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WWDC 2011: iOS 5 to trump Android, webOS with better notifications, BlackBerry-like messaging?


Depicted above: Notifications via Cydia tweak MobileNotifier

This is my next’s Joshua Topolsky (a former Engadget editor-in-chief) has some late rumors from a source related to iOS 5. He says iOS 5 will introduce a new notifications bar at the top of the screen which may or may not look like an imaged leaked earlier today. “Messages will appear and then slide back up in a unobtrusive manner, similar to webOS”, the author writes.

Topolsky also describes a dedicated notifications window and – yes, widgets. The lock screen will also provide access to notifications “through a pulldown window which you reach by swiping at the top of the screen downward… just like Android”, Topolsky writes. The notifications screen will also provide access to web widgets such as weather and stocks. As for the BlackBerry-style messaging and widgets…

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The source claims that “Apple is readying it’s own MMS / SMS protocol which will be a native part of the phone” and have the ability to “automatically identify iOS users and route the message accordingly”, which is a bit murky, but that’s what the source said. The lock screen is apparently undergoing a major face-lift as well. “There will now be notifications shown on this screen with a small icon to the left of each notification — you can drag that icon as you would the unlock slider and you’ll be taken directly to the app itself (similar to TouchWiz for Android). You won’t get weather or stock widgets here, only notifications — and it is not clear if upcoming calendar events or the like will be represented” the story has it.

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