It's All About The Background Baby!

You have to start somewhere right? And let's be honest, the iPhone has made one hell of a start. For a device barely two years old to have changed the market it entered and simultaneously our expectations of what to expect in and of that market, is truly a remarkable feat. And according to the sorely missed Bill Hicks, as Adam said to Eve in the Garden of Eden, 'it's just not enough, is it.' That's right, we're getting greedy and want more more more, now now now, faster faster faster! And that current itch is for at least some form of background process to run apps. What's brought this on? Well, here at The MacDoctor it's specifically two apps. The first is Smile On My Mac's TextExpander and the second is Spotify.

In TextExpander's case, here's a productivity app that in it's desktop form works seamlessly in the background across any and every app running on the your system. If only, if only, this great little utility could be allowed to run system wide on the iPhone. It brings to the platform something which Blackberry users take for granted as part of their software. Either Apple should integrate it's own system, sync'able between desktop and phone, or third party developers should be able to run utility apps in the background.

And why should it be problematic for Spotify to run their music application in the background, allowing you to simultaneously read email, browse the web or look at your picture gallery in exactly the same way that Apple's built in iPod app manages?

The notification system Apple has integrated, is we think, a great solution for the very many apps that don't need to burn processor cycles waiting for an update. But there are no doubt several apps that would improve the iPhone experience even further. Surely it's just a question of time. Come on Apple, make the best smart phone ever even better!