Jailbreak App - Backgrounder which Allows iPhone Apps to run in the Background Updated

The ability to run iPhone apps in the background is one of the most requested features since the launch of the iPhone.

That is the reason jailbreak app – Backgrounder which allows third party iPhone apps to run in the background is one of the most popular apps for the jailbroken iPhone.

Gaizin, developer of Backgrounder has released an updated version of the popular app with more features.

You can read our review of Backgrounder here.

The latest version of Backgrounder (r230) includes the following changes:

iPhone Apps running in the background is tagged with a badge:

This is a neat feature as it will help users to quickly identify the iPhone apps running in the background.

Earlier the only way to find out the iPhone apps running in the background was to use the Processes plug-in in SBSettings jailbreak app (I still prefer this option over this option).

More Options to customize how Backgrounder works:

If you don’t like the badge feature described above, you can turn it off from the Preferences menu (Preferences-Global->Badge).

You can now also change the invocation method of Backgrounder app as described in the screenshot below.

Task List mode:

In addition to the "Simple Mode", the developer has introduced the "Task List Mode".

In the Task List Mode, Backgrounder shows the list of iPhone apps running in the background and allows users to quickly switch or close them.

The Task List mode is still in beta, and I wasn’t able to get it to work. Its can be a really a cool feature if it and works as described.

Apple announced that they will be introducing the Push Notification Service as a workaround to background apps in iPhone OS 3.0. Though I partially agree with Apple’s stance due to the limited resources available in current iPhone models and the adverse impact it can have on iPhone’s battery life, it won’t work for radio or VOiP iPhone apps.

There was a rumor recently that Apple is seriously evaluating the option of allowing third party iPhone apps to run in the background until then you will have to depend on Backgrounder.

As always, please let us know what you think about the latest version of Backgrounder in the comments section below.

[via Simon's Blog]