iPhone OS 4 jailbreak available, enables multitasking on 3G

arstechnica.com

19 points·ktf··4 comments

I noticed none of the apps were very 'heavy'. Could Apple be concerned that with the 3G opening much larger apps (games, Safari, Skype, etc.) significantly slow the 3G down? Maybe someone who is willing to try the jailbreak can enlighten us.

If you've got limited RAM (which is the main problem with the 3G) you won't be able to multitask as many applications. A big game might knock out all the other apps.

However, I don't see this as a problem. You own a 3G, you know it's limited. Why not just have slightly more limited multitasking? It is supposed to seamlessly handle this sort of thing anyway.

I would be curious if the device is really unusable with, say, Pandora open and trying to surf the web. But if it can handle that, then I think Apple is probably just trying to force people to upgrade.

I don't think forcing people to upgrade is the big factor in not supporting multitasking on the 3G - its got a lot todo with creating a consistant experience and not spending money it would take to support multitasking on hardware they don't even sell anymore.

Why would it take more money to support multitasking on the 3G? It's probably the exact same OS with the "support-multitasking" switch turned off. And how would that hurt the consistent experience? It's quite likely that in few months they'll be releasing a new iPhone that multitasks even better than the 3GS.

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