Notification Center

Apple Watch: new details about battery life, apps, features and more emerge

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple has managed to improve the battery life of the Apple Watch to support 5 hours of heavy application use, reports 9to5Mac. Ahead of Monday's event, the site has heard this and other previously unknown details from sources who have hands-on experience with the wearable.

The improvement in battery life should ensure that the Watch will last a full day with mixed heavy and passive use. However, the site makes it clear that users will still need to charge the device every night, as the battery is not strong enough to last a full second day without renewal.

Breaking brings an RSS feed reader widget to Notification Center on iOS and OS X

Lory Gil ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

If you are a news junkie, you probably have all sorts of alerts set up to let you know the moment a story breaks. Wouldn’t it be nice if your RSS feeds were available right in the Today view of Notification Center?

Breaking – News in your Today tab populates your favorite news feeds in Notification Center for iOS and OS X, so you access stories you want to read without having to open a special app for it. All of your news is right in front of you, available with one swipe or click.

How to invoke a specific Notification Center View using keyboard shortcuts on Mac

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

Earlier this week, I showed you how to mate Notification Center to a keyboard shortcut. But wouldn't it be cool if you could designate which View you'd like to see when invoking Notification Center from a keyboard shortcut? In this tutorial, I'll show you how to open directly to the Today View or the Notifications View using keyboard shortcuts.

How to assign a keyboard shortcut to Notification Center on Mac

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated August 23, 2024

It might seem fairly obvious, but it might be a good idea to assign a keyboard shortcut to Notification Center on the Mac. Perhaps you already have, or maybe you still haven't. I hadn't, at least not up until a few days ago when a reader suggested that I do so, and I honestly can't come up with a reason as to why I waited so long. I think it's because I just never thought about doing it.

Assigning Notification Center to a keyboard shortcut just makes sense. It especially makes sense if you use a keyboard and mouse combination on your Mac, instead of a trackpad. Granted, MacBook users might not be so easily convinced, because invoking Notification Center can be accomplished via an effortless two-finger swipe on the trackpad.

But if you're working on an iMac, or if you're using a traditional mouse and keyboard combination with your MacBook, as I am, then I definitely recommend that you follow this uber-simple tip.

How to add more Notification Center widgets on Mac

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated February 11, 2020

Like its iOS counterpart, Notification Center for Mac comes bundled with several stock Today widgets to get you started. However, it's possible to add third-party widgets to Notification Center's Today View by means of the Mac App Store and via direct download. Inside, we'll highlight how to add new widgets to Notification Center along with several widget recommendations.

DathBanners Lite brings app-specific colors to notification banners

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

DathBanners Lite is an innovative jailbreak tweak that just landed on the Cydia store for free. It's a tweak that takes the average color of the app icon responsible for the banner notification and applies it to the background of the banner. If you're looking to spice up the look of incoming banner notifications, then DathBanners is your ticket towