i just set up tonido on my two home PCs, and was shocked to see that the ios app (and i'm guessing android too, haven't gotten to test it yet since the android app is dead at the moment) don't allow downloading files in the background...is there any plan to add this? it pretty much makes the app useless to me without it, since it prevents me from using my ipad while trying to download large files...i just have to sit there and wait for it to finish.

iOS (iPhone and iPad) sdk does not allow background downloads.
The background function is limited to audio/voip and few other function. If the sdk allows at somepoint, then we will add that functionality

really? itunes and other assorted apps can download in the background...is it just apple apps that can do so?

is it possible to at least pause the download and pick it up where we left off, so that it doesn't need to start all over again?

Yes. I have been thinking about it as well. Tonido server side has resume support. So we should be able to add that resume type of support.

there's a pretty major bug related to this...the app appears to not clear out old download attempts if the download is stopped in the middle. i just started a new thread for it but i wanted to link to it here too:

viewtopic.php?f=48&t=4942

I'm assuming that this problem isn't limited to IOS? I am a new user and have the Android app installed. I kick off a download of a large file and if I navigate away, the process seems to terminate.

Please let me know if I'm missing something, but right now it looks like the only way to make it work is to hover near the device and try to make sure that nothing else is running at the same time and try to keep it in the foreground.

Resume and a progress bar would definitely be a worthy enhancement.