I like this idea, it's a bit like GRiP, but still different enough. Is this purely a concept, or are you working on making this a reality?

That's ok for some apps, but others can't give as much space. Besides, it'd be annoying to have the window resize all the time, and it would lag a lot of the apps.

For me, it'd be enough if an icon was added to the Status Bar, or a less intrusive solution, like GRiP

This could work as a grip theme or possibly another UI option to choose between this or the current less obtrusive grip notifications. You should email kennytm to find out more about it. Its sounds like a great idea to me.

yup! i'd love to have this

interesting concept...maybe GriP can be changed to work like this...i talked to kennytm about Pre/android notifications and he seemed interested...contact him!

If you want, we can try to make this with GRiP, I haven't done any GRiP themes yet, but what I've read on the GoogleCode page, it isn't hard.

The status bar wouldn't drop though.

Anyway, if you are interested, PM me

thats why GRiP is nice, because it sits ontop, not instead of

I get what you guys are saying about GRiP, but I dont like it because it it mainly not suited for the iPhone. Popups work on the desktop because you have a large canvas for things to happen. On a desktop, apps like growl pop on the side and you can keep working or chatting or doing what ever you wanted before the popup came. Badges work here to as you can see the badging while you work

I wouldn't midn this, perhaps if at first you got a notification in the bar and then could drag it  down to see more a bit like on Android but not jerky and crap like on android .

Exactly! But Android is not prominent enough and not intuitive enough. This is the problem with status bar messages. My notifications still allow anyone to get the message that is coming through without having to pull down or touch anywhing. But for other users can expand or close the notifications giving more flexibility.

The best form of notification are the ones which simply appear above the UI (ie. Growl) or in a place where you never interact with the UI (ie. StatusNotifier)

Not exactly. The best for of notification needs 3 things need to happen

1- The user needs to know that something is happening, and it needs to draw his or her attention
Current notifications popup and are very prominent to the user. Status bar notification like android are not prominent enough. Blackberry fails at this as well as it only provide a ring or a buzz. This does however work as a reminder

2- The user needs to receive the information and know what it is alerting you of
Current notifications are good at this as well. Mine are better as they also provide an icon as a visual representation. Andoird fails at this to a certain degree and so does blackberry as the user does not always know specifically what is happening

3- The user needs to choose respond by either ignoring the message, asking for more information, or responding.
Here is where the current setup fails. The iPhone forces you to respond by either leaving your current task or ignoring the message.

My setup allows the user to respond when ready while still displaying a very prominent notification system. Like android, it allows the user to get more info and to see multiple alerts, or see less information. This allows the user to respond when they want to and to what they want to. Notifications will stay with the user until dismissed. The user can push up the status bar if he wants to and when a new message comes in, he gets old popups as well

Also, it allows for messages that the user previously couldn't get. Before, mail was limited to badges only as a popup meant the user would have to stop what he was doing to read or ignore the email message. Now the user can just get a "you got mail" popup and can dismiss it, read the email, or keep it as a reminder. The same for current track notifications. The user can easily dismiss the notification but now users who want to know what is playing can read the message and leave it, or change the track if they want to

It's not like certain notifications can't be turned off in the settings

Last edited by jozen5555 (Jun 1, 2009 5:25 pm)

Sorry, a fourth thing

4- Should the user choose not to respond right way, they need to be reminded that they have something to attend to. OR, If the user misses the initial notification, he needs to know something happened while he was gone.
If the user misses a buzz or a ring, he needs to know that there was a message. This is why blackberry fails

If the users dismisses the iPhone notification, he is no longer reminded. It is as if he has finished. But often times the user is just plain busy and wants to read the message later. The biggest problem is lets say the user is reading email and a text comes in. He obviously wants to finish the message, but the iPhone doesn't know that. The user taps "Ignore" and thats all the phone does. it no longer shows an application badge and it no longer tells you something is happening.

