notifications

Imagine you're surfing the Web or playing Temple Run 2 for the umpteenth time. Sometimes in life there are things that deserve full concentration without the needless distractions of phone calls and text messages or anything of that sort. Unfortunately for Android users, a disruptive phone call can mean the difference between life and death (in a game).

Small Call by Apps Falyf thinks it has the solution. The app displays incoming phone calls and texts in a small pop-up widget on your phone instead of interrupting your current activity.

Having a feature like this while using GPS, for … Read more

Google is getting closer to building Google Now notifications into Chrome, marrying the anticipatory alert system of Android with its browser.

Yesterday, developers committed a patch with an "initial implementation of Google Now notifications."

According to the code, the patch means that "The Google Now event page gets Google Now cards from the server and shows them as Chrome notifications. The service performs periodic updating of Google Now cards."

Google's work to build Google Now into Chrome emerged in December. Although Android is Google's highest-profile operating system project, Google Now would ensure Chrome OS … Read more

I share a lot of calendars with friends and family members using Apple's iCloud service. Every time someone adds an event to a shared calendar, I am bombarded with alerts across multiple iOS and OS X devices. It can get annoying. I don't so much mind the alerts on my iOS device, but I do mind them on OS X. Then recently, I stumbled upon the seemingly hidden preference to turn off shared calendar alerts in iCal. Here's where you can find it:

Internet-connected phones and tablets are nearly everywhere, often ringing and chirping at the wrong time and in the wrong place.

Many e-mail and other messaging apps are set to send audible alerts by default. Not only can these unnecessary alerts be a major annoyance, they also use up some of the device's battery power each time they wake the machine from sleep mode.

In just a few steps you can silence some or all notifications and customize the way your device responds to alerts.

Of course, the simplest way to prevent your phone from ringing is to press its … Read more

It appears Windows Phone 8 could eventually get a notification center similar to the ones found on the iPhone and on Android smartphones.

A Microsoft executive conceded that the company "ran out of time" when putting together the latest version of its mobile operating system, but said that such a feature was of great interest and something that is "very very important to me," The Verge reported.

The notification center, which appears as a pull-down menu on iOS and Android, gives apps a central location to alert users about new software updates, messages, or other information. … Read more

Facebook is reminding developers that a spammy app is an ignored app. The social network announced a change in its developer guidelines today to make sure the number of notifications app developers send to app users stay at a minimum.

The two new guidelines -- not sending notifications to inactive users and maintaining a 17 percent click-to-impression ratio -- go into effect on November 9.

This means apps can only send notifications to users who have visited their apps within 28 days and apps sending a lot of notifications need to make sure that users are clicking the notifications they … Read more

Acquired by Microsoft in October 2011, Skype has been hard at work for several months integrating the communication software with the latest version of Windows. Today the company announced that Skype for Windows 8 will be available Friday and on new Windows 8 devices; you can download it from the Windows store.

Skype has received a complete makeover, with features that take advantage of both the Windows 8 Start menu and the use of a touch screen. You'll be able to log in using any of your Microsoft accounts (such as Hotmail, Messenger, SkyDrive, Windows Phone, Xbox Live, Skype, … Read more

When you run a script or command in the OS X terminal, it can be useful to have some indication for when it is completed, especially if the script is a lengthy process you might not wish to monitor at all times. Unfortunately when a script or command finishes running, the Terminal will drop you to the command line again, without any notice to you. However, if needed, you can set up the system to run commands so it does offer some notification.

System alerts The first option is to have the terminal invoke the system alert after the command … Read more