Background apps

No, you cannot run background apps.

You thought wrong.

I thought that I recalled seeing that in the 2009 WWDC keynote address. Also it was mentioned it would act like an FM transmitter as well and I don't see anywhere to do that either.

Here is a link to the keynote address. I'm going to check it out again and see what they said. http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/0903lajkszg/event/index.html

You're thinking of "push notification", which will allow some apps to receive info while closed. An example would be an IM app. You would get notification of messages sent to you after closing the app. This isn't the same as true background function. This is functional in the 3.0 firmware, but I don't know if there are any released apps that use it. For the present, Apple still reserves background function capability for the core function apps in the iPhone, not any 3rd party apps.

Message was edited by: modular747

I loaded all the apps in the store that I cared about that had push notification. Tap Tap revenge, Weather alert both have it and more are promising it. Waiting for the next thunderstorm to see how it works!

Unfortunately the link above is for the latest keynote where they announced the 3G S. The link I had I thought was for an earlier keynote mid April where they announced the 3.0 release. That one had more detail about the 3.0.