

Can a Palm Pre multitask better than an iPhone? - Corrado
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10234043-94.html

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demallien
Good grief. If I read one more article based on 'X multitasks better than the
iPhone', I think I am going to scream.

None of the iPhone competitors pack much more under the bonnet than the
iPhone, at least when talking about Mb and MHz. The iPhone already has trouble
just running a computationally intensive task (such as a 3D game) with the
background system tasks running. It also has problems with battery life as
these apps go through the juice. Hands up everyone that has put the iPhone in
sleep mode whilst there is a 3rd party app running, which decides to not
actually stop running? You go back and find that you have barely any battery
left. How often do you think that is going to happen to people when they are
running _multiple_ apps?

I have not seen anywhere any indication whatsoever that Palm has solved these
limitations. If a user truly does decide to run several apps in the
background, we have every reason to believe that they will have a dog of an
experience, in terms of responsiveness of the system, and battery life.
Unless, as I have already said, Palm has found a way to build a system that is
an order of magnitude more lightweight than iPhone OS, and nobody seems to be
saying that.

~~~
jemmons
Agreed. Keeping in mind that what we know of WebOS suggests it's just a
presentation layer on top of webkit and making the assumption that palm's
"core apps" that provide services to lesser apps are of the same scope and
resource usage as iPhone's background tasks, it seems we ought to be able to
get a performance ballpark just by opening multiple pages in Mobile Safari.

For those who haven't tried it, this doesn't work so well after 5 pages or so.
And that's with static pages. Imagine if those pages were IM apps constantly
polling the server for updates or youtube apps trying to stream movies?
Certainly, I would assume palm's spent a lot of time optimizing this path
that's (comparatively) unimportant to Apple. But I can't figure how that would
buy anything more than incremental improvements. I've yet to see anything
magic or revolutionary in their approach that leads me to believe they've
cracked this basic limitation.

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pieter
>WebOS applications will be created with standard Web development tools such
as CSS, JavaScript, and HTML that run on a version of the Webkit engine. This
doesn't mean they are "Web applications," which require a connection to the
Internet to work. It does, however, mean they are (in general) more
lightweight and less-resource intensive than iPhone applications, which are
developed using the Objective-C programming language.

This is the first I've heard of that. I'm not saying it's not true, but
Objective-C I wouldn't call Objective-C more resourceful than something
running in a browser without having numbers to back me up. Anyone know if this
is true?

~~~
vizard
My guess is that the reverse is likely more true.

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catone
What matters most to me in my decision to get a Pre or stick with the iPhone
is carrier. I will never switch to Sprint.

But I did switch to AT&T from Verizon to get an iPhone. I'd switch back in a
second if Verizon either got the iPhone or the Pre (assuming the Pre offers a
user experience 90% as good as the iPhone -- which _appears_ very possible,
maybe even likely -- and there are apps to replace the ones I use daily... I
could use my iPod Touch for games if I really missed them).

If Verizon got both phones then, well, I'd have to see what the user
experience was like on the Pre then make a decision. But if Sprint remains my
only option for a Pre, no deal. The last rumors I heard were that their
exclusivity was only 6 months... which makes me hopeful.

The thing that worries me most about the Pre experience is that as far as I
know there is no virtual keyboard. A physical keyboard is a huge plus in my
mind, but that means no keyboard available in landscape mode, which is kind of
crummy.

~~~
Corrado
I've never really had crummy service with any provider. Both T-Mobile and AT&T
have been fine with me, forgiving the price gouging that occurs with all
providers. The prospect of switching to Sprint is not a big deal for me. I
just make the payment to someone else and I get to keep my phone number. Meh.

However, I will say that I would like to be on Verizon for the simple fact
that almost everyone I know is on Verizon and I could get by with a 25
minute/month plan. :)

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Corrado
This article highlights some of the problems with Palm's design but I don't
see it as a serious limitation for my typical daily use pattern.

As I understand it, quite a few people like to play games on their iPhone and
they worry about battery life. I don't. I find that games work much better on
my console attached to my 50" plasma TV and I generally keep my iPhone in the
charger while I'm at work. So as long as the battery lasts 24-48 hours, I'm
good.

On the other hand multitasking and notifications are two things that I really
find annoying on the iPhone and would go pretty far to make it work. Even so
far as ditching the iPhone for a Pre. Besides, everyone has an iPhone now. :)

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ZeroGravitas
I worry that Palm are putting too much faith in fixing iPhone "complaints"
like lack of hardware keyboard, removable battery, multitasking.

These are all complex engineering trade-offs, it's my natural inclination to
think that Apple have got these right. It is, however, incredibly easy to
second-guess such decisions from your blogging armchair with no knowledge at
all of the factors involved.

I'd rather Palm gave us what we need (even if we don't know what that is yet)
than give us what some internet blowhards with a ad-revenue based agenda are
asking for.

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codeodor
Can an iPhone multitask? I wasn't aware of it. (And I own one)

~~~
cubicle67
It's a pretty trollish question, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt :)

The iPhone runs OSX, so mutitasking's built in at an OS level. For a number of
reasons Apple have decided that user-installed apps can't run in the
background, meaning that when you select another app, the previous one
actually closes.

Some Apple apps, like the phone, iPod player etc are exempt from this rule and
do run in the background.

