It's the home button, stupid

> Actually, multitasking is essential to one of the major features that Apple has been touting on the iPad: [iWork](http://www.macworld.com/article/146274/2010/02/ipad_multitasking.html?lsrc=rss_main/article/145941/2010/01/iwork_ipad.html). Imagine trying to make a Keynote presentation without being able to access other files or being able to check on the Internet for data, citations or other information. Sure, there is reported to be a shared folder on the iPad, which all applications will be able to access. So you can stick your text files, graphics, videos and music files there if you already know you want to use them for a presentation, Pages document, or Numbers spreadsheet. But if you’re like most people, you don’t plan out every step of your documents ahead of time; you build them up as you go along. If you have to quit, say, Keynote every time you need to check something on the web or copy some data from a Numbers spreadsheet, you’ll be spending a lot of time switching apps and not much time producing. Here’s another article that misses the boat on multitasking and the iPad.

I think what’s got all these tech writers in a tizzy is that they keep thinking that the iPad is a variation of a laptop, rather than a new approach to computing. Their premise is that the way we currently do things on laptops and desktops is great, and if the iPad doesn’t do them the same way, it fails.

I think Apple rejects that premise.

The example above that Kirk McElhearn gives in this Macuser article wasn’t very well thought out. He makes the assumption that quitting Keynote on the iPad and then having to restart it is similar to doing the same on a Mac—it isn’t. Starting a Mac app takes anywhere from five seconds to a minute (if you’re running something like Photoshop). On the iPad, it takes a second or two, tops. Mac programs often start with a blank screen or blank document when quit and reopened. iPad apps remember where they were when they were quit, and relaunch in exactly the same place in the last opened document.

So, really, quitting Keynote by hitting the home key, researching something in Safari, copying some text or images, then hitting home, then relaunching Keynote to paste in that information is a lot more like hitting Command+Tab to switch to Safari, researching, copying, and then Command+Tab to switch back to Keynote for the paste.

Don’t think of it as quitting and restarting. Think of it as app switching.

Kirk even paraphrases Rob Griffiths, who has suggested that iPad needs some sort of Exposé-style app switcher. How would some convoluted, system-wide finger gesture be easier or better than hitting home and then hitting the app you want? iPad already has an app switcher; it’s the home key.

Right now, I’m typing this article in Safari on my Mac. Photoshop is running in the background, just sitting there. From a desktop perspective, this doesn’t hurt me, because later I will need Photoshop to edit some photos. But from a resource efficiency standpoint, it’s tremendously wasteful.

If Photoshop would relaunch instantly and open the same image I have open now the next time I launched it, I’d gladly quit it. But I don’t want to lose that minute waiting for the relaunch, so I leave it running for no reason all day long. This isn’t a problem on the iPad.

No matter how many windows I open up on my desktop, I’m only focusing on one at a time. The idea that humans are capable of doing two things at once with any efficiency is a myth. In fact, studies are demonstrating that not only can we not focus on more than one thing at a time, but trying to do so actually has adverse effects on our ability to concentrate.

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/august24/multitask-research-study-082409.html

Tech writers like McElhearn are making the assumption that everyone knows and likes the desktop OS experience as it is. They don’t. Having multiple apps and multiple windows open actually confuses the average user. Many have no idea that several apps are still running after they close out their documents. And many of us who do understand that we’re wasting precious processor power and battery life are tired of having to police our resources manually.

If you want to have a discussion about Background processes, that’s an entirely different subject. There’s a real debate to be had about whether or not App Store apps should be able to run some processes in the background. And Push Notifications need a rethink, as well.

I’m also not suggesting that some other approach to app switching won’t eventually prove a better way than the current system Apple employs in the the iPhone OS.

But iPad doesn’t really have a multitasking problem.