Dear Apple: Get notifications right!

[Armen]

Rofl yup but I hate those god awful tail lights and head lights, they really take the decor out of that nice black shiny mercedes with that ugly yellow signal light. If I want to signal to turn, why can't I just use my hand why do I need that ugly yellow light.

I see you took the same stance 😛 taillights and headlights are essential and standard on all cars. LED notification lights are not standard on all phones and they are quite still usable without them because of other methods of delivering notifications.

 

[Oletros]

Your argument is invalid. LED lights on a computer are standard and essential for its operation. That's like saying a car is tacky because it has a blinker light for when you make a turn.

I bet that you're just arguing for the sake of arguing,m that you cannot believe those arguments about LED's being essential to computers, LED's not being essential to smartphones, that it is better to power up the screen than a blinking light.

 

[Armen]

really? So Blackberries never used notification LED's? Or Sony's. Or Samsung's? Or Nexus devices? Or HTC phones? Or LG? You know, the phones that make up 80% of all smartphone sales worldwide.
The fact is, LED Notification is a standard on all smart phones. But since the iPhone isn't much of a smartphone, more of a feature phone with a touch display, it fits right in where it belongs.

Yet, a tacky gold iPhone will fit right in. 🙄 Sounds more like you are compensating for Apple's inferior technology and lack of innovation.

All that said, the Moto X does not have a notification LED, but their solution is absolutely perfect. I pull the phone out of my pocket and the screen pops on with my notifications. Put my phone on its wireless charger and it brings up the screensaver until a notification is received. Having the 'breathing' effect in the status bar is a nice touch. As long as you can see your phones display, from any reasonable distance, you will know if you have a notification. Although have a multi-coloired LED would have made this even better, but I'm guessing with all the wearable tech coming out in full force, this whole notification thing may become a moot point.

P.S. I fully expect Apple to copy and then attempt to patent MotoX's notification feature. Exactly what they did with Androids Notification Center and Blackberries Messenger service.

- 80% of worldwides sales belong to those smartphones because emerging markets are flooded with cheap handsets. I guarantee you there will be a shift in these figures once the iPhone 5C penetrates China and India next year.

- The gold color you speak of is tacky for us Americans but widely accepted in the rest of the world. I'm almost certain the gold color will go flying off the shelves compared to the black or white iPhone.

- The iPhone set the standard of what is today's smartphone. I'd hardly label it a feature phone. 🙄

- The LED notification indicator still has a serious flaw. It cannot determine the urgency of a missed event. It can only notifiy you that you have one. So like it or not you have to check the phone. I do agree with you on the wearable tech movement making this obsolete unless people want LED notification lights on their smartwatch for when they put their watch down? 😱

- I haven't seen Moto's notification system. I'm sure if Apple "copies" it they will do a better job with it.

 

[cammykool]

I think iOS notifications are blocky compared to android (my s3)

 

[Armen]

I bet that you're just arguing for the sake of arguing,m that you cannot believe those arguments about LED's being essential to computers, LED's not being essential to smartphones, that it is better to power up the screen than a blinking light.

Show me one laptop that does not have LED indicator lights for Power, HDD access, Wifi and Bluetooth. These come all standard.

There are plenty of Smartphones without LED notification lights.

 

[Oletros]

Show me one laptop that does not have LED indicator lights for Power, HDD access, Wifi and Bluetooth. These come all standard.

There are plenty of Smartphones without LED notification lights.

My Macbook Air doesn't have any LED.

 

[Armen]

My Macbook Air doesn't have any LED.

All the lights below are indicators from a Macbook Air. It's not required by the laptop to function but its the only means in which the computer can communicate with us regarding a status of its different functions.

Or this

 

[Oletros]

All the lights below are indicators. It's not required by the computer to function but its needed for the computer to inform us of something.


Image

Or this

Image

Or this

Image

Now it is clear that that you're just joking, my Air doesn't have a ****ing LED and if you think that the battery LED ON THE charger is essential you're not just joking you're doing another thing that it is forbidden in the forum

 

[jtfolden]

I see you took the same stance 😛 taillights and headlights are essential and standard on all cars. LED notification lights are not standard on all phones and they are quite still usable without them because of other methods of delivering notifications.

The same flawed stance. You can't compare notification LEDs on computers or smartphones to headlights/tailights and expect to be taken seriously.

Why aren't you complaining about the lack of hard drive light on macs?

Notification LEDs are not essential to desktops or mobile. They aren't required for operation or safety. They are however a convenience and a standard in most mobile devices.

 

[Armen]

Now it is clear that that you're just joking, my Air doesn't have a ****ing LED and if you think that the battery LED ON THE charger is essential you're not just joking you're doing another thing that it is forbidden in the forum

What is forbidden may I ask?

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The same flawed stance. You can't compare notification LEDs on computers or smartphones to headlights/tailights and expect to be taken seriously.

Why aren't you complaining about the lack of hard drive light on macs?

Notification LEDs are not essential to desktops or mobile. They aren't required for operation or safety. They are however a convenience and a standard in most mobile devices.

