Apple to Allow Background Tasks on iPhone?

[MacRumors]

With the release of iPhone Firmware 2.2.1, many were left wondering what had become of the Push notification system that Apple had announced at the Worldwide Developer's Conference back in June.

While Apple had originally set a September 2008 deadline for the service, Apple removed the feature from beta versions in August and has made no other mention of the service. Steve Jobs is reported to have told one customer that the feature was "running a bit late" and that they wanted to get it 100% right the first time.

Apple does not currently allow 3rd party iPhone applications to run as background processes. Instead, apps must shut down completely after use. Push notifications was Apple's solution to allow applications to receive notices while they are not the active application. Certain services, such as Instant Messaging, would benefit greatly from this feature.

By now, it's clear that something is holding up the Push notification service. While we aren't sure what the specific issues are, we've heard that as an alternative Apple is considering allowing apps to run as user selectable background processes. If so, this feature would likely come in the rumored iPhone 3.0 software update but would be limited to only one or two processes on current hardware. The next generation iPhone, however, would likely see less restricted background process support due to its improved hardware.


Article Link: Apple to Allow Background Tasks on iPhone?

[Mjmar]

I'd love that for Pandora Radio.

[TuffLuffJimmy]

gah! hopefully it would be a combination of both. I'd love to have twitteriffic and tweetie off, but have updates pushed; and I'd love to have Things running in the background.

[happydude]

Originally Posted by Mjmar

I'd love that for Pandora Radio.

no doubt!!

and for AOL IM (like every blackberry out there can do)

[Chaos123x]

Originally Posted by Mjmar

I'd love that for Pandora Radio.

Yes exactly what I was thinking too.

It would be cool, if it worked with the AOL radio too I love the Daft Punk Station.

[plumbingandtech]

All good things in good time.

Apple likes to do things right. Even if it takes time.

Good to see this instead them throwing up some PRE-COOKed, PRE-Historic PRE 1999 html / javascript solution..

[BklynKid]

I really hope they aren't dropping push notifications altogether. Some applications simply don't make sense to be running all the time. For Tweetie push notifications make much more sense while for AOL Radio, Pandora or even AIM running in the background would make more sense.

I fear that Apple thinks now push notifications is too hard and to make up for the lack thereof they are instead implementing background running processes.

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Originally Posted by plumbingandtech

All good things in good time.

Apple likes to do things right. Even if it takes time.

Good to see this instead them throwing up some PRE-COOKed, PRE-Historic PRE 1999 html / javascript solution..

Yeah, because we all know that Apple likes to get things perfect before putting them out, just like 1.0.0 and 2.0, and the new unibodies with battery issues and OS 10.5 with a slew of networking issues, and TV that was next to useless since it crashed so much, and the iPod touch that had iPhone errors constantly.

They like to get things perfect before releasing them, so I'm sure push notifications will work without a hitch when it comes...

[plumbingandtech]

Originally Posted by BklynKid

I really hope they aren't dropping push notifications altogether. Some applications simply don't make sense to be running all the time. For Tweetie push notifications make much more sense while for AOL Radio, Pandora or even AIM running in the background would make more sense.

I fear that Apple thinks now push notifications is too hard and to make up for the lack thereof they are instead implementing background running processes.

But one thing that could come along with it would be a Push background app. This would allow multiple apps to poll it and get push from it. Kinda like a background printer app on OS X. Who knows. Interesting news / rumor none the less.

Yeah, because we all know that Apple likes to get things perfect before putting them out, just like 1.0.0 and 2.0, and the new unibodies with battery issues and OS 10.5 with a slew of networking issues, and TV that was next to useless since it crashed so much, and the iPod touch that had iPhone errors constantly.

I was wondering if anyone would take my comment so literally that they would dredge up some issue that they had with a 1.0 product.

New flash:

Nothing is perfect. But apple more then anyone out there consistently strives for it with each and every hardware and software release. Forgive them for being human.

[miketcool]

mmm...Android

[Robbadore64]

Originally Posted by happydude

no doubt!!

and for AOL IM (like every blackberry out there can do)

+1 Pandora and AOL IM are the only two I need, can't even think about anything else I would care to have push for.

It would be nice if they could add in the iPhone settings a "Which programs may run in the background" and limit it to one or two that you can have running, and you just select from the "approved" list.

[jellomizer]

I hope there will be a way that I can prioritize these Apps such as a Unix nice command. The problem with background app is they will like to chew down your battery, and possibly create larger security issues.

[alexbates]

That would be awesome!

[phinnaeus]

I'm not even holding out for push anymore. I bet we see Chrome come out for Mac before we even get another decent bit of news about it.

[kjs862]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5G77 Safari/525.20)

I can't understand how apple can say their iPhone is the best phone out there yet even though it's been out for 2 years it doesn't have push

[richxps]

Wow i hope this so called rumor is TRUE.
All i need is two back round apps, weather and AIM.
Wow this will really make the phone close to complete.
PLEASE APPLE>>> PLEASEEEE

[finalcut]

I agree with you on Pandore but since I am Canadian, I'd like to see this in Last.fm

[baleensavage]

Hopefully Apple will reign this in as well. I'd hate to see a bunch of poorly designed apps that keep running in the background sucking power and processor speed away from other things. Aside from a few apps like Safari which I wish would load pages in the background, I would rather that when I close an app, it stays closed.

[Compile 'em all]

That is a sad piece of news. So they can't get push right and will instead let apps run in background?

[dicklacara]

Originally Posted by kjs862

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5G77 Safari/525.20)

I can't understand how apple can say their iPhone is the best phone out there yet even though it's been out for 2 years it doesn't have push

best ≠ most features

best = most usable

[iBeast]

This article is pure speculation. No source. No nothing. Just some fodder for more page views. I'll come back when you have some of substance.

[scottybe]

With six months of having to live without background processing, developers have had to learn to save an app's state to memory before closing, which keeps our iPhone running at full speed. Hopefully, if background processing is allowed, only those apps that really need it will use it. (I hope Apple has a say in this, actually.)

Obviously the iPhone already has multiple processes running concurrently (e.g., phone, texting, iPod, email, even web pages seem to continue loading after I've quit Safari). It's a busy little machine. I don't want it to get slow. Letting users decide (kind of like location-based services) would be a nice feature.

[spazzcat]

I think it is a bad idea to allow background processes. When I had my phone jailbroke it would run so slow and it crashed a lot. While there was some cool apps, it was not worth waiting sometimes 2 mins for my address book to open.

I think Apple had the right idea with the push service. I just with I knew what is delaying it.

[TheSpaz]

Originally Posted by Compile 'em all

That is a sad piece of news. So they can't get push right and will instead let apps run in background?

If they allow apps to run in the background they'll be contradicting what they said about process managers and how they made fun of Windows Mobile. Also, running stuff in the background isn't just about battery life... what about available RAM? My iPhone hardly has enough RAM to have a web page open in the background with iPod running. The other day the iPod app crashed for no reason... I can see a lot of crashes for low memory due to 3rd party apps running in the background with possible huge memory leaks.

I just want Apple to make an iChat app.

[dahacouk]

Keep multiple applications open and move easily between them ;-)

I reckon that this Palm® Pre™ is going to keep Apple up at nights for a little while yet. Competition is good.

Cheers Daniel