Apple Misses September Deadline for 'Push' Notifications

[MacRumors]

Macworld correctly notes that Apple has missed their deadline for a September release of background Push notifications for the iPhone.

At WWDC, Apple described a new method for applications to receive notifications even when not currently running. This functionality is required since iPhone applications are not allowed to run in the background. A common reason for this need would be to notify the user of a new message or alert from an application such as instant messaging. Apple's own Mail and SMS applications already benefit from this functionality.

Steve Jobs is said to have emailed a customer who inquired about the status of this new feature. Jobs reportedly said "We're running a bit late. We want to get it 100% right the first time."

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[nagromme]

Without push, my email delay averages 7.5 minutes. That's "good enough" for a few more weeks.

Push AIM will be great though. No SMS for me. Any friends I have who still rely on primitive SMS can either upgrade to real IM/email... or use a thing called "voice"

And then I'm eagerly awaiting push-enabled MMO games. It will probably take a few generations to get them right, but the potential is there.

[11800506]

It will be a nice feature to have when it comes and it does suck that they missed the deadline (as usual) but I'm fine without it so I would rather then get is perfect than release it earlier but in only semi-working order.

[Bernie-Mac]

You can run apps in the background now, you just have to jailbreak

[biketire]

I wish I could get an email from Steve Jobs.

[Lexoticstylez02]

As long as when it's released it isn't as buggy as 2.0 I'm happy.

[BaldiMac]

Originally Posted by nagromme

Without push, my email delay averages 7.5 minutes. That's "good enough" for a few more weeks.

No offense, but what does that have to do with a push notification service? And what would happen in a few more weeks to change your email delivery?

[dwsolberg]

I think PUSH notifications are a great new feature, but I hope Apple's priority is on keeping the operating system stable and fast. As it is, I think the interface could be faster, and I know there are bugs that App programmers have to work around.

Eventually, I'd like to see Apple add options for connecting game controls, hook-ups to car reading monitors, hookups to printers (or wireless printing), and any other sort of connections that people might want. It's all very neat and I think it'll happen (as processing power and RAM memory increases on the device), but Apple needs to concentrate on its core functions first.

[bbplayer5]

I personally wont enable push being that it kills your battery. Ill stick to the old fashion way with BeeJive txting me when I get a message.

[Randman]

I'd rather wait and have it done right then get it early and have it be half-assed once again.

[Yuppi]

My eMail (me.com) is usually pushed before I see it on my local mail app.. It works really really well here.

[the1payday]

Why does Apple always act like making a product "100%" and "getting it out by THEIR OWN set release date" are two things that can never happen simultaneously? You figure that a company that huge would be smart enough to be able to calculate how long it will take to make something "100%" right the first time, and then pick a date to get it out. They always act like they are doing us a favor when they say stuff like this; and it is starting to get old. They should know how long it will take and not just pick a date out of thin air and pray it's ready by then.

[stevearm]

Originally Posted by biketire

I wish I could get an email from Steve Jobs.

I got two emails from him a couple of weeks ago, the second one after I replied to his first one

[Peel]

Originally Posted by the1payday

Why does Apple always act like making a product "100%" and "getting it out by THEIR OWN set release date" are two things that can never happen simultaneously? You figure that a company that huge would be smart enough to be able to calculate how long it will take to make something "100%" right the first time, and then pick a date to get it out. They always act like they are doing us a favor when they say stuff like this; and it is starting to get old. They should know how long it will take and not just pick a date out of thin air and pray it's ready by then.

Code writing is as much art as it is science. The beta test phase of any product is an unknown until you get there. You might budget a couple of weeks, only to find that each beta release revels more, previously hidden, bugs, and suddenly your 2 weeks becomes 4, or 6.

As someone (can't remember who at the moment) once said, "If I knew how many bugs there were going to be, I could have avoided them in the first place."

