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Death by push notification
Attention is the main prize of the internet. Everyone is fighting for it, and the phone is the prime battleground. The most potent of weapons in this war is the incessant, whining notification trying to pull your attention away from whatever you are actually doing and into some other app. The notification may also be a major source of modern technological madness, due to the harmful cognitive consequences of having one's focus continually shattered and reset. A recent study found that a majority of users who made a deliberate choice to turn their notifications down as part of an enforced break were not likely to turn them back on. This got me wondering: What would happen if I cranked them in the opposite direction? What might I learn about how phones are reshaping minds? What might I learn about my own mind?
Amazon is planning push notifications for your Echo
Amazon has been updating its line of voice-assistant devices to make them more user-friendly for a while. The Tap no longer needs a physical touch to activate it and your Echo devices can make calls and leave messages. Better yet, they will soon be able to whisper and have better wake word accuracy. According to a post on Amazon's developer site, Echo devices are getting another upgrade here, too: visual notifications for skills.
Firefox gives you push notifications from websites
If you've wanted websites to push notifications whenever there's a big update, you've typically had to use a browser like Chrome or Safari. As of today, though, there's a third option: Mozilla has released Firefox 44, which brings push notifications to all desktop users. Grant a site permission and you'll get a heads-up whenever there's an important story or alert, whether or not a given site is open. It's arguably an overdue feature, but it's hard to knock having more choice.
Apple Watch support is coming to IBM's enterprise apps
For the past year or so, Apple and IBM have collaborated on the MobileFirst for iOS project, a series of 22 enterprise-specific apps for iOS. These apps are designed to help service professionals better perform their duties but for some, constantly fishing out a phone or tablet to access those apps actually hindered their efforts. That's why Apple announced through its website today that three of these apps -- Hospital RN, Field Connect and Incident Aware -- will now work on the Apple Watch.
OneDrive for Android gets push notifications for shared items
Good news for those of you who use Microsoft's cloud storage service on Android. Earlier today, the OneDrive app received an update that now lets it send push notifications for shared files and folders to your device, making it easier to keep up with collaborators on the changes being made to documents. In addition to that, this new version also allows you to get custom pin code timeouts within the application, as well as adding thumbnails to OneDrive for Business files. These improvements should help make OneDrive for Android much better on Google's platform, something that's going to be appreciated by people who utilize Redmond's virtual locker regularly.
Push notifications come to Chrome and Chrome OS with battery life as a focus
The push notifications on our mobile devices aren't just for convenience's sake -- they let apps stay idle and conserve precious battery life. That would explain why Google Cloud Messaging is now integrated with all versions of Chrome and Chrome OS, then. While both platforms are usually online as a matter of course, GCM lets developers refresh a web app or extension only when there are noteworthy changes, such as new chats. All end users have to do is sign in. Developers will have to build the feature into their apps before anyone sees the benefits, but we wouldn't be surprised if our Chromebooks last for just a little bit longer in the near future.
This is the Modem World: Who's driving this thing?
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. I was never a fan of push notifications. The only alerts I wanted to get while my phone was sleeping included calls, texts and super-important reminders. I didn't need to know if someone liked the photo that I shared. I didn't want to be notified if I hadn't played a particular game in a few days. I'd get around to it. I'd find out on my own. But lately, mobile operating system makers are pushing the push, rallying to turn their home screens into notification centers that cull all your social, entertainment and organizational information to allegedly make our lives easier. And, to be fair, the more information we consume, the more home screens filled with notifications and push messages are beginning to make sense: show me what's up so I don't have to go find it. I get it now.
