Jailbreak tweak brings multitasking to the iPad

http://thenextweb.com/apps/2014/05/11/insane-jailbreak-tweak-brings-multitasking-support-ipad/

by dkyc • 12 years ago

47 34 12 years ago

dkyc2• 12 years ago

Here's a video with with a demo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teFyAqj1eog

Just amazing how close to an official product this gets quality wise. I really regret updating to 7.1, too bad this guy plans on releasing it commercial instead of open-source.

saurik4• 12 years ago

too bad this guy plans on releasing it commercial instead of open-source

I'm curious: do you have an alternative suggestion for what would have allowed him to spend as long as he did working on this challenging piece of software? People often make these "too bad he didn't do this work for free" comments on HN, but I feel like it turns more into "too bad this person wasn't already well-off enough that he was able to donate his time and effort to working on this for free". This is why I went to the trouble of building Cydia into a market in the first place: to help support and encourage long-term development.

dkyc2• 12 years ago

I'm not judging his intentions here, just very curious how he managed to pull this remarkable hack off. No problem with him asking for 10$, I'd just love to take a look at the source. (I would certainly buy a version for 20$ w/ source included, and it probably wouldn't be a DRM problem either, since hackers usually aren't the type of people that believe in working DRM.)

callesgg• 12 years ago

Like quasar but much more polished :)

The problem with quasar was that is was so different that there was allot of stuff that became weird as ipad user interfaces are not designed for multiple windows.

I had quasar however I have not tried this.

I wonder how battery consumption is effected?

One a side note: my next pad will probably be some kind of linux thing. Just tired of the apple lock in.

yzzxy• 12 years ago

I wonder if Apple will follow jailbreaker UI when if and when they introduce a true multitasking/windowing system on iOS. They did so with multitasking and mission control UI designs.

I doubt Apple would introduce true windowing however, they seem to keep a large development/design crowd away from Android simply because developers only have to target a couple of screen sizes/aspect ratios.

simlevesque• 12 years ago

How much of the current wealth of Apple is due to jailbreakers ? 20%? 30%? If not for jailbreakers, there would have never been the appstore for iOS nor OSX. The popularity of the iPhone would not have been nearly the same if not for jailbroken applications then for the appstore applications. Apple should issue apologies to each and every jailbreaker.

saurik4• 12 years ago

FWIW, Apple has (as far as I understand, and I've been involved long enough and in a sufficiently high-profile position that I would likely have at least heard if not been targeted) never tried sued any of us and has never insulted any of us; they even are always very thorough in the credits section of their security update summaries (citing the people on the various jailbreak teams that led to the bugs being disclosed), and have often ended up hiring us (which also shows a lack of hard feelings on the other side). Most jailbreak users/developers actually seem to like Apple (I don't, btw ;P).

So, while I thereby do feel like Apple has gained something from the jailbreak community, and while I also feel like Apple's decisions are harmful to everyone in the long-term, I haven't really ever felt like Apple owed us, in particular, an "apology". The only thing I can come up with was when Steve Jobs (which I separate from Apple at least somewhat) on stage effectively equated the entire idea of alternative software markets on the iPhone as "porn stores" in a dismissive attempt to mostly insult Android (Google probably deserves even more an apology than we did in that instance ;P).

macintux• 12 years ago

It seems very unlikely that Apple didn't plan on the app store for iOS from before the first iPhone was released.

I give credit to the jailbreak community for exploring new ideas, but 20% of Apple's wealth? Not a chance.

poolpool• 12 years ago

Steve absolutely detested the idea of apps and it was only forstall who actually got an app store implemented...

jluxenberg• 12 years ago

Someone needs to port a tiling window manager to iOS or Android. On a platform where screen space and user interactions are at a premium, it seems you'd want to minimize the amount of window resizing actions and maximize the usable screen space.

