The Scoop On Multitasking on The Windows Phone 7 Series

While the Microsoft press conference this week has had its fair share of news about the Windows Phone 7 Series, one of the hazy portraits that was painted included multitasking on the new OS. Since the OS isn't ready, no one has final hardware for it, and the emulator seems to behave differently than actual devices, and Microsoft's descriptions, the whole feature has been rather confusing. So we can set the story straight about it by stating, multitasking is NOT going to happen, atleast not the way you would expect it to. The way the multitasking feature works on the Windows Phone 7 OS is the fact that it allows first-party apps like the Zune player and IE to run in the background, but third-party apps are left running in a suspended state which Microsoft calls "dehydrated." The third-party apps are left in this "dehydrated" state as long as the system doesn't need any resources. If the user wants to go back to the suspended application it is "rehydrated" and works where it left off, but if the user decides to open several others applications which cause the OS to need additional memory, the "dehydrated" app is killed without any warning.

If the whole feature sounds familiar, that's because it is, it's basically a single-tasking riff on Android and Windows Mobile 6, both of which end up running multiple running applications similar to this manner just fine. We'll have to see if Windows Phone 7 Series can do a better job once it ships and it most likely will. One of the things that many wonder about is whether Microsoft will extend the multitasking feature to third party apps. As for now, you can say good-bye to running lets say an app like Pandora in the background wile doing other tasks on the 7 Series devices. It was a question specifically asked and the answer is no. Hear what Microsoft's Todd Brix had to say about it:

What do you think of the whole issue? The average consumer probably won't recognize the difference between this form of multitasking and the traditional way. For those of you who do, will it sway your decision to go with Windows Phone 7? Share your thoughts and comments below.

Microsoft’s Lack of Copy/Paste on Windows Phone 7 Series

Microsoft created a hot debate on the Windows Phone 7 Series cut/paste feature by not including it in their new mobile operating system. One of the main reasons it is a problem in the first place is because it didn't line up with what the company had previously said about their new phone series. Microsoft says leaving clipboard operations was a design based on choice based on user research showing that people don't actually use copy and paste very often, and that instead 7 Series features include a systemwide data detection service which recognizes things like phone numbers and addresses so you can decide whether you want it to fill-in or not. Third-party apps can supposedly hook into this service as well but it really doesn't make up for the lack of the cut/paste feature. When Microsoft was questioned about Office and OneNote, they had said that their research shows that people mostly want to view and comment on documents, not edit them. No updates plan on releasing the copy/paste feature down the line either as mentioned by Microsoft. Here's what Microsoft's Todd Brix had to say about the whole situation:

So what do you think of this whole fiasco? It is kinda surprising for Microsoft to remove a feature that was already included in its previous mobile operating systems and also for them to not include it when competing with other companies who do include the feature (Apple.) Do you think it will hurt Microsoft? Be sure to check out our Windows Phone 7 compilation of information guide we posted this past week with all the information on Microsoft's new operating system. Share your thoughts and comments below.