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Posts tagged OS 4.0
iPhone Notifications: This Has Got To Stop!
Apr 30th
I, like many, were saddened to hear that absolutely no changes were announced to the iPhone’s notification system during the iPhone OS 4.0 keynote. Push notifications themselves are fantastic, and a great workaround for multitasking (despite OS 4.0 finally getting it) at the time. However now that I have just over a dozen push enabled applications, plus text messaging, I’m starting to realize that the honeymoon is quite over. The pop-over just doesn’t work. My complaints breakdown into three categories:
- Interruption
- Stacking
- Missed notifications
See what I mean, after the break.
Interruption
I’m right in the middle of playing a fast paced round of Bejeweled 2 when I get a notification from Facebook telling me that “Becky has written on my wall.” If I’m right in the middle of something intense, the notification may or may not pause my game (depending on how the developer set it). This leaves me quickly smashing the “Close” button to try and recoup my lost time. Alternatively, it could pop-over just a second before I tap where the “Open” button resides. My intention was to slide that blue jewel but instead, my progress is lost and I’m being taken away to Facebook.
Stacking
So I’m on the phone with my mother, we’re talking about my new apartment, the cat, and my plans to visit next. *boo doo doo!* I get a text message. *boo doo doo!* *boo doo doo!* *boo doo doo!* *boo doo doo!* *boo doo doo!* *boo doo doo!* *boo doo doo!* *boo doo doo!* *boo doo doo!* *boo doo doo!* *boo doo doo!* I get a dozen more messages from my brother, spamming my phone while I talk to our mother, on purpose (to annoy me). The prank continues until I cannot take it any longer, I must hang up the call and get back to her when my brother stops being a doofus.
I pull my phone from my face and see the text message alert. I hit close. The next alert pops up. I hit close again. Rinse and repeat until I’ve cleared all the messages. The pop-overs prevent me from clicking “End Call” for as long as I have a notification available. The same would be said for putting a call on hold, or changing to speakerphone. Talk about annoying.
Missed Notifications
This is probably the biggest point. Since notifications are one-off pop-overs, they get cleared if another notification pushes them out. If the notifications had a place to go, then this would be a problem. There are some notifications that I rely on that I’m missing because a robot on Twitter @replied me, pushing it away. Android has the shade, webOS has that pushy-screen thing. Never would I suggest that Apple blatantly copy one of these implementations, but iPhone users need something.
It is probably a pipe dream to hope that Apple will pull a fast on us before OS 4.0 is officially released. Currently, this notification Disastrophe is the only kink in my iPhone experience. I suppose there’s always next year, with OS 5.0…
WWDC Dates Announced
Apr 28th
The dates for WWDC have been officially announced: June 7-11, San Francisco, Moscone West. While most of us won’t be able to afford the cool $1,599 for tickets, hotel, and airfare, we can at least take the day off to watch the big keynote.
The subtitle, “The center of the app universe” suggests that this conference will be heavy on the iPad/iPhone announcements and light on the Mac (since there will be no Mac App Store…). Clearly iPhone OS 4.0 will be a big deal, but all the signs are pointing to the release of the next iPhone.
So set aside a few hundred bucks for the purchase of your new toy, mark your calendars and be ready for a flood of good news.
Jailbreak For iPhone 3G OS 4.0 Beta 1 Now Available (Read The Warnings)
Apr 15th
If you are among the iPhone users who upgraded to the beta 1 release of OS 4.0 only to lose your jailbreak you are now in luck. Redsn0w 0.9.5 beta has been released. As noted on th wiki though, this release is not really intended for end users.
This is a beta release of redsn0w targeted at developers of jailbroken apps. It uses the same pwnage2 DFU-mode exploit that we’ve been using since the 2.x days. Nothing new is revealed to Apple, and it’s not applicable to the iPad. Don’t go near it if you use yellowsn0w, ultrasn0w, or blacksn0w.
Please not that this beta is not meant for the average end-user. There are many things “broken” with jailbroken apps in the 4.0beta1 environment right now (that’s the real reason we showed “Veency” in the 4.0 jailbreak demo video last week, instead of say MobileTerminal.app, which is broken!). This beta redsn0w allows the developers behind those jailbroken apps (like MobileTerminal.app!) to fix their software before the general public gets iphoneOS 4.0.
Because it’s meant for JB app developers, this beta redsn0w does not perform hactivation. You’ll need a properly-registered developer UDID with Apple to get past the activation screen. For similar reasons, there is no Windows version of this beta redsn0w (since apps are developed on MacOSX). Please don’t pirate Apple software.
Anyone other than developers of jailbroken apps porting their software to 4.0beta1 should still be using our previously-released redsn0ws for 3.0 through 3.1.3
Is the exact warning heeded. If you decide to go against the warnings, keep in mind you may not have a functional device and if you were relying on a unlock, this will no longer be applicable. This release does not maintain any unlocks if you are using your device on an un-official carrier. You’ve been warned.
via GumBallTech
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