I never said LED lights were essential for a computer to work. They just come standard with computers to notify the user of the computer's various states like being turned on, turned off, hard drive activity, etc. If Apple chose not to do this for HDD activity on the Mac that is their call but the majority of computers do have LED lights to indicate some state.

You are taking the headlight example of the car out of context. I said the light up cup holders and speakers in a KIA soul is tacky and that's why Mercedes wouldn't do something like that.

Of course someone came back with a snarky "headlights are tacky". Seriously?

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Now it is clear that that you're just joking, my Air doesn't have a ****ing LED and if you think that the battery LED ON THE charger is essential you're not just joking you're doing another thing that it is forbidden in the forum

My apology. Apparently the screenshot with the LED in the body is NOT from a Macbook Air even though the image said it was. The camera indicator light and the charging indicator lights are from the Air.

 

[C DM]

I see you took the same stance 😛 taillights and headlights are essential and standard on all cars. LED notification lights are not standard on all phones and they are quite still usable without them because of other methods of delivering notifications.

Which certainly doesn't mean that LED notification lights as an overall concept don't represent a useful and fairly straightforward improvement (that has even already been implemented by majority of smartphones).

 

[Armen]

Which certainly doesn't mean that LED notification lights as an overall concept don't represent a useful and fairly straightforward improvement (that has even already been implemented by majority of smartphones).

No argument there. I just don't see Apple doing it that's all.

 

[F123D]

C'mon guys.. leave Armen alone. If he enjoys picking up his phone every five minutes to check for messages or sets alerts to go off 10 times for each notification, that's his choice.

Before notification center was implemented on the iPhone, I bet we would've read comments like..

"WHY HAVE A NOTIFICATION CENTER? THERE'S BADGES ON THE ICONS TELLING YOU YOU HAVE A MISSED CALL OR TEXT! LEAVE PULL DOWN NOTIFICATIONS WHERE THEY BELONG, ON ANDROID!"

 

[C DM]

No argument there. I just don't see Apple doing it that's all.

Ah, at least we are over that hill and more or less at the crux of it all. Hopefully they might do it, given that it is an improvement that makes sense.

Apple didn't provide a way to view timestamps of every message before, and after years they suddenly added it in iOS 7, even though it's probably not as useful to many people and most won't even really use it much, but they did finally do it for some reason (thankfully for those who do find that kind of thing useful). So, you never really know.

 

[shandyman]

FB makes a different noise on my phone... wish I could change it.

The Facebook app hasn't made sounds for notifications for over a year, only for messages.

 

[C DM]

The Facebook app hasn't made sounds for notifications for over a year, only for messages.

I think that's something some people have been experiencing--various issues with Facebook notifications in general--but not everyone.

 

[slu]

So after the ringing, vibrating, 10 repeated alert sounds, lock screen indicator and phone badges and notification center indicator you still need a LED light to know you missed a call than I don't know what to tell you.

Read the article below and tell me again why anyone needs a LED notification.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/07/28/ep.smartphone.obsessed.cohen/index.html

I turned off the LED notifications on my Nexus 4. Didn't find them to add any value as I unlock my phone all the time anyway. I think overall I prefer Android notifications though.

 

[THE JUICEMAN]

I turned off the LED notifications on my Nexus 4. Didn't find them to add any value as I unlock my phone all the time anyway. I think overall I prefer Android notifications though.

Thank you for saying this. I was reading though all of these arguments about LED lights and I was thinking...do they know you can turn off the LED for notifications if you want to? It's not required.

 

[Vetvito]

C'mon guys.. leave Armen alone. If he enjoys picking up his phone every five minutes to check for messages or sets alerts to go off 10 times for each notification, that's his choice.

Before notification center was implemented on the iPhone, I bet we would've read comments like..

"WHY HAVE A NOTIFICATION CENTER? THERE'S BADGES ON THE ICONS TELLING YOU YOU HAVE A MISSED CALL OR TEXT! LEAVE PULL DOWN NOTIFICATIONS WHERE THEY BELONG, ON ANDROID!"

No joke. Some people hate options I guess.

They were seriously arguing about a LED light. Lol.

 

[narutoninjakid]

True apple really needs to improve in this department doesn't seem like they did much in iOS 7 except change the theme.

 

[shandyman]

I think that's something some people have been experiencing--various issues with Facebook notifications in general--but not everyone.

No, Facebook removed sounds with their app update to version 5 and only have sounds for messages. Anyone that did have sounds until iOS 7 must have been on an earlier version of the app, which then probably auto updated to the newest.

 

[jrswizzle]

- 80% of worldwides sales belong to those smartphones because emerging markets are flooded with cheap handsets. I guarantee you there will be a shift in these figures once the iPhone 5C penetrates China and India next year.

- The gold color you speak of is tacky for us Americans but widely accepted in the rest of the world. I'm almost certain the gold color will go flying off the shelves compared to the black or white iPhone.

