[Andrew4life]

What I really miss about my Playbook is the multitasking ability of that OS. Something that none of the mobile operating systems is able to do today.

What I am talking about is the ability to say, play a video, and then jump into another app, check your email, while the video is still playing, jump into another app, lets say some sort of game and the play for a bit. Etc.

Here is my use case. I play some games which might be time based where something happens every minute, if I can jump out for a minute to do something else, and then jump back in, that would be great. The problem is right now, any time you jump out of a game, it automatically goes into pause mode, therefore when I leave a game, it goes right back to where I left off. Many times it even has to reinitialize, (especially Android games/apps).

They really need to bring back true multitasking. Heck, with the big screen of the Passport, allow 2-4 apps to run and display all at once!!!!

[BigBadWulf]

I don't play games, but I can certainly play a video, while 7 apps are open. Heck, I'm listening to it now. Maybe the phone thinks as I would, that it should pause while reduced. Possibly, it's set to not run when minimized in your app settings.

BTW - Just for giggles I had started a looping radar on AccuWeather, and yes it was still looping.

Definitely agree, split screen on the Passport is a great idea.

[m3mb3rsh1p]

I agree with and like this idea. BlackBerry should stop going for the simplified mobile experience and let QNX show its full power.

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[AmritD]

I maybe wrong but with 10.3.1 you will have the option to run apps even when minimized so the app shouldn't pause when minimized. Hoping that will solve your issue

[Viet Ton]

Actually for games like running games, isn't it a good thing that the game is paused when you are out doing something else? Just saying. Most games need constant interactions anw (or so I think)

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[GP540]

What I think op is referring to is active frames. Please god take active frames away and give us a real time Window to the app (showcase)

If it's a video playing I want to see that video playing on my home screen.



In Squircle I Trust

[BigBadWulf]

What I think op is referring to is active frames. Please god take active frames away and give us a real time Window to the app (showcase)

If it's a video playing I want to see that video playing on my home screen.



In Squircle I Trust

If you're watching a video, why on earth would you minimize it, unless it's to do something else, in which case, you wouldn't be watching it.

[BigBadWulf]

I maybe wrong but with 10.3.1 you will have the option to run apps even when minimized so the app shouldn't pause when minimized. Hoping that will solve your issue

Correct!

[campbecw]

I love this idea.

Daily Old Radio Shows! The only Channel that actually offers you a source for entertainment. C0012487D

[Andrew4life]

Not a bad idea. I think it would kill the battery though.

Well, I keep saying this as a needy user, but I would like the option to put some apps/games into paused mode, and some into showcase(a.k.a. active mode). It was definitely done due to the fact some users will forget to close something and it will burn the battery, but maybe make it an advanced user function?

I maybe wrong but with 10.3.1 you will have the option to run apps even when minimized so the app shouldn't pause when minimized. Hoping that will solve your issue

Really? How is it implemented?

Actually for games like running games, isn't it a good thing that the game is paused when you are out doing something else? Just saying. Most games need constant interactions anw (or so I think)

Posted via CB10

Depends on the game.
Example 1: Summoner Wars which is a turn based game has an "auto attack" mode. To grind or farm for exp/items, I just start the battle and put it into auto attack mode. I don't want to stare at the game for the whole 2 minutes it will take, and want to jump into say twitter to check my tweets, or jump into my email/texts/bbm to send a message. But right now, if I jump out to do that, the game pauses and it will just leave off where I left it off, instead of finishing the match for me.

Example 2: Ingress, it's not that big of an issue because if you're playing ingress, you're likely interacting with stuff, but sometimes you are walking around and you can collect XM (A.K.A. energy) for the game. If you pause it, you can't collect it, if you have it active, you can.


I agree the number of use cases is limited, and probably not for most people, but for some, it might be useful, even more so if you can do split screen stuff.

[BigBadWulf]

Here's the menu:


There's also one for headless "run in background", along with settings for all other permissions.

[GP540]

All this screen does is allows the user to control android app behavior when closed as some in 10.3 will run in back ground when closed and have to be closed via hub or device monitor.


It's actually something android users don't have. So for us to have it is great because it cures an android os problem by bypassing using the operating system to control it self.


But again back to op point

It's just a way to showcase how powerful qnx is

It would be useful if you wanted to say keep track of "data" in one active frame while watching a video or bbm video / Skype

Just because you minimize it doesn't mean the content shouldn't be up front and real time

In Squircle I Trust

[johnnyuk]

While Show Case mode on the PlayBook was an "Ooh that's nice." feature the first time you saw it, aside from videos still playing when minimised it wasn't actually all that useful.

I'd much rather have real user multitasking where I can actually USE two or more apps on the screen at the same time, side by side.

Posted from my BlackBerry Z30 STA100-2 /10.2.1.3247 on O2 UK - Activated on BES10.2.4

[BigBadWulf]

All this screen does is allows the user to control android app behavior when closed as some in 10.3 will run in back ground when closed and have to be closed via hub or device monitor.


It's actually something android users don't have. So for us to have it is great because it cures an android os problem by bypassing using the operating system to control it self.