For Android I am guessing as I haven't used it before. From the looks of it, it seems the user get the initial message (maybe a buzz or a ring) and then can see the image in the status bar. He can then pull down the bar and read the message (or a preview, I forget) and follow a link to the texting or IM app. This allows the user to respond when ready and I believe the user can delete messages from the pulldown

For mine, The user gets the message. It's pretty obvious when it comes from the slide down app and with the text preview and the icon its pretty clear what the message is saying. The user is then, like the current iPhone setup given option to accept/follow the message (tap) delete/ignore (swipe). But unlike the iPhone, the user is given a third option. To simply continue what he is doing until he is ready to accept of ignore the message. The pop then stays on screen to serve as a reminder to the user who may forget that he has not done anything to the message. This third option is what the iPhone is lacking and is perhaps the most important

So, I decided to take this a little bit further and started coding the theme.

Here's an app that shows how it would look.

Right now, it doesn't disappear automatically, and everything is ugly squares, but it's working

Basically, you have to click the button in the middle, which will spawn a black box, you click the black box and it will grow bigger.

Black Box: App Icon (it's 29x29 because that's what GRiP's API returns)
White Box: That represents the size of the window, it will be transparent.
Blue Box: That will be the background image.
Labels are quite self-explaining.

It's an IPA and it's signed, just install through iTunes.
Here's the link:
http://public.epelaez.net/iPhone/apps/GRiP/GRiP.ipa

My idea was to make the first notification really small, so it only shows the app icon, if you care about it, and touch it, it will show the whole thing, if you click the icon, it would take you to the program, or you can close it with a little "x" on the right(which I didn't implement).

I think that with some nice images, it would look sexy.

What do you guys think?

Its a really nice Idea and your concept is very well made - however, I think its a bit too intrusive. I think if this is going to happen, it would be nice to double click the home button and you will be able to browse latest texts, now playing, RSS feeds - latest news etc etc...A bit like SBSettings does already - except, you know...legally. lol

[edit:] You know what I mean when I said 'Like SBSettings does' - I know you cant do these things in SBSettings, but it would be nice if notifications happened in this sort of manner..You know what I mean lol

Last edited by iPhaze (Jun 2, 2009 1:22 am)

Well, there's another kind of GRiP themes that allow me to pretty much do whatever I want. Maybe I can make it to save the info, and put an icon in the statusbar.

Then you go to SBSettings, click a toggle, and it would show all the pending alerts, how does that sound?

jozen5555 wrote:

4- Should the user choose not to respond right way, they need to be reminded that they have something to attend to

If the users dismisses the iPhone notification, he is no longer reminded. It is as if he has finished. But often times the user is just plain busy and wants to read the message later. The biggest problem is lets say the user is reading email and a text comes in. He obviously wants to finish the message, but the iPhone doesn't know that. The user taps "Ignore" and thats all the phone does. it no longer shows an application badge and it no longer tells you something is happening.

For Android I am guessing as I haven't used it before. From the looks of it, it seems the user get the initial message (maybe a buzz or a ring) and then can see the image in the status bar. He can then pull down the bar and read the message (or a preview, I forget) and follow a link to the texting or IM app. This allows the user to respond when ready and I believe the user can delete messages from the pulldown[/i]

About this in particular:

iRealSMS just came out with an update TODAY that does exactly this and it does it suprisingly well. It is inside the "QuickReply" feature. You get a popup and can close or reply. It's also been revamped to look a lot nicer too. But the real awesome part is now you can press the home button and/or the status bar to hide the QuickReply interface and it tucks away into the status bar in the form of an icon next to your battery. Then at any time you can tap the status bar anywhere to bring the interface right backup exactly where you left off. While this is happening, SBSettings doesn't work though unfortunately, but once you dismiss it, SBS is usable again. I noticed when I updated, it installed "Web View Controller". That might be the trick?

It has a fully functional trial peiod if you don't have it and just wanna check it out. They even have a version called "iRealQuickSMS (notice the added word Quick). This version only adds QuickReply and QuickSend (wont explain QS here, but it's nifty) all while letting you use your stock SMS app to manage your SMS the normal way (no extra app).

EDIT
Just found this pretty descriptive Slideshow that may give you an idea of it, but you should really try it anyway.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31698338@N … 7248/show/

Last edited by Vibe69 (Jun 2, 2009 5:08 pm)