With the recent 2.2 firmware update, Push Notifications are still absent from the iPhone OS.

Scott Forstall announcing the Push Notifications

At WWDC 2008, Scott Forstall, Senior VP of iPhone at Apple announced an update to the SDK dubbed “Push Notification Service”. Solving one of the major complaints surrounding the iPhone SDK, Push Notifications would allow you, for example, to receive instant messages even when the AIM application wasn’t open. It works by keeping a persistent connection to the Apple Notification server and lets the third party such as AIM notify the Apple server of events (such as receiving an instant message) if no existing direct connection exists.

Very well received by developers and consumers alike, Mr. Forstall revealed this new feature at the WWDC keynote and said that it would be seeded to beta testers shortly and would be available in September. Shortly after the release of the 2.0 software in early July, iPhone OS beta testers indeed received a seed of the 2.1 firmware which included hooks and documentation for the Push Notification service. After the fourth iteration of the 2.1 beta release, the Push Notification service was mysteriously pulled for “for further development”.

Beyond that vague statement, over two months past the given release window, we have still heard nothing more about Push Notifications from Apple. This seems to be a recurring trend for Apple, who seems to be over promising and under delivering, which could be attributed to its growing size. Perhaps we will get the status of Push Notifications soon, but for now the consumers and developers are still in the dark. If they can’t deliver on these dates, then why give them in the first place?

There is probably a good reason we still don’t have Push Notifications, however, since Mr. Forstall took the liberty of announcing it at WWDC, why haven’t we had an update? If anything was learned from the 2.0 firmware and the related bugs, or the MobileMe launch, we should be glad Apple is keeping a low quality release from going public, but there is no reason to be in the dark about it–especially considering it is almost two months late already. There are developers and consumers who are anxiously awaiting the release of this new feature and we all just want to be in the know! According to recent rumors, due to major issues with the initial implementation, it appears we might have to wait until we start receiving push notifications to our devices.

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication is a great tool for staying on top of the latest news. But a growing trend is hindering this protocol.

I love the fact that my RSS reader allows me to quickly browse through all the blogs I read,—plus it wirelessly syncs up with my iPod Touch (Thank you NewsGator/FeedDemon/NetNewsWire)—however, lately I’ve noticed a disturbing trend. A few feed publishers have begun offering only a short summary of their articles, requiring you to click a “Read More..” link(I’m calling you out Ars Technica), forcing you to open the page in a new window. The reason this bothers me so much is that the whole reason I use RSS is that I want all the content from multiple blogs in one place. Having to open up the article in a new window is frustrating, but it’s even worse on my Touch, where I can’t quickly switch back and forth between windows. Of course, to add insult to injury the article isn’t pre-fetched, slowing me down even further.

More importantly, I don’t understand why Ars would choose this format. They were never in print media; they started as a technology blog that caters to technologists who are on the go and want information quickly. Why would they want to slow down their readers, much less force them to work to access their content? Furthermore, even the newspaper industry, which has traditionally provided only snippets of text, is starting to relax its death grip on its content. For example, The Guardian has started releasing full text in its RSS feeds.

So, to all content publishers out there remember, readers want information on their terms, not yours. This includes letting your readers selectively subscribe to your articles, which has been a request by many readers on other blogs during this election season, who think that tech blogs and politics do not mix, (cough lifehacker cough). Really, just give the readers what they want.

Keep a look out for my next post coming up in the next few weeks.

[audio:https://theilife.com/media/audcast/7-blackwednesday.mp3|titles=Episode 7: Black Wednesday]
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The iLife Podcast – Epoisode #7: Black Wednesday

In this weeks latest edition Matt, Sidney and special guest Sam Epstein discuss the weekly Apple news, tips and, cool things in the technology world as well as news from The iLife.com. Enjoy!

You can click here to subscribe now in iTunes, or visit us in the iTunes Store.

Additionally, if you would like to subscribe to the podcast through a standard RSS feed, check this out.

Show notes coming soon.

