iOS Multitasking - can you disable it?

coylemj

I have an iTouch 4G running iOS 4.2.1 When I'm running certain apps and press the 'Home' button it closes the window but leaves the app running in the background. This is fair enough as it means that I don't have to restart the app next time I want to use it but there is a serious downside as there are apps that don't appear to know about multitasking.

On several apps which access data over the internet there is a refresh button and when you press it the data you are looking at gets reloaded but not all apps have this facility so you end up looking at the data and there is no direct way to get it refreshed.

One solution is to double-click the Home button to show you the last four apps that you ran, you hold your finger over one of the four icons and you get a red delete badge over each of the apps, you can then delete the app in question and as well as removing it from the list of most recent apps used, it also kills the app from memory so you can restart it, this achieves the data refresh requirement.

So here's my questions....

1. Is there any way to tell iOS that for certain apps, you want the app killed stone dead when you press the Home button and not pushed to the background?

2. Is there any way to globally disable multitasking?

I have checked the iOS4 USer Guide and the only mention of mutitasking is the following on p.23 .....

On iPod touch 3rd generation or later, you can quickly switch between the apps you’re using; multitasking also allows certain apps to run in the background.

guil

if its jailbroken use backgrounder to set custom multitasking rules

coylemj

Not jailbroken - kosher iTouch 4G 32GB.

guil

no way so i'm afraid

ironclaw

Multitasking is pure muck in iOS. Its not very well supported and few App's I've used have implemented it properly. You should be able as a consumer or developer to flag your App, so that it goes into the background or just quits. I hate multitasking and rarely use it.

Jakmeehan

Just jailbreak it - you will be able to do either of the two things you're asking about.

"Backgrounder" to set app-specific rules

"Disable Multitasking" to disable it completely.