Wireless Sensor Tags alert you to movement and temperature changes, fit on your keyring
There's plenty of sensor gear around for hobbyists to play with, but not so many polished products for the monitoring-obsessed. Cao Gadgets is attempting to fill that niche with its functionally named Wireless Sensor Tags -- small devices which monitor movement and temperature, notifying you if anything's amiss. A magnetometer registers movement by changes in its orientation, and can inform you of door openings or similar disturbances, while the temperature triggers are based on upper or lower thresholds. The $15 sensors (or $12 if you want three or more) have a battery life that should last several years depending on their setup, but there is one catch -- you also need the Tag Manager hub ($50), which plugs into your router via Ethernet. It keeps in frequent contact with any subordinates in its 200-foot range, and if after several attempts it finds one MIA, a warning can be sent in case any of your home guards have walked or fallen asleep. The tags also have inbuilt beepers which can be pinged to track down any rogue possessions they're partnered with, like your keys. A lot of thought has been put into micromanaging the tags, which are customizable through web-based, Android or iOS apps, and will send out alerts via email, Twitter, or push notifications on slates and phones (text-to-speech is available if you're too lazy to read). If you're into your data, you can also access trigger statistics from the software, complete with graphs. The home monitoring kit is available now, and instead of crashing your browser with too many embeds, we've decided to point you to the source below for the half-dozen demo vids.
Local notification spam: Devs, please don't do that
Want to know a quick road to a bad app review from your users? Local notification spam. Frankly, we're sick of it. You spam us, we'll toss your app off our phones like *snap* that. Just because local notifications don't require opt-in doesn't mean that developers should abuse them for marketing. Here's a rule of thumb: if your notification doesn't deliver information that your user specifically requested, don't send it. This goes for push notifications as well. When users opt in, they're not opting in for spam. One of my fellow TUAW bloggers mentions, "Ambiance is probably one of the worst, even worse than Disney. Every few days it tells you that 10 new Ambiance Exclusive Sounds were just added to Ambiance! I don't care." He adds, "Oh, and spell check your notifications. Some of them are just embarrassing." This is not the user experience you should be aiming for. When your spam arrives in the middle of dinner or at 3 in the morning, you fail to win hearts, reviews, and customers. "I don't care if I have 9 tokens, I don't want to start your game with my friends now or...ever." Goodbye app. Listen, developers -- user experience draws customers, not pushy sales techniques. And don't try to weasel your way out of this by saying "iOS 6 will solve this problem." Spam notifications are wrong, regardless of whether users can switch on "do not disturb." Rationalizing like that is a cop-out that doesn't address the fundamental issue. Apple (at least theoretically) refuses applications that send ads through push notifications; you should follow that for user notifications as well. Stop the local notification spam and win the hearts, loyalty, and respect of your users. Thanks to all the dev buddies in #iphonedev on irc.freenode.net who gave feedback for this post.
Apple inadvertently teases iCloud.com banner notifications, pings your browser iOS 5-style
Apple already made clear that it was expanding iOS 5-like notifications to the desktop with OS X Mountain Lion, but it now looks as though that's extending to your web browser, too. Some visitors to iCloud.com have reported seeing notifications show at the top of the page that were both based on iOS' look and which were clearly not ready for prime time -- not unless Default Title for English is a new iCloud feature, at least. There's no indication of how advanced notifications might become in Apple's web portal, or if they'll transition from development cocoon to public butterfly at all. In the meantime, though, keep an eye on the top of your browser and let us know if you see anything leap out in the near future.
German appeals court lets Motorola to continue push notification patent against Apple
Germany has been the site of quite a few patent battles between Motorola and Apple in the past, and there's another crater on the landscape over there: One of the High Regional Courts in that country has made a decision on Motorola's ongoing challenge against Apple over push notifications, saying that a motion by Apple to try and suspend an injunction by Motorola attempting to keep Cupertino from using iCloud over there has been denied. In other words, Motorola is free to continue its battle to try and prevent Apple from using push notifications. Not great news for Apple, and not bad news for Motorola. Motorola is obviously trying to keep Apple from using iCloud and push notifications in Germany, claiming that it already owns the patent on that technology. FOSS Patents has a more complete rundown of what's going on if you're tracking the legal maneuvers.
