Remember the last time Apple said anything about background processes? Yeah, they brushed it off as ridiculous given current battery technology. What a lame excuse. Apparently, they are finally beginning to realize that’s just not going to cut it. TechCrunch, Gruber and Alley Insider have all independently rumored that Apple will allow at least some background processes on the iPhone in the not too distant future.

Palm showed off many features of their yet to be released Pre this week at the CTIA Wireless Association’s annual event. Many of the features appear to be direct arguments towards getting a Palm Pre over Apple’s iPhone. For example, Palm showed off the Palm Pre version of the Pandora application at their Sprint booth. Since the Pre allows background processes, it was pretty powerful to see users be able to listen to Pandora while doing other things on the phone, as well as skip songs from anywhere on the phone.