I use XMonad (http://xmonad.org/) on my desktop and love it. My Android tablet (a Nexus 10) is big enough that it needs something like this; would be great to have two or even three windows open at a time.

freehunter• 12 years ago

Not trying to force a competition between Windows and Android, but this is a place where Windows tablets shine: You can have two windows open at a time, anywhere, in almost any app. When you open a picture attached to an email, it opens in a window side-by-side with the email. I can have a game open alongside a walkthrough for that game. It's incredible.

Spittie• 12 years ago

You can kinda do it with the Xposed framework and XHaloFloatingWindow (http://repo.xposed.info/module/com.zst.xposed.halo.floatingw...).

You can snap applications at borders and have a bar between to resize them, kinda like a tiling manager. But from my experience, it's not nearly as good as a tiling window manager, or even Windows on a tablet.

bsaul3• 12 years ago

How can you seriously multitask on a retina ipad with less than a gig of ram and no virtual memory ?

ihuman• 12 years ago

By jailbreaking and installing "OS Experience" like the article says? The device was designed with to use a low amount of resources.

Macha• 12 years ago

With much greater ease than you could multitask on 8mb of RAM and a 32Mhz CPU: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Centris_650

bsaul3• 12 years ago

Except most UIs on today's ipad use retina images. Meaning 1024x768x4x4 = 12 mo of ram for a single fullscreen image. Most applications run into memory warning at some point even when running on its own. I can't imagine having 3 or 4 in parrallel without virtual memory.

bsaul3• 12 years ago

So many downvotes, isuppose i'll have to explain myself :

Apps for the ipad frequently run into memory warning exception, even when running on their own. One reason is the use of multiple layers of images to build a screen ( background, multiple panes on top, etc) which take a huge amount of memory even before you've loaded any data.

Now, i suppose that the cydia hack didn't add a virtual memory manager to ios. It simply lets you see application in background. Now that means even more pressure on the memory, thus my question. Running twitter and mail isn't a problem of course, since they probably don't take half the ram. But "big" apps, like safari ? I doubt it.

asadlionpk• 12 years ago

I guess the memory limit is per app by apple. To preserve the device battery maybe?

mattkevan2• 12 years ago

This is really impressive. Good work. I'm writing this post from my ipad with it installed and am loving it.

zacinbusiness2• 12 years ago

Which model iPad are you using? Are you seeing any performance hit?

mattkevan2• 12 years ago

An iPad 3. I haven't noticed any performance issues yet. I guess all the apps are running in the background anyway, it's just pushing a few more pixels to the screen.

I have come across a few glitches, but no show-stoppers so far. Looking forward to see how it develops.

zacinbusiness2• 12 years ago

Man. I need a 7.1.1 jailbreak. I want this and the BTStack JB that let's me use a mouse. That will be amazing.

micampe2• 12 years ago

The most useful feature is the ability to swipe between desktops and applications, just like on OS X. Swiping four fingers in either direction switches desktops or applications, even using the same animation as on the desktop.

Uh? That is the most useful feature? That has been available without any modification since iOS 5: http://www.tuaw.com/2011/10/12/ios-5-features-new-multi-touc...

owenwil• 12 years ago

Perhaps this didn't explain it very well - it takes you between desktops as well as applications with this tweak

micampe2• 12 years ago

ooh, that makes all the difference, now I see why that is the most useful feature. :)

NamTaf• 12 years ago

Does the iPad 2 offer enough grunt to run this? Or are you looking at the 3rd/4th gen at least to power it smoothly?

kenrikm• 12 years ago

One of the main reasons Apple has not implemented something like this is that they

A) try to retain backward compatibility

B) don't outfit the devices with enough RAM.

The iPad 2 and Mini only have 512 megs of RAM. With that in mind, note that just displaying a MapView can easily consume between 40 and 100 megs of RAM it gets real tight real quick. Open a few apps that use a decent amount of RAM while having tabs in Safari etc. and you're going to start getting a lot of crashes.

They may have to start deprecating a bunch of devices if they want to add this feature.

"But it works now" NO, it "kinda works" - with the right mixture off apps / conditions it will run out of memory and crash.

Jailbreak tweak brings multitasking to the iPad

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