Apple has missed a self-imposed deadline to introduce "push" functionality with its recent iPhone 2.1 update. Senior vice president of iPhone software Scott Forstall promised developers in attendance at June's Apple Worldwide Developer Conference that a unified push notification service--alerting iPhone users running one application when fresh data was available for another application not in use--would be completed by September, but the recent iPhone 2.1 update did not include the promised workaround. The push service became necessary when Apple declined to include background applications in the iPhone SDK--many developers cited their concerns about such a limitation, arguing it could restrict the usefulness of applications like instant messaging.
According to MacRumors.com, Apple pulled the push notification service from the iPhone Firmware 2.1 release as late as August, claiming further development is necessary. The present status of the push service is unknown.
For more on the iPhone push service:
- read this Heise Online article http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/117061
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