Persistent IP Connection to iPhone

So far there has been only one really interesting "news" coming out of Apple WWDC keynote:

"Apple will maintain a persistent IP connection to the phone, where a 3rd party server can ping Apple's notification service to your device. It can push badges, sounds, and custom textual alerts (like how SMSs look)."

This is to avoid running background processes on the device listening for async notifications, which takes away CPU cycles and drains the battery faster.

So Apple is doing a radically different approach: They will maintain a "push" server infrastructure which stays connected to each cell phone. Applications send notification to this server infrastructure which will in turn push it to the device. The connection will stay on, both over wifi and cellular.