Tag Archives: notifications

FlagPaint Changes iOS Notification Banner Color Based On App Icon

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With iOS, Apple has made a habit of shipping basic-but-important features later than the competition; multi-tasking for example, was introduced years after the original iPhone (2007). But, while they do ship them late, they ship them right. This has been the case with so many features on iOS: Cut-copy-paste, multi-tasking, an app store, wireless syncing, OTA updates, iMessage. All introduced late, but implemented (arguably) better than the competition. Unfortunately, Notifications Center – which was lifted straight from Android – is far from ideal. While an improvement over the previous pop-up notifications, it has many shortcomings, particularly when compared to Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. However, the one small shortcoming we’ll be focusing on in this post is the lack of customization, especially for the Notification Banners that appear on the top when you receive a new notification. Read More

Get Expandable Weather Info In The Android Notification Area

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It’s been a while since we last caught hold of a noteworthy weather app for Android. How about something more minimalist, simple and ubiquitous, like a compact weather widget residing in your Android device’s notification shade? Developed by XDA member orbar, Notification Weather is a standalone notification panel weather widget for devices rocking Android 4.1 Jelly Bean or higher. Notification Widget might not be offering anything extra special as compared to its numerous counterparts, but provided it is a miniscule widget that doesn’t consume too much of your device’s resources is something that makes it an option worth considering. As soon as it is installed, the widget becomes visible within the notification drop-down, depicting current weather, as well as weather forecast of the following four days, all via relevant weather icons. Read More

SpeakMe Reads Notifications Aloud For Selected Android Apps

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How often do you find yourself in a situation where you have to repeatedly reach for your Android device just to see if the last notification was about an important email you were expecting or just another promo SMS by your mobile carrier? Wouldn't it be helpful if your device could itself read the content of the notification out loud, especially on occasions when you’re driving or too busy to be checking your device for notifications? While iOS users have been able to benefit from the likes of VSNotifications and TitleSpeak in this regard, it’s more of a surprise that there aren’t too many similar solutions available for Android users. However, SpeakMe, an absolutely free Android app, looks to turn things around, and that too, in some style. The app utilizes your preferred Text-To-Speech (TTS) engine, and puts you in control over the selection of apps for which you want it to speak notifications aloud. You can select as many apps as you like, and for each app, you have the option to specify a custom delay between the arrival of notifications and their narration. Read More

VSNotifications Reads Aloud iPhone Banner Notifications With Message Text

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Recently, we covered TitleSpeak, a Cydia tweak that lets users listen to the titles of incoming banner notifications, particularly handy for while you're driving or working. While we appreciated the tweak’s basic concept in our review, it was also pointed out that it could use a lot of improvements. The biggest problem was the tweak’s omnipresence, with no options to silence it without having to uninstall it altogether. The developer seems to have risen to the challenge, and has come up with VSNotifications. The new tweak deals with reading banner notifications out loud as well, but that is where the similarity with TitleSpeak ends. VSNotifications has a pretty comprehensive menu that has options to disable its text-to-speech announcements, set it to speak a notification’s content in addition to the title, ad add custom speech snippets to be spoken each time notification is read aloud, an app is launched or quit. You can even check how a custom text will sound by entering it in its testing field. Read More

TitleSpeak Reads iPhone Notification Banner Titles Out Loud

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There are a lot of iOS apps and Cydia tweaks that let you converse with your iDevice, but the reason for Siri’s popularity is its deep integration with stock apps and system features. This aspect of Apple’s talking virtual assistant has been further enhanced in the new iOS 6 update. Now, you can ask Siri to launch apps for you, without even having to look at the screen. However, a look at the new TitleSpeak Cydia tweak is sure to make you realize that the  iOS voice assistant still has quite a bit of space for improvement. The functionality offered by TitleSpeak might not fall under essentials, but it is handy enough to make one wonder why such a feature wasn't included as part of the OS in the first place. The tweak simply reads the title text of all incoming banner notifications out loud, but this small feature can prove to be quite a time-saver for when you're driving or your phone is out of your sight, and particularly useful for the visually impaired. Read More

