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iPhone OS 4.0 multitasking can be enabled on pre-3GS devices with simple config change

Monday, April 12, 2010 · 4:00 pm · 25 Comments

“It’s certainly exciting that the iPhone is getting multitasking… but with only the very last generation of iDevice’s supported, a lot of people are going to be left behind,” John Brownlee reports for Cult of Mac.

“Presumably, the issue is one of horsepower, but not complete inability for pre-3Gs devices to multitask,” Brownlee reports. “A developer has discovered that by switching just one variable, you can enable multitasking on the iPhone 3G fairly easily.”

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Edward W." for the heads up.]

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Comment Feed

25 Comments

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WTFrank

Monday, April 12, 2010 - 4:07 pm · Reply

Since the upgrade cycle is almost over for my Gen 1 phone, it looks like a good time to start looking at jail breaking it to take advantage of the other options out there. My Phone is still doing well and I’m hoping to get some more life out of it. It’s just not a good time to upgrade to new hardware when this one is doing so well.
Latin69

Monday, April 12, 2010 - 4:08 pm · Reply

Yeeeessss!
ploogman

Monday, April 12, 2010 - 4:12 pm · Reply

No – the problem is not horsepower. The problem is RAM.

The pre 3GS iPhones have only half as much available RAM to operate. That is the problem. With half the RAM, the iPhone will be especially unstable multitasking. The older iPhones are already unstable in general due to low memory depending on the apps that the user has and uses. Many apps and even Safari has memory leaks which leads to instability.

Moral: Do not multitask on pre-3GS iPhones even if you can. Why do you think Apple did not offer it themselves? That’s why.
maclover

Monday, April 12, 2010 - 4:20 pm · Reply

@ploogman
good thinking – i was going to say ‘battery life’ but RAM sounds acceptable also. It’s really funny how people think Apple all of a sudden doesn’t have good reasons for doing things. They are a business out to make money – but one of the few who historically DON’T screw customers. People need to ask other companies to raise standards rather than exhorting ‘competition is good’ when innovative competition doesn’t actually exist. This makes it seem like all customers are clueless when they aren’t, and opens the door for iphone and ipad clones simply because the consumers aren’t savvy.
ZC

Monday, April 12, 2010 - 4:23 pm · Reply

Funny, my 3G phone works just fine when jailbroken. More lies from Apple.
Troy

Monday, April 12, 2010 - 4:26 pm · Reply

Apple always decide what’s best for you because even if the device you have is capable, Apple won’t allow it so you don’t get a bad experience from a apple product. They know what you want before you know it
HMCIV

Monday, April 12, 2010 - 4:34 pm · Reply

I’m going to go out on a limb and say Apple knows more about iPhone multitasking than me. But I still know more about weight gaining than SJ. [returns to waiting in line for KFC Double Down.]
Hotinplaya

Monday, April 12, 2010 - 4:41 pm · Reply

I would like to be able to have one other app open , VOIP for receiving calls
Hotinplaya

Monday, April 12, 2010 - 4:43 pm · Reply

Before apple offered, I had VOIP running on my 3g and multiple tasking by jail break
Gabriel

Monday, April 12, 2010 - 4:44 pm · Reply

@ ploogman & maclover – RAM is indeed the primary constraining factor: http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/04/12/love-multitasking

The fact that this info is coming from a Google Android engineer makes it highly unlikely that he’s trying to make excuses for Apple declining to provide multitasking support for older iPhones. It’s far more likely, then, that Apple does indeed know what they’re doing here.
ken1w

Monday, April 12, 2010 - 4:48 pm · Reply

I feel bad for the less-savvy customers who bought (and are still buying) the low-end iPhone 3G (and 8GB iPod touch), just because it was the least expensive. Those models are still on sale right now. iPhone 4.0 will work on them, but the key multi-tasking feature will be missing.
Gabriel

Monday, April 12, 2010 - 4:55 pm · Reply

Keep in mind also, that iPhones have been selling like gangbusters all this time without any multitasking whatsoever. So for most people, I’m guessing this isn’t the “killer feature” us geeks think it is…
Big Als MBP

Monday, April 12, 2010 - 5:06 pm · Reply

Jailbreaking is easy.

Doing double time after you’re recaptured is a bitch.
iLuvMyMacs

Monday, April 12, 2010 - 5:53 pm · Reply

@HMCIV “… But I still know more about weight gaining than SJ.”

Is this supposed to be a joke?

You know NOTHING. Grow up.
mossman

Monday, April 12, 2010 - 6:25 pm · Reply

I’m sure Apple will disable this config change before OS4.0 is final. It was probably left in the current beta (accidentally?), and was to allow Apple engineers to test multitasking performance on pre-3GS iPhones.

OTOH, I hope Apple *doesn’t* disable this–if someone’s technical enough to make this config change on their 3G, more power to them.
lloydsworld

Monday, April 12, 2010 - 7:06 pm · Reply

As for Apple not supporting old hardware, the Cube ATV Server (G4/450) on top of the lIving room stereo is running Leopard just fine…..We’re not running Final Cut Pro & VectorWorks @ the same time as iTunes, of course.
KenC

Monday, April 12, 2010 - 8:19 pm · Reply

Of course it’s due to ram. Run iStat on your iPhone 3G and you’ll see that the ram is almost always maxed out. Sure, you can jailbreak it and multitask, but you’ll get way more app crashes.
Spark

Monday, April 12, 2010 - 8:51 pm · Reply

@iLuvMyMacs
Of course it was a joke. It was amusing and not mean in the least. Since when can we no longer ‘rib’ friends anymore? For gaining weight, I’d like to recommend the Loco Moco from my local Hawaiian take-out.
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Monday, April 12, 2010 - 9:06 pm · Reply

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mike

Monday, April 12, 2010 - 11:13 pm · Reply

Funny, my 3G phone works just fine when jailbroken. More lies from Apple
—
Hmm.. lies, eh? Are you paying for those Apps?