Multifl0w app Real iPhone Multitasking

Multifl0w is a true multitasking app for the iPhone

When I first saw a video demo of Multifl0w for the iPhone I thought it looked pretty promising and very optimistic.  Now that I have gotten my hands on it, I know it’s much more than that. Multifl0w delivers a simple and effective multitasking experience to the iPhone.

The app was just released on the Rock (jailbreak) app store and I’ve been giving it a good run for its money – and it is hugely impressive to use.

Install

I used the Rock store to install Multifl0w, but it’s now showing up on Cydia too.

The install’s default settings offered to install the Backgrounder app (which is required in order to ‘enable’ apps for running in the background and for using Multifl0w) and also to uninstall Kirikae if you have it, presumably because Kirikae also uses a double-tap of the home button to launch, and this will conflict with Multifl0w.

Apps Support

Mutlifl0w works with any app that you enable to run in the background, via the Backgrounder app, as well as the built-in apps that run in the background by default (Mail, Safari, iPod).

Interface / Usage

Once Multifl0w is installed, you use Backgrounder to enable apps to run in the background, and then use a double-tap of the home button to launch Multifl0w.  Once it’s launched it shows you images (bigger than thumbnails, see the pics below) of each running application.

You simply swipe left and right in Multifl0w to scroll the active apps and tap on any of them to switch immediately to it.  The images displayed in Multifl0w are of exactly the spot you were at within each app when you last left it, not just an app splash screen or similar.

Swiping to scroll among running apps is very smooth – and you can also easily use a standard flick motion to move quickly from far left (where the longest open / first opened) app is located to the far right, where the most recently opened app is found.

Everything works smoothly and quickly – and makes switching between apps faster than ever before.

Performance

Testing out Multifl0w has served as an excellent reminder of just how incredibly solid and powerful the iPhone is, and how eminently capable of multitasking it is.

I started out running 6-7 apps for a while – things like Evernote, Tweetie, Newsstand, Mail, 1Password, and I got  Zero noticeable lag, slowdown, or any kind of performance hit. It runs flawlessly.

For most of the time I’ve been testing, I’ve been running 10 to 12 apps at a time – with most of the above apps in the mix, plus a couple of games (Paper Toss and Scramble 2), the Kindle app, RSS Player, BuddyFeed, and Safari with 4 pages open.  And I still saw no slowness or lag, though at the 12 apps mark I did get a few crashes from the Scramble app.  The rest of the apps have just kept sailing along.

Free memory got down as low as around 4MB at one point, but mostly stayed at just over 10MB.  Even with these low levels of available RAM, the system has stayed solid and amazingly also just as speedy as ever.  Whether scrolling in the Multifl0w view, or in the speed of the actual app switches, or working within apps,  it’s just about as fast as ever.

In terms of effect on battery life, I’m sure there will be some with all the backgrounding this enables, but haven’t been using the app long enough to say much on this.  I can say that in the first hour and ten minutes of heavy usage, with 10-12 apps running most of the time, my battery percentage dropped by 15%.  That doesn’t strike me as an outlandish amount of usage.

Overall

It is a pleasure to use and for me it has taken multitasking to a whole new level on the iPhone.

You can find Multifl0w in the Cydia and Rock jailbreak app stores now.  It’s available on a free trial initially, and costs $4.99 to purchase. If your a power iPhone user and you find yourself in need of a true multitasking app – then you need to try Multifl0w out.

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-Steve

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