Generate Your Own Expandable Notifications With Notif For Android Jelly Bean

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If you find conventional Android alarm clock, reminder, to-do list and task management apps out there a bit too arduous to work with, and are looking for a faster and simpler solution, here's an app that might spark your interest. Fresh to the market, Notif is a fully customizable notification generating app for Android Jelly Bean devices. The app lets you create personalized, expandable notifications in as many as four different ways. Designed to take advantage of JB’s rich notification feature, the app can be used to simultaneously add multiple custom notifications to the concerned area on your device in the form of a one-line alert or an expandable notification. In the latter’s case, you have the option to create a notification comprising a custom title and text message, a notification containing a photo, as well one containing a list of items. You have control over everything ranging from the notification icon to the nature (temporary, ongoing, importance-wise), type, number and content of notifications. Read More

Enjoy Jelly Bean Style Interactive Notifications On Any Android Device

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Back in July, we covered an extensive post comprising Android apps and mods that can help you enjoy the Jelly Bean makeover on almost any non-JB device. Ranging from boot animation to Holo homescreen replacement and live wallpapers to keyboard replacement, we presented you with, at least, one workable solution for each aspect that you can choose to get the JB-like goodies on your Android. As indicated at the end of that article, at the time of writing, there was no viable method to get your hands on the Jelly Bean style interactive notifications. However, now there is, and it comes in the form of called JellyBean Notifications+, a fully customizable Android tool that replaces your device’s notification panel with a JB-like notification panel to let you follow your social and RSS feeds, quick reply to your text messages, and dismiss unwanted notifications from within the notification dropdown. Right from specifying the display position of the notification icon on the panel to selecting items to include therein, the app supports enough customization to attract Froyo, Gingerbread and even ICS users. Detailed review of the app to follow. Read More

StatusBulletin Turns iPhone Status Bar Into A News Ticker For Notifications

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Apparently, a lot of developers over at the Cydia store aren’t big fans of the way notification banners are displayed in iOS. The main purpose of a banner is to notify users of a new change in an app, but without proving to be too much of a distraction. The stock banners in iOS are a bit too much in height for some people’s liking, and that’s why there are many jailbreak tweaks that focus on making the banners thinner and more pleasing to the eye. The latest to join the ranks of such tweaks is StatusBulletin. This Cydia tweak does make iOS notification banners thinner than before, but that’s not all it does. The best feature of StatusBulletin is that it gives your notifications the appearance of a news ticker. The banners will adhere to the status bar of your iPhone, and rather than ending the preview with the usual dots for long notifications, you will be shown the entire message thanks to the auto-scroll feature of StatusBulletin. Read More

Edit & Customize The Appearance Of Notification Banners On Your iPhone

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A lot of tweaks are released for Cydia users each week, and they vary in their functionality quite a bit. Having said that, you are sure to notice that usually there are a few tweaks that are pretty similar in features, and get released pretty close to each other. Today, the focus of the developers over at the Cydia store appears to be on notification banners for iOS. Thanks to MiniBanners and SimpleBanners, users with jailbroken iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices can now change iOS notifications in any way they want. In a way, MiniBanners gets rid of the banners completely and replaces them with a new and more compact notification style of its own. On the other hand, SimpleBanners endows users with more control over the way notification banners appear on iDevices, but still maintains the basic appearance of stock notifications. Read More

Turn Off Notifications For Individual Apps In Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

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Android 4.1 Jelly Bean’s hottest features are easily the new Google Now and the detailed notification drawer. For a summary of all the features that Jelly Bean has to offer, take a look at our overview of the new and improved features of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. These details, as welcomed as they are, and as excited as Android fans are about it, are not always best suited to everyday use if your phone shuffles through different hands - say, at the office or amongst friends. Being notified of an email is fine, but having the first few lines laid out in the notification menu, not so much - well, not for me, at least. Another prevalent issue with all versions preceding Jelly Bean was notifications popping up for apps that are irrelevant, or those that you just don’t need them at times. Unfortunately, Google offered no way to turn that off, except for removing the notification itself. With Jelly Bean, however, things have changed, and finally, you can stop these 'nuisances' from popping up without having to delete the app itself. Read More

