AppSwitch – The missing app that should have been in the box!
That’s the first line of the App Store description for AppSwitch for iPhone. That’s quite a big boast for any iOS app. I’ve taken a look at the app over the last few days, to see if it lives up to its own lofty billing. The short answer: not even close, unless ‘the box’ being referred to is one that holds all not really very useful at all utility apps.
Hit the jump for a quick rundown of why this is so …
I think the easiest way to explain why this app is nothing special, and certainly not any great ‘missing piece’ for the iPhone, is to run through its list of features and comment on how unique or impressive each is. So, the features and description for the app are in block quote format below, with my comments in normal text below each section:
Monitor all background processes
– detects and displays running apps and processes, complete with actual name and icon
– no more guessing which app is running in the background and which app isn’t
Meh. There are a number of apps in the App Store that do this, and honestly do it better than AppSwitch. Free Memory and iStat are just two that spring to mind quickly. In my testing of AppSwitch it consistently shows that I have 35-45 processes running, and never identifies more than around 12 of them. Typically it identifies built-in apps (Mail, Safari etc) and only very few 3rd party apps. I suspect it may only be identifying those that have been updated for iOS 4. How interesting or useful is it to anyone to see 35 processes running, 25 ‘unkown’?
Switch to App technology (on supported apps)
– harnessing one of iOS’s most powerful features to let you quickly switch to another app
– Shortcuts lets you quickly switch to a feature within another app (e.g. switch to Twitter’s compose message screen)
The key here is the ‘on supported apps’ phrase. It supports far fewer than the iPhone’s Multitasking Bar does and the switching process is clumsier. Maybe useful for an iPhone 3G user, maybe, but for an iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 user, not useful at all. The Shortcuts feature is a nice idea – but for me it was flaky (worked with Twitter, failed with Facebook) and again, there are not many supported apps for it as yet.
Know a whole lot more about your device
– see device model, iOS version, network details, system load, uptime and disk space status
– details may be copied and forwarded via email
Memory usage
– find out more about how your device uses memory
Another ‘meh’ feature. Again there are many other apps that offer this information, and that present it better.
Dig deep into your favorite shiny device
– exclusive Console feature lets you view messages sent by the operating system and other processes/apps
– great troubleshooting tool for programmers and technical support
An interesting feature and potentially useful. Still, it’s disappointing that you cannot copy or share the console messages in any way other than taking screencaps of them and sending those off.
Overall, there’s nothing in this app that strikes me as being a useful or killer add-on utility for the iPhone. If you’re 3GS or iPhone 4 user iOS’s Multitasking Bar offers far more elegant and easy app switching and shows you every app that is doing anything (or nothing but residing in) the background – which AppSwitch utterly fails to do.
AppSwitch is available in the App Store now, priced at $0.99, apparently as a special 60% off introductory offer. I wouldn’t recommend this one at any price – for me the only box it’s essential for is the Discarded Apps box.
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