- The iPhone set the standard of what is today's smartphone. I'd hardly label it a feature phone. 🙄

- The LED notification indicator still has a serious flaw. It cannot determine the urgency of a missed event. It can only notifiy you that you have one. So like it or not you have to check the phone. I do agree with you on the wearable tech movement making this obsolete unless people want LED notification lights on their smartwatch for when they put their watch down? 😱

- I haven't seen Moto's notification system. I'm sure if Apple "copies" it they will do a better job with it.

Fact is - LED notification lights are nice for some, but haven't added ANYTHING for me as a user of both the iPhone and various Androids so far this year (Nexus 4, HTC One, GS4). I haven't found ANY instance where the notification light was easier, more convenient or gave me anything over the way I recieve and view notifications on my iPhone.

As for Assualt's assertion that the Moto X does notifications right without the use of an LED - he's completely contradicting himself, as the iPhone too shows notifications on the lock screen and all one would need to do is click a button as they pull it out of their pocket to see said notifications on the screen - OR look to see if the phone's screen lit up from across the room......

And the iPhone was out WELL before the Moto X, so I wonder where this "Apple will copy and patent" nonsense comes from?



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No joke. Some people hate options I guess.

They were seriously arguing about a LED light. Lol.

I find it crazy that so many people feel so strongly about something so innocuous and superfluous that they have to gang up on a guy who disagrees?

The LED light is nice - but overall adds very little to the smartphone experience and is in NO way something that HAS to be standard for a smartphone to be considered up-to-date....

I turn them off on all my Android phones as they're just annoying, pulsing at night and I have no need to look across a room and be able to tell, based on some colored light, what type of notification I recieved.

My phone is either with me, or I don't want to be bothered by it. In either case, I generally pick up my phone and see on my lock screen what has come in.

OR, my phone is on my desk at work - a notification comes in and the screen lights up showing exactly what the notification is and who its from - WAY more informative than some light....

AND those notifications can be tweaked as to not brighten the screen at night when I'm sleeping.

Again - why is the LED light such a big deal?

 

[Oletros]

As for Assualt's assertion that the Moto X does notifications right without the use of an LED - he's completely contradicting himself, as the iPhone too shows notifications on the lock screen and all one would need to do is click a button as they pull it out of their pocket to see said notifications on the screen - OR look to see if the phone's screen lit up from across the room......

When you say that you have to put the screen on is when he doesn't contradict himself and you lose all the reason.
Fact is YOU don't like the LED, nothing more. Fact is that it provides more information than having to wake the ****ing smartphone everytime you want to know if there is anything waiting. Really, I don't know how you people can argue this.

 

[C DM]

Fact is - LED notification lights are nice for some, but haven't added ANYTHING for me as a user of both the iPhone and various Androids so far this year (Nexus 4, HTC One, GS4). I haven't found ANY instance where the notification light was easier, more convenient or gave me anything over the way I recieve and view notifications on my iPhone.

As for Assualt's assertion that the Moto X does notifications right without the use of an LED - he's completely contradicting himself, as the iPhone too shows notifications on the lock screen and all one would need to do is click a button as they pull it out of their pocket to see said notifications on the screen - OR look to see if the phone's screen lit up from across the room......

And the iPhone was out WELL before the Moto X, so I wonder where this "Apple will copy and patent" nonsense comes from?



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I find it crazy that so many people feel so strongly about something so innocuous and superfluous that they have to gang up on a guy who disagrees?

The LED light is nice - but overall adds very little to the smartphone experience and is in NO way something that HAS to be standard for a smartphone to be considered up-to-date....

I turn them off on all my Android phones as they're just annoying, pulsing at night and I have no need to look across a room and be able to tell, based on some colored light, what type of notification I recieved.

My phone is either with me, or I don't want to be bothered by it. In either case, I generally pick up my phone and see on my lock screen what has come in.

OR, my phone is on my desk at work - a notification comes in and the screen lights up showing exactly what the notification is and who its from - WAY more informative than some light....

AND those notifications can be tweaked as to not brighten the screen at night when I'm sleeping.

Again - why is the LED light such a big deal?

The whole point was to show that it is a useful feature and is an improvement that is fairly straightforward and is already being used on many smartphones (for years). The fact that some people might not use it or even like it doesn't change any of those facts, which is what most of that discussion was mainly about.

 

[Tinmania]

I see you took the same stance 😛 taillights and headlights are essential and standard on all cars. LED notification lights are not standard on all phones and they are quite still usable without them because of other methods of delivering notifications.

You are being deliberately obtuse or know very little about phones and/or smartphones.

LEDs were standard on cell phones, including smartphones, before the iPhone was ever released. It was the iPhone that didn't have it--to its detriment in my opinion.

I put up with the lack of LED notification because the iPhone was the best experience for me in a smartphone back then.

Now times have changed and there are other phones that are even better for me than the iPhone AND they have even more advanced notification LEDs than the phones I had prior to the iPhone. Win-win.

But for the love of God stop trying to turn a negative--the iPhone's lack of a notification LED--into a positive. It isn't working and I doubt anyone is buying it. In other words: pull up your pants, it's too late to save your shoes. 🙂



Michael