Google Adds Push Notifications to iPhone App

I don't see the need. If you're using Exchange ActiveSync on your iPhone with the current OS, you already get all this using the existing apps on the device. Using Google Calendar, I can create one or more SMS reminders for an event, which remain in Messages until I delete them. Push Notifications disappear once you view them. Seems like an unnecessary layer of gunk. Reminders become reliant on 2 sets of servers now from both Google and Apple.

What I'd rather see is a Google-made app that gives me an alternate interface to my Google Apps account, especially Contacts & Calendar. They could store the contact and calendar data locally, or have it work real-time with your account -- getting around alternate UI's touching Apple's database...
(continues)