iPhone push notification due with Snow Leopard?
updated 11:15 am EST, Wed February 11, 2009
Push with Snow Leopard?
Apple's long-delayed push notification technology may finally see the light of day with Mac OS X Snow Leopard, a new report suggests. The Push Notification Server software was originally scheduled to launch in September, primarily as a means of allowing iPhone apps to receive background updates without burdening the processor. Although developer tools were released at one point, push notification has yet to go live.
In Snow Leopard however, Mail, iCal and Address Book are all said to be updating with support for open push messaging standards, mainly for the sake of Snow Leopard Server. The new version of iCal Server is being revised to support XMPP, which will allow calendars to be pushed as elaborate instant messages. The matching Notification Server should send only updates to subscribers, rather than entire calendars.
While not confirmed, it is believed that the existence of Snow Leopard's Notification Server may signal a coinciding release for the Push Notification Server, due to reliance on similar technology. It is unknown how much interoperability the two platforms might share.