The iLife crew is out and about reporting with the latest Black Friday insanity! Keep refreshing this page for new updates throughout the night and day.

Line forming in the late hours of the night.

Crowds began forming early Thursday afternoon at a local Best Buy in West Paterson, New Jersey. Upon arrival at 12AM Friday morning, the Best Buy parking lot was near full. “I’m just here to get a laptop and a new TV” proclaimed one line sitter who arrived at 2PM. Line goers preferred to wait outside their local Best Buy and have relatives deliver Thanksgiving dinner while they sat in line or just hit up a local McDonalds for a bite to eat instead of the more traditional American Thanksgiving.

Most line sitters were there for the early “Doorbuster” items which will be quickly snatched up when the store opens at 5AM. These includes a $60 7 Megapixel Digital Camera, $900 Samsung 50″ LCD TV, $80 Magellan GPS unit and a $379 Toshiba laptop which are advertised as “While Supplies Last”. A notable sale on Apple Computers at Best Buy is now over however, as Apple’s own stores are holding their own Black Friday Specials with prices slashed by $100 on new MacBooks and $50 on new iMacs. There are also small discounts on iPods and other accessories from the Mac maker and other third parties.

Police presence at the Best Buy we visited was surprisingly heavy in the parking lot with over 8 police cruisers present at 12AM. The police handled all aspects of crowd and line control, solving a dispute with some line cutters and even prompting this reporter to get in line until he understood I was indeed reporting- not waiting in line. No Best Buy employees could be seen either inside or outside the store. More details will be coming from The iLife as Black Friday progresses. For now, check out Apple’s online deals available here.

The iLife reporters Matt Dodd and Matt Rosenhein were on scene conducting voice interviews. Listen to the report below using our new Flash Media Player!

[audio:https://theilife.com/media/interviews/BBinterview-BlackFriday.mp3|titles=Best Buy Black Friday Interview]
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This iPod Nano advertisement shows off Apple’s fourth generation iPod Nano line that has been completely redesigned, and is now available in nine nanochromatic colors. It has just been published to The Daily iLife podcast, which you can subscribe to in iTunes or watch here.

This advertisement showing off the new iPod Nano features the song “Bruises” by Chairlift.

This iPod touch commercial shows why the iPod touch is the “funnest iPod ever”. It has just been published to The Daily iLife podcast, which you can subscribe to in iTunes or watch here.

This advertisement showing off the new iPod touch, and all of the games you can get in the App Store featuring Around The Bend by The Asteroids Galaxy Tour.

This advertisement is the first ad that has the newly released MacBook line in it. It has just been published to The Daily iLife podcast, which you can subscribe to in iTunes or watch here.

Advertisement for the new environmentally friendly MacBook line.

This iPod touch commercial was originally produced by a 17 year old student and later picked up by Apple and used in a campaign. It has just been published to The Daily iLife podcast, which you can subscribe to in iTunes or watch here.

The second advertisement for the iPod touch featuring Music is My Hot, Hot Sex by CSS.

Early Friday morning, Apple released the 2.2 firmware update into the wild.

New progress bar added in 2.2 can be seen when updating firmware.

True to the rumors, the 2.2 firmware has been released (on the east coast) on November 21st. Filled with all the leaked features such as a retooled Maps application, downloadable Podcasts from the device, refined Safari browser and a number of other small changes (including patches to the recently found security flaws). More information coming soon.

[audio:https://theilife.com/media/audcast/6.0-furtherdevelopments.mp3|titles=Episode 6: Further Development]
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The iLife Podcast – Epoisode #6: Further Development

Reaffirming our promise to The iLife Podcast, Sidney and I come back again for another weeks edition. We apologize for the delay which was caused by a schedule conflict I had. A full explanation is in the podcast. Enjoy!

You can click here to subscribe now in iTunes, or visit us in the iTunes Store.

Additionally, if you would like to subscribe to the podcast through a standard RSS feed, check this out.

Show notes coming soon.