Multitasking in Modern Mobile Phones - Essay Example

Multitasking in Modern Mobile Phones An operating system is an element of software of a computer system accountable for managing and coordinating activities and also shares the computer resources. The operating system hosts the application programs run in machines. The essential key of the operating system is to store the details of the hardware’s operation. The operating systems offer various services to application users and programs. The services are accessed by applications through system calls or application programming interfaces (APIs) (Raggo & Hosmer 2012, p. 92). The use of the interfaces enables application to ask for a service from the OS, pass restrictions and acquire the operation’s results. The users can interact with the operating systems by use of graphical user interface (GUI) or typing commands. There are three major operating systems, including Mac OS X, windows and Linux. Various companies are multitasking on i-OS4 instead of Blackberry devices. The i-OS4 ranks as the last mobile OS in supporting multitasking. The reason why the multitasking in Android is at last is because the designers entirely wanted to avoid it. The traditional multitasking cannot suit in Google phones and Androids because the limited resources and complexity. Complexity arises due to a simple UI and smaller visual space on mobile devices. There is no simple way of indicating to the user the running of the multiple applications. The device cannot also control or quit multiple applications (Raggo & Hosmer 2012, p. 97). Users often expect easy, simple and idiot-proof mobile devices. The second reason is inadequate resources. The phone uses memory and CPU to run everything, and in turn uses the battery power. Many of the apps, therefore, are not written or need to use all memory bytes or need of hitting the network in order to accomplish their tasks. Saving state is the most common Android’s form of multitasking. The OS of an Android provides a major support in the operating system in enabling the application developers to write the current condition of their applications and reload back when their app is restarted. The OS keeps the application in memory enhancing the switch back to fast. Running in the background is the less ordinary form of multitasking, particularly on the apps the want to continue in downloading twitter messages, playing music or performing other activities. Android supports all the types of apps where it allows them to register and run various services (Raggo & Hosmer 2012, p. 109). The entire background runs as a service thread, which does not interact with the user, but just plays music or connects to network. Far less usage of CPU and memory pressure are usually the outcomes. Apple’s platform is has a limited multitasking form where it is accessed with a double tap of the normal button. The multitasking bar is at the bottom of the screen where it allows the user to flip between applications. When an icon is long-pressed, the user removes the application from the multitasking bar. The intention of Apple having the multitasking bar was to be in the list of recent applications and not the applications that are operating in the background. When the home button of an Apple is pressed, the controlled platform usually commands most of the applications to stop the running code. Application activity on i-OS has five states, the major ones including Inactive and not running (Raggo & Hosmer 2012, p. 120). Not running just means that the application has been either closed or not yet launched particularly when the device is asleep. An active state occurs when the foreground of the Apple is used. An Active application usually goes to the background when the user hits the home button of an i-OS. Background app is still an executing code, although it is not displayed on the screen. It often switches to a Suspended mode. A Suspended app runs no code on the device because it lacks processor cycles. Suspended apps are usually cleared from the RAM if the devices requires large memory for installing a game or any other large app. Applications are intended to remain as Background tasks in order to run code after some seconds in specific conditions (Raggo & Hosmer 2012, p. 122). Google made some advancement in the way of accessing multitasks in Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. In the recent applications lists, one can swipe applications away when removing them from the list. Applications on Android use various processes where the multiple applications can share cone process. Android device never run out of memory where all the processes can remain RAM forever. When the RAM becomes insufficient the process is killed, and the resources claimed back by kernel, and if opened by the user, it is completely reloaded (Raggo & Hosmer 2012, p. 135). The Android apps avoid being killed in the background by using Broadcast-Receivers and service components. Broadcast-Receivers are useful in file syncing or check-ins. Android architecture The android OS is referred to as a software stack with different layers in which each layer is composed of various program components. Linux Kernel is the crucial layer in Android OS. The available Linux 2.6 Kernel in the whole Android OS interacts with the hardware and hosts all the significant hardware drivers. Drivers are the programs that control and share the information with hardware such as Bluetooth function. The Linux Kernel also serves as an abstraction between the hardware layer and other software layers (Raggo & Hosmer 2012, p. 138). Linux is used in Android for core functionality such as process management, security settings, memory management and networking. Native Libraries is the next layer of Android. The layer enables the device to compose various types of data. Surface manager, media framework, SQLite, WebKit and OpenGL are some of the major native libraries. Surface manager helps in compositing window manager through buffering the off-screen, therefore, the windows becomes transparent (Raggo & Hosmer 2012, p. 142). Media framework allows recordings and playbacks of various media formats. SQLite is used to store data while WebKit is used to display the content of HTML. Open GL serves in rendering the contents of 2D or 3D graphics to the screen. Android runtime is another layer that consists of Core Java libraries and Dalvik Virtual machine. Dalvik Virtual machine is recommended in running applications in android devices for little memory environments and processing power. The machine usually runs the dex’s files. Core Java libraries provide assistance in functionalities described in the Java SE libraries. Blocks of application framework are the programs that manage the essential functions of the phone such as voice call and resource managements. Some of the blocks include the activity manager, content providers, location manager, telephony manager and the resource manager (Raggo & Hosmer 2012, p. 147). Applications emerge as the top layer in Android architecture where the required applications fits. Various standard applications including SMS client app, dialer, web browser and contact manager, comes pre-installed in all devices. Android has endless opportunities to the developer such that he or she performs anything with it as long as it permits with the app. The hardware interface of the SuperTel’s IP phone is composed with a set of possible requirements that can be issued by the onboard control program and a group of unique messages to be received. In addition, there is universal RCP mechanism with a basis of ultra simple object access protocol (USOAP). The messages in USOAP are described as (“[“and “]”). The onboard control program sends the requests messages that indirectly control certain local devices on IP phone. The operating system of mobile phone is the basic software that allows its operation. Another comparison is between i-OS 8 and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8.1. The new i-OS 8 allows users to take videos and photos anyplace between i-OS devices while the WP8.1 photos app OneDrive back-up and grates 3rd party libraries that control photo taking. The iMessage in i-OS 8 allows the user to tap and talk and also the voice, photos or videos within messages while in WP8.1, it lacks iMessaging app, but only a Microsoft owned Skype. i-OS has an iCloud Drive that stores documents while WP8.1 it has OneDrive which is more comprehensive in storing documents than iCloud Drive. The operating system of the Blackberry is referred to as Blackberry 10 and is closed for tablets and smart-phone devices only. BlackBerry Tablet OS is the recent developed OS for Blackberry tablets. The operating system of a BlackBerry has the same features as that of smart-phone like web browsing, email access among others (Raggo & Hosmer 2012, p. 155). A track pad or a trackball are the hardware used in navigating instead of a touch screen which it lacks. The BlackBerry button is made for easier integration whereas the system is geared toward communications more willingly than apps and games. The major drawback of the smart phone is the limitation on customization. Only the roles of few buttons and the wallpaper can be changed. References List Raggo, M. T., & Hosmer, C. (2012). Data Hiding Exposing Concealed Data in Multimedia, Operating Systems, Mobile Devices and Network Protocols. Rockland, MA, Elsevier Science. Read More