iPhone 2.1 Beta 2 - Apps Updated in Background via Push Notification Service
By Aaron Besson at 31 July, 2008, 9:45 am
One of the biggest things missing in most if not all Apps from the AppStore is you cant get an update when the App is closed. This makes simple Apps for Instant Messaging and Social Networking ultimately flawed. Apple’s iPhone chief Scott Forstall spoke at the WWDC 08 and said that the reason that Apple had not implemented this was because of poor battery life from having allot of apps open and thus over working the processor, as well as how badly it worked on other mobile devices where users thought a program was closed and it wasn’t.
Apple plans to solve this by creating something called Push Notification Service. This will allow all background updates to be managed by Apples Servers, and iPhone users will get updates to their handsets via a controlled update from one source. There will be three types as explained in the video below, Badges (like SMS and E Mail updates, Sounds and Pop Up Text Screens (like your low battery warning). This will be great for Instant Messaging and Social Networking as well as RSS Feeds and Business/Productivity Apps.
The new API is showing up in the new 2.1 beta 2 firmware that was seeded to developers last night. According to MacRumors.
“This is the second beta of the iPhone SDK targeting iPhone OS 2.1, including bug fixes to iPhone OS as well as an early implementation of the Apple Push Notification Service API,” Apple said. “This API is not yet integrated with a live push server.”
We should see allot for really great Apps coming out soon using this new Push Notification Service. Lets hope its launch is a little more stable than the MobileMe launch, and millions of iPhones are not left in limbo trying to get an update for Palringo or Ebay 
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