No matter what some may say, all firmware upgradeable devices hold big hopes with them, especially when the initial release doesn't live up to your expectations. Unfortunately, there are also exceptions - for example, I got a no name MP3 player as a gift(in fact, it had a name, Blue Sky, but I couldn't find any official site for it, not even a Chinese one!), and since its sound quality was abysmal, I tried to upgrade its firmware using the software located on the CD that came with it. The result was a player that doesn't work at all, but at least it's less stressing to see it doesn't work at all, than get the worst sound quality I ever heard! Now, let's get to the iPhone 2.1 info, with the latest news about the changes in the latest Beta, shall we?
As you probably remember, Apple's main reason for upgrading the firmware again in a very short time after the previous firmware edition, 2.0, is the fact that iPhone 2.0 was jailbroken extremely fast. Now, the fourth Beta comes with some interesting and unexpected updates, such as...
...explicitely removing support for the push notification service! While feeding programs with data while they are practically inactive seems like a good idea, I can't help but wonder - what about potentially harmful programs? Probably that's also the reason that made Apple withdraw support for the push notification service. Anyway, since we didn't get to firmware 2.1, the final version, I guess there's enough time for them to change this once again, don't you think?
While Apple doesn't say much about this move, it seems the notification code has been pulled back for "further development," so it should arrive in the future, at least in the final 2.1 firmware, if they aren't going to hold it in the labs for a bit longer.
I am sure that some programmers are going to be disappointed by this, especially if they were already working on apps expected to use this feature, but I am sure it's all going to end well for them. Currently, the final iPhone 2.1 version is expected to drop by next month, so...go get a break, guys!
