Apple has always preferred to offer consumers a locked-down, end-to-end experience. That’s what makes the iPad one of the most enjoyable consumer mobile devices, but also perhaps the most restrictive. Since the original iPhone, the jailbreak community has been cracking the software in iDevices to give users more flexibility with advanced apps. This time app developers have taken things to a new level. Quasar is an impressive window management system for iPads.
We’re all used to the multi-window paradigm on desktop PCs, but that has never worked quite right on a touchscreen device. Multitasking on mobile devices has just meant suspending an app in the background so it can be returned to quickly. Quasar actually makes your iPad apps behave like real windows. You can resize, move, minimize, and close them as you like.
Each app has a bar across the bottom that you can use to change the size, close, full screen, and rotate it. The rotation support literally made me say “whoa” out loud. The apps behave just like they are getting rotation information from the accelerometer. The interface changes to the correct landscape or portrait UI and it’s really smooth. Quasar also plugs into theiOS multitasking bar for easy switching between windowed apps.
This is a great way to keep multiple things going at once, and finally gives you a use for all those iPhone-only apps that scale poorly to the iPad. The app is still in the early phases of public availability so there are probably going to be bugs, and I assume battery life is going to take a hit. Although, it might be worth the risk to try it out.
Quasar is available in the Cydia store for jailbroken iPads, and it can be yours for $9.99.
via TheBigBoss
