Microsoft has revealed information about a new push notification system for Windows 8 on it's developer blog. The new system will allow real time updates for live tiles with minimal impact on the battery life due to reduced power usage.This will be useful to all Windows 8 devices, especially to the upcoming Windows 8 tablets and ultra thin laptops.
Sparing your battery won't be the only innovation Microsoft is introducing to Live Tiles; developers will be able to incorporate 'beautiful images' into Live Tiles, enjoy new 'tile templates' that will simplify the creation of Live Tile apps, and leverage quicker 'real-time delivery'.
The technology behind this is known as Windows Push Notification Service (WNS) which will push notification out to devices instead of devices having to search for notifications from a server independently.
The following video demonstrates the geographic distributions of notifications in the first few days after the Windows 8 Developer Preview was released.
This will definitely benefit the next generation of devices running Windows 8, and likely add a few hours to your tablets. With Microsoft's plans for a unified operating system for all devices we may see the architure make it's way to Windows Phone as well.
source - Microsoft