[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by Brian

The API calls that Latitude/Pandora/etc use for their background tasks work for the kind of network access that OmniFocus needs in order to sync.

There's a "don't" missing in there :-)

[staze]

Originally Posted by Brian

The API calls that Latitude/Pandora/etc use for their background tasks work for the kind of network access that OmniFocus needs in order to sync.

I assume this means "don't work". That's unfortunate. Has the discussion been had with Apple about allowing this type of background capability?

[Brian]

Whoops! Fixed the post. Thanks guys!

We have let Apple know that we're interested in this sort of thing. Lest folks get the wrong idea, we suspect the main reason why stuff like this isn't possible is concern over what it would do to battery life.

If a bunch of apps all tell the OS "I'd like to refresh this one/ten/hundred URLs every five minutes, even in the background..." it could drain run down the battery pretty fast. (And run up charges for folks that pay for the amount of bandwidth they consume over the cell network, as well.)

[staze]

Originally Posted by Brian

We have let Apple know that we're interested in this sort of thing. Lest folks get the wrong idea, we suspect the main reason why stuff like this isn't possible is concern over what it would do to battery life.

If a bunch of apps all tell the OS "I'd like to refresh this one/ten/hundred URLs every five minutes, even in the background..." it could drain run down the battery pretty fast. (And run up charges for folks that pay for the amount of bandwidth they consume over the cell network, as well.)

Totally understood. Though, my thought on that would be "it's not Apple's problem if the user wants to have all their apps updating in the background". But obviously Apple owns the experience, so they do see it as their problem.

Hell, even if they allowed a program to wake up every 24 hours, at most, to do an update, it would alleviate most of my issues, and you'd lose very little battery life (or heck, only allow wake ups like that when the device is plugged into power).

[Ken Case]

We added background sync completion in version 1.8 (since my earlier post in this thread). Here's the relevant information from the 1.8 Release Notes:

Originally Posted by Ken Case

• When running on iOS 4.2 or later, OmniFocus will complete an in-progress sync session when it is put into the background.
• When running on iOS 4.2 or later, if an automatic sync is due soon, OmniFocus will start a sync session as it enters the background.

We still can't keep the app in sync all the time whether or not OmniFocus is running, but you no longer have to worry about syncing before you leave the app.

[philml]

Originally Posted by Ken Case

We added background sync completion in version 1.8 (since my earlier post in this thread).

Excellent, thank-you!

[jok]

How do apps like "Whatsapp" do their stuff in background? They seem to be able to use the network just fine. Could that not be adapted for Omnifocus for iPhone?

[Brian]

jok, Apple provided programming interfaces for a few specific tasks they were willing to let happen in the background - instant messaging, streaming audio, that sort of thing.

The provided interfaces work well for those apps, but not for OmniFocus' purposes. Sorry.