It has been confirmed that an iPhone 2.2 beta build is now being tested by Apple's developer community, with a pre-release version of the iPhone SDK also having been released in the wild. The two builds are labeled “compatibility testing,” and provide no indication (thus far) as to whether background push notifications are making their way back to the software.

MacRumors is reporting that the new version of the software is labeled “iPhone OS 2.2 beta 1.” The new beta of the iPhone SDK, accompanying the new iPhone OS, is build 9M2611. According to the source, “beyond 'compatibility testing', there are no other differences noted by Apple.” MacRumors points out that it remains to be seen whether or not the new builds have any further implementation of background push notifications removed by Apple when seeding iPhone OS Version 2.1 Beta 4 to developers.

But there seems to be evidence that the push notifications feature is heading back to the iPhone, namely in a purported e-mail from Steve Jobs, who said that Apple was a bit late with the feature, but that he wanted it 100 percent right from the get-go.

“We're running a bit late,” Jobs allegedly told a MacRumors member. “We want to get it 100% right the first time.”

Apple provided little explanation as to why it had to remove the Push Notification feature from early betas of the iPhone OS. Version 2.1 Beta 4 of the iPhone software said that the notification code had been pulled for "further development" over at Apple's labs. Further testing would be carried out inside the company, with no word on whether the push notification feature would reappear in the next beta release of the iPhone OS 2.1, or the one after that, sources were reporting at the time.

Apple first began offering support for the push notification service in iPhone Firmware 2.1 Beta 1. Messaging apps such as AIM and Facebook would benefit greatly from an enhancement like push notification. The service allows apps like these to keep themselves constantly up to date.