Why the iPhone won't multitask

(okay, it SELECTIVELY multitasks)

In a nutshell, Apple doesn't want you to multitask for a very good reason. A real life story ensues.

Being my procrastinating self, I was laying in my bed this morning on my iPhone, doing failure-type things such as listening to music and reading today's FMLs.

As I had not bought a particular song that I had been wanting to buy for some time now, and right then, I felt like hearing it, I decided to go on YouTube to hear it.

Now, music videos never contain any footage worth watching (I'll give the odd exception, particularly to Trace Adkins), so I decided that I wanted to hear the song, but finish up the FMLs while hearing it, and that's when I started thinking to myself that I should really be heading off to work.

Out of reflex, once the song was playing, I pressed the home button expecting to keep hearing the song while performing another task. Instead, it faded out.

That's when I remembered, the iPhone doesn't multitask.

But then it occured to me that just earlier, I was, indeed multitasking. I was listening to music already loaded to the iPhone, as well as doing other things, such as reading the FMLs.

This didn't add up. Maybe its my iPhone telling me to quit being idle, I don't need to hear that song, and to get up and go to work.

Smart as the iPhone is, I draw the line of its potential abilities at nagging me. Not like it hasn't nagged me before about charging its battery, but I have no sympathy for its terrible battery life. That's just not my problem.

Rather, its Apple telling me to buy the darned song! They don't need people like me mooching off the marginally-legal content on YouTube at the expense of their profit. If I want to hear a song and do something else such as browse the web or do emails, I must pay for the hearing privileges. Can't have it both ways.

And pay, I did! I went right to the iTunes app and bought the song, landing in my library 60 seconds later (don't you just love technology? Seems to me that it was only about ten years ago that people were excited to get up, go to the record store, and buy a whole album to play on their walkman, rather than just pay $0.99 for one song and hear it right away).

So, 99 cents later, I had my wish, and headed off to work, satisfied.

The bottom line... Apple doesn't let you multitask because they don't WANT you to multitask. They're only OK with music that you paid for to be playing in the background.

Expensive handset and high monthly costs aside, it sure isn't cheap owning an iPhone!