Back in Lion and Snow Leopard, I relied heavily on the ability to snooze iCal alerts for variable lengths of time. I would set my first alert to occur 2 hours ahead of an event, then snooze it for one hour, then 30 minutes, etc. This was extremely convenient for me.
Now, without the variable snooze times in Notification Center, Apple's Calendar alerts are all but useless. In order to get this same effect that I had before, I would have either have to set multiple default snooze times for each event, or else needlessly click on the same snooze button 8 times or more before the event occurs. Even worse, for all day events, I want notifications the day before my big event, but would also like to see something on the morning of as well. Now, I must take more time, in order to get similar functionality for my Calendar alarms. Is this Apple's idea of simplicity?
This is a shame, because I rely on the Calendar for my schedule and workflow. Calendar has been a valuable application on my Mac for two years, and I really hate to see things going this way. If anything, Notification Center needs even more variable snooze times than before: 4 hours, 8 hours, 12 hours...
Other needed improvements to Notification Center:
1) Let me set the location where the notifications appear. For me, the top-right corner is too distracting, as it gets in the way of my Safari tabs. Sometimes, I may wish to leave a notification open for a few seconds so that I can complete the task I am working on. Letting me place my notifications in the bottom-right would fix this.
2) Display more than one Notification per app at a time down the screen. This would especially be helpful for Mail, when I receive a number of messages at once. (This is especially a problem when I have my notifications in the top-right, and have to wait for the notifications to cycle through before they disappear.)
3) Set time for banner notifications. I would like for banner notifications open for a longer amount of time than the current default. Some may want shorter notifications.
4) When I click on banner notifications, allow certain apps (e.g., iCal and Mail) to open a new window instead of taking me directly to the open window for that app. This would be especially helpful in Mail where I may want to open that particular message in my current space, without interrupting whatever I already have open in Mail. (I run Mail in a separate space.)
5) Delayed sound effect bug for Mail: I don't hear Notification Center's "pop" sounds until after the banner has disappeared.
6) More variation in the kinds of Notifications a single app can show. Maybe Mail can play different sound effects for separate mail boxes, or show different pictures for different senders. Maybe Calendar alerts can be color-coded based on the Calendar being used.
