Apple Acquiring iOS Developer to Revamp Notification System?

[kdarling]

Not sure what they used. Although to be honest I actually like how they have their "multitask bar.". I've used my friends HTC incredible and it's anything but. It's multitouch interface doesn't compare and their multitask management system is nice but I enjoy how I can skip a song in pandora with out having to actually go into the app itself.

Yes, I like being able to click on the Pandora widget's skip button on the Incredible. The widget also shows what's playing, and by whom. And you can do thumbs up/down from it as well.

Apple may just create a multi-tasking tray widget to get to notifications, but I see that as only catchup not a polished solution. I'm hoping to be impressed.

Oh man. You just made a scene flash before me, of Apple using a multiple Home button click to see notifications

 

[applefan69]

I agree as well. Apples notification system is lame. I hate when im playing a game and a pop up pauses, and stalls everything. Some games every freeze up.


Also i always forget to reply to text messages, they just isnt a good reminder. I think it vibrates just one more time.

 

[to1986]

Why are people happy about this? If it is true it means we will still have the same popups for iOS5. I will be so disappointed to have to wait another year. Instead I am hoping they have already gone ahead and revamped the notification system.

 

[inkswamp]

Then why is she using a smartphone?

Doesn't matter why. The problem is not the user. The problem is the fact that Android interfaces with its user in a way that feels like it was designed by engineers. My wife isn't an engineer. She doesn't think that way. I suspect that's not uncommon. Should people only use smart phones if they're programmers?

And do you not find it annoying when you are half way through destroying evil pigs about to land the perfect bird and whammmmo a big old useless text comes up in the middle of the screen causing the bird to misfire with the text saying simply "ok" cos you have idiot friends who think they always have to reply to every text sent?

My Motorola MPX210 from 2003 with Windows Mobile 2003 had better ways of telling me I had texts.

So, the bottom line is that Apple should give you a way to disable those kinds of alerts or indicate them in a less intrusive way? That makes sense. I can get behind that.

But here's what I'm getting at: what does the lack of a notification queue have to do with it? I'm trying to get at the fact that people complain that there's no notification queue in iOS but I frankly don't want one. I don't need another thing to manage on my phone. I like the badges on the icons--straightforward and simple and nothing to manage or pull down and scroll through. It's just there when I get to the home screen.

 

[RebootD]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A341 Safari/528.16)

As a previous WebOS user this would be heavenly. It's the one major feature I miss the most. Get that fixed and I will be ready for the Verizon iPhone 5 next year when my Sprint contract is up.

 

[andrewsd]

If this is true, I may consider to get an iPhone 4 instead of an HTC Thunderbolt.... the notifications are the only real dealbreaker for me on the iPhone.

The only phone I have hands on with that was as smooth and "just worked" has been the EVO. Although not "retina" the display on the Incredible is very nice but over wasn't impressed with it and since I see this person almost every day I have defiantly spent some time message with the phone. If you already have a phone you enjoy I'd say keep it intill the iPH5. Although if you do get and iPH4 is is a very nice piece of technology. Also typing on the Incredible just isn't the same as the iPhone. It's defiantly a good competitor but it's not a run a way winner. I use my iPhone a lot for browsing the web so smooth scrolling on web pages is a big deal to me. May not be for you. The notification system is way over due for an upgrade but at the same time who is to say that what they come up with won't still live up to you or others demand/expectations.

 

[andrewsd]

Flashing light

Many people from what I've read and heard also would like a "notification light." I hope they don't implement this and if they do I hope the user can disable it. I really don't need a flashing red light to be always flashing away until I look at the notification that it is notifying me about. I also laug a lil inside when I am at a table of BB users and there phones are all out just flashing away.

 

[santoshah]

I hope the new notification system will be similar to this:

 

[eah2119]

wow. i always viewed iOS as perfect. I never noticed anything wrong with it. But now that these are brought to my attention, I can see how it can be revised. This is obviously a big deal. I always like to see innovation. Glad to see Apple's keeping up. I hope to see a new notification system in iOS 5.

 

[Electrified]

I think Apple should ask HP Palm to help them to revamp iOS ugly notification system.

 

[rexamafex]

As much as I would like to see this done natively..... You guys really need to jailbreak and install Lockinfo already.

It has everything you guys are wishing for as it already exist. Unobtrusive notification that shows a small icon on your task bar and then you can tap and drag down to see it. Then there the display of all your info while in lockscreen.
I dont want to hear, "but it voids your warranty" excuse. You're ignorant and incompetent if thats what you think.

 

[chrmjenkins]

As much as I would like to see this done natively..... You guys really need to jailbreak and install Lockinfo already.

It has everything you guys are wishing for as it already exist. Unobtrusive notification that shows a small icon on your task bar and then you can tap and drag down to see it. Then there the display of all your info while in lockscreen.
I dont want to hear, "but it voids your warranty" excuse. You're ignorant and incompetent if thats what you think.

Some people don't want to jailbreak, no matter how easy it is to do. Some of us don't want to worry about if we can upgrade when a new firmware comes out. We just want a phone that works, because we shouldn't have to modify to get what we want and what should be there.

 

[kdarling]

My dear Inkswamp, what are you going to do if/when Apple does update the notification methodology with more Android-like stuff? Not upgrade?

Regarding WebOS and lights, I really liked two things about its notification list system:

1) You could individually swipe to delete any notification on the list without actually going to the app.

2) You could enable the backlight around the trackball to let you know it needed attention. It slowly pulsated a soft white light that you could see from across the room, while the phone was charging on its Touchstone magnetic base.

The way I describe WebOS was that it felt luxurious. Everything was low key and classy.

