@ jarhead: Living under a rock? Can you explain your comment? iphone users have to HACK THEIR DEVICE to copy and paste and now to run background apps? What a joke. P.S. My comments aren't being formatted, so if my comments look like one long paragraph, I apologize.

DurwinDer

@ topernicus: Most iphone apps are 'jokes', like the flashlight app, but as an example of what I've done on my window mobile phone (which I doubt you will ever be able to do on an iphone): 1) Modified my Wisbar Advance Desktop skin 2) Had Pocket Artist open for designing buttons, etc. for Wisbar 3) Had an IM running 4) Streamed online radio 5) Had opera mobile running so that I could view various forums, etc. Opera had 3 tabs open with required websites running on each tab. 6) Periodically watched a live soccer game via Skyfire browser (which remained running in the background). 7) Had Resco explorer running so that I could move files that I was working on. This is one example of a situation in which I NEEDED multiple apps running and my WM phone was able to do that for a solid 6+ hours with plenty of battery power to spare (Unlike the iphone, I was able to upgrade my battery). So while iphone users are busy playing with their lightsabres and flashlights, WM users have more productive things to do. =)

DurwinDer

@DurwinDer: I take it you have been living under a rock...

jarhead

So, iphone users have to hack the hell out of their device to get built-in features that WM users have had for YEARS? hahaha I'm loving every minute of this!

DurwinDer

This just might be the app I jailbreak my iPhone for.

Ruiz

Installed this last night... So far it seems like a winner. I was browsing the web while listening to last.fm.

Very valuable to anyone who wants to listen to music via an app, but I can't think of any other apps that would benefit... Why would I need 5+ flashlight apps running in the background?

topernicus

This sounds great, I think it's time for me to Jailbreak my iPhone.

kirbypuckett

Good call. I run meebo or iNap (depending how much sleep i got the night before) when I'm commuting to work, and this would be a great way keep using those apps.

Thanks again man!

space3024

@DurwinDer:
I think he just meant living under a rock in regards to having to confirm this was the case. I knew it was a rhetorical question and I'm sure he did too but people can't resist being smarmy when their comments are anonymous on the internet =)

Bluesk1d

@DurwinDer: I guess it is all a matter of one's opinion. I used WM in the past; I love my iphone interface and utilize it much more than WM. It's not perfect and nether is WM. I hack all my devices, my iRiver had Rockbox on it, the device is awesome but Rockbox makes it better. I haven't hacked my phone yet but I imagine I will and I am surprised I have gone this long without hacking. THat alone says something about the interface if I haven't hacked it yet lol. 6 in one half a dozen in another.

kaiz3n

@DurwinDer: In regards to living under a rock, he was referring to the fact that this has been the case since the conception of the iPhone. Steve Jobs announced immediately that no apps would be allowed to run in the background. As everyone else is saying though, I cannot really think of a reason for something to run in the background. If I used AIM I may want that, but everything else is fine the way it is. No, I can't believe I am saying that either because when I heard it was going to not allow background processes I flipped. After buying the 1st gen iPhone on day1 and the second on day1, I can say I honestly don't miss background apps at all.

Ryan

@undefined: That's the thing -- you might not need it for any other app besides ones that stream audio. I think sometimes with the great potential of technology, we lose sight of the fact that one big feature (like running an app in the background)can be super valuable -- even if its purpose only affects something small like constantly streaming audio.

Case in point -- Simplify Media is one of my favorite apps for the iPhone. It streams my 70GB music library from my Macbook to my phone flawlessly. It also streams my friends 50+GB music libraries to my phone just as well. It turns my paltry 16GB iPhone into a seemingly endless musical gateway. One little problem. If I get a call, if I want to read my email, or if I'd like to browse the net while listening to music -- I can't do it! The potential is there -- but with the application not able to run in the background, there's a ton of value that is lost from the original intent of the app.

Now, with iPhone-Backgrounder, the app works as it was originally intended. I can now listen to a combined total of 150+GB of music on my iPhone while checking email, surfing the net, or writing a text message. What a beautiful thing.

MMcNasby

There are some cool people that post around here

civicsi98

@kirbypuckett:
Definitely. It's getting pretty ridiculous that Apple still won't let you do this officially. This should have been native functionality from 1.0. Period.

