More Rumors of Limited Third-Party Background Apps Coming to the iPhone?
Silicon Alley Insider has heard some rumors that seem to corroborate MacRumors’ report from February that Apple is working on allowing limited background processes in a future version of the iPhone’s operating system. Our sources had told us they would be limited to one or two additional processes, while Silicon Alley Insider suggests that it could alternatively be for specifically-approved apps.
Here’s two potential scenarios we’ve heard. Treat these as anecdotal rumors for now, as we don’t know how realistic they are.
* Apple might allow users to select two apps that can run in the background.
* Apple might selectively allow some apps to run in the background. We assume that developers could apply for permission to run in the background, and that Apple might approve or deny them based on the resources they need and how well they behave with the operating system’s stability.
According to the report, it is not known whether this feature could make an appearance in iPhone OS 3.0 due this summer or if it might be under development for a later release.
In a blog post discussing Silicon Alley Insider’s report, John Gruber writes that he has also heard rumblings about a similar feature:
Ordinarily I wouldn’t link to something as sketchily sourced as this, but: I heard something very similar from a decent (but second-hand) source back in January during Macworld Expo. What I heard then was that Apple was working on a vastly improved dock for your most-frequently used apps, and that thered be one special icon position where you could put a third-party app to enable it to run in the background.
Citing concerns over the effect of having applications run in the background on battery life, Apple is officially planning to deploy push notifications as a substitute for backgrounding, allowing delivery of alerts for applications that are not actively running.
via Macrumors