 

[andrewsd]

wow. i always viewed iOS as perfect. I never noticed anything wrong with it. But now that these are brought to my attention, I can see how it can be revised. This is obviously a big deal. I always like to see innovation. Glad to see Apple's keeping up. I hope to see a new notification system in iOS 5.

"PERFECT" ha. Please it's really smooth and pretty flawless but not perfect. They are not keeping up in this area. They are playing catch up as others have far passed them. Did you also think it was perfect and that they were paving the way or keeping up when it took a few years to even get "copy and paste."

 

[QuarterSwede]

Apple may just create a multi-tasking tray widget to get to notifications, but I see that as only catchup not a polished solution. I'm hoping to be impressed.

Why do that (and why purchase a dev) when they could just put the notifications above the multitasking bar in the MASSIVE unused space? When in another app it could just pop under the status bar like internet tethering.

From: iPhone's Notification Bar

From: Possible iOS Notification System

 

[unlinked]

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

All it shows is that people will throw a good quote at almost any situation no matter how bad a match it is.

'Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems. '

 

[MattInOz]

This is basically the only significant weakness in iOS versus other mobile OSes. It's almost a given that they have to fix it, but the question is when. Unfortunately the timing of this news suggests we'll still be stuck with the current notifications for another 18 months. Still, it's good to know they are taking it seriously.

Why?
Apple could have been working with these guys for months. Maybe they have their own API that apple paid to get their hands on. Then when it seemed obvious apple would delete the need for their app talks about buying the whole company. Rumors leaking now so that we all know they got something coming in what we all know is the weakness the competitors have well covered.

*I think I just managed to be cynical and optermistic in the same post.

 

[QuarterSwede]

Anyone remember this?

Engadget: Palm Loses Webos Notifications Architect To Apple

That was on Jun 9th, 2010. After being reminded I think this is just a rehash and hopefully it means that the new system will be coming to iOS soon.

 

[inkswamp]

My dear Inkswamp, what are you going to do if/when Apple does update the notification methodology with more Android-like stuff? Not upgrade?

First off, if Apple revamps its notification system, I'd expect something better than what Android has. I don't buy into all the hype about how much better Android's approach is. I've used it. I've seen how non-geek users interact with it. It's not better, just different, and it plays to a different, more "techie" set of expectations about how things should work.

Second, if Apple does go the unlikely route of emulating Android, I would hope that they somehow let users continue using iOS as-is. I see no reason why the modal alert/app badges approach cannot coexist peacefully beside a notification list method. Do you? In fact, a few preference switches to toggle various bits and pieces of the notification interface on or off seems to be the solution to most gripes.

 

[BaldiMac]

All it shows is that people will throw a good quote at almost any situation no matter how bad a match it is.

'Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems. '

It was a good match, unless you think that it can only mean what you want it to mean. As I explained earlier, the poster that I replied to made three or four suggestions. All of which were an Apple implementation of what already existed, aka "a faster horse."

 

[czeluff]

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

Funny you say that - the whole reason my girlfriend likes her iPhone and iPad are because she never even has to THINK about a filesystem...

 

[QuarterSwede]

Funny you say that - the whole reason my girlfriend likes her iPhone and iPad are because she never even has to THINK about a filesystem...

That's the way OS X is headed as well. iTunes and iPhoto already take over your library management. File managers will eventually be relegated to the utilities folder just like terminal. Still there when you need it but you won't need it often.

 

[kdarling]

First off, if Apple revamps its notification system, I'd expect something better than what Android has. I don't buy into all the hype about how much better Android's approach is.

I should've said WebOS, because I don't love Android's weaker version myself

Second, if Apple does go the unlikely route of emulating Android, I would hope that they somehow let users continue using iOS as-is. I see no reason why the modal alert/app badges approach cannot coexist peacefully beside a notification list method.

I think that would be very nice.

In fact, a few preference switches to toggle various bits and pieces of the notification interface on or off seems to be the solution to most gripes.

Alas, Apple isn't exactly famous for including lots of customization switches.

It was a good match, unless you think that it can only mean what you want it to mean. As I explained earlier, the poster that I replied to made three or four suggestions. All of which were an Apple implementation of what already existed, aka "a faster horse."

When I saw that, my first thought was that if asked about a new mode of carriage travel, most people would've also come back with "comfortable seats, reading lamps" and so forth. In other words, often it DOES pay to ask your customers what they want! You just don't have to give them everything they ask for, in quite the way they ask for it

Speaking of quotes, most people heard about someone throwing back the "Two turkeys don't make an eagle" at Nokia and Microsoft... to which Nokia's CEO today replied like, "But two bicycle makers from Dayton once got together, and they made something fly".

Hey, you know, I wonder if the MS-Nokia thing will force Google and Apple back into each other's arms a bit more again?

 

[chembox]

wow. i always viewed iOS as perfect. I never noticed anything wrong with it. But now that these are brought to my attention, I can see how it can be revised. This is obviously a big deal. I always like to see innovation. Glad to see Apple's keeping up. I hope to see a new notification system in iOS 5.

Absolutely nothing is perfect in life.

 

[StuddedLeather]

I hope the new notification system will be similar to this:

And if it doesn't look like this. . .
Lets just say this will become my first jail broken iPhone.

It's too many resources over there (in the jail broken world) that Apple could "use" for the iPhone. I would like something like the above pic, but with an option to make it a little more private of course.

I do think a new system is already ready for use though. They've hired the guy from WebOS so I'm sure they have something great coming. I just hope they don't name it anything special and/or make us abuse the home button vigorously.

Just announce you'll be implementing a new notification system and move on. THIS SHOULD NOT BE A MAJOR SELLING POINT APPLE! Please don't play catch up and try to act as if you've "invented a new way to get notified"