Speaking at the WWDC keynote, Apple's senior VP of iPhone software -- Scott Forstall -- today claimed that the company was addressing a major concern of developers, background processes. Forstall noted that using true background processes would be "wrong," as it often hurts battery life, as well as the performance of foreground applications, which must split CPU cycles. Forstall cited the example of Windows Mobile's task manager, calling it clunky to use.

Apple is instead turning to the concept of push notification, which will allow applications to maintain an Internet connection, and receive both foreground and background updates. Few technical details have been mentioned to the public, but the technology will be seeded to developers in July, and available in widespread fashion in September.