We’ve asked whatever happened to the iPhone’s Push-Notification Service quite a bit recently, even secretly hoped they may find it too difficult and just start to allow some “favored nation” background multitasking…
Now MacRumors is rumoring that that is exactly what might be happening in a future firmware:
While we aren’t sure what the specific issues are, we’ve heard that as an alternative Apple is considering allowing apps to run as user selectable background processes. If so, this feature would likely come in the rumored iPhone 3.0 software update but would be limited to only one or two processes on current hardware. The next generation iPhone, however, would likely see less restricted background process support due to its improved hardware.
So how does that work for you, fellow TiPbsters? Better than Push notification? Worse? And is a few user-selectable apps enough? If the next gen iPhone allows more multitasking, is that a compelling reason to upgrade in and of itself?
No specks, no blur-cam shots, not even a Kevin Rose post yet, just a few more tiny little details on Pinch Media’s timeline via MacRumors:
- 1st spotting of the “iPhone 2,1″ device occured in early October 2008
- Usage picked up in mid-December 2008
- A few dozen distinct “iPhone 2,1″ devices have been detected
- Almost exclusively located in south San Francisco Bay Area
- Both AT&T and Wi-Fi connections
Dear Apple, CrackBerry Kevin got that wonderful pre-release BlackBerry Bold last year, and he will never let the rest of us live it down, so for the sake of all things righteous, just, and uber-cool, howsabout slapping an iPhone Mark 3 (iPhone HD?) in some bubblewrap and fedexing it our way? We don’t even care if cut/copy and paste is working yet, b’okay?
As I’ve said many times before on TiPb, I’m a Palm guy going back to the Palm V, and Treo guy going back to the Treo 600. When Palm essentially abandoned that user-base (see my Palm Treo Pro Round Robin video and review) a few years back, I abandoned them and dove headlong into the iPhone (and now the iPhone 3G).
I still have a very warm spot in my heart for Palm, however, their innovation in the smartphone space, and their focus on zen-like user experience. So, when Palm announced their new WebOS platform and premiered their new Pre handset at CES (see our new baby sibling site PreCentral.net for all the details and a massive hands-on video), I was more than just a little ecstatic. I won’t lie, it’s the first post-iPhone device that’s caught my attention.
Don’t get me wrong, I still fear for Palm — the market is much more crowded than it was when they helped create it, and for all the problems WebOS and the Pre solve, they bring their own set to the table. However, watching the Palm Keynote fro CES I, presented by former Apple iPod father Jon Rubinstein and Palm founder Ed Colligan, two things stood really stood out for me:
- What Palm outright stole from the iPhone and put in the Pre
- And what Apple should immediate steal from Palm and put into the next iPhone OS.
We’ll get into both, after the break.
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No sooner do we mention how Apple may need to ramp up iPhone 3.0 in response to the Palm Pre, than we find this little gem via ZDNet (which MacRumors is backing up):
iPhone 3.0 will support Quad-Core Processors.
Yeah, we fell off our chairs as well. But Apple did buy chip designers PA Semi and license both ARM and PowerVR, so the chips could very well be what we get the next time Apple (hopefully Steve Jobs!) takes the stage and pulls an iPhone from his pocket.
As ZDNet rightly points out, the current iPhone already rivals dedicated gaming portables in power, imagine that gone Quad-Core (would make for a nifty iPhone HD as well, now wouldn’t it?)
Stephen Fry, the British comedian and technology commentator who was once partner to TV’s Dr. House, Hugh Laurie, recently annihilated RIM’s BlackBerry Storm on Twitter, and now is back to give an even grander beat down to the mobile industry in general, a 4 star Bold review, a 1 star Storm review, and an iPhone OS 3.0 wish… er… demand list. Daring Fireball, however, points us a couple paragraphs of particular interest:
Apple have shown that there is a huge demand for exciting, innovative, lovable and imaginative consumer devices. All the rivals have to do is to … is to what? To produce cut price lookalikes or truly to pioneer and innovate? Well, the latter is what they should do, but the former is what most of them will do of course, because these dumb firms never ever learn. They are afraid to be good. They will blame stockholders, consumers, anyone but themselves.
Don’t you sometimes long to be CEO of a company like Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Nokia or Microsoft? So that you can say to your coders, your designers, your development teams and your software architects: “Not [redacted] Good Enough. I haven’t said ‘Wow’ yet. I haven’t gasped with pleasure, amusement or admiration once. Start again. Not [redacted] Good Enough.”
Can’t say I’d do any different were I blessed/cursed with being such a CEO. How about you? Any advice for our iCompetitors?
