ctbarker32 wrote: > I think your quote that says you can't run apps in the background on > Windows Phone is mis-informed. Windows Phone is based on the Windows NT > kernel which is multi-tasking and certainly can run apps in the > background. Going forward with Windows Phone 10 you will have the > ability to run universal apps that will run on the Desktop, Tablets, and > Phones. Also, it has been announced that Windows Phone 10 will natively > support FLAC and MKV containers so that should help as well. > > Windows Phone is the equal of other modern mobile operating systems but > because of it's lateness to market has suffered poor market penetration > despite many redeeming features. > > Also, you have the usual Windows bashers and haters who are unwilling to > consider anything from Microsoft. Lookout for things like Microsoft > email and calendar apps to be featured on the next Galaxy 6 phone that > many already consider the best of their class apps.
It is not misinformed, please study the Windows Phone SDK (and universal app) documentation before making such a statement. Windows NT kernel only provides the ability to for the OS to multitask, it doesn't mean that the OS will use it for apps. For Windows Phone and "Metro" Windows apps, when they are pushed to the background it goes into a "suspended" state, which means it's current state is saved to memory and ALL processing for that app is stopped. If the app stays in this state long enough, or the system is running low on memory, the app is "tombstoned" which means that it's current state is moved from memory to more permanent storage. There is one exception (that i know of), location apps are exempt from suspension. Basically any app that turns on the location tracking systems of the OS will not be suspended when pushed to the background. In other cases, certain "tricks" are used to make the OS seem like it's multitasking apps. For simple music players, the OS provides its own background music player. A music player app just tells the OS what file or stream to play and since the app is not doing the actual decoding of the music, it doesn't need to run in the background. For network apps like Twitter or Facebook, short lived background agents can be set to run periodically to check for updates. But these background agents are not allowed to run indefinitely and there are limits to what they are allowed to do. I'm not sure how voice communication apps like Skype work, though Skype is a Microsoft property so it may have a special status. For the record, I like Windows Phone. I think has a simple, fast, elegant interface and for most use cases it's lack of true multitasking doesn't really matter. However there are certain (specialized) apps that just cannot be done on Windows Phone, or at least not without some sort of special exemption from Microsoft. -------------- Squeezebox apps for webOS, Android and Windows Phone, http://www.angrygoatapps.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ wt0's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=18760 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=103228 _______________________________________________ plugins mailing list plugins@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/plugins
