Does Voice Control Run “Normal” Apps in the Background?

As you probably know, the iPhone does not allow third party apps to run in the background.  Or does it?

If you are using an iPhone app and invoke Voice Control to control the iPod (e.g., to skip to the next song), it will carry out your command and then, in a fit of pure awesomeness, return you to your app seemingly where you left off.  I haven’t tested this extensively, but one of three things must be going on.

1. The first app quickly saves its state, quits, and then is is restored when Voice Control is done
2. The iPhone takes a “snapshot” of the memory used by the app, and then reloads that snapshot after Voice Control finishes, or
3. The iPhone lets the app run in the background momentarily, then returns to the app when Voice Control gives the all clear.

I am pretty sure door #3 is the winner, admittedly based on exactly three data points.  First, I tried Voice control while in Toodledo, adding a new task to my to-do list.  Voice Control returns me right back to the screen where my as-yet-unsaved task is waiting.  This is completely different from Toodledo’s behavior when it quits.  If you return to the home screen while entering a new task and then relaunch Toodledo you start at the app’s home page, which lists various categories of tasks.

Second, I tried Wurdle, a Boggle-like spelling game which has a countdown timer.  When you invoke Voice Control, the Wurdle clock keeps running!  Voice Control typically runs about 10 seconds off the clock, depending on how fast you say your command, etc.

Now, you might argue that Wurdle might be storing the start time in a variable and then subtracting that from the current time on the iPhone’s internal clock to get elapsed time, and then subtracting that from the game’s timer.  That would make the clock seem to advance, even under “freeze-dried” scenario 2.

Third test — geoDefense.  In this game you set up guns which then fire away automatically at oncoming waves of enemies.  Once you set up the guns, you are pretty much a spectator.  When you invoke Voice Control, your defenses seem to continue to shoot bad guys.  In any event, there were fewer bad guys on the screen when I returned from Voice Control.  The simplest explanation is that geoDefense is killing in the background.

Can anyone supply counter examples?

Even if my supposition is correct, this seems like an awfully tiny chink in the “We Won’t Allow Background Apps” armor Apple is wearing.  I can’t think of a way this could be turned into a true multitasking system, like on the Pre.  But someone else might.