KDDI putting ads in the notification bar on Android phones
Imagine you're walking down the block when, suddenly, your phone goes off. You take it out of your pocket, unlock that sucker and pull down the notification bar to reveal... an ad! The idea of such a travesty is enough to make our blood (which is primarily just liquid caffeine and taurine at this point) boil. Disturbingly enough though, this isn't some terrifying dystopian Android future -- this is the reality for at least some KDDI au customers. The Japanese carrier bundles the au one Market on many of its handsets as an alternative to the standard Google offering, and a recent update to the third party app outlet has it sending ads as push notifications to users. It's similar to Airpush, a service that offers both push notifications and ads as homescreen icons, which suffered a serious backlash shortly after launching. Of course, the carrier market can't be removed (at least not without a little bit of hackery) which makes this a practically unforgivable offense. Oh, and a quick message to any American carriers considering a similar move: don't even think about it.
Urban Airship delivers 5 billionth push notification
Urban Airship is a company that works with developers to power and send out push notifications through the various applications on your iPhone, and it recently announced that the five billionth push notification left the company's servers. The company has been sending push notifications since June 14, 2009 (when they were first opened up to developers by Apple in iOS), and it's now sending out 19 million push notifications a day. That's notes from games, to-do apps, Twitter apps, and all of the other various reasons that all of your apps have to pop that little window up. Urban Airship isn't the only company sending these things either -- there are many more notifications going out, through various servers and setups. It took Urban Airship just over a year to reach 1 billion notifications sent, and traffic is still climbing, too. And the inclusion of a notification management system in iOS 5 means that we'll see even bigger growth with this feature. And that's not all: Urban Airship also says that in-app purchases have been mushrooming as well, with 4.2 million so far in just its company, and even more through developers directly. iOS is really "pushing" new ways for developers and users to interact. Show full PR text Urban Airship Delivers 5 Billionth Mobile Push Notification Mobile services platform start-up also hires first CFO August 22, 2011-Portland, ORE- A short two years since Urban Airship formally launched, the company has established itself as a leader in its ability to navigate the complex, multifaceted explosive-growth industry of mobile apps. Push notifications-short, real-time alerts sent from within apps direct to users with the app installed on their device-are quickly joining email, social networking and SMS as a critical communications channel. Urban Airship sent the first push notification for any app in the Apple App Store on June 14, 2009. Since then, interest in push notifications has continued to gather steam: the Urban Airship messaging platform powers an average of 520 million push notifications per month, roughly 13,000 messages per minute. Successful brands onmobile are engaging their customers with compelling, relevant information that extends the utility of their app. Several brands, including ESPN, Yahoo, Slate, msnbc.com, dictionary.com, Groupon and LivingSocial use Push to deliver ongoing content such as advertisements, deals and special sales, news stories, podcasts and playlists, weather and traffic alerts, transactional receipts and sports scores. It took the company's thousands of app developers 472 days (1 year, 3 months, 15 days) to hit the 1 billion notification mark. As context, it took Twitter 3 years, 2 months and 1 day to hit 1 billion tweets. "I'm amazed at the growth we've seen in such a short time. Our team has delivered on the vision of a ubiquitous messaging layer for any connected device and we're just getting warmed up over here," says Scott Kveton, CEO of Urban Airship. "The market is rapidly adopting push notifications as a critical communications channel, and it's clear that mobile is changing everything." App Messaging by the Numbers · As of August 21, 2011, Urban Airship has delivered 5 billion push notifications. · Twenty thousand active iOS, BlackBerry and Android apps run on the Urban Airship mobile platform. · Year over year, the number of notifications Urban Airship has delivered increased from 834 million to 5 billion, a 500% growth rate. · Urban Airship delivers, on average, 520 million push notifications every month, 