I was writing a post on the best way to use Pandora on the iphone (link to article) and it struck me that THIS is how we may see ‘run in background’ support working on the iphone and why we want it.
First a few words on the Pro’s and Con’s of running an app in the background. Pro’s. As I first mentioned, playing music NOT from the ipod. That means Pandora, AOL radio, last.FM, Stitcher, etc… Quite often when I’m driving, which is when I listen to iphone digital radio the most, I need to look at the map on occasion to check traffic or for directions. Also if I get an email, I use intelliscreen to look at the email header.. ( I do not read or write emails when I drive and neither should you). Its quite annoying, and a distraction to reselect the radio app again. How about text chat? or at some point having a VoiP conversation and not dropping the call because you need to look something up? Keep your game going while taking a phone call.. There are plenty more examples, but you get the idea, being able to let one app continue to function as you invoke another app has many benefits.. {more here}
