If you're among those eagerly awaiting the iPhone 3.0 update, you got some welcome news earlier this week. Apple has begun asking all of the third-party developers who have been writing new code to start testing out the data push feature.

What does push do? Well, it allows developers to send data updates for their programs even when the app is not actively running. Much in the way Facebook or Twitter will send notifications or updates through email, the push feature allows the app to notify the user of changes or updates (such as an instant message or new article posting).

Even if the idea of push updates leaves you yawning, this is good news in that it means the iPhone update is one step closer to meeting the ambiguous "summer" release date.

20 May 2009