What can iOS apps do in the background?

Am I able to make my app process while in开发者_如何学Go the background, or does it just sit dormant until it is brought to the foreground? Can I have it issue http requests, for instance?

If you can figure out how to make your app fit within the bounds of "App States and Multitasking" under the "Background Execution and Multitasking" section, then the answer is yes.

In iOS 7, you have 3 minutes for your App while it is in the background.
In older iOS, you should have 10 minutes for that.
You can see my answer with simple example here.