PM 0:01.72 /Applications/Preferences.app/Preferences
mobile 1595 0.0 26.7 668088 69212 ?? Ss 31Jan10 23:03.81 /Applications/MobileSafari.app/MobileSafari
mobile 1337 0.0 2.2 326632 5608 ?? Ss 29Jan10 0:02.43 /Applications/MobileMusicPlayer.app/MobileMusicPlayer
mobile 74 0.0 10.4 627828 27056 ?? Ss 25Jan10 8:50.77 /Applications/MobileMail.app/MobileMail
mobile 73 0.0 3.5 332556 9176 ?? Ss 25Jan10 1:03.31 /Applications/MobilePhone.app/MobilePhone
mobile 32 0.0 9.3 387996 24064 ?? Ss 25Jan10 74:29.88 /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/SpringBoard

After I close preference and run Mail, I have the following processes running:
Joes-iPhone:/var/mobile root# ps aux | grep .app
root 8040 3.0 0.1 264832 272 s000 R+ 8:30PM 0:00.01 grep .app
mobile 8010 0.0 4.1 318508 10608 ?? Ss 8:28PM 0:01.72 /Applications/Preferences.app/Preferences
mobile 1595 0.0 26.7 668088 69212 ?? Ss 31Jan10 23:03.81 /Applications/MobileSafari.app/MobileSafari
mobile 1337 0.0 2.2 326632 5608 ?? Ss 29Jan10 0:02.43 /Applications/MobileMusicPlayer.app/MobileMusicPlayer
mobile 74 0.0 10.4 627828 27056 ?? Ss 25Jan10 8:50.77 /Applications/MobileMail.app/MobileMail
mobile 73 0.0 3.5 332556 9176 ?? Ss 25Jan10 1:03.31 /Applications/MobilePhone.app/MobilePhone
mobile 32 0.0 9.3 387996 24064 ?? Ss 25Jan10 74:29.88 /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/SpringBoard

Note the PID of Mail, Safari, iPod stays the same?

]]> By: Paul Solt http://paulsolt.com/2010/02/ipad-revolution/comment-page-1/#comment-1736 Paul Solt Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:43:43 +0000 http://paulsolt.com/?p=420#comment-1736 Mail might be a bad App because it can have "background processes." I don't know how it's implemented under the hood, but I don't think the full Mail program is running. Most likely the "background application" is really just a small process (not a full blown application) periodically checking email. The example still holds, in that to a user there appears to be only one application running at a time. The device is really doing something like "smart multi-tasking." Where Apple decides from a runtime standpoint the applications that should be able to run "components" in the background. Mail might be a bad App because it can have “background processes.” I don’t know how it’s implemented under the hood, but I don’t think the full Mail program is running. Most likely the “background application” is really just a small process (not a full blown application) periodically checking email.

The example still holds, in that to a user there appears to be only one application running at a time. The device is really doing something like “smart multi-tasking.” Where Apple decides from a runtime standpoint the applications that should be able to run “components” in the background.

]]> By: Ziyan http://paulsolt.com/2010/02/ipad-revolution/comment-page-1/#comment-1735 Ziyan Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:01:41 +0000 http://paulsolt.com/?p=420#comment-1735 Would like to point out that the E-mail App is a bad example in this case because it constantly runs in background. Would like to point out that the E-mail App is a bad example in this case because it constantly runs in background.

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