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Topic: Banking

iOS 5 Notification Center isn't a new concept but Apple did it well

Summary: Finally a place that controls all of the alerts that come to and from your iPhone

Joel Evans

By for The Mobile Gadgeteer |

There's only so many new ideas that you can expect in the mobile space. A case in point is the Notification Center found in iOS 5. While it's something that iPhone users have been dying for, the idea is far from new.

If you're not familiar with the Notification Center, it's basically a ribbon that you pull down by swiping down on your phone. Once the ribbon is exposed you can see the latest weather, stock quotes, messages missed, and more. It's Apple's way of finally cleaning up and unifying all of those crazy alerts, reminders, and messages that would pop up on the screen, and hang around until the user dismissed them.

As I mentioned above, the concept of a Notification Center is nothing new, and most recently has been improved on over and over by Android. This time around, though, it's on an iPhone. The nice thing about Apple's implementation is how much customization it affords. For example, if you don't care about your stocks, simply go to Settings > Notifications and then shut them off. Or maybe you want to be alerted when your friends are ready to play against you with Words With Friends? Inside Notification Center you turn it on, and then decide how many items you want to show and if you want no alerts, a banner alert, or the old fashioned "in your face" alert. Speaking of Words With Friends, I'm mobijoel if you want to play.

I had a chance to play around with Notification Center for a bit and while I would have been one of those skeptical people, I have found it to be a welcome addition to the iPhone experience. It offers a smooth execution, and only enhances my time with the iPhone.

Users will have to wait a bit before enjoying the Notification Center, but so far it's worth the wait.

Topics: Banking, Apple, Smartphones, Operating Systems, Mobility, Mobile OS, Microsoft, iPhone, Hardware, Collaboration, Software

About

With more than 15 years of mobile, Internet and wireless experience, Joel specializes in taking existing brands and technologies into the mobile and wireless space. Joel is currently the VP of Strategy Integration for Mobiquity, an enterprise-class mobile solutions provider.

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28 comments
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  • RE: iOS 5 Notification Center isn't a new concept but Apple did it well

    "Good artists copy; great artists steal" - Picasso.
    jeremychappell
    Reply Vote

    • RE: iOS 5 Notification Center isn't a new concept but Apple did it well

      @jeremychappell I guess Jobs ia a great artist because he has been ripping people off for 34 Years now!

      It cracks me up, Woz built their first machine and launched them into the spotlight but Jobs probably believes it was all him.
      slickjim
      Reply Vote

      • Message has been deleted.

        Marcos El Malo
        Reply Vote

      • RE: iOS 5 Notification Center isn't a new concept but Apple did it well

        @Peter Perry You STILL have not answered the question as to how and why Android is an iOS clone and became that way AFTER the success of the original iPhone - and previously was a Blackberry clone.

        Apple and Jobs have indeed copied - and improved on - a lot of ideas and the whole "magical" "revolutionary" monikers annoy me but Apple changed the smartphone landscape with the iPhone and had other manufacturers scrambling to catch up. It's the same thing with the tablet market, and the portable MP3 player market.

        As I pointed out above Apple is not the only one to borrow or steal good ideas and reshape them - Android and Microsoft Windows are two cases in point.
        athynz
        Reply Vote

      • When did Jobs 'ripping people off'? Also, Jobs never though 'it was all me'

        @Peter Perry: -- he numerously said that without Woznyak Apple would not happen.

        Also, Jobs or Forstall never said that Notification Center is "new concept", so there is no need for Joel to negate this assertion.
        DDERSSS
        Reply Vote

      • RE: iOS 5 Notification Center isn't a new concept but Apple did it well

        @Peter Perry
        Its funny how people say that android is an iphone clone. They are nothing alike. A few similar features that were borrowed from each other. Just about every feature on either platform can be traced back to prior art. Android has features that apple doesn't have and apple has features that android....I can't think of any but i'm sure their are some small ones. Get over it. Buy what you like. Apple get over it too. Make a better product and you might get some market share back.
        gbrowerjr
        Reply 1 Vote

    • RE: iOS 5 Notification Center isn't a new concept but Apple did it well

      @jeremychappell <br><br>It was actually T. S. Eliot in his essay "The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism" on Philip Massinger published 1922 who made the quote:-<br><br>"One of the surest tests [of the superiority or inferiority of a poet] is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different than that from which it is torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest."<br><br>But what the hey, it's ok for you to steal a misquote.

