New notifications for Apple need to happen. Yesterday.

Gaming has been prevalent on the iOS platform since Apple created the [Draconian] application process and, thus, the App Store. However, the most annoying part of gaming on the iOS platform, while using an iPhone, is the notification system that pops up an annoying box which you must act on upon view. A box that pops up dead center on your screen. A box that you cannot ignore. At all. The most recent arrival of the Netflix application stresses exactly how much Apple needs to revamp their notification system. Yesterday.

Imagine, you're watching a film or TV show - trying to catch up on a missed episode of The Office or sneaking in a little Paul Blart: Mall Cop while on lunch break at work - and right as you're in the middle of a good scene, someone sends you a text message. What is Apple's answer for this? Pop up a notification in the middle of your screen. You have no choice but to hit "Close", which will promptly close the pop-up, or "View", which will exit your current app (or, rather, switch - for those iOS 4-compatible apps) and enter into your Messages app. Currently, Netflix is not iOS4-compatible. You know what that means? Yup, you guessed it. You will have to restart the entire process all over again and sift through a slew of menu options because someone text you. Can you get upset at the person who sent you a message and expect them to know you were sneaking in a little TV time on your phone while on lunch break (or maybe while actually working, but don't worry, your secret is safe)? Sure. But that's not something Apple can help with. What can Apple help with, you ask? They can fix their notification system to something similar to Android or even webOS. Google and Palm get it. Why can't Apple? Why are they holding onto this cumbersome, annoying notification process? Who knows. What's definite is the consensus is growing against this system. Sure, we want to know who's texting us or emailing us or even leaving us comments on Facebook. What we don't want is to have another app intruded upon because Apple can't figure out a way to devise a method simliar to Google or Palm and have those notifications come up in a little bit of a less conspicuous way. We get it. Maybe soon, Apple will get it too.