Notification Center

Sometimes you're in the middle of reading something on the iPhone and an incoming banner notification suddenly covers up the top of the screen. This can be irritating if the content is important or you're doing something else that requires more display real estate. If you're iPhone is jailbroken, now you can install CoverMeNot to improve these banner notifications.

What CoverMeNot does is simple but effective. The images above illustrate what happens when the tweak is installed and a notification banner appears. The status bar at the top of the screen is automatically made wider to match the size of the notification banner.

One of the cool features coming to iOS 6 this fall is a Twitter widget for the Notification Center. Users can also expect a similar Facebook widget when the service is fully integrated into the iOS system with version 6. In the meantime, it's possible to install the Twitter widget right now on jailbroken devices.

After jailbreaking your iOS 5 device, you can find the iOS 6 Twitter Widget in Cydia under Addons (Notification Center). The package comes to us free from developer Mathieu Hendey on the BigBoss repository. Once installed, the add on can be activated by navigating to Settings -> Notification Center -> Twitter Widget -> ON.

Running an app full screen on your iPhone can be great, until you accidentally swipe down from the top of the screen and bring up Notification Center. Interruptions like this can now be prevented thanks to a jailbreak tweak called DisableNC Switch.

The tweak is simple; once installed it adds a toggle switch under Settings -> DisableNC Switch which will turn off the Notification Center switch when full screen apps are active. Even though the switch will appear, the full Notification Center is prevented from covering up the screen.

IntelliscreenX has arrived to improve iOS 5 Notification Center and add access to notifications, widgets, emails and more directly from the lock screen. Intelliborn has launched the app in a public beta phase with a free trial. When the final version is released the software package will cost $9.99.

Those upgrading to IntelliscreenX from a previous version will only pay $7.99, and if you've purchased Intelliscreen after 9/20 you get the upgrade for free. Intelliscreen is routinely cited as one of the big reasons to jailbreak your iPhone, because it puts important information at your fingertips right from the lock screen.

Every now and then you wish for something and you get it. That's essentially what is about to happen for me and a whole host of others who have been wanting more from iOS 5's Notification Center. It was just days ago that I wrote about Apple's biggest blunders with Notification Center and a few days later the developers at Intelliborn, developers of the popular Intelliscreen jailbreak app, have announced their latest app, IntelliscreenX. IntelliscreenX, as it turns out, is here to make Notification Center what it should have been in the first place.

Like it's predecessor in Intelliscreen, IntelliscreenX's main purpose to to allow you to put all sorts of useful information on your lock screen. However, this latest incarnation does so by leveraging Apple's already excellent Notification Center, first and foremost by allowing Notification Center to be seen where it is most useful.

Let me start by saying that none of the items mentioned in this list are new discoveries. All of the gripes below could have been noted months ago, after Apple first introduced iOS 5. If not then, it could have been revealed by reading the numerous descriptions of Notification Center from IOS developers and other users that installed one of iOS 5's many beta versions. Instead, I plodded along ignorantly, happily enjoying the world of jailbroken notification handling (via programs such as LockInfo and Intelliscreen), assuming that when Apple released iOS 5, I'd have all the intuitive, useful goodness I'd been enjoying for so long built right in. Boy, was I wrong.

Apple seems to have taken a good idea and executed it surprisingly poorly. Concepts which seem as though they'd be simple common sense are simply ignored. Instead of feeling complete, the Notification Center implementation seems rushed, with obvious needs overlooked.

While there are other complaints, here are what I consider to be the 5 biggest oversights with the new iOS 5 Notification Center.

Apple plans to release the iOS 5 Notification Center this fall, which makes it possible to easily access information from the lock screen or anytime with a simple gesture on the task bar. Fortunately for those who have already jailbroken their iOS devices similar functionality already exists. All it takes is a properly installed and configured tweak called LockInfo.

Although LockInfo costs $7.99, the app is worth the price for the new features it makes possible right now. It also comes with a 14-day free trial so you don't have to commit before trying out the app. If you don't think it's worth the money Cydia can easily remove LockInfo before or after the free trial ends. To install and configure LockInfo follow these steps: