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Apple Acquiring iOS Developer to Revamp Notification System?

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Apr 12, 2001
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Cult of Mac reports that Apple is planning to revamp its system for providing notifications within iOS, looking to address one of the areas of perceived weakness compared to other platforms such as Android and webOS.
Apple's pop-up notification system for new text messages, voicemails and the like has often been criticized as one of the weakest parts of the iOS. Notifications are intrusive, modal and often cryptic. It's a mess.

HP/Palm's webOS banner notification system, on the other hand, has been widely praised for its utility and ease of use. And from this week’s preview, it looks to be getting better.
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According to the report, Apple's strategy for the revamp involves acquiring a small iOS development firm that currently offers a notification system in the App Store. While the targeted firm was not identified by the report's source, Cult of Mac speculates that it may be Boxcar from App Remix, which offers an iOS application providing push notifications for a variety of services.

The report also points to last year's return to Apple by Rich Dellinger, inventor of the webOS banner notification system, and notes that many had hoped he would lead an effort to improve Apple's own system. But it appears that Apple has not yet reached that goal and may feel that tapping an outside firm with some expertise in the area could aid the process.

Article Link: Apple Acquiring iOS Developer to Revamp Notification System?
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/02/11/apple-acquiring-ios-developer-to-revamp-notification-system/
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That would be awesome! I hate when 10 notifications flash all at once!
 
chainprayer said:
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That would be awesome! I hate when 10 notifications flash all at once!
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Not to mention the lack of some sort of notification log.
 
Ok, this is way better news than I was expecting.

I thought Apple would bumble their way through it this year and really get it right next year. But if they bring on people who've worked through all this stuff then things will be much better than I thought.

And, wow, I really hope it is Boxcar. It's a great app right now even with all the app-store restrictions placed on it. I can only imagine what that team could do if they're given access to the whole OS.
 
I really really hate the current notifications system. Its horrendous to say the least. This is one of the reasons why I considered getting a webOS or android device instead... But I'm still a faithful iOS user and hope that iOS 5 will revamp the whole platform.

Fingers Crossed....
 
[rant]

In addition, the notification system needs to be able tie into the iOS email. For example, I'd like to have a completely configurable alert system that would allow me to parse incoming mail and SMS messages to look for certain bits of text. I would then want to be able to alert myself if I saw those text patterns.

To me, this is hugely important for people that provide any kind of system tech support. As a CTO, I need to make sure that my systems are up and running, and that there are no security issues either. I frequently use tools like ipMonitor and Orion to send email and SMS messages should an issue be detected. In the Blackberry world, I used to use MessageAlerts; however, in iOS land, there's no such tool...and AFAIK, there's nothing in the iOS SDK to allow me to create this type of application.

[/rant]

:cool:

--DotComCTO
 
Thinking about this, I'm curious though. They are hiring developers who had to work around the confines of iOS to accomplish what they did. Now they are asking them to change iOS to do what they need to do. That doesn't necessarily imply they'd know what to do to make iOS work better for them.
 
never having a smartphone prior to iPhone 4 and not really looking too much into other smartphones and their notifications, I am FINE with how they are...though guess if they get better that will be even better for me.

I don't text and have stopped using AppleMail and just use the Xfinity App without any Push for it.
Only things really popping up for me are Facebook, Calls and Words with Friends.
 
THANK GOODNESS.

I'm not gonna lie, iOS needs a refresh to parts of their UI.

A new notification system is a MUST. Also, it needs to be more "smart" (like what Google is doing with their 3.0).

Widgets (Android) or Live Tiles (WP7) are also two "musts" in my opinion.

Finally, a file system for photos, videos, etc would be great.
 
Well I am glad they are going to revamp it. Let's just hope that it is a coplete departure from the current blue pop ups and not some kind of lame attempt at tweaking the current system. This is one area where I truly think Apple needs something 100% different and new.
 
This far late into the game tells me notification overhaul won't be ready for iOS5. Being half a year away, I would assume that the feature list is pretty much set in stone by now. Also, it would require some deep reworking of the plumbing for all apps, external and internal, to be reworked 100%.

iOS6 is my guess, along with LTE in 2012.
 
DotComCTO said:
[rant] In the Blackberry world, I used to use MessageAlerts; however, in iOS land, there's no such tool...and AFAIK, there's nothing in the iOS SDK to allow me to create this type of application.
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You'd need to have your mail server do the filtering, and generation of notifications. This isn't actually all that hard, but from the client side would look a little weird, since the badges/modals would be linked to the client app, rather than mail.

Personally when a department I do some development for at work needed something like this, I just set up a web based messaging system and let it drive the APS. The client app can then present histories of messages etc in any form it desires, especially as mostly the structure is provided by the server. Including learning Objective C and IOS it took only a few days.
 
saxamoophone said:
Also, it needs to be more "smart" (like what Google is doing with their 3.0).

Widgets (Android) or Live Tiles (WP7) are also two "musts" in my opinion.

Finally, a file system for photos, videos, etc would be great.
Click to expand...

Again demonstrating the timeless Henry Ford quote ""If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse."
 
Help

I have every option in "Messages" turned off and I still get junk messages for home refinancing on a regular basis. Anybody know why? I don't text message at all. I thought I could save the five bucks a month for something I don't use.
 
Didn't Apple recruit the Palm guy behind their notification system last year?
 
saxamoophone said:
THANK GOODNESS.

I'm not gonna lie, iOS needs a refresh to parts of their UI.

A new notification system is a MUST. Also, it needs to be more "smart" (like what Google is doing with their 3.0).

Widgets (Android) or Live Tiles (WP7) are also two "musts" in my opinion.

Finally, a file system for photos, videos, etc would be great.
Click to expand...

I agree it needs to change but Apple can include a lot of those sorts of things without changing their stuff so much that it would alienate their base. I switched from iPhone to Android and they both have their strengths and weakness'. One of my problems with iOS was the notification system. version 2.1 of Android has a notification system and multitasking that is leagues ahead of iOS IMO. iOS is ahead of Android in many things as well (stability being one for sure not that iOS is completely stable either but it definately leads the pack). Anyways this isn't a Android vs. iOS vs. Windows 7 argument anyway. I'm happy to see a (possible) change in the notification system on iOS. Who knows...maybe I'll come back to iPhone!
 
ghostface147 said:
This far late into the game tells me notification overhaul won't be ready for iOS5. Being half a year away, I would assume that the feature list is pretty much set in stone by now. Also, it would require some deep reworking of the plumbing for all apps, external and internal, to be reworked 100%.

iOS6 is my guess, along with LTE in 2012.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I think you're right :(
 
Yeah, I was excited when that WebOS guy went to Apple hoping that he would help implement nice looking messaging. But, ever happened. Hope this will pan out since iOS' popups suck. I wouldn't even mind if they looked like the WebOS messages since they are well designed.
 
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I certainly hope they make the notifications clickalble. As a new user I had expected them to be.
 
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