Another Source on iPhone Background Tasks

MG Siegler:

Basically, my source says that while this is in no way a done deal yet, Apple is definitely trying to come up with a way to offer background support for third-party apps. They went on to note that while Apple may have something to say about it at WWDC, it’s very unlikely that any solution would be ready at that time, and could be a situation similar to how Apple announced Push Notification at WWDC last year but said it was coming in a few months (which it later was delayed until iPhone 3.0).

Sounds about right to me.

(My only niggle is with Siegler’s description of iPhone OS as not being designed for multi-tasking. It’s every bit as capable, technically, of multi-tasking as Mac OS X, and some of the built-in apps like Mail, Safari, Phone, and iPod already run in the background. The question is when Apple will deem the hardware powerful enough to allow third-party apps to do it.)

★ Saturday, 16 May 2009