[mphillips828]

Hello all,

So basically I was looking at some BB10 photos (AWESOME!) and it got me thinking about something I believe Blaze posted the other day when those BB10 videos were released (the hands-on with Gary). Blaze posted after what Gary said in the video that you would be able to scroll up and down with applications. From the way it was questioned it really sounded like it meant the home screen with the 4 minimized apps would be able to scroll up and down and have more open apps below.

But as I have just been looking at pictures, I noticed that the App Launcher screen has 4 rows of apps, and we definitely know that this will be able to scroll up and down to view more apps.

So this is my question...

Did Gary ultimately confirm that the minimized homescreen apps will not be limited to the 4 most recently opened apps, or was he referring to the app launcher page which can be scrolled up and down?

Blaze reported that the minimized apps would have more than just 4 showing, and now i got to thinking that this could have possibly been miscommunication from the question to answer.

[DaedalusIcarusHelios]

I thought the same thing, but since that screen really is showing running apps, and not just widgets, I think it'd have to be able to display more than 4, or have a way to get to the others. I can't wait to see the REAL BB10 running and have it put through its paces to answer all our questions.

[tedd_jr]

I think Gary hesitantly confirmed that the home screen will have the ability to show more than 4 running apps. RIM probably has updated and customized the playbook os functionality where if you minimized/swiped up an active application it created a minimized screen card and you could open multiple apps and have them minimized over the app icons. Take those minimized apps and put them on their own screen and you have the BB10 home screen.

Hopefully you can understand my horrible description of how i think they accomplished the home screen.

[peter9477]

There is absolutely no chance that the BB10 home screen will allow only four running apps, and absolutely no reason to think it will be anything other than just like the PlayBook where you merely scroll in some direction to see the additional apps. You'll be able to run as many as your heart desires and your RAM allows.

No question.

None.

[tharrison4815]

There is absolutely no chance that the BB10 home screen will allow only four running apps, and absolutely no reason to think it will be anything other than just like the PlayBook where you merely scroll in some direction to see the additional apps. You'll be able to run as many as your heart desires and your RAM allows.

No question.

None.

But can you close running apps? And if so, how?

[Ruslan Botsyurko]

But can you close running apps? And if so, how?

I would do the upswipe like on my PlayBook. Oh wait...

[calicocat2010]

There is absolutely no chance that the BB10 home screen will allow only four running apps, and absolutely no reason to think it will be anything other than just like the PlayBook where you merely scroll in some direction to see the additional apps. You'll be able to run as many as your heart desires and your RAM allows.

No question.

None.

I Have a Question which I'm sure is Very disconcerting to many BB users and that is Won't that Run the Battery down faster with So many apps running at the same time? I mean seriously How are they going to accomplish this to keep consumers happy with a Great efficient Battery but with enough Power, Speed and Performance as another advantage?

[peter9477]

I Have a Question which I'm sure is Very disconcerting to many BB users and that is Won't that Run the Battery down faster with So many apps running at the same time? I mean seriously How are they going to accomplish this to keep consumers happy with a Great efficient Battery but with enough Power, Speed and Performance as another advantage?

You must not have a PlayBook, or I would think you'd have the answer to this already. With a combination of features, including the CPU automatically adjusting speed based on usage (saving power when not required), and an Application Behaviour selection in the System Settings (Paused, Default, or Showcase), and numerous ways which individual apps can adjust to their window state (hidden, thumbnail, or fullscreen) or other conditions, there's no reason that a bunch of "running" apps should result in any an increase in power consumption unless the nature of those apps is such that they absolutely must increase power consumption.

For example, if you leave the Word To Go app running, but aren't actively using it, it should have zero impact on power. If you leave my Battery Guru app running all the time, it has an immeasurably small impact on overall battery life, as it wakes up for only a few milliseconds once every two minutes to record the OS-provided updates to the battery/power readings. If you leave a game running, but it's not fullscreen, it should pause itself and use zero additional power.

On the other hand, if you leave a GPS recording app running, to record a "track" with your position every five seconds as you travel, then obviously this will use more power than if it's not running. It can do that without having the screen turned on, however, so it will use relatively little power (about 0.25W on average, instead of the roughly 3W that an app uses when the screen is on).

In the end, it's up to the user. If the user wants to absolutely minimize power, they will of course not run apps such as the GPS tracker I just mentioned. But one can certainly leave a dozen properly designed apps of the other kind running all day without it affecting the battery life, since they park themselves when not actually doing anything actively.

[BB10FTW]

What I am most curious about and I personally haven't seen this (it may exist) but on the BB10 can you swipe on either side of the screen/bezel to switch to the other running apps?? That is my absolute favorite part about the Playbook OS. Also as mentioned above do we close apps by swiping up??? I don't see how that will work if we have to swipe up and down to view other running apps. I'm extremely curious about BB10, it is gonna be fantastic!!!!

[peter9477]

BB10FTW, I'm fairly sure that functionality will still exist on BB10 when released. It hasn't been demonstrated, but then almost nothing has. It is, however, one of the key benefits of the touch-sensitive bezel and I'd be extremely surprised if they dropped it, especially given that they haven't hinted at any other use of the side bezels yet. I'd say there's no reason to think it won't be there still.

[calicocat2010]

You must not have a PlayBook, or I would think you'd have the answer to this already. With a combination of features, including the CPU automatically adjusting speed based on usage (saving power when not required), and an Application Behaviour selection in the System Settings (Paused, Default, or Showcase), and numerous ways which individual apps can adjust to their window state (hidden, thumbnail, or fullscreen) or other conditions, there's no reason that a bunch of "running" apps should result in any an increase in power consumption unless the nature of those apps is such that they absolutely must increase power consumption.

For example, if you leave the Word To Go app running, but aren't actively using it, it should have zero impact on power. If you leave my Battery Guru app running all the time, it has an immeasurably small impact on overall battery life, as it wakes up for only a few milliseconds once every two minutes to record the OS-provided updates to the battery/power readings. If you leave a game running, but it's not fullscreen, it should pause itself and use zero additional power.

On the other hand, if you leave a GPS recording app running, to record a "track" with your position every five seconds as you travel, then obviously this will use more power than if it's not running. It can do that without having the screen turned on, however, so it will use relatively little power (about 0.25W on average, instead of the roughly 3W that an app uses when the screen is on).

In the end, it's up to the user. If the user wants to absolutely minimize power, they will of course not run apps such as the GPS tracker I just mentioned. But one can certainly leave a dozen properly designed apps of the other kind running all day without it affecting the battery life, since they park themselves when not actually doing anything actively.

Ah I see and Nope I don't own a PlayBook.