This is a horrible notification system, I hope Apple won't implement this in iOS 5 but comes up with something new.
The video in the article is from
beta 3. The newest version is beta 5 which is much, much better and a lot more polished. Instead of covering what you're doing up it pushes the screen down (think Call In Progress green pulsing bars). It also adds quick reply to SMS and notification deletion from the notification itself. It's a CRAP load better than iOS's default notification system.
Having to tap a notification in order for it to disappear is a subpar solution and not any better than Apple's current notification system. Also read this blog post written by a designer:
http://blog.cocoia.com/2011/notify/
You don't have to tap on it for it to disappear. Within 3 seconds it goes away on it's own.
The best part of this is that Apple hired a jailbreak app developer and the app he developed is still available in Cydia.
That means Apple didn't say, "before we consider hiring you, you need to remove that app, because we hate jailbreakers".
That's because it's open source. They simply can't.
No offence to the programmer as it must be tough doing this sort of stuff as a one man team, but i hope apple's implementation ends up nothing like this. IMO it's clunky and ugly.
It's not a one man team. It was his idea at first but then several people were added along the way. Check out the newest version, beta 5 before passing judgement. It's pretty well polished and slick. It's missing certain things but it is still a beta and it's definitely the way Apple
could do it.
Apple already has a system similar to palm that they aren't using. Have you ever surfed while on the phone? The whole top of the screen pushes down and the green bar appears saying tap to return to call. It's informAtive, it's obvious, and it doesn't overlay over anything. There's no reason the same concept shouldn't be applied to notifications. Different color for different things. Phone related, green, mail, blue, etc. Of course you'd specify which you care about and maybe change colors. Touching it would bring a popup with greater detail, etc. This doesn't seem like brain surgery.
That's exactly how MobileNotifier Beta 5 works. Instead of the notification being overlaid on the screen (yuck) it pushes the screen down. It's freaking brilliant and a lot better than the Android and Growl imitation Notified Pro + GriP.
I've been using beta 5 since it was out (I think two few weeks) and there are a few things missing:
- Tapping on a notification that has text should open to where the notification is (think Facebook) because that's what you want to reply to. This idea is probably going to have to be an API though so I would only expect to see it when Apple revamps notifications.
- Option to tap on notifications on the lockscreen and have it take you to the app.
- Ability to quick reply to Facebook, Twitter and other similar apps. So far it's only SMS. Again, probably going to have to be an API.
- Should pause certain apps (games) so it doesn't cover screen (it pushes screen down everywhere else BUT in full screen apps like games) or only show a status bar icon. Again, API needed.
- Landscape notifications
I guess the biggest take away from using MobileNotifier is that Apple needs to add an API for intelligent notifications. They are NOT all the same.
You can view any updates to the code on their
commits page. A nice addition to what will most certainly be beta 6 is that you can choose the notification style, light from beta 3 or dark from beta 4 (which I prefer).
[EDIT] Was just reading
Hajas' blog and realized that MobileNotifier has an API for MobileReply (quick reply). Neat.
