What is the difference between the “new” wifi auto-connect, and the auto-connect that’s been built in since Day 1? I have multiple fav wifi networks that “connect when I arrive and disconnect when I leave” to paraphrase the “new” featured ability.

What am I missing here?

I do understand the *wish* for BG processes, but I think it’s unrealistic considering the power needs of the iPhone. You have a large, bright high-res multi-touch display, with a fairly powerful processor, location services, 3G, Edge & Wifi, push, server refreshes, a telephone, and an iPod potentially all drawing power…

Additional backgroud processes are still too premature to be rolled out widely. I your adamant, then jailbrake and deal with the potential hiccups. The iPhone is much better served by being a stable, reliable device.

That said, backgrounding WILL COME. Who knows, maybe as soon as this summer with the hardware refresh, but definitely not on the current hardware.

Are data transfers and voice not mutually exclusive? I know they are on my (oldish) BB.

As far as just switching in/out vs. quitting, they’re not really that different. The iPhone has very little RAM, so if you switched out, it’d probably have to unload some stuff out of RAM and then bring it back in when you switch back. This would only split the lag between the switches instead of piling it up on a restart. Less intrusive, but probably not an overall gain.

As far as apps putting up alerts themselves, I’m sure Apple could (if they haven’t already) add an API that allows an alert to be fired on a designated event, so the OS watches for the event and triggers the alert, asks if the user wants to switch to the app, and then does so. I think Apple is afraid of apps pushing them back to the front whenever they want. That’s one of my biggest peeves with Windows – IE pushes itself in my face whenever it feels like, as if I have no say in what gets my attention at that moment. Think about what that’d be like – 100 apps constantly throwing up alerts, it becomes unusable.

I’m surprised there aren’t more complaints about the lack of spam filtering. I’d forgotten spam existed until I got a Touch.

All of this is required, as opposed to simply running a background app which receives the entire notification from anywhere. As an example, suppose you want to play a game with another user. With background notification the devices can simply talk to one another (perhaps a lookup of the device would be necessary).

This difference is huge.

Jailbreak, install Backgrounder. Allows you to run an app in the background and then return to it instantly from the springboard. It’s really neat.

Now, I want to listen to Slacker instead of my iPod and Apple doesn’t seem to want to allow this.

Am I the only one who hates those bubble notifications on our beautiful iPhone? They didn’t even make them a little more subtle like on the Pre.

*I’m an iPhone lover, and think the new update is awesum!

“NNW could just as well save its state and resume from where it left off.”

As I said, even when remembering their state, I still have to bother re-launching the thing. Much, much faster just to switch to it.

As for your other examples, they’re all valid. My NNW example was by no means meant to be comprehensive. The point is there are other reasons for background apps besides push.

BG apps are required for this like voice recording while reading notes, listening to internet radio while chatting, and your files being transferred without having to have the app open.