James wrote recently that “Background push notification is Apple’s solution to the problems created by refusing to grant multi-tasking to 3rd party applications.”
I think push notification is a great idea, as it avoids running apps in the background, and thereby draining the battery. Plenty of applications will benefit for from this, such as RSS readers having new stories quietly pushed, with a pop-up or icon badge change to alert the user. However,
- As of firmware 2.2, Apple haven’t yet turned push on
- Push just isn’t suitable for many applications
Take Tuner – an internet radio app. Push notification is pointless in this context where, for example, I just want to listen to the radio while I compose an email. At the moment, this is impossible – unless you jailbreak and install Backgrounder.
(3) Backgrounder
This is a meta-app, in that it enables other apps to work in the background. Like the two other apps I’ve looked at, Backgrounder is installed through Cydia, and there’s a project website at Sourceforge.
The operation is simple – when the app you want to run in the background is open, push and briefly hold the Home button. A message will appear to tell you backgrounding is enabled, and the app will appear to close. But whatever that app was doing, will continue to take place. In the case of Tuner, the radio will keep playing. Yay!
This does not adversely affect the usual operation of the Home button – a regular push will still act as normal, and a long push will still force-quit an app. To disable background operation, push and briefly hold again while the app is in the foreground, and a message will appear stating that backgrounding is disabled. It couldn’t be simpler.
It doesn’t work on all apps I’ve tried, but most are fine. Nor does it update badges on icons. As the developer says:
“Applications are not designed to be run in the background (as Apple does not permit it). Thus some applications may not behave correctly when placed in the background. Unfortunately, this is something that Backgrounder cannot resolve; the application itself would need to be modified. Please keep this in mind.”
Eventually, I’m sure that Apple will allow non-Apple application to run in the background. The iPhone is too important a platform not to allow multi-tasking, but I can understand why they have restricted it (for battery and memory conservation). Push should only be considered as an additional function to running apps in the background, not a real replacement. But in the meantime, jailbroken iPhone users can still get their multi-tasking on by using Backgrounder.
Before I finish: Why not to jailbreak?
- It may introduce instability, although there is very little evidence for this.
- You will not be able to update through iTunes as soon as the update is released by Apple. Getting the latest firmware will involve either waiting on the iPhone Dev Team to release their update, or update officially and lose the jailbreak.
- More importantly, if you come to rely on unofficial apps, there is no guarantee that future firmware versions will be able to be jailbroken.
So it’s up to you, of course. But I’m sticking with my jailbroken phone.