Apple iPad Gets Split-Screen Multitasking in iOS 9

Re:Apple iPad Gets Split-Screen Multitasking in iOS 9 by zyxley on Monday June 08, 2015 @02:32PM (#9681160)

Note that as of the moment, this will only be available on the iPad Air 2.

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Re:Apple iPad Gets Split-Screen Multitasking in iOS 9 by JohnTHaller on Monday June 08, 2015 @04:14PM (#9682060)

Only the iPad Air 2 has 2GB of RAM. Every other iOS device only has 1GB, which is a severe restriction to true multi-tasking. iPhones only have 1GB of RAM as well, so they couldn't do it even if they wanted to. It's a bit surprising as it limits future functionality. Comparably priced Android phones have 2GB to 4GB of RAM currently and comparably priced Android tablets have had 2GB of RAM for a couple years. Granted, Android OS seems a bit more hungry for tasty RAMs than iOS does.

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Re:Apple iPad Gets Split-Screen Multitasking in iOS 9 by digi_owl on Monday June 08, 2015 @05:32PM (#9682602)

Android is more ram hungry because it has a different policy on process lifecycle management.

If you hit home on iOS the app you are currently using is expected to pack up and be ready to get evicted from RAM.

If you do the same on Android the app will stay in RAM until there is a capacity crunch. Then the GC will go round waking up the oldest processes and ask them to free up pages. And if that is still not enough, start shutting them down.

This sadly result in slowdowns as the GC churns.

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Re:Apple iPad Gets Split-Screen Multitasking in iOS 9 by zippergz on Monday June 08, 2015 @02:35PM (#9681191)

Probably because of memory limitations; I would be surprised to see it ever come to older devices because they were already pretty memory-constrained.

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Re:Apple iPad Gets Split-Screen Multitasking in iOS 9 by frik on Monday June 08, 2015 @03:33PM (#9681684)

Afaik, all iOS devices except the Air2 have 1GB RAM (or less - e.g. iPad2 and iPadMini1 have 512MB). So only Air2 can run two full apps side by side, makes sense.

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Re:Apple iPad Gets Split-Screen Multitasking in iOS 9 by markque on Monday June 08, 2015 @03:02PM (#9681411)

The only reason to do this is increase the sales of the latest iPad, there is no technical reason. Again apple treats it's customers like shit

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Re:Apple iPad Gets Split-Screen Multitasking in iOS 9 by JadeNB on Monday June 08, 2015 @03:04PM (#9681438)

This seems like a bold claim to throw out without substantiation. It is undeniable that older devices are more resource-limited, and do run the latest OS faster. Sure, Apple probably is trying to push sales of new devices (which is their right—they have no obligation to retrofit the latest-and-greatest features to old devices); but to say that's the only reason seems rather strong.

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Re:Apple iPad Gets Split-Screen Multitasking in iOS 9 by markque on Monday June 08, 2015 @03:25PM (#9681608)

I should have said, I meant the fact that the iPad Air won't get it. It's almost the same device, fair enough older iPads won't receive it.

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Re:Apple iPad Gets Split-Screen Multitasking in iOS 9 by abhorrence on Monday June 08, 2015 @04:27PM (#9682142)

The Air 2 has twice as much ram as the Air, and memory has long been the constraining factor on the iPad.

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