I am developing a web app for iphone which requires the application to check for changes in a text file, and as soon as a change is detected, to complete certain actions.

The text file changes around once every 3 but the change has to be detected almost instantly and so I'm currently doing an ajax refresh every second.

This works perfectly on a desktop browser with no visible refresh noticeable, however on the iphone the activity spinner is practically constant.

Can this be suppressed? Or stopped?

N.B I'm currently using the jquery framework for ajax!