Multifl0w was making quite a few headlines yesterday, but a number of people (myself included) were still a little confused about how the whole thing worked. It’s been suggested by the developer that you use Backgrounder, but it isn’t exactly clear whether or not you need Backgrounder to really use Multifl0w. I’ve gotten a bit […]
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Hands-on with Multifl0w on iOS 4 [Jailbreak]

Aug 23rd 2010 by

Multifl0w shows all apps loaded in RAM

Multifl0w was making quite a few headlines yesterday, but a number of people (myself included) were still a little confused about how the whole thing worked. It’s been suggested by the developer that you use Backgrounder, but it isn’t exactly clear whether or not you need Backgrounder to really use Multifl0w.

I’ve gotten a bit of hands-on time with this add-on today and have a few thoughts to share. I’ll start off with a little spoiler: if your iOS device is capable of Fast App Switching, then you won’t need to run Backgrounder. This includes the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and the iPod Touch 3G with a capacity of 16GB or more. Every other model will either have to hack iOS multitasking onto the device with the Features Cydia hack, or use Backgrounder (which uses up more battery than the iOS Fast App Switching).

Multifl0w developer Aaron Ash actually has a very good FAQ on the official website, but here’s the short version of things. Multifl0w is pretty flexible in terms of multitasking, and it can work with native multitasking (fast app switching) or jailbreak multitasking (Backgrounder). There is even a switch for Multifl0w that automatically enables backgrounding whenever you switch apps, but I’ve turned it off, since I think Apple’s native multitasking works just fine (with a bit of management).

The default iOS App Switcher shows loaded apps as well as recently used apps -- all in one place

The big advantage of installing Multifl0w is seeing all of your active apps in a Mac Exposé style layout with the ‘x’ buttons already in place. Keep in mind that, unless you manually choose to Background your apps, the “cards” you see in Multifl0w will only take up RAM.

Think of it like a different way of viewing the default iOS multitasking bar, except without all of those other recently used apps. However, unlike the default app switcher, Multifl0w can currently only show up to nine apps. That’s about the max for my 3GS in any case, but the iPhone 4 can probably handle a lot more and Multifl0w could simply blind you to what else you have running.

It can also be a little difficult to discern which apps are which in the thumbnails, so I do hope that Aaron Ash considers adding text to Multifl0w in a future update.

Reclaiming iPod Controls and Rotation Lock

Multifl0w will, by default, activate with a double tap of the Home button. If that particular button combination sounds a bit familiar, that’s because it’s also exactly how you bring up the iOS 4 App Switcher (shown above). This means that the iPod controls and the awesome portrait lock will have to be summoned some other way. You can assign a different gesture for bring up the App Switcher in Activator (which is the gesture-based extension that most jailbreak apps tie into), or you can find a different way of doing the same thing.

Since Multifl0w shows all of your loaded apps, and the iPod has to be loaded for you to play music, it’s simple enough to s Multifl0w, switch to the iPod, and play or pause music there. It’s not quite as slick as having a small bar pop-up (see MusicBarExtended for a cool, paid alternative), but it works.

As for the rotation lock, Ryan Petrich actually developed an extension called Rotation Inhibitor a little while ago, and although it hasn’t been updated in a while, it still works fine on iOS 4. You’ll have to add the iSpazio Repo if you can’t find Rotation Inhibitor in Cydia (http://ispaziorepository.com — remove this after you install Inhibitor, because iSpazio tends to time out a lot and increase Cydia load times).

Inhibitor is a free download and it allows to lock your iPhone in any orientation (not just portrait) from within SBSettings.

Rotation Inhibitor - switched ON to allow rotation

It’s only been a couple of hours with Multifl0w, but I think it’s a great little add-on, and absolutely worth the $4.99 purchase. This iOS 4 update is also free, so if you bought Multifl0w when it came out a while back, there’s a free download waiting for you on Cydia 😉

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