But again back to op point

It's just a way to showcase how powerful qnx is

It would be useful if you wanted to say keep track of "data" in one active frame while watching a video or bbm video / Skype

Just because you minimize it doesn't mean the content shouldn't be up front and real time

In Squircle I Trust

It's not just android apps, and yes, I'd love active frames to have settings, so the user controls the experience. Little bit more to show off the power of QNX indeed!

[ibrahim011]

When they were making BlackBerry 10 they started from scratch they didn't use BlackBerry PlayBook OS as the base. That was a really stupid move by BlackBerry. They could have saved time and they would have had a better OS. I like BlackBerry and all but the original BlackBerry 10 operating system was flawed. John Chen is trying to pick up the mess with BlackBerry and is attempting to bring it back. Hopefully we will see PlayBook features in BlackBerry when 10.4 or a possible BlackBerry 11 OS comes out.

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[johnnyuk]

When they were making BlackBerry 10 they started from scratch they didn't use BlackBerry PlayBook OS as the base.

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That's completely untrue. Early builds of BlackBerry 10 WERE PlayBook OS running on Dev Alpha devices.

Here see for yourself:

It was developed from PlayBook OS, it just soon became painfully apparent that a rushed and half finished tablet OS for a landscape orientated device was no use at all as a smartphone OS for portrait orientated devices. So BB10 ended up being another generation on from PlayBook OS, for better or worse. It would haven been better to have preserved app compatibility with the PlayBook somehow, it might have saved the PlayBook from extinction even without BB10 for the PlayBook, but too late now!

Posted from my BlackBerry Z30 STA100-2 /10.2.1.3247 on O2 UK - Activated on BES10.2.4

[mithrazor]

While Show Case mode on the PlayBook was an "Ooh that's nice." feature the first time you saw it, aside from videos still playing when minimised it wasn't actually all that useful.

I'd much rather have real user multitasking where I can actually USE two or more apps on the screen at the same time, side by side.

Posted from my BlackBerry Z30 STA100-2 /10.2.1.3247 on O2 UK - Activated on BES10.2.4

Whatever allows me to record a video, while playing music, and looking at a text file at the same time.

I want that type of multi tasking back.

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[johnnyuk]

Whatever allows me to record a video, while playing music, and looking at a text file at the same time.

I want that type of multi tasking back.

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You can do 2 out if 3 at the moment, listen to music and read a text file.

I have a feeling whether apps pause when minimised, such as the camera app even while recording video, or carry on doing their thing is a developer design choice rather than an OS limitation. Maybe BlackBerry's User Experience guidelines for BB10 recommend to pause the app when minimised.

Posted from my BlackBerry Z30 STA100-2 /10.2.1.3247 on O2 UK - Activated on BES10.2.4

[xsacha]

This feature definitely exists in 10.3.1

I opened a Youtube video in the browser, then i switched to several other apps while the video was playing (and I was listening to the audio).

Apps run in the background by default now AFAIK and you have to disable that to save battery life.

Whatever allows me to record a video, while playing music, and looking at a text file at the same time.

I want that type of multi tasking back.

You can definitely do this. Just not with the stock camera app because the developer of that app intentionally pauses the recording.
If you use a third-party camera app that doesn't intentionally pause the recording, you can do this.

As you see, the apps are all multitasking in the background. The developer has just intentionally paused it in some situations to save battery. Imagine if a new user clicked the 'video' button on the camera, thinking it only switched modes and didn't instantly start recording. Then they minimised the app and did other stuff and noticed that their battery had dropped significantly and they have run out of disk space on their phone.
Many users would say Blackberry sucks: my new phone has no space left and the battery didn't last 4 hours!

If you're a power user, you probably know how to install a third-party camera app already and you can do this. This also ensures you know what you're doing and what will happen and that Blackberry gets no blame.

[johnnyuk]

This feature definitely exists in 10.3.1

I opened a Youtube video in the browser, then i switched to several other apps while the video was playing (and I was listening to the audio).

That's been the default behaviour in the browser since sometime during 10.1 I think. It's not new for 10.3.x

Posted from my BlackBerry Z30 STA100-2 /10.2.1.3247 on O2 UK - Activated on BES10.2.4

[Risky_KillMoves]

It's called "Showcase Mode" and it wouldn't be a battery killer, has the same effect as active frames just in a different format and UI setting

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[johnnyuk]

It's called "Showcase Mode" and it wouldn't be a battery killer, has the same effect as active frames just in a different format and UI setting

Posted via CB10

It could only use more battery power if the Active Frame had to display a constantly updated image, say if games were to no longer pause when minimised and videos carried on playing the video stream when minimised too. All of that requires more CPU time to calculate and display.

Posted from my BlackBerry Z30 STA100-2 /10.2.1.3247 on O2 UK - Activated on BES10.2.4

[bloodyrek]

gj.

[bloodyrek]

It's called "Showcase Mode" and it wouldn't be a battery killer, has the same effect as active frames just in a different format and UI setting

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Showcase Mode still puts a game on pause tho.

edit: nevermind it doesnt.

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[castano22]

I think that type of multitasking is better on a screen the size of the PlayBook with the battery it has. I wouldn't want that on my Z30.

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