Notifications for the iPhone just got better if you Jailbreak

One of the things I don’t like about the iPhone is the notification system that is unlike anything I have ever used before. It always made me wonder how an OS that was this easy to use could not come up with a better way to let you know about new text messages, emails, missed calls, etc. I personally like the Android system, but that is just my own personal preference.

Developer Peter Hajas took matters into his own hands and built his interpretation of what Apples notification system should look like. And I like his interpretation so far! Peter has been working with Kyle Adams on the graphics side of MobileNotifier and both have made a lot of changes in this Beta 3 release that he says is good enough for general use:

– New alerts

– AlertDashboard

– Lockscreen View

– Full push notification support

– Completely reworked MNAlertManager, considerably more intelligent

– Time encoding support with each alert

– Numerous usability improvements

– Bug fixes relating to 3.x compatibility, alert display and other internal aspects of the utility

– and more! The commit log on GitHub is the best place to see all the iterative changes.

I have just downloaded it and will leave some comments later about any issues I have or that it is just as bad ass as it looks. Again this is just for iPhones that are Jailbroken and then all you need to do is head on over to Cydia, add his repo:

Repo address is http://phajas.xen.prgmr.com/repo

And download MobileNotifier for yourself. Check it out and let us know what your opinions are as well.

UPDATE: One issue I do have is that MobileNotifier will bypass the lock screen when touched. The Notification displays, touch the Notification and you get a “Later” (watch the video) and “Open” popup, and touching the “Open” will bypass the swipe unlock and take you right to messages. Not sure how big a deal this is to me, but some may have issue with it.

If you leave the message on your locked screen, unlock it as always using the swipe unlock, the message will stay at the top of the window and allow you as demonstrated to swipe through menus, etc. Hitting Later will discontinue the popup which I kind of thought was a bummer. When your device goes back into the lock screen however, the MobileNotifier popup will again be displayed which is pretty cool, but it only displays a generic MobileNotifier alert and not your wife’s text instructing you to pick up some damn milk on the way home because she hates to get shocked by the metal doors to the cooler. Even though Peter has helped me with the Notifications issue, I doubt there is much he could do about me having to go to Wal-Mart…again.

Video goodness:

[source: 9to5 Mac]