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Yumunum

macrumors 65816
Apr 24, 2011
1,452
0
U.S.
Have you ever used an Android phone? You'll notice they do something similar, but it's kind of like both of our suggestions combined. On Android, each app has its own icon in the status bar. But if there are too many notifications to fit them all, the last one turns into an arrow/icon indicating that there are more icons/notifications than what can fit on the bar. Then when you pull down the status bar to see your notifications, they are all listed there. I don't recall if there is a number though.

I like your idea and I'll suggest it in addition (or in substitution) to the icon enhancement when I report it later.

Thanks for the reply!

Actually yes, I went through 3 high end Android handsets before my iPhone 4. And I had a 3GS before that. lol, you can call me crazy if you want. Lotsa $$$ went towards my device addiction.

Anyways, if I remember right, there was a number on, for example, a Gmail notification icon that had more than one email unread. Or the messaging icon with more than one unread text. Someone correct me though if I'm incorrect. Maybe it was just the Inspire 4G (my most recent Android phone) I didn't like how cluttered it looked up though.

In my dream world, Apple would have tons of customization settings and we could choose exactly how all notifications work. Customization is for Android though :p I often wish I could merge the two platforms.
 

wordoflife

macrumors 604
Jul 6, 2009
7,564
37
Same exact opinion here!
Without a notification icon, these new notifications are hardly more efficient than the old ones. For example, when I'm watching a Youtube video. I have choose to rotate my device, read the notification, rotate it back, rewind the video to compensate the time I used for reading the notification, and continue watching the video. -OR- I can ignore it, keep watching my video, but possibly forget to drag down the notification bar.

Accidentally created a new thread https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=12725167&posted=1#post12725167
 

rwilliams

macrumors 68040
Apr 8, 2009
3,740
1,006
Raleigh, NC
This is one area where LockInfo is superior. If you miss an email, calendar event, call, voicemail, etc., there's a status bar icon letting you know. Seems like something that would be very simple for Apple to implement.
 

DDustiNN

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jan 27, 2011
2,485
1,371
This is one area where LockInfo is superior. If you miss an email, calendar event, call, voicemail, etc., there's a status bar icon letting you know. Seems like something that would be very simple for Apple to implement.

I use LockInfo and Calendar is the one icon that doesn't show up in my status bar. The notifications show up on the InfoShade, but I was bummed that there was never an icon, since that's the one I wanted the most (since the InfoShade is the same as Apples new Notification Center, gotta manually pull it down).

Did they add this in a recent version or something? If so, maybe I need to update, haha...
 

Cod3rror

macrumors 68000
Apr 18, 2010
1,772
82
The way Apple handled notifications was very sloppy and lazy IMO.

IMO, they should've added a new pop up status bar on the bottom for notification icons and the notification center should've moved up from the bottom instead of from the top like Android.

Once notifications were handled the bottom status bar would vanish. And you could also configure which applications showed icons in the status bar.

Example:

6Rp8l.jpg


Another example of the Notification Center menu being shown, with integrated Spotlight search and Wifi, BT, etc.. toggles.

aWNHZ.jpg
 
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ratzzo

macrumors 6502a
Apr 20, 2011
829
35
Madrid
I wholeheartedly agree. Sort of like the system that BlackBerry uses. Simply an icon of the app followed by a small number, hardly space consuming. I thought I saw a picture, previous to WWDC, on MR's front page of a silver twitter icon and a '2' sort of like a new notification status bar, I would point you to that (mockup I guess) if I could find the picture to confirm what we're all talking about...
 

collisos

macrumors member
Apr 28, 2011
69
0
Tweak on Notification Center

Okay so I love the way iOS 5 handles notifications and can't wait to get my hands on it, but I want them to add one more thing. One of my favorite aspects of my phone when I jailbroke it was Mobile Notifier and how it added an icon to the status bar that corresponded to the application the notification was from. I think that if they did this, it would be perfect. Say you're browsing the internet and you leave your phone up, you come back 5 minutes later and don't check notification center because the notification had gone away. I think this is where the status bar icons would help. Yes I understand that it is very easy to check notification center but I think it would be a nice addition and make the system perfect, anyone agree?
 

PhoneI

macrumors 68000
Mar 7, 2008
1,629
619
I think they should just add 1 icon to symbolize there are new notifications that need attention. Perhaps they can use the red circle notification icon (from settings).
 

JForestZ34

macrumors 6502a
Nov 18, 2007
931
227
I wouldn't call it a complaint, it's only a beta.. It's not a released copy of the OS.. YOu know they released the beta so you can work your apps with the new OS.. It won't be perfect right away.. They still need to do alot of work on it... Otherwise they would have released it last week.


James
 

TonyC28

macrumors 68030
Aug 15, 2009
2,758
6,938
USA
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/534.32 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F190 Safari/6533.18.5)

One thing I'd like to see, and I have no idea how well it would work, is for the notification that pops up at the top to only be as thick as the title bar. Not that big of a deal, but it can kinda get in the way for a few seconds.
 

