Okay, I have read a lot of forum entries about RSS feeds and when they do/don't update; I want a clear, final description of when they do update in a live app. From what I've read here, it sounds like an RSS feed will not update if the app has pulled that feed before, but that makes no sense, right?! The whole purpose of an RSS feed is to be a current list of items from the feed. Does it have something to do with whether or not the app is loading on the device? When a user pushes the only button on the iPhone face does the app end, or does it continue in a task manager? I know if you push the button twice the bar of apps raises up and shows you recently used apps. Are those still running or just recently used? Thanks, Rob

Hi Rob: 'but that makes no sense, right?' It makes lots of sense in lots of cases. Think performance and how much faster the list loads if it's not refreshing everytime. Many folks assume that RSS is only used for news and quickly updating content. It's not. Tons and tons of folks use it for all sorts of stale-data that only needs refreshed occassionaly. There is no final description of when it updates because there are lots of ways to configure it. Some of the screens have a Force Refresh option in the control panel that allow the app owner to control this. I see that RSS doesn't. Seems like a good addition. I added it to the list. Mutitaskign: In iOS double tapping the home buttons shows a list of 'running apps' in the task manager along the bottom. These apps are not actually running, they are in a 'paused' state. Most folks consider them recently used but technically there is a difference. Tapping one will open it to it's previous state without running through the re-load process. The difference is significant from a developers perspective and a users perspective. For users, they open faster and open to the same screen they were on when they were put to the back. For devs, it's significant because you need to know as a dev when it's actually 'launching' vs. just being 'brought to the forefront'

Thanks, David! I think I found that if the app user tries to scroll up past the start of the list there is a bounce and then the feed updates. But still, for clarification, does the list load the first time it is accessed after the app is installed, or each time the list is accessed from when the app is started? Which brings me to a question about the other part of your response. Multitasking: how does a user control whether an app ends or 'pauses'? Sorry to ask a question that can probably be answered by someone less busy, but, as you said the difference is significant to a developer, so I'm asking a developer!