Apple announced this week that the iPhone 3.0 OS would include support for push background notifications. The iPhone maker was expected to go live with background notifications late last year, but missed that mark as they retooled the background notification system. The push-data service will allow inactive iPhone applications to receive updates from a server – the data is “pushed” to the iPhone, notifying the user of new data or messages without ever having to fire up an iPhone application. But, is it a good compromise on true multi-tasking?
Apple says true multi-tasking, where applications continue to run and draw processing cycles when not in use, puts an unacceptable drain on the battery. Smartphones like the upcoming Palm Pre boast true multi-tasking support, but battery life is still a concern for the Palm Pre. Push background notifications, says Apple, offers the auto-updating features that users want from their mobile applications without any of the power-draw concerns associated with running the application in the background.
Here’s the problem. True-multitasking is the ideal. Compared to that ideal, push background notifications start to reek of compromise. The question is – does that compromise offer more value than drawbacks? We think so.
Multi-tasking applications are mostly good for keeping applications updated with the most current data. Whether its instant message alerts or Facebook notifications, users want to be automatically notified of any changes without having to fully fire up the application. Having to keep a resource-hungry application running in the background just to keep tabs on your AIM messages sounds like overkill to us. In those circumstances, push background notifications are a better alternative to multi-tasking.
Still, there are instances where true “backgrounding” can be useful – mainly for the web browser and apps like GPS navigation applications – but that can still be accommodated. The “Backgrounder” application enables true multi-tasking on any jailbroken iPhone. The iPhone 3.0 OS hasn’t yet been jailbroken, but it’ll likely only be a matter of time before the iPhone Dev Team jailbreaks iPhone OS 3.0. When that happens, iPhone users (well, jailbroken iPhone users) will have two multi-tasking options – 1) push background notifications – useful for updating user-status or incoming messages and 2) backgrounding – can be optionally enabled for specific application and is useful for preserving application data, like in a web browser. It’s like have your cake and then eating with some ice cream – sweet!
In the end, push background notifications on their own might not be enough to satisfy the power user. But, for most people, push background notifications are most likely all they’ll need. Is it sad that Apple compromised on multi-tasking? Sure. But that’s why you should jailbreak your iPhone!