While you may not be able to run multiple applications simultaneously on your iPhone, you can talk on the phone and use an application at the same time.
A lot has made of the iPhone’s limitations in the multitasking department—it cannot have multiple applications running at the same time. For example, you cannot check your email while you use Skype, which is genuinely annoying. There are ways to jailbreak your iPhone and allow multiple apps to run at the same time, but proceed at your risk if you go that route.
But if you are talking to someone using the plain old phone, you can use an application like mail or Dropbox while you are still on the phone.
If you need to use the phone’s keypad during the call, there is a simple display button that allows you to easily return. This technique, however, only works when you first make a phone call. If you are using an app, you need to go back to the Home screen, make the call, and then return to the app once the call has been placed. Slightly annoying, but it still allows for more productive phone calls.
Randall Ryder practices consumer rights law in Minnesota and is a publisher of Elder Parent Help. Follow him @randallryder.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve never had an iPhone, and this is probably the number 1 reason. I’ve had a BlackBerry Curve for almost two years now, and while the phone feels quite antiquated in comparison to the newer BlackBerrys, the Android phones, and the Pre, it HAS been able to multitask for years (albeit not all that gracefully, but the newer BlackBerrys have much more memory and faster processors, thus theoretically fixing that).
The best use of it: I leave a Tetris game open weeks on end sometimes, which I only bring to the front when I have some downtime (it doesn’t allow game saving, just running in the background).
@Law Student-
I understand what you’re saying, but if the real-world implications of this limitation of the iPhone is that I can’t save my games of Tetris, this really doesn’t seem like a very dramatic deal-breaker to me.
@ Law Student – that’s the best use?