One solution I would like to see is having both background applications and PNS. PNS would be available to supporting apps by default, and would be helpful for update-style information such as RSS and instant messaging. However, the user should be able to specify apps in Settings that are allowed to persist but be hidden when the home key is pressed, such as streaming music apps like Slacker; others would be closed. A novice user would get push updates without concerns of overloading the memory, because PNS would just work automatically. A more advanced user could select that an app like Slacker could continue to play in the background. Further, Apple could require that developers make their apps close even if allowed to persist, if they are not serving a function for the user in the background, like if Slacker is on Pause and the home key is pressed.

It's an embarrassment that in 2009, the best phone on the market can't get an instant message from AOL or Google, except via some kludgey third party server that forwards it to text messages or email. My weather app can't get alerts when there's a severe storm in my area. Why can't I get an rss feed on my home screen? Etc.

Background processes would be nice, but all you really need these days is a way for the cloud to talk to you. Always-on (or periodically refreshed) GPS would be pretty nice, too, but for now just GIVE ME MY FRICKIN' PUSH NOTIFICATIONS.

And btw, is everyone already aware that you have to sign mobileMe for quite some bucks just for three to five extra notifications a day ??? Put you PNS where the sun´s not shining, Apple!

If the iPhone is to do all of this multi-tasking stuff, it needs a faster processor because it already has problems running one application without occasional random crashes. Also the next gen iPhone is likely to have a bigger screen resolution.... More ARM power please Apple?

Let's demand the third gen iPhone be the first mobile phone with a 1Ghz ARM processor :O

To sum up: Everyone who is tied to a contract has to wait, people who jb are less likely to moan. When you look at it like this, they are just using treaje to pick their battles. They know in the end it will all be there, it's just what order it all comes out in.

@Steve Jobs, if you really are Steve Jobs, I suggest you rest and deal with those health issues. You can throw yourself into flaming discussions starting june. You still have a few golden eggs to offer and I we don't want to lose you!

Apple cited performance and battery life as reasons not to allow background processes. We all remember the WinMo task manager Scott Forstall used to mock that approach. Fine -- they promised PNS as their solution to satisfying these desires without impacting performance or battery life.

I might prefer true background processes, but I understand the trade-offs, as they outlined them, and bought my iPhone in part because their stated intentions would work well enough for my needs. The problem is that Apple delivered a phone with limitations, promised a solution on a specific date, and now, almost half a year after that promised date, they refuse even to acknowledge the issue. It most certainly is not "crying" to ask Apple to stand behind their public promises, or at least to give some answers as to why they have failed to do so.

I agree with Paul, PNS for certain approved apps (at least in the beginning) should be how it goes. Start off with Facebook/Myspace, BeeJive/AIM, eBay, and Twitter apps.

Obviously the designers of the iPhone clearly dont think its users want these features or that their inclusion would create issues elsewhere. A switch to enable multitasking? Is that a joke????

By risk, i dont mean battery life but that is an important issue - thanks for mentioning. I forgot there is no replaceable battery. I meant the issue that most idiots who use computers tend to be not smart enough to properly close apps running in the background. I see it all the time on blackberry and other forums. Over time, these create conflcits, memory leaks and other issues that would reduce the stability of the iPhone. So its makers decide that the device is better served as a more simpler media/app device.

I dont get the cries to use your cell phone as a friggin server.

So maybe people dont think having the ability to stream and answer a text at same time is worth the risk.

Umm, sorry but some of us do think it's worth the "risk" (such as it is). To the point that if I wasn't locked into this damn contract with AT&T, I'd send back the phone.

I like my iPhone for what it is - a portable media / entertainment device but multitasking means productivity and i’m sorry fanbois but thats not what its original design was for. Dont muck it up with this wishlist. You cant have you iPhone and eat your BlackBerry too.

Dude, what is it with you? Why is it that you think that no one should be able to have any features that you're not personally interested in? It would be perfectly simple to have a settings switch that either allowed or disallowed multi-tasking, and let users decide whether they wanted to take the nail-biting risk of their battery running out. But no, SJ only wants the functionality that came with the damn thing, and therefore, no one else can have anything different. This yet another example of the NO TWO BUTTON MOUSE EVAR! theory of Apple fandom.

@yihdego WinMo is not an option. With or without PNS, the iPhone fits me MUCH better than WinMo ever could.

Seriously, its available and proven and has a more than one form factor and can do everything you're complaining about your iPhone and then actually browse the real internet.

Oh that's right I forgot it isn't cool.

Blackberry, for all its faults, accomplishes this flawlessly. And those of you saying you would rather have a bad service than nothing are full of it. Why would you ruin the overall experience by having to deal with bugs and poor performance.

The OS was designed this way for a reason and the hard truth is the current iPhone will never have this function. I repeat NEVER. It will invite way too much headache from a tech support standpoint.

I like my iPhone for what it is - a portable media / entertainment device but multitasking means productivity and i'm sorry fanbois but thats not what its original design was for. Dont muck it up with this wishlist. You cant have you iPhone and eat your BlackBerry too.

For a IM-App that means, that all connections of all customers must be handled on the server of the company that made that app. Then when somebody writes to a customer, they pass it to Apple's notification server. That's a really hard thing to deal with, you need many ressources. Or imagine a simple birthday app, like there exist already on the app store. At the moment they cant notify users of an upcoming birthday. With PN they would have to copy all birthdays to their servers, to be able to send a PushNotification to their app-customers... Again: Many ressources, programming effort...

As you see, its a complicated and unefficient solution. Furthermore not every appstore developer, has enough client-server programming skills..

If I had to guess I would say that they will come up with a different solution. Maybe developers will be allowed to set cronjobs, but just with a minimum delay and not if a certain amount is reached. That would be a solution for the birthday app... And the IM App could also check every 5 minutes for new messages...

OR they really make it simple and allow at least one application multitask. For me that would be enough. If I want to listen to last.fm or be available in my favourite IM-app....

I think a combination of both (cronjob / 1 app multitask) would be the best solution!

Go figure