Well, almost everyone called it, but almost three years after the first plaintive cries about the lack of the feature arose, Steve Jobs has just announced that the iPhone OS will be getting multitasking, come summer. Developers can start playing with the preview today.
It’s the biggest of the “tentpole” features Apple is announcing today for iPhone OS 4.0. It works as expected: Jobs double clicks the home button and loads an app switcher, which allows him to cycle through running apps. The app switcher takes the place of the dock. Smooth! Finally!
A great start to a great presentation. Let’s hope, though, that Jobs is being honest when he says they solved the battery drain issue for third party apps, and Apple hasn’t just caved to demand when the feature, while always possible, really wasn’t ready for prime time.