130 million per week, 19 million per day, roughly 13 thousand messages per minute. · In-App purchase continues to gain momentum. Thus far, Urban Airship has authenticated and enabled more than 4.2 million transactions. The company hits the 5 billion milestone as it embarks on the next phase of its growth. Dylan Anderson is joining the executive team at the company as CFO, VP of Finance and Corporate Secretary. He will oversee strategic growth and help drive capital needs as Urban Airship continues to make traction with significant larger-scale enterprise-scope partners. Anderson, a seasoned start-up veteran, has more than 18 years of financial and operational leadership in early-stage, innovative companies. He brings strong credentials in fund raising, M&A, and both pre- and post-IPO companies. Most recently he was CFO for Max-Viz, Inc., a VC–backed avionics technology company, where he led the finance, legal, HR and administrative teams. "Dylan is joining the team at the perfect time," says Kveton. "As the deals we are doing start to become more and more complex, we need someone intimately familiar with sophisticated revenue models and experience structuring full-service, SLA-level contracts." About Urban Airship Urban Airship powers the world's most successful mobile apps. Providing breakthrough technology, Urban Airship makes mobile marketing far more engaging, effective, and efficient. Top brands depend on Urban Airship to ensure their mobile app initiatives are scalable and profitable. Verizon, Dictionary.com, Groupon, Yahoo, and Warner Bros. are just a few of the thousands of companies that utilize Urban Airship's innovative platform to reach and engage targetaudiences and increase app revenue streams through push notification, rich messaging, in-app purchase, subscriptions and data tracking. The venture-backed company was recently named to Fast Company's list of the most innovative companies and to the Red Herring Top 100 North American Startups. Urban Airship is based in Portland, Oregon.
Apple to redesign iOS notification system
Cult of Mac is reporting that Apple is planning a revamp to its iOS notification system. iOS's current notification system, which is used for everything from text messages to push notifications, has remained virtually unchanged since the introduction of the original iPhone in 2007. The current notification system uses a series of pop-up bezels that are sometimes cramped with information or, worse, fail to display adequate information in an easy to view manner. A good example of this is when you receive two text messages: you are only notified that you have two texts, and you can't see the content of the text message without entering the Messages app. If Apple is indeed overhauling its notification system, it may not be doing it entirely using in-house resources. Sources are reporting that Apple may be purchasing (or may already have purchased) a small iOS development company that offers their own type of notification system through the App Store. While the company has not been specifically identified, Cult of Mac suggests it could be Appremix, which makes a very popular free app called Boxcar that allows users to receive push notifications from a variety of sources including Facebook, Twitter and Google Voice. You can read our review of Boxcar here. While iOS is largely considered the best mobile OS available, its notification system has been a point of criticism for a while. When the Palm Pre debuted with webOS, one of the strong points of its operating system was its banner notifications, which were designed by ex-Apple employee Rich Dellinger. Dellinger has since returned to Apple and may very well be leading the charge in revamping iOS's notification system.
Real-life mailbox mod tells your iPhone when you've got snail mail (video)
Do you spend your days desperately awaiting credit card bills, coupons to Pizza Hut, and reminders from your dentist's office that it's time for another cleaning? We've pared down our dependence on USPS, but for those who still get physical communications of note, Make has developed an Arduino-based mailbox mod that sends push notifications when the post is in. Back in 2005, we saw a clunky device called POSTIN that did much the same thing. Thankfully, this system doesn't require an extra gadget, instead it sends messages straight to your iPhone. The postal alert system uses a snap-action switch, connected to an Arduino sensor, to signal when your mailbox is opened. A piece of code waits for the signal and then requests a URL from a PHP-enabled server, pushing an alert to your cellphone using the Prowl iPhone app. Die-hard USPS fans can check out the instructional video after the jump.
