Did anyone notice that Android doesn’t support multitasking?

Posted by Stefan on Monday, November 12th, 2007 at 2:28 pm under Linux

Watching video 2 of “Androidology” called “Application Lifecycle” and this guy is basically saying you can’t multitask. Applications run similar to what the Palm OS had going for it a decade ago. There is no task switcher because that isn’t how Android works. I’m a bit disappointed and I hope I’m proved wrong.


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    • 12 Responses to “Did anyone notice that Android doesn’t support multitasking?”

    • Nop says:
      November 12th, 2007 at 3:33 pm

      Something worse if it’s final: No native application support! Only java apps.

    • JaXX says:
      November 12th, 2007 at 3:50 pm

      This is early access, and a way to keep the platform secure at the very beginning is to keep the apps far from the core system… it’s a first shot again :-)

      As the whole thing is open nothing should prevent anybody of building a closer to core application (look at the layer stacking in the first of the three vids) But that’ll come with a wider release of the whole sdk, this one is high level (but already gives a wide enough subset to start spitting out tools for and BY the masses)

      As for multitasking, it seems to be multitask in a way… it relies alot on state saving/freeing so when calling an app needs ressources, it can “freeze and save” a pausable app… smells pretty Java-ish to me :-) and though I love coffee it’s not my kinda stuff, though I already tried brewing stuff in my Eclipse !

    • JaXX says:
      November 12th, 2007 at 4:15 pm

      The Emulator alone is already fun :-)
      http://jaxx.org/index.php/2007/11/12/android/

    • Will Park says:
      November 12th, 2007 at 4:31 pm

      Looks like it’ll multi-task by way of saving application states as long as there’s enough space for all the processes.

      Still, I expected more.

    • olly says:
      November 12th, 2007 at 4:32 pm

      Make sure that you all aren’t getting Java apps and J2ME apps confused… J2ME apps, like the Gmail app on Symbian/S60 phones, are slow, don’t have as much access to the phone, etc… because they have to be run through a compatibility framework.

      Java apps as native apps, on the other hand, are a much different animal, and would run just like a .sisx on S60 would.

      As for the multitasking thing, that will SUCK if it’s the case… hell, even the freakin Sidekick can multitask.

      -olly

    • Visual Tour of Android’s UI… Sans Multitasking? | Terminal Mobility says:
      November 12th, 2007 at 4:44 pm

      [...] No Multitasking in Android? [...]

    • Antoine of BH/MMM says:
      November 12th, 2007 at 5:15 pm

      Here’s something for you to consider:
      If the OS is designed right, and each of the apps are able to access the data needed independent of the attending apps, then multitasking as desktop OSes have taught is nearly not needed. Combine that along with the ability to correctly save-state, and you have the correct (IMO) paradigm for how to develop mobile applications.

    • ads says:
      November 12th, 2007 at 6:24 pm

      do you even understand the vids stefan? :lol:

    • William says:
      November 12th, 2007 at 6:33 pm

      Will take a lokk on SDK and find out what this is.

    • Stefan Constantinescu says:
      November 13th, 2007 at 12:09 am

      Yea ads, check it out here:

      http://code.google.com/android/intro/lifecycle.html

      quote:

      “An important and unusual feature of Android is that an application process’s lifetime is not directly controlled by the application itself. Instead, it is determined by the system through a combination of the parts of the application that the system knows are running, how important these things are to the user, and how much overall memory is available in the system.”

    • JaXX says:
      November 13th, 2007 at 12:36 am

      It ain’t worse than process killing on Symbian when another app needs to free memory… because on Symbian, you won’t get the same state back. There’s a “Don’t suicide Me” Flag hopefully :-) but well.

    • nooby says:
      November 13th, 2007 at 1:05 pm

      Am I the only one still thinking OpenMoko is still the better Linux platform?

      I agree with Stefan: Nice idea, but the current approach is incomplete. But with Google financing the stuff Android will have some time to mature.

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