Rodimus Prime

macrumors G4
Oct 9, 2006
10,136
4
I wouldn't call it a complaint, it's only a beta.. It's not a released copy of the OS.. YOu know they released the beta so you can work your apps with the new OS.. It won't be perfect right away.. They still need to do alot of work on it... Otherwise they would have released it last week.


James

you have not followed Apple very long. When ever Apple releases a Beta it is feature locked. It is not going to changed how it looks and feel. All the changes will be done under the hood and flush out those bugs but something like adding icons for notifications is a new feature and therefor not going to happen.
 

klamse25

macrumors 6502a
Oct 25, 2009
610
6
My question is; How would the icons even FIT in the status bar?

We already have orientation lock, alarm, and (now) sync.
(There may be even more icons than I'm aware of)
 

wordoflife

macrumors 604
Jul 6, 2009
7,564
37
My question is; How would the icons even FIT in the status bar?

We already have orientation lock, alarm, and (now) sync.
(There may be even more icons than I'm aware of)

-1.png


Exactly. And lets not forget TTY and now playing. Maybe they could make the carrier name hidden and make it show up only when in the phone app. Kinda like the way WP7 does it
 

alex.sebenski

macrumors member
May 26, 2010
64
0
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Experiences with jailbroken status bar icons

I agree there are too many icons currently in order to add more to the status bar.

Here's what I've done in the past with Winterboard tweaks in order to make room for the icons added to the status bar by Lockinfo:

Note: Lockinfo has an icon for Notifications as a whole, SMS, Silent, Mail, Missed Call, and Voicemail.


Removed the Alarm Icon - It's useless, I know I set a repeat alarm for 7:30 AM every day, why do I need to be told every second of the day?
Removed the Battery Icon - I enable the percentage, the icon itself is not precise and it way too big for its usefulness.
Turned off the silent icon - I didn't really need this, but it was nice to have.

Maybe Apple should remove the Battery Icon when necessary, and remove the Alarm Icon all together, and not include a Silent Icon like Lockinfo does. Maybe merge voicemail and missed call into a "phone" notification.

This leaves Mail, SMS, Phone, Bluetooth, Now playing, TTY and Notification icons, which fit may fit fine without the Battery Icon and the Alarm Icon taking up the space.

It's possible, but a tight squeeze even with adjustments.
 

Schetuck

macrumors newbie
Jul 12, 2011
5
0
Contact swipe

I think they should make a native swipe in the contact app just like they have in the Twitter app, where you can swipe on any name in your contact list and five buttons come up that allow you to text call email tweet or Facebook right there without actually having to go into that specific persons page
 

Cod3rror

macrumors 68000
Apr 18, 2010
1,772
82
I think they should make a native swipe in the contact app just like they have in the Twitter app, where you can swipe on any name in your contact list and five buttons come up that allow you to text call email tweet or Facebook right there without actually having to go into that specific persons page

That would be great, or something like Android TouchWiz has, swipe left - Call the default number, swipe right - Text.
 

mactmaster

macrumors 6502
Jun 16, 2010
390
1
I agree with others who say there are already too many icons in the status bar. There's no need for a status bar notification icon. The newly redesigned notification system with notification center makes it very easy to check for notifications with a simple swipe. I think the whole point of notification center is that you can quickly check IF you have any missed notifications not just a place to look at them once you already know you have some pending.
 

wordoflife

macrumors 604
Jul 6, 2009
7,564
37
I agree with others who say there are already too many icons in the status bar. There's no need for a status bar notification icon. The newly redesigned notification system with notification center makes it very easy to check for notifications with a simple swipe. I think the whole point of notification center is that you can quickly check IF you have any missed notifications not just a place to look at them once you already know you have some pending.

That's not the point.
Look at this screen cap
iOS-5-Home-Screen.png


Are you able to tell me if I have any notifications pending, or not?
Or am I just suppose to keep pulling down the notification bar every time I use my phone to make sure there's nothing?
 

haticK

macrumors 6502a
Jun 11, 2011
526
8
New York
The problem is that Apple puts stuff on the left, center, and right side of the bar. This makes less room for notification icons and would look weird because they would be scattered on each side of the time. It needs to be like Android where everything is on the right side and notifications show up on the left...but I really don't see that happening.
 

mactmaster

macrumors 6502
Jun 16, 2010
390
1
Are you able to tell me if I have any notifications pending, or not?
Or am I just suppose to keep pulling down the notification bar every time I use my phone to make sure there's nothing?

If you are with your phone at the time you receive a notification you will see the popup which lets you know. If it's in your pocket you'll hear a sound or vibration which will let you know. The only time you need to pull down to see if there are missed notifications is after you were away from your phone and in that case the lockscreen will show a list of notifications much like the pull down notification center. So you'll see them if you're pulling out your phone to use it.

In addition to all of that there are also app icon badges which are visible from the homescreen. So no, you won't need to be constantly checking the notification center.

The status bar display is unnecessary and thankfully won't be added.
 
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