That's not multitasking. That's background processing. Multitasking is having multiple tasks running, any of which might become the foreground task at any time. It differs from the iPhone/iPod model (as far as a user is concerned) only by the way in which the switch is effected. In fact, it could be argued that it is exactly the same. Cmd-Tab + Click versus Home + Tap. Take your IT hat off for a moment and you'll see how subtle it is. If you had a fast enough processor in the iPad/iPhone, it would be effectively identical to the end user. Which also begs the question: Is the iPad *powerful* enough to allow multi-tasking?

An interesting thought occurs to me. When you moved up to the 27" iMac at work, did you begin to expect more from it than your previous (17"?) model? Or does it just do the same stuff faster and make things easier to see?

After all, the difference is the same as iPod Touch > iPad. Bigger screen, faster processor.

Or is there a threshold somewhere between 480x320 and 1024x768?