What is the future of the iPhone App Store if we can't run things in the background?

[iblastoff]

In answer to the threads title. Stability.

Apple's idea of keeping a persistant IP connection to any applications that need it, is a very good substitute to running background applications.
You think the battery life is bad now? - Just you watch how many hours you'd get, if they allowed you to run Palringo Messenger, Maps, and other high CPU-intensive applications.

Also app caching will cause applications to crash less frequently.

Apple are doing right in providing a solution to a problem that actually does need resolving.
I imagine the Push Notification Service to act exactly as if the application were still running, only, it won't be.

This is a good move on Apple's part, and will benefit both developers, Apple and us in the long run.

Be patient.

R-Fly

doesn't anyone else find 'stability' to be such a silly copout explanation? are we really to believe that iphoneOS would have stability issues if it ran more than one app?

i still fail to see how push notification is really going to solve anything. i still have to shutdown whatever app i'm already in, in order to get to the app that gave me a push notice don't i?

anyway this is my first mac product and although i believe i did my fair share of research before buying my 3g, i had no idea that multi-tasking was even an issue until i got the thing.

as for the person saying memory leaks don't happen on the iphone, you are dead wrong. good luck trying to close the 'crashrepor' process when it has started.

 

[marksman]

are we really to believe that iphoneOS would have stability issues if it ran more than one app?

Unequivocally, absolutely, positively and 100% without any shred of doubt.

 

[LinMac]

In answer to the threads title. Stability.

Apple's idea of keeping a persistant IP connection to any applications that need it, is a very good substitute to running background applications.
You think the battery life is bad now? - Just you watch how many hours you'd get, if they allowed you to run Palringo Messenger, Maps, and other high CPU-intensive applications.

Also app caching will cause applications to crash less frequently.

Apple are doing right in providing a solution to a problem that actually does need resolving.
I imagine the Push Notification Service to act exactly as if the application were still running, only, it won't be.

This is a good move on Apple's part, and will benefit both developers, Apple and us in the long run.

Be patient.

R-Fly

I'm sorry, but no stability is not a valid reason. The iPhone is based on OS X which is able to multitask quite well on a Mac be it PPC or Intel. The iPhone is just a small Mac based on the ARM architecture.

but...! It isn't stable right now so just think how it will be if applications run in the background...! This seems logical until you remind yourself that the system is just buggy because developers are still bound by the NDA (no collaboration to fix common coding mistakes/bugs) while the OS itself is still new. The stability problems we are seeing will be sorted out in the coming months.

Jailbroken phones have ran well for the first year before the AppStore came out. I don't recall having my phone constantly crash as ApolloIM remained open while I switched between Safari and Mail. There are many applications that do not need background support, but might try to make use of it if it was offered such as the Facebook application or others.

IM, GPS tracking applications, and a handful of others are the only applications that should be allowed to run in the background. Giving customers the ability to turn on (off by default) background support might not be such a bad thing, eh?

Windows Mobile is not OS X and OS X isn't Windows Mobile (thank heaven for small favors). Apple will elegantly implement something like this when/if it becomes necessary.