Push notifications go live on iPhone courtesy of Tap Tap Revenge
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Jun 15th 2009 2:01AM
posted Jun 15th 2009 2:01AM
[Thanks, Brandon]
posted Jun 15th 2009 2:01AM
The percentage of electronics at the end of their lives which were recycled.
The EPA found that the percentage remained consistent from 1999-2005. Even as recycling rates went up, the amount of electronics reaching end of life outpaced the increase, leaving the figure static. (source: EPA, July 2008)
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Message box FTL.
No kidding. That's going to become so obnoxious after people start installing several games.
OH MY GOD!!! It is going to be so obnoxious!
What have we all been doing when we receive multiple text messages for the past 2 years on the iPhone?????????
Holy crap! Soooo MANY SMS's... what to do???
Lets make a big deal out of something that really isn't!
because there wont be an option to turn it off, right? its fine to hate the iphone, that is your prerogative but its pretty pathetic to look for problems that aren't even there. it invalidates any opinion you have on the phone.
And SMS notifications are a problem, too. I didn't mind them as much, though, as they were fairly infrequent.
(By the way, I own an iPhone and have been using the developer betas for several months, now.)
You can choose to turn off, sound, badge, or boxes FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL APP. You can in fact turn any combination of the three off. So don't know what the fuss is all about. Stop complaining when you haven't seen the real thing. I've been using the GM since last week and all I can say is that the push notification really works this time!!!
Agreed. This is going to be Facebook apps all over again. "John wrote a secret about you... Click here to find out what he said!" "Ashley created a 'How well do you know me quiz.' Create your own now!"
The worst part is that a lot of these apps force invites or even send them without consent.
It's going to get to the point where people just ignore them because they're so frequent and useless.
urghhh annoyance!!
does anyone know if this is going to be ready worldwide? or it is US only?
It's worldwide. Developers got to test AIM beta a couple of days ago and that works fine over here in Germany.
I still haven't seen a notification system that beats Androids amazing notification bar.
I'd agree, though webOS is a very, very close second.
webOS's Notifcations sure are sexy, though.
Notifications on iPhone OS 3.0 are simply unacceptable . . . those will become so obnoxious so fast.
While I agree, I think that push badges are going to be all I really need. Any apps I have that get badges for updates will move to my home screen and I should be okay.
I do like that notification pull-down though ...
Eliath: They simply appear and the app "under" it keeps running. Which, I suppose, can mess up a game once in a while. No dealbreaker for me, though.
The two iPhones are the only smartphones I've owned, but I've got to say I'm pretty envious about the unified notification areas in webOS and Android. No doubt that'll be coming in one of the next platform updates.
Completely agree, I love that notification tray. I'll consider the iphone inferior until its possible to stream last.fm and browse the web at the same time.
I absolutely prefer webOS to android as far as the notifications go. It is a much more elegant solution.
I have a feeling Apple is making us wait one more year for that, then one more year again for real multitasking.
I'm sure they don't call it "planned obsolescence" but something more like a "road map". its just annoying that they COULD do it now but they figure they need something in their pocket to WOW people later.
If these can't be turned off you're very well looking at the iPhone's undoing. Especially if someone writes an app and can send you spam. I've had an iPhone 3G before and the message box was enough to make me sell it off.
What was it about the message box in particular? I'm curious, as message boxes have been around for a long time, which leads me to believe it's something particular about Apple's implementation that bugs you.
Just uninstall the app and I'm pretty sure (look at the second screen shot) these notifications can be turned off.
Sure they can. You can turn off Push Notification off globally and in the apps's preferences. The latter may be optional for the programmer, but any programer abusing this service is just shooting his feet because people will simply uninstall that app and give it a bad rating.
Just because something has been around forever doesn't make it any good. Message boxes have their uses. When people learn to make them appear they should also be taught when not to use them. Obviously everyone on Apple's development team missed the class on message box usability.
@article poster: can you make another video that shows what happens when you get a notification while doing something (not sitting on the dashboard)?
I have to correct myself. Push notifications can be totally controlled on a per-app basis in the settings. You can allow/disallow Sounds, Messages and Badges all by themselves for any app or you can turn them all off with one flick of the finger.
@seanlindo06
Do you read anything before you post? You can turn the push notifications totally off or you can simply change the way they notify you with any combination of sounds, alerts, and/or badges. By the way, I'm sure you just want that video for more excuses to rip on Apple with, right?
