Discussion on:

Learn how to multitask on the Samsung Galaxy Note II

If you are with T-Mobile and bought this phone before 12/20/2012, chances are you'd need a firmware update to support the Multi-Window feature. Here's how to get the update;

1. Go into Settings (Slide top-down from the home screen and click on the jig-saw wheel icon)
2. Select "About device" (Scroll to find this all the way at the bottom)
3. Select "Software update" (First item on the page)
4. Follow the screen prompts to find, download and install applicable updates

Once update is applied and phone has rebooted, you may need to Activate the Multi-Window function by long-pressing the regular Back link arrow at the bottom-right of the phone

I've got a Note II and long-pressing the back button doesn't do anything for me. Long-pressing the home button (the physical button at the center bottom), though, brings up the list of apps that I've recently worked with, and I can click on any of them to switch from app to app.

"Theres no other way to open the Popup Notes app."

I've got a Note I, purchased at a sale price about six weeks ago...
Using this model, if I take out the stylus, hold down the stylus side-button, and double-tap anywhere on the screen, the "Popup Notes" app opens. Has this feature been removed from the OS?
BTW: Long-hold on the "Back" button yields nothing under Android 4.0.1 with TouchWiz...

I bought my Note 2 in early November. Multi Window on mine (Sprint) has Email, Gallery, Gmail, Messaging, S Note, Video Player, Talk, Polaris Office, Internet, You Tube, Maps, Facebook, and Chrome. It seems to have picked up some apps after I downloaded and installed them. They all work fine and it may be that some apps are designed to work with Multi Window and are just automatically added to the Multi Window bar. By the way, you can swipe down on the home screen and scroll the top task bar to the left to see a button that enables Multi Window. I love this feature and wish Samsung had provided more documentation. Of course figuring it out is half the fun .

Press the button on your pen and double click anywhere on the screen opens the S-Note app.

from what I've had on my Nexus S 4.1.2 for some time, now (except the multi-window feature, which would be useless on the small screen, anyhow). If I hold the home button for a couple of seconds, I get the same list you show in the article, and all the applications are open, fully initialized and holding where they were when I backed out of them. I don't have to wait for startup or redo all the presses to get back where I was.

I suppose a small advantage would be the movable dividing line between windows -- indeed, that's the only way I can imagine multiple windows on a 4" screen being useful.

If this Popup Notes is available is available for Nexus S, I'l try downloading it and see whether it works as described in the article.

The Blackberry Playbook has true multitasking. In fact,you can specify just freezing the open app, or running it at reduced priority in the background, or running it at full priority in the background.
The running apps appear in a shrunk scrolling view, in real time.