Google has released its Latitude app, which lets users share their location with friends, for the iPhone, but Apple’s insistence upon not allowing third party background apps cripples its utility.

When Apple announced its push notification system, it seemed like a good alternative to having to run apps in the background, something which would severely tax the batteries in iPhones, which are already overburdened. So the Apple notification system is the only special case allowed where a background app can contact a foreground app with a message. Nobody else can write a program that runs in the background on an iPhone. Apple won’t allow it.

The notification via messaging seemed a clever way to get around the need for background apps and thus to conserve battery life. But it did seem as if there were some holes in the notification plan theory. The Google Latitude app is just the sort of app that would point out the shortfall in the Apple methodology, and it is doing so fairly clearly, according to an AppleInsider story.

The only thing way that the new Google app can do its job is if it is running in the foreground. In that case, a location notification will come in, be processed by Apple’s notification system, and that new location will immediately be passed to and processed by Latitude. However, if Latitude is not running, the only way that it can be updated is to bring the program to the foreground, bumping out anything else that may be happening there, such as a telephone call.

One can imagine the next Apple Board meeting, during which Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt have a brief conversation before they are called to order:

ES: “Boy Steve, our Latitude app is really having a hard time with your notification system! Can’t we just sneak in a little background app?”
SJ: “If we let you do it, Eric, we’ll have to let everybody do it and then our battery life will be down to like twenty minutes…”
ES: “Well Steve, what’s the use of being on the board of Apple if we can’t work things like this out before the meeting, when I would have to recuse myself?
SJ: “Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask, are you guys working on battery technology, Eric?”

Fictitious, sure. And maybe this is not one of those apps that anyone but kids will use, although I’m not really buying that. You can bet that other apps will appear that face this same limitation. Maybe the only real answer is better battery technology, or more efficient use of iPhone resources, or both. Something will have to give, and probably before iPhone OS 4.0.

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Entry was posted on Friday, July 24th, 2009 at 2:05 pm under Free Apps, News, iPhone, iPod Touch.  Print This Post

Read more entries by Michael W. Jones.
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