The latest information circulating the internet suggests that version 4.0 of the iPhone operating system will support multi-tasking.

True multi-tasking on the iPhone has been lacking since its launch with the partial workaround being push notifications, which mean you can keep up to date without having to actually run the applications.

However, technically the iPhone is very capable of running multiple applications at the same time but Apple didn’t enable the service because of the drain on battery life and the problems associated with crashing when people try to run too many applications.

The new update is rumoured to use Expose which will bring up a number of icons representing the applications currently running which can then be switched between. It’s thought the Expose interface will be brought up by a certain shortcut such as tapping your home-button twice in quick succession.

Once we hear more about the new iPhone 4.0 and multi-tasking capability we’ll be sure to let you know.

http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/April2010/iPhone-To...one-4.0-3G.html

I guess they'll have to do it, if only for marketing reasons. Everyone slams the iPhone for the "lack of multi-tasking" while most articles never go into detail and most people have no clue as to why they'd need that feature. Most don't.

I wonder how they will solve the user interface issues. Clearly the iPhone is already multi-tasking, doing email, music, phone, and a few other things in the background. And there is notifications. But there was no user interface and apps weren't allowed to explicitly keep running, which poses some problems, limits the iPhone somewhat.

Anyway right now hitting the home button gets you back to the home screen. And quits the currently running app. I guess now apps will get to optionally show a dialog allowing the user to let the app live in the background.

I think I read somewhere that they're going to implement pinch and zoom to all applications. That will be great for my English to Thai translation software as it's right on the border of me being able to read the Thai characters. Being able to zoom in on that will be great.