Bluesk1d

Yet another reason I'm glad my phone is Jailbroken! Seems to work well so far for me. Now the Instant Messengers are actually useful and Pandora got that much better!

Gix0r

I use this for Pandora, Google Maps and last.fm scrobbler - but that is just the start (you can configure apps to automatically be backgrounded, if you are vi enabled, and know what you are doing in *nix).

I am a long time WinMo user, and was not impressed with the consumer principal that was locked down in the iPhone, but I understand why after having WinMo issues that were due to memory leaks, unrestricted background apps, and general stability problems because of the various hardware, software and user elements.

Having my mom hack her phone to enable functionality that is standard on WinMo is a hard sell. If you use the iPhone for what it is (PMP + Phone) then this is the best device known to man. If you want to setup wireless AP, stream radio, use GPS, and have search/file access - either use WinMo or jailbreak your iPhone. After a successful jailbreak, most of the functionality of the WinMo platform is available thru Cydia (Cydia Apps are mostly add supported, which I welcome to allow cost savings to the end user without gouging the developers).

I am very happy with the freedom jail-breaking provides - and will not go back to WinMo now that my "Power User" status is back and live on my iPhone. I love having root access, and the device has plenty of horsepower to those seeking a microcomputer.

davrodg

This would be especially useful for using TrailGuru whilst listening to music, I still have reservations about jailbreaking though...

m4tt

@DurwinDer: I switched to the iPhone from my WM device. I had a T-mo Wing running WM 6.1 (OpenTouch) that I hacked about as much as I have on my iPhone. I became very accustomed to multitasking, copy/paste, and MMS over the months that I had it.

I tried the iPhone for a week before I decided to keep it. While I really enjoyed the Wing, the only feature that I miss is the physical keyboard. Not everyone will agree with my choice, but for me the iPhone worked out better.

I'll agree that the vast majority of App Store apps are very unproductive, with my unlocked jailbroken iPhone I'm pretty happy. I use the App Store to get my silly little games and Cydia to get the productivity.

topernicus

@Bluesk1d: I was referring to exactly as Ryan said... this has been the issue since day one. I have also owned many WM devices but the iPhone is better than any of the WM devices ever were (this is obviously just my opinion). The mobile browsing alone on the iPhone is worth the switch.

And in no way was I being rude, "smarmy" or anything else. I can assure you that I'm older than 12 and do not get my kicks from flaming others. Lifehacker does not tolerate such garbage.

jarhead

@davrodg: The Scrobbler I have for jb already runs in the background and scrobbles my ipod plays. So backgrounder is not needed for that.

yooper1019

Jailbreaking my iPhone is becoming more and more attractive.. Why won't Apple make these things mainstream?!

Yeraze

@DurwinDer: Is there a Greasemonkey script to disemvowel Apple/iPhone haters?!

yooper1019

I find that putting Pandora into the background is crashtastic. The instant I do something else that pulls a decent amount of CPU or memory BAM. Pandora cuts out.

That said, the best thing you can do with your iPhone is jailbreak it. It's really great. QuickGold, Winterboard, and now Backgrounder are must-haves.

t3knomanser

anyone get this to work with beejive?

@t3knomanser: totally agree with quickgold and winterboard as must-haves...gonna keep testing backgrounder though

theadb

@DurwinDer: Symbian is not far either. Thats why I have been using Nokia for a long while now. Right now, have N 82 and it's awesome. I feel way better than iPhone.

Bolero

HAHA... Apple has done a great job with after-sales support. 3rd party apps not from their store is like so much better. Design factor is there, but software wise, the iPhone is *bleh*.

skylive

@Yeraze: Because Apple wants to guarantee that the user experience is consistent and difficult for the users to break. They don't want users to have to think about, "Gee, should I install this app, or is it going to make my phone really slow?" Or, more likely, "Man, the iPhone sucks. All of the animations stutter and everything takes forever."

Honestly, it doesn't have a lot of processing power. Apple does some pretty clever things to make it look faster than it really is- the animations and such run in their own thread to keep the user busy while the I/O threads wait for the filesystem to respond.

