Default.png problem with iPhone OS 4?

Question

What should Default.png contain? Currently it seems that iPhone OS makes snapshots of the screen before closing the app, and next time it launches with that exact snapshot as "splash screen image".

A guy here in Russia told me that this is only happening when Multitasking works on the device.

What would I show in Default.png now? I don't want that the app launch sucks for users without multitasking, and I don't want it to suck for users with multitasking where the app had to hardcore-launch anyways (i.e. first launch at all). So what would that contain? A screenshot of the app screen how it looks after a hard launch from scratch? But what if my app is clever and saved state, and the UI looks completely different after launch?

What are you guys putting in Default.png and why?

Answer 1

For iPhone splash screens I am still using a company logo splash. for iPad, a basic "outline" of what the screen i am coming into will look like (a splitview basically, depending on orientation). The fact that default.png isn't editable does make this tricky though.

Answer 2

If fast-app switching is working on the app as part of multi-tasking, you are correct in stating that the OS will take a snapshot and restore your app to this state after it comes out of the background. If the OS is saving state for you, then coming out of the background doesn't "suck" since it brings you app back into view looking just like it did when it left. It's almost like minimizing a window on Mac OSX and then maximizing it again... you just pick up from where you left off before.

Be advised though that the app could get killed at anytime in the background without warning or notifications being sent to you. In that case, you should still save state and try to create a splash screen that works with all of your views (i.e. has a tab bar at the bottom, or a nav bar at the top, etc). If you can't do that, you might consider just doing what Jesse has done with a company or app splash screen (even though Apple doesn't endorse this, but they won't reject you for it either).

As Jesse stated, Apple recommends creating an outline of the main elements to familiarize the user with your app and to give the appearance of faster loading. More information is here