Facebook for Android updated with chat and push notifications
Facebook chat addict? How about an Android phone owner? Well, if you answered "yes" to both of those questions, you're in luck this lovely evening. Closing the gap a bit between its Android and iOS offerings, Facebook has finally gone and added both chat and push notifications to version 1.5 of its Android app. It took us less than a minute to install the update from the Market, launch the app, and confirm that the chat button was indeed locked on the homescreen. Naturally, being the crazy tech writers that you know us to be, we sent a chat message to our friend Mike, and seconds later we got a push notification alerting us that he had responded with a clever "what's up?" How's that for killing two birds with one stone? We took some quick shots of the new features below, but you know you'd rather go try it out yourself. %Gallery-110583%
Microsoft: 15-app push notification limit isn't that big of a deal, could be increased in the future
So Microsoft sounded off this week on the row over the 15-app push notification limit that just recently came to light, and while they've confirmed that the limit is very real, they've done a good job busting some of the FUD, explaining why it's not a huge deal, and how the limit might change in the future. First off, apps that support push but don't have it enabled don't count toward the limit, so that means that you won't necessarily end up with crashy software as long it's all coded correctly to handle errors raised by the operating system. Secondly, built-in live tiles -- Outlook, People, and so on -- don't count toward the limit, so if you include those, you could actually end up with over 20 total live tiles (sounds excessive to us, but we're sure someone's going to want to push the envelope). And finally, Microsoft notes that they imposed the limit to best balance battery life, bandwidth consumption, and server load but that they had to effectively take a stab at the dark at how notifications would be used in practice; as they learn more and collect data, the limit could be raised. All in all, sounds like this limit is going to affect a tiny sliver of users -- and it'll affect even fewer as long as apps are coded properly.
Windows Phone 7 limits push notifications to 15 apps, 16th app is out of luck
We're going to cautiously hope that this is one of the many arbitrary limitations in Windows Phone 7 that Microsoft is planning to address in 2011 through updates, but in the meantime, here's a little public service announcement: you can only receive push notifications for up to 15 apps at a time. The 16th app will receive an error internally, which it needs to handle gracefully and in turn communicate to the user in some way to let them know that the new installation won't be able to update live until you uninstall another push-enabled app on the device. Now, realistically, this will be a barrier that many users will probably never hit -- Clarity Consulting notes that there aren't even 15 push-enabled apps in the Marketplace yet -- so if Microsoft's really slick about this, it could have the situation resolved before it's even a real problem. Fingers crossed.
Twitter for iOS gets push notifications, bug fixes, UI enhancements
There's an update to the official Twitter app for iOS. The new version 3.2 adds push notifications, so you can be pinged whenever someone mentions your Twitter handle, and also adds full support for iOS 4.2. On the iPad, there are UI improvements that include panel animation and a dismiss feature. You can manage saved searches, and media can now be viewed inline. The iPhone client provides additional Retina Display graphics, geotagging with just one tap, and improved display of shortened URLs. Twitter for iOS remains free -- you can download it right now on the App Store.
Google Voice for iPhone is finally out on the App Store
Turns out, when Apple announced it was a day you'd never forget, maybe it wasn't talking about The Beatles. Last we heard, Google Voice was expected on the App Store "soon" ... and now here it is. Apple has relented in the battle to allow Google Voice functionality on the iPhone, leaving Google open to release its own official app for the service. It looks just as good as you'd expect -- you can sign into the service from anywhere, access your voicemail or even send text messages or Google Voice calls, and get push notifications when you've got a new message incoming. Obviously, you'll need a Google Voice account to use the app, but those are free and easy enough to set up. The app is only available in the United States, according to its description, so those of you outside the country are out of luck (for now). It's also probably not compatible with the iPad -- the listing only says it's available for the iPhone so far. Our own Mike Rose & TJ Luoma [TJ comments below that he objects to the iPhone-only restriction on the app, as he would like to use it to send and receive SMS on the iPad or iPod touch] are jumping for joy on this one -- we've got a lot of TUAW Google Voice fans, and having this functionality available on the iPhone is a very nice bonus even with the third-party apps already on the market. What are you waiting for? It's here -- go download!
