“Back in June at the WWDC keynote, Apple SVP of iPhone software Scott Forstall took the stage to discuss Apple’s answer to the lack of background applications on the iPhone. Many developers had expressed concern about the limitation which could restrict the usefulness of certain applications, such as instant messenger clients,” Dan Moren reports for Macworld.
“Forstall presented a different solution to the problem. Apple would instead roll out a push notification system that apps could use to alert users when remote content had changed,” Moren reports.
“Apple said that it would be available as of September…. [But] the ninth month has come and gone with no sign of the feature, despite Apple shipping a major iPhone OS update during the same period,” Moren reports.
Full article, which speculates that Apple “may have decided to spend more time making sure the notification system worked as advertised before rolling it out to iPhone users at large,” here.
Oh well folks, this is what happens when Apple caves in and starts listening to what people want. For years everyone wanted Apple to talk about things in advance, not hold things so close to the vest etc, etc.
I hate it this way, Apple needs to tighten things up again and deliver good products when they are ready and not a second before.
The push notifications were always a lame response to Apple’s inability to get multitasking for non apple apps working properly on the iPhone.
Hopefully they’re secretly working on the real fix (multitasking).
I agree with you marko.
I think they need to make sure that it’s full prove aswell before they do. I mean, we all saw the disaster of a launch MobileMe had. We don’t want Apple making anymore mistakes.
Just out of curiosity guys, how many people out there have a MobileMe account, and find it useful?
Ironic that this:
http://code.google.com/p/iphone-backgrounder/wiki/Documentation
would be released the same day as this story.
Lame: Appropriate nome de plume, That comment was lame (or at best completely clueless). The iPhone is already has a multitasking OS (in case you don’t understand the core OS on the iPhone is OS X) they just aren’t going to give the keys to Joe codemonkey. For good reason, managing unlimited multitasking on a resource limited mobile device is a nightmare (even if the os were theoretically perfect at time-slicing)
ros.rulz
I had .mac for years and thought it was useful (if a little expensive) They upgraded me to mobile me and I really didn’t have any of the problems that some users reported.
When I got the iPhone I was delighted (with mobile me) my calenders contacts and mail pushes, both directions, in seconds (literally… like 4 or 5)
The fact that now my wife and I can both get and send mail, add and edit our “family” schedule from anywhere (home, work, public access or iphone) is extremely useful. (now that we have it I don’t see how we could go back;-)
@ Lame,
What a lame response…
There is no such thing as “Apple’s inability to get multitasking for non apple apps”, and there never has been.
Apple has stated, from day one, that they don’t want apps running in the background, and they’ve made this foremost in their design philosophy.
Anyone who can read should know this, so what’s your excuse?
Sorry, but who can be surprised about this one? They had to deal with the 3g launch issues and the MobileMe problem.
I doubt they were too focussed on this issue…but give them a few weeks and it’ll be there I’m sure.
Well, finally a real deadline was missed. Not some imagined deadline by these so-called analysts. I don’t mind waiting a bit more for it if it will mean I’ll have the possibility of getting what I want.
And what is it I want? (Thought you’d never ask.) I want an app similar to “Where”, where I can inquire as to the location of another iPhone without that iPhone having to be running the same app. Of course that other iPhone would have to have approved inquiries from my phone or email address. This where push would come in … a message from my iPhone would trigger the target phone into running Where long enough to determine its location and then send the coordinates back to me as an SMS or email. This would be great for locating a stolen phone or keeping up with your rich kids.
I’m with you marko. I’ll be happy to try it when it’s ready….quality takes time and I’m happy to wait.
I didn’t have any significant issues with the .mac to mobileme transition and continue to use the features daily….(still don’t care for the name though
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ros.rulz
I have a mobile.me account and use it all the time. I suggest getting an account for a year and give it a try. I am sure it isn’t for everybody but I have found it extremely useful.
Apple’s too busy rejecting apps.
It’s delayed because they still can’t get mobileme push to work consistently.
@ros, I have one. I think it is decent, but not great (the web apps are terrible still). But I will admit to having a bit of phone envy with Android (namely notifications oddly enough) and the integration with Google Calendar, etc. Anyone else notice how you can’t invite someone to a MobileMe calendar event? I know people that live and die by that feature in Outlook (which Google has worked into Gmail and GCalendar very nicely).
@Lame
Incorrect.
It’s the way it is to conserve battery life.
Period.
If you had a battery that’s good for a month, it would be no problem to allow everybody access to multitasking.
“Apple has stated, from day one, that they don’t want apps running in the background, and they’ve made this foremost in their design philosophy.”
Actually foremost in their design philosophy was that you didn’t need a real a native SDK and web 2.0 apps were all you would need (until they had a real SDK ready, then apparently SDKs were a good idea).
“iPhone is already has a multitasking OS”
As was Windows 386, it had true preemptive multitasking between VMs. But just like OS X on the iPhone that didn’t mean anything to developers because the OS only exposed single tasking dos emulation and co-operative multitasking windows views of the world to them.
“For good reason, managing unlimited multitasking on a resource limited mobile device is a nightmare (even if the os were theoretically perfect at time-slicing)”
Not true. There are thousands of examples of devices much more resource constrained that an iPhone that multitask just fine. My bet is you’ve never written any embedded software, almost all of which is multithreaded, so are just repeating Steve’s talking points as to why they haven’t got to it yet.