Basically, Apple's more or less maxxed the performance out on the phone. I've noticed an increase in stutters and longer loading times after installing certain jailbreak apps. It's not detrimental to the experience- but it could easily become so.

t3knomanser

@topernicus: Not that I'm aware of, no. My hunch is that doing so would involve some soldering- I have a feeling that in this case, it's not controlled from software.

t3knomanser

@t3knomanser:

Basically, Apple's more or less maxxed the performance out on the phone.

According to Wikipedia, the iPhone runs @ 400mhz on a 600mhz processor... Has anyone hacked together an overclock yet? On my WinMo phone I was able to run BatteryStatus, which would underclock the phone to ~140mhz while idle and overclock it to ~230mhz while active (200mhz is standard, IIRC). This allowed for decent overclocking while maintaining a lengthy battery life.

topernicus

@m4tt

I agree, having Trailguru running in the background was the first thing that came to mind with this. I love the GPS tracking while I'm walking, and I'd like to be able to listen to some Pandora at the same time!

khiddy

most dont realize how easy it is to jailbreak the iphone...its honestly the easiest thing i have ever hacked in my life...and it takes all of 1 minute.

sti25impreza

@crabbygeek: You can restore your jailbroken iPhone in iTunes by clicking "Restore" once your iPhone is connected. They would know your iPhone is jailbroken if your bandwidth usage suddenly skyrocketed beyond your normal amounts.

tap52384

My company doesn't support jailbroken phones :-(

Anybody have any idea if they would even know?

Is it easy to turn your jailbroken iphone back (if you have to in a pinch)?

crabbygeek

@sti25impreza: Exactly! I can't believe how uptight people are about it too. "What if Apple finds out... MY WARRANTY IS VOIDED!" ...Not likely. Apple's CS is EXTREMELY understanding. I've had my Macbook serviced 8 times (I know, not idea) while having taken apart the LCD assembly to put a colored gel in front of the lit Apple logo. Apple has not minded one bit. They even fixed it a year out of service --for free-- and didn't say a damn thing.

I *highly* doubt they'll even notice/care if your device is Jailbroken --- Just make sure to NOT use custom boot screens. God forbid the device won't start up, they'll never know the device was Jailbroken if you keep the original boot screens.

MMcNasby

@tap52384: Hahaha... well stated ;)

MMcNasby

@crabbygeek: Yes. Dead simple. Just restore the phone. You have to realize -- The Jailbreak exploits *Apple's* software. Therefore you're essentially using native software, so you have nothing to worry about.

MMcNasby

Great app. Got it yesterday after Gizmodo's post on it. It has quickly become an essential app for me. Great for music players...some work better than others. Pandora works...but is a little buggy with it. Tuner Internet Radio (from Nullriver) seems to work perfectly with it. Another one I also find very useful is Rooms (IRC). It initially flashed a bit after bringing it back up...but has since been working perfectly. It's great for Rooms so you don't have to exit IRC when you want to check email or something.

I had an idea of using it for Categories...to speed up the display of the categories...but it's pretty useless as the category exits and breaks the backgrounding when you select an app within it.

Overall some apps work very well with this...others not so much...some just don't work at all or it doesn't really add anything to the experience.

thor79

@MMcNasby: You have convinced me, I'm going to give it a go this weekend.

Then I can be as free as a bird (jailbird).

Thanks

crabbygeek

@Yeraze: Because apple knows their fanbois will buy anything they put a=out, no matter how much improvement can be made to it.

eambos

@yooper1019: But what if you want to play music from the last.fm app? That's where the backgrounder is really useful.

eambos

I just jailbreaked my Ipod. I'm pretty sure I've also installed over a gig in apps I really used to want but couldn't have.

A good or bad thing? We'll see.

dobbybabee

In that case, I guess it really depends on what you do with your phone. My brother has an iphone as do several clients I work with, and I can see how frustrating it is for them NOT to be able to mutitask with their device. I would consider myself a power user - I rarely have less than one program running in the background - each one doing a needed task. In fact, I couldn't imagine being limited to running one app at a time - my Sony Ericsson phone has many "great" PIM features and can run java applications, but it's so limited with only being able to run one program at a time that I NEVER use those extra features. Moving forward means having less restrictions, not more.

DurwinDer

@DurwinDer: Damn, I wish I could just open Skyfire without it telling me to shut down other apps first!

mados123

Mados123, Skyfire works for most, but it is still in Beta... much like the iphone OS it seems ;)

DurwinDer