Ocean Observations has released a new "What If" video that shows off some cool features that would be possible with multitasking built into the iPhone OS. We are starting to see multitasking capabilities appear in other smart phones such as the new Palm Pre and I'm sure it's only a matter of time before we see this feature come to a future revision of the iPhone OS. The video below details the use of cover flow while application are in use.
"Our idea is to present the running apps together with the rest of your app icons on the home screen, instead of hiding them behind long pressing some unrelated key. All running apps have a miniature representation in a cover flow at the bottom of the screen. To make room for this, each home screen page will have one less row of icons and the dock is removed completely. But since the running apps often will equal your favourites, they will still be easily accessible.
You can follow Ocean Observations on twitter @ http://twitter.com/ocean_sthlm
October 14, 2009
#1
Very interesting, but what is the mechanism for closing an app immediately? 90% of the time, this is the desired behavior since the most common use of an app is to launch it for a purpose and not use it again for a while. Would this require first pressing Home to return to the Coverflow-Springboard combo and then flicking the mini app window up? That’s an extra gesture for what is by far the most common scenario.
One solution could be something like Backgrounder, in which the Home button could be held for, say, 1 full second to place it into background mode. This would persist until the app was eventually exited.