[the1payday]

Originally Posted by Peel

Code writing is as much art as it is science. The beta test phase of any product is an unknown until you get there. You might budget a couple of weeks, only to find that each beta release revels more, previously hidden, bugs, and suddenly your 2 weeks becomes 4, or 6.

As someone (can't remember who at the moment) once said, "If I knew how many bugs there were going to be, I could have avoided them in the first place."

Even if it is that difficult to code things (and I'm sure it is; I certainly have no knowledge on the matter) Apple should STILL be able to keep their mouth shut long enough until they are at least close enough to a "complete" product, to give a release date.

[JZ Wire]

Ok, so they missed their target for a September release but I just hope it wont be too long after that.I cant wait to get the push notifications going especially for AIM and Facebook. I guess if they need a bit more time to work on it its ok so it wont become another mobileme thing. Ill keep my fingers crossed...

[blackmondo]

Originally Posted by the1payday

Even if it is that difficult to code things (and I'm sure it is; I certainly have no knowledge on the matter) Apple should STILL be able to keep their mouth shut long enough until they are at least close enough to a "complete" product, to give a release date.

It's a tough call - I think what happened here was that Apple WOULD have released it by the end of September, had there not been so many (very nasty) problems with the initial iPhone 2.0 software. They absolutely made the right choice to fix the big problems for 2.1 (call dropouts, battery life, 3G strength indicator, app crashes, white logo screen of death) and delay the push notification features.

The majority of people would much rather the PHONE part of the iPhone to be rock solid than to have an unstable phone that can neatly support IM applications :P

Patience people, these features will come

[kjs862]

I think I'd rather have it late then have it released on time with bugs in it. I just wish he didn't make that promise to everyone, he should have said Oct, or Nov, or whenever the delayed date is going to be.

[Detrius]

Originally Posted by Lexoticstylez02

As long as when it's released it isn't as buggy as 2.1 I'm happy.

There, fixed.

Am I the only person in the world that can't install *any* application updates in 2.1? Can anyone else transfer new/updated applications from their iPhone back to iTunes?

2.1 is an improvement, but it's still early beta quality.

[jmadlena]

Originally Posted by Detrius

There, fixed.

Am I the only person in the world that can't install *any* application updates in 2.1? Can anyone else transfer new/updated applications from their iPhone back to iTunes?

2.1 is an improvement, but it's still early beta quality.

Have you tried restoring? If so, have you sent a bug report to Apple? They may not know about it until someone shows them.

[tony4d]

Apple, you're doing it right. Don't release something that's not finished.

[ntrigue]

Originally Posted by Detrius

There, fixed.

Am I the only person in the world that can't install *any* application updates in 2.1? Can anyone else transfer new/updated applications from their iPhone back to iTunes?

2.1 is an improvement, but it's still early beta quality.

A week before 2.1 I was about to give up and sell my 3G on eBay and reactivate my 1G. 2.1 has solved EVERY problem I had and there were more than 5 serious problems.

[robinp]

Originally Posted by ntrigue

A week before 2.1 I was about to give up and sell my 3G on eBay and reactivate my 1G. 2.1 has solved EVERY problem I had and there were more than 5 serious problems.

No, I have the same problem of not being able to update apps. The solution I've found is to start the update then delete the old version. The problem with this is it loses your settings. Annoying. I also find safari crashes regularly on the BBC site and almost without fail at the normal (desktop) version of facebook

[herrdoktor]

Originally Posted by bbplayer5

I personally wont enable push being that it kills your battery. Ill stick to the old fashion way with BeeJive txting me when I get a message.

Er ... so far as I was aware, the push notifications come in via the cell communication signals (like SMS) and add a mini icon (e.g. number of emails waiting) to the application icon on the homescreen. you're only going to use up more battery once you load the application to deal with that status update.

[Sun Baked]

Originally Posted by biketire

I wish I could get an email from Steve Jobs.

Start stalking him, I'm quite sure Steve and his lawyers will send you a nice little e-mail, and give you his signature on some letterhead as a bonus.