What a stupid comment. Love or hate the iphone, it's incredibly successful. A few nerds on engadget (myself included) that don't like the style of notification on iphone, won't slow it down a bit.
Many developers have also received betas of an AIM client from AOL that uses push notifications.
I wish that Apple would set out some specific standards for push (or if they have already, ignore this). I would like to see it be required that if you are doing push notification, that you give users the choice as to which type of notification they receive.
For myself, I know I'll usually always prefer badges, but there might be some things I'll want an instant alert and prompt for (such as Flight Control ;)).
I can't wait for 3.0.
You are prompted on whether to allow notifications the first time you run an app that features them. After that, a notification menu in Settings allows you to choose which types of notifications to receives for each individual app (sound, badge, alert).
There are settings for that in the Settings app. You can disable them completely, disable any part of the notification that you don't want. All on a per-app basis.
That's great news! Thanks.
wooo love that the guy is rocking the deadmau5 app
Yay, I'm so trying this out right now.
@ enz1ey
Oh, but didn't you get the memo? the iPhone is a gaming console now.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/12/apple-the-iphone-is-a-gaming-console/
god dammit, that was supposed to be one down. comment system ftl.
alright this is how Apple's push notification system will go down:
"ahh yes let me just browse the web on this big ole 3.5 inch scr--- whoa! what is this huge box??? somebody challenged me to play that game i installed last week?? why is this box so big???? can i get rid of these???" (frustration ensues)
amirite?
At least on the iPhone we have games at which to be challenged. I prefer the big box and the cancel button over my screen space slowly getting chipped away at by notifications that I have to swipe to get rid of.
oh because we haven't been able to challenge people on systems like the xbox, wii, and PS3? i think the large majority of people will be annoyed by this. But that's just my opinion.
didn't mean to post this twice
So you're comparing a phone to... a game console? I don't get it. So I'm assuming you're making fun of the fact that the iPhone has a 3.5" screen as compared to any size screen an Xbox or PS3 can connect to? And how are these going to be any more annoying than receiving a text message while doing something like browsing the web on the phone? And since you were wondering, yes, you can get rid of the notifications. Or change them to alert you in whichever way you prefer, if any.
You need to decide whether you're going to compare the iPhone to its actual competition, like say, the Pre rather than just looking like an ass by comparing a PHONE to a GAME CONSOLE.
Please, don't contribute your stupidity to posts like these anymore. Go back to making phone calls on your Xbox. Or playing Madden on your phone. Or whatever it is you pretend you do.
All aboard the iSlab phailboat!!
oh because we haven't been able to challenge people on systems like the xbox, wii, and PS3? i think the large majority of people will be annoyed by this. But that's just my opinion.
I'm actually looking forward to the shit-show all of these pop-ups are going to cause. I think it'll force Apple to finally redesign some of the iPhone's GUI instead of cobbling together temporary solutions.
I concur. iPhone OS was a decent first effort, but it's time to revise the interface. It's time to own up to its failures and fix them.
I kind of agree that this is not a substitute for running apps in the background, but it is acceptable. And it does conserve battery. But I don't think a fallout will ensue like you imply. Push notifications are no more intrusive than text message alerts, and you can change the way they work. If you don't want the pop ups, then you can choose any combination of a sound, a badge, and/or the pop up. And the iPhone GUI is basically accepted as the best cell phone OS out there today. I'd say it was a little better than a "decent first effort." Look at the Pre, there are tons of little things in WebOS which were directly inspired by (or copied from) the iPhone OS.
Killer...
I can't wait for my 3G S (my first iPhone) to come in the mail, and even though I love the iPhone already, this 3.0 stuff looks to be shaping out quite nicely!!!
For all of you who are concerned about the barrage of push notifications that are bound to swarm iPhones soon here is your relief...
Turn sounds, alerts, or badges on or off for an application:
Tap Notifications, then choose an application from the list and choose the types of notification you want to turn on or off.
This is straight off Apple.com... link is:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/how-to/#settings.notifications
So your options are:
a) Put up with annoying notifications that can pop up over top of what you're doing at any time.
b) Disable notifications and go back to square one.
Neither option is good.
"Tap Notifications, then choose an application from the list and choose the types of notification you want to turn on or off."
You couldn't get through the first sentence on the page I guess. That's the second.
I can only imagine having multiple apps with this type of notification pop up getting reaaaally annoying. Glad I don't have an iphone lol.
Looking for reasons to be "glad" you don't have an iPhone? I'd make sure those reasons are at least REAL before you post them.