Indeed, the Iphone is one of the best 3G phones on the Market to date. Now let's have a look at the pros and cons now shall we?
The good:
The Apple iPhone has a stunning display, a sleek design, and an innovative multitouch user interface. Its Safari browser makes for a superb Web surfing experience, and it offers easy-to-use apps. As an iPod, it shines.
The bad:
The Apple iPhone has variable call quality and lacks some basic features found in many cell phones, including stereo Bluetooth support and 3G compatibility. Integrated memory is stingy for an iPod, and you have to sync the iPhone to manage music content.
The bottom line:
Despite some important missing features, a slow data network, and call quality that doesn't always deliver, the Apple iPhone sets a new benchmark for an integrated cell phone and MP3 player and excellent desplay capabilities.
This was the reason why iPhone users and developers have been requesting Apple for a feature to allow iPhone apps to run in the background which can be very useful for Instant Messenger apps, Facebook etc.
Scott Forstall, Senior Vice President of iPhone Software at Apple, believed that enabling background processes was not the right solution when it comes to mobile phones, as it would affect the iPhone's battery life and degrade performance.
Apple was planning to solve this problem by offering developers with Push Notification Service. However, Apple had strangely pulled out the Push Notification Service APIs in fourth beta version of iPhone firmware 2.1 and there has been no further information from Apple. Though it the reason for the hold up is not clear, it is quite evident that something is holding Apple from releasing it.
MacRumors is reporting that they have heard that as an alternative Apple is considering allowing apps to run as user selectable background processes. Great isn't it? Also..
MacRumors expects this feature to be released in iPhone firmware 3.0 update but will be limited to only one or two processes for 1st Gen iPhone and iPhone 3G based on their hardware. The next generation iPhone, however, would likely see less restricted background process support due to its improved hardware. It is speculated that the next generation iPhone could come with quad-core processors.
If the rumor is true then it would be a u-turn by Apple based on their comments back in August 2008 where they believed that enabling background processes was not the right solution for the iPhone. But its very good news for iPhone users as the limitation of not being able to run apps in the background was quite frustrating.
What do you think? If Apple allowed only one or two processes to run in the background which iPhone apps will you chose. Let us know in the comments.
In case you don't want to wait, there is a jailbreak app aptly called iPhone Backgrounder which allows you to run iPhone apps in the background but for that you need a jailbroken iPhone. There is still isn't any word as to a jailbreak application for the Iphone firware version 2.2 as of yet, I'll keep you posted as to when the BETA version of a Jailbreak software is released.
So what can we look forword from Apple in the future? The possiblities are endless...
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