Will Windows Phone 7 Support Multitasking third party apps

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Will Windows Phone 7 Support Multitasking third party apps

Obviously it's early days, I do not know whether this is information that is in the public domain or not yet, but...

I have trawled through some of this site - http://www.windowsphone7series.com/ but I can't seem to find the answer.

Specifically will I be able to write an app on the phone that updates the cloud with the phones current GPS position in the background even when other apps are running in the foreground.

+1 A:

According to ZDNet's post yesterday, Windows Mobile 7 will support multitasking for things like having music playing while using an application, but as far as 3rd party it will most likely not be supported. Things like notifications however will be there, as to help with multitasking.

JonnyLitt 2010-03-17 00:01:48

Thanks for the quick response. Oh well. At least there is some suggestion that the platform might have it in the future. In my "GPS to the cloud" scenario push is not really going to work.

Christopher Edwards 2010-03-17 00:20:40

ZDNet are hardly Microsoft spokesperson are they! Wait till the SDK ships. What's the rush?

TFD 2010-03-17 00:52:10

Actually I have since found the CTP SDK has shipped, http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/wpdev/. The rush is whether I should hold on or start learning how to write apps for Andriod, or not. My app idea needs near real time geolocation...

Christopher Edwards 2010-03-17 02:34:46

I would be surprised if they remove multi-tasking from the OS, as we do already have multi-tasking since before WindowCE mutated to allow phone calls...

Rowland Shaw 2010-03-18 12:54:44

I hate to relieve myself on your bonfire Christopher but might I suggest that a background GPS process, might not be a good idea. You'd really run down the users battery performance, perhaps if you shared a little more about your idea we could suggest an alternative architecture that didn't require a constant gps post.

Martin Beeby 2010-03-22 09:07:09

Erm... Some things can be re-architected but is this one of them, how on earth can you keep track of someone's location without querying the GPS at timed intervals!!! I would give you more details about my top secret project but then I'd have to kill you :)As regards battery life I have had this working as a prototype on Windows 5/6 for around 3 years, so I am aware of the battery issues and how to minimise them. Ultimately the battery issue would be handled best by the platform dealing with location better, on a hardware level and an OS level.

Christopher Edwards 2010-03-22 11:38:59

Foursquare is an example of a location based service that doesn’t require an always-on background service.It sounds like your idea is reliant on knowing a user’s position in real time, so there is no way to deliver that according to the ZDnet post.If you could think of a way of offering your service that worked on a user checking in their location, I think this would improve not only the battery performance but would also address potential privacy concerns that users of your application might have.

Martin Beeby 2010-03-22 15:36:04

ansaurus

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Will Windows Phone 7 Support Multitasking third party apps

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