Notification History Keeps A Log Of Android Alerts & Lets You Export Or Share Them

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If you have plenty of apps installed on your Android, chances are that you might often find yourself swarmed by all sorts of notifications, making it difficult to keep a close tab on the most important ones. What’s even worse is that you can so easily miss out on some attention-demanding notifications while looking to dismiss a complete batch of spammy ones once and for all. Surely, there must be some way to keep track of all your previous notifications? Fresh to the Google Play Store, Notification History is a free Android app that, as its name implies, can maintain a detailed log of your Android’s status bar notifications. The app keeps accumulating each and every notification under its respective app’s title, and puts you in control of the duration for which you wish to retain the record of a particular app. Alongside each notification, it lets you view the brief objective of the alert. That’s not all; once you’ve identified the apps responsible for forwarding spam or ad-oriented notifications, you can easily uninstall them right from within the app. Need to export your Android’s notification history and share it via mail or social networks? Notification History is at your service, again. Read More

Remove Or Turn Off Facebook Notifications Directly From Drop Down

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Facebook had the early-mover advantage when it comes to social networks, and although there were the likes of Orkut and Hi5 already in the market, the concept that the Paulo Alto-based giant brought to the market was entirely fresh and something that users took a liking to immediately. Despite its massive popularity, there were many qualms about a lot of Facebook’s offerings, privacy (or lack thereof) being the biggest among them. That aside, there were (and still are) the changes that are forced on users (Timeline, anyone?), and those that go unannounced altogether, until the blogosphere raises hue and cry over them. However, that doesn’t imply that all Facebook changes are evil, and some new ”features” can turn out really useful, too. One such unnoticed feature has been the ability to dismiss, remove and even turn off notifications from a certain user or application, right from within the notification drop down! Read More

NCPad Stretches iPad Banner Notifications To The Entire Width Of The Screen [Cydia]

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Just a few days ago, we covered a tweak named Small Banners (review) that trimmed down the iOS notification banners to make everything look more compact. On an iPad, however, you might not need that functionality, owing to its bigger screen size. In fact, the situation gets completely reversed when it comes to an iPad. You might want bigger notifications on your iOS tablet, as the stock banner layout leaves room on either side of your screen, which might appear a bit crude to some users. NCPad rectifies this situation by changing the length of notification banners on your iPad to match the width of the screen (both in landscape and portrait modes). The height of the banners remains unchanged, but they are just enhanced in length. So, looking to optimize banner notification on iPad? Head past the break. Read More

SmallBanners Slims Down iOS Notification Banners To The Size Of The Status Bar [Cydia]

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It is not only Apple that can pay attention to even the most minor iOS details; the developers over in the Cydia store can do that as well, and pretty reasonably. iOS is a pretty good-looking platform, but in some cases, these good looks can lead to inconvenience for users. Take the banner notifications as an example. Although the banners look really sleek, many people think that they take up too much unnecessary space and could have been way more compact than they currently are. In any case, most iOS users just think of notifications as a means of navigating quickly to whichever app the notification belongs to. Not many people actually read the notifications. So, if you are one of those people who don’t like the layout and size of banner notifications, SmallBanners can make things perfect for you. This newly-released Cydia tweak automatically trims down all banner notifications, restricting their height to that of the status bar. You will still be able to see all the essential information in each banner, but the excess data is taken away. Read More

toastr: Get Important Reminders via Custom Toast Notifications Upon Unlocking Your Android Device

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It’s amazing as to how a simple little mobile app can prove to be a lifesaver under various circumstances. Take toastr for instance. This extremely lightweight Android app lets users define a custom text message that will automatically show up as a toast notification for a set duration whenever you unlock your device. What this means is that you’ll never miss out an important reminder again in a hurry, since the message itself will always be right before your eyes each time you unlock your phone. Whether it’s an important task related to the mobile device itself, or just a routine matter that you want to be reminded of at frequent intervals, you can trust toastr to be your companion in any situation. Imagine the convenience of receiving the most important notifications right on your Android device’s homescreen without having to set up multiple alarms or resorting to various to-do managers. Details to follow. Read More

