Since there is not an LED, what do you use for notification of urgent items?

You can use the flash as an LED

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/tips/comments/making-your-iphones-led-flash-for-alerts/

 

Same thing people did before cell phones existed.

 

What's an example of an "urgent" alert versus a "normal" alert, and how would the phone differentiate them?

 

I use my phone to notify me. It turns out that the whole screen turns on when I get a notification and tells me what it is. I also feel a vibrate and hear a sound.

 

Honest question. I understand how an LED light is helpful for knowing if you have a message waiting when you're accross the room, but how does it help you gauge the urgency of the message?

Unless there's a feature that I'm unaware of, the LED does nothing more than tell you that there's a message. It doesn't deliver context of the message or that it needs to be urgently responded to, so you're still required to walk across the room, turn on the screen, and figure out what's going on.

Honestly, I've never had a phone with an LED notification light, so I've never missed having it on the iPhone. I just have it set to remind me three times when a text or voicemail comes in. If something is truly urgent, I'm going to get a phone call, and likely several.

 

I use the LED light on the back to flash when its ringing or text, etc. But it only flashes while it happens to my knowledge - e.g once the person puts the phone down because you haven't answered the light goes out. But it is quite bright and a potential battery waster I guess if you get lots of phone calls etc.....

I use to have a Samsung Flip phone 'back in the day' that had a colourful LED on the front. VERY annoying at night because it would literally keep flashing until answered....soon turned it so it flashed for a bit and then stopped. Annoying at night to get up and turn it off - yep I am lazy

 

There is the flash notification that the others have mentioned but there is also a "custom" vibration alerts that you can select or create for specific people.

Select your contact, edit you'll see vibration in there.

 

This is the number 1 thing I miss from my BB as well. Somehow Apple refuses to put a notification light on their phones. If you left your phone sitting on the table and came into the room 5, or 10, or 30 minutes later, you have to press the button to see if you have any messages waiting or a missed call. With a BB, you'd know as soon as you laid eyes on the phone, no need to even touch it.

All I can say is, consider an Android phone if it's a deal breaker for you.

 

That is really cool. Did not know that one.

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Very true. In his defense, I see the practicality of it. I had a Galaxy Nexus and was able to set the different colors of the LED to mean something urgent, per contact, etc. I don't really miss it much, since I constantly look at my phone. He may also want to consider messing with the Email VIP and Do Not Disturb options. Otherwise, an Android might suit you better for this.

 

The bottom line is the iPhone doesn't have a dedicated LED that will do what a Blackberry does and I doubt an app will do it as most are pretty much sandboxed.

You could try jail breaking, as that may have an option, otherwise if this minor issue is a big no no to you, then I would suggest going back to Blackberry or maybe and Android phone.

My guess is Apple will never do this, as it would 'spoil the look' - hell they even took away the tiny LED indicators on the new Retina MBP I have lol.

 

So you check your pager?

 

NOPE, my answering machine had a blinking light letting me know I had a message to check. Try again.

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Doesn't work because it doesn't stay lit. And it's too bright.

 

When I left Blackberry I missed the LED on the iPhone, too! They have improved notifiactions but it is still primitive in comparison to Blackberry.

BUT, Blackberry hardware like the 9900 had so many problems, there was no choice for me. 5 out of 5 of my 9900 units died. No problems with iPhone. iOS offers a lot but it is also different.

How hard would it have been to put a few tiny LED on the phone

 

I lol'd hard haha. Nah i just use my ears for the tone, and vibrations in my pocket and then turn the screen on to check lol. I wish it had a notification LED but i wouldnt trade iOS for it haha

 

Solution-

1). Exert the extreme amount of effort to push the sleep wake button

2). Sell me your iPhone since thousands of us still don't have one, and go back to your primitive device.


I'd go with option 2

 

Instead of being a smart ass you might just accept that it's a usefull feature for many people. They don't exist on other phones just because they think it's a pretty flashing light.

 

This is the definition of a Crackberry user.

You need to ween off, friend!

 

Just curious, but what would be an example of this?

At my job, if something important is happening and you don't actually dial the phone to reach the person you'll get yelled at. Texts and e-mails are specifically for things that can wait.

So the idea of an LED for any text-based communication is weird to me. By definition it shouldn't be time-sensitive.

 

What about an LED letting you know you have a missed call?

 

Notifications are pretty cool. On the Galaxy S3 and probably many other androids you could set the LED to flash for certain things. Flash if you got a call or email, could go pretty custom.

Typically when at work when I had S3 I'd leave it on silent. Vibrate nowadays is almost as loud as a ringtone if sat on a desk.

Not a big deal but LED notification is nice.

 

The LED notification is incredibly useful. Apple is the only smartphone company (that I can think of at the moment) that hasn't implemented it. BB, Palm, Samsung, Motorola, HTC have it on all their phones. Competition should be good, but Apple knows it's got its fanboys hooked.

You need to stop drinking Apple juice, buddy!

 

Either it's not time-sensitive and I'll get it later or it was time-sensitive and it's too late.

Yeah, I get that this is somewhat helpful to some people, but I'm always surprised by just how important some people say it is to them. On a list of features it would rank way, way near the bottom for me.

The thing is, though, is that my iPhone screen lights up when I get an e-mail.

So it's not a matter of being notified by a light or not...I already have that...it's a matter of "you can see it from further away."

Ok, again, I get that that's better, but I'm still surprised that "you can see it further away" registers as a feature people would ask for.