Even in general purpose operating systems, In the 60’s Unix systems like Mac OS X multitasked on PDP-11’s with processors running at a few Megahertz and 64 kilobytes of memory. There’s no reason other than poor system or SDK design, massive code bloat or inefficiency that it’s impossible on an iPhone with 10,000 times the capability to perform tasks in the background.
The push concept is a useful thing to have for events which originate outside the phone, but it’s a compliment to, not a substitute for a real multitasking OS.
The iPhone SDK takes a leap back to the dawn of computing in that particular part of it’s architecture.
I have used .Mac from day one. The transistion to MobileMe has been a bit rough but it works as advertised now.
The best part of this system is the integration. Bookmarks are synced, I can use webmail and my calenders at work (on a PC), even have docs available anywhere through the idisk.
I never pay full price for the service. Usually Amazon sell it for $80 online.
@ Wingsy: “Well, finally a real deadline was missed.”
Finally? Apples been missing self imposed deadlines for a while now: Leopard, SDK, AppleTV firmware, etc. That doesn’t include the deadlines they met, but failed at delivering a working product: MobileMe, iPhone 2.0 Firmware…. Anyone with half a brain can see that 2.1 was what 2.0 was supposed to be, just 2 months late.
I really hope Apple shores up their resources and starts living up to their previous reputation for on-time products that “just work”.
@ros.rulz
I have it and like it, very useful, never experienced any problems with it.
“It’s the way it is to conserve battery life.
Period.”
Which just states that Apple thinks that users are too stupid to decide if they want a useful but battery sucking app (like say Google Maps with GPS enabled, no 3rd party developer could do worse than that battery sucking pig that apparently has Apple’s blessing to be in the phone) or long battery life.
And it also suggests that there are not people out there who know just exactly how to code background apps for resource constrained platforms.
No, You may believe all that, but that’s just the ignorance talking. I’m sure Apple in their heart don’t. So all that means is they just haven’t got to it yet.
I don’t know how great multi-tasking on the iPhone would be in the first place. I can’t even play music and browse Safari without skipping, lurching and most often a crash.
Anyone who has used the “Notes” app on the iPhone to write more than a sentence or two, and anyone that has more than a few hundred contacts in the “Contacts” app on the iPhone, should know that multi-tasking is NOT something we want or need on the iPhone.
The whole OS stalls badly when it has to load anything more than a tiny snippet of data. The idea of holding large chunks of data in memory, even for copy and paste is scary enough. Having large poorly written programs by your favourite app developer running in the background while you are trying to do anything is just plain dumb, and anyone who thinks this is a good idea is an idiot.
I would bet that one of the reasons Podcaster was rejected was the simply ridiculous idea of downloading multi-gigabyte files in the background while you are walking around the streets. What a nightmare!
The problems with multi-tasking and backgrounding apps on the iPhone is in the details, and most developers who post to forums and places like this are basically full of sh*t on this subject because they believe that *their* apps of course are perfectly well coded.
In short don’t believe ANYONE when they say that the iPhone could easily multi-task like a desktop OS, especially developers. They are biased, black and white thinkers out to feather their own nests.
I have a mobileme account and I love it. They have really ironed out a lot of the bugs and things are running very smoothly now. I am very happy.
@Lame, Marco, Fester, etc…
C’mon! This has NOTHING to do with code or quality control or anything of the sort. This is purely an AT&T;issue. The scumbags charge every iPhone user $0.20 for each SMS (above there alotment — typ. 500). Those douchbags don’t want to lose this sleazy income source so they’re putting their dickhead screws into Apple to delay/derail this feature…
“The whole OS stalls badly when it has to load anything more than a tiny snippet of data. The idea of holding large chunks of data in memory, even for copy and paste is scary enough.”
How is this an argument against multitasking done right? It actually sounds like although you’re too stupid to know it, that’s what you’re crying out for.
Part of the reason the iPhone is so sluggish moving between screens is that lack of multitasking for applications.
“ridiculous idea of downloading multi-gigabyte files in the background while you are walking around the streets”
That’s right, because it’s not possible to download gigabytes a day over 3G networks. Hey, wait, it is, just not with an iPhone. What’s the point of multi megabit 3G networks if you don’t actually use them for something? The average podcast is say 20 meg, so takes less than 20 seconds to download over a fast 3G network, and then plays for 30 minutes.
“full of sh*t on this subject because they believe that *their* apps of course are perfectly well coded.”
Or they believe that most developers don’t struggle with building applications which are good citizens in a multitasking environment. And for those that do struggle, the user is smart enough to differentiate between apps they find work well and want to use and those they don’t. Badly written software doesn’t sell anywhere.
The only people who think that “multitasking” is some magic, resource heavy technology which would bring the iPhone to it’s knees are those who have never written any real world application in their life.
The word is flat I tell you, flat. Don’t let anyone tell you any different, and stay away from the edges.
“This is purely an AT&T;issue. The scumbags charge every iPhone user $0.20 for each SMS (above there alotment — typ. 500). “
I hope Apple’s push concept isn’t going to use SMS. That’d be really dumb.