      PS You are quite free to present evidence that Picasso EVER made that statement.
      bannedagain
      Reply Vote

      • RE: iOS 5 Notification Center isn't a new concept but Apple did it well

        @bannedagain
        "That's the problem with Internet quotes, you have no way to know if they're authentic!" -Abraham Lincoln
        45yoyos
        Reply Vote

      • RE: iOS 5 Notification Center isn't a new concept but Apple did it well

        @bannedagain Ha! That'll teach me to be ironic. I'm actually quoting Jobs, who used the quote misattributed to Picasso. However, I didn't know he got it wrong... But then he didn't spell Macintosh correctly either!

        Nice catch there dude!
        jeremychappell
        Reply Vote

      • LOL!

        @45yoyos
        :)
        Will Pharaoh
        Reply Vote

  • RE: iOS 5 Notification Center isn't a new concept but Apple did it well

    I have a similar setup for notifications using a couple of tweaks available via Cydia but I do like that one can "lock out" certain notifications and can go back to the alert boxes (although anyone who would want to is certifiably nuts IHMO...) on the iOS5 version. It's definitely an improvement on the Android version (with the customization options - although if there are the same options available on the Android version let me know as I can't find it on Gingerbread).
    athynz
    Reply Vote

    • RE: iOS 5 Notification Center isn't a new concept but Apple did it well

      @athynz I never really had much of a problem with the notification system but I can see myself really liking the new version a lot better.
      non-biased
      Reply Vote

  • RE: iOS 5 Notification Center isn't a new concept but Apple did it well

    While they may have done it well, I still will reserve judgement till I can use it for a while.
    On the phone, the pull down on my Nexus is great, and the i4 will seriously benefit from it.
    However, I have grown to like the Honeycomb notifications much better from a tablet perspective. Not to keen on the iOS5 design for a tablet. Has something very similiar via jb and it felt more intrusive than functionally beneficial.
    End of the day almost anything is an improvement for iOS.
    ;)
    rhonin
    Reply Vote

  • RE: iOS 5 Notification Center isn't a new concept but Apple did it well

    Another great personlization feature to keep up to date on what we want and block out what we dislike. Great feature that doesn't take up screen space.

    For more features and iPhone 5 information check out www.iphone5blog.net
    jbutler27
    Reply Vote

  • RE: iOS 5 Notification Center isn't a new concept but Apple did it well

    Yawn
    it been standard on my android phone for ages!, now its something new because its iPhone playing catch up.
    tom@...
    Reply Vote

    • Whole Android concept is 'playing catching up', so this minor thing does ..

      @tom@... ... not mean anything.
      DDERSSS
      Reply Vote

    • RE: iOS 5 Notification Center isn't a new concept but Apple did it well

      @tom@... I have an Android phone (EVO) and would love to edit the notifications. How do you do that? I have a couple apps that notify me constantly and I can't stop them without uninstalling them (that I am aware of). I also don't have a way of removing a notification and leaving others. Only thing I have seen on Android is 'clear all'.
      10kwfence
      Reply Vote

      • RE: iOS 5 Notification Center isn't a new concept but Apple did it well

        @10kwfence
        Check your app preferences. There is usually notification options there.
        gbrowerjr
        Reply Vote

    • RE: iOS 5 Notification Center isn't a new concept but Apple did it well

      @tom@... Yawn, yet another small minded hater post, nothing new here.
      non-biased
      Reply Vote

  • RE: iOS 5 Notification Center isn't a new concept but Apple did it well

    Lol, another lawsuit on the way? Apple has sued companies for less.
    Muttz
    Reply Vote
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