"Dynamic Icons, API to fetch URLs in the background, Better Push Notifications, Wireless Sync" « none of these will happen unless Apple gets their hands on a much longer-lasting yet thinner and cheaper battery. Because unlike Android phones which comes with a removable battery and thus battery drain != a useless brick as long as a replacement battery is at hand, iOS design/feature-set has to be very careful about battery conservation given Apple's hardware design choices.

Having said that I fully expect, Apple, who has been in the business of making software for close to 35 years, which is a full 5 years more than "90% guy" Microsoft, already have these features either on their ToDo list or in prototype form just waiting/working for the battery tech to reach that threshold where they are confident of it holding up when used by the mass market.

In short, I don't expect iOS5 to have most or even all of these features but maybe by the time iOS6 rolls around, battery tech will have reached the point when these features would have become practical. For iOS5, the flagship feature( Steve calls them 'Tent-poles' )will be NFC, and joining this tent-pole on stage will be the usual hardware improvements, Game Center/Ping updates etc, but nothing of the sort that has the potential to 'leech away' the battery.