DeskNotifier Forwards Notifications From All Android Apps To Your PC

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Android apps that support pushing your mobile notifications straight to your computer are a dime a dozen in the Google Play Store. However, if most of the already tried-and-tested ones left you yearning for a simple and more comprehensive solution, you should consider giving DeskNotifier a try. Developed by XDA Member greenday123, DeskNotifier is a lightweight, yet handy app that pushes almost all types of Android notifications to your PC over Wi-Fi as well as USB connections. Be it the missed calls, new next messages, updates from the Google Play Store, or any notifications from various apps, DeskNotifier supports pushing all of them straight to your Windows-based computer via translucent popup messages. In addition, it also lets you send text messages to desired contacts right from your desktop. Read More

NotiQuiet Automatically Disables All Notifications While You’re Using A Particular App [Cydia]

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There are Cydia tweaks that turn off iOS notifications via a single Notification Center toggle, like DoNotDisturb, and then there are those that disable the Notification Center as soon as you launch an app that runs in full screen mode. While those tweaks are certainly useful in their own right, they are not as useful and customizable as the newly released NotiQuiet. This Cydia tweak doesn’t rely on a fixed parameter (like entering full screen mode) to disable notifications, nor does it act as a universal notification blocker. With NotiQuiet, the user gets the freedom to define the apps for which all iOS notifications need to be silenced; the tweak does so automatically, whenever said apps are running. You can select any app, system or third-party, and the tweak makes sure you aren't disturbed by any notification while using the chosen apps. If you are playing a game on your iPhone, and a new notification appears, your progress might be hampered, or the app might slow down. That's a situation that can be avoided thanks to NotiQuiet. Read More

Screen junkE: Android Lock Screen App With A Built-In News Reader

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Looking to bring some much-needed flair and functionality to your Android device's lockscreen? Try Screen junkE – a multifunctional, slider-based custom Android lockscreen replacement app. Through a well-crafted & sleek UI, Screen junkE keeps you apprised of the total number of notifications for unattended text messages and email, and missed calls. In addition, it lets you directly unlock to your caller, messaging or mailing app right from the lockscreen. For this, all you need to do is move the slider to the icon of any one of the supported categories, and you’re ready to check your missed calls, text messages, and emails. However, the slider constitutes just a small portion of the entire lockscreen. Above the slider, you’re presented with the slideshow of the image thumbnails fetched from some of the latest news feeds of the hour pertaining to various news categories or topics. Tap the thumbnail, and you’re ready to explore the news details, or bookmark it to read it later. Read More

DoNotDisturb: Turn Off All iOS Alerts & Banners From Notification Center [Cydia]

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A few days back, we covered a Windows Phone 7 Homebrew named Snotify. That app allowed users to silence the notifications on their WP7 device with a few toggle buttons. It doesn’t happen too often, but an iOS utility seems to have followed the Mango app’s example. The Cydia tweak is named DoNotDisturb, and is basically a Notification Center widget that includes a single toggle. If you switch DoNotDisturb on, all notifications on your device are immediately turned off. This doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to see notifications at all - they will still be there in the Notification Center - but all pop-ups and banners will be killed for as long as the tweak is activated. Sound like something you would want to use? Read on for details. Read More

Snotify: Turn Off SMS, Email & Toast Notifications On WP7 [Homebrew]

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If Microsoft allows all the stuff from Bazaar into the Marketplace, Windows Phone 7 can become a true competitor of other smartphone platforms. For now, if you tell someone about your Mango phone, they are mostly likely to say something like “isn’t that the phone in which you can’t even copy/ paste properly?” Although WP7 has come a long way since the copy/ paste update fixed that issue, there are still a lot of basic functionalities that are missing. Take a look at notifications, for an example - there is no way you can turn off notifications on your phone, and until recently, there wasn’t even any Homebrew app available for that. Not anymore, as Snotify is here. This homebrew brings the much-needed function of letting users turn off notification for SMS, email and other apps if you have root access on your device. Even a Homebrew with the ability to silence all notifications at once would have been pretty useful for most users, but Snotify goes a step ahead and adds the option to let users choose the individual alert types that they want to silence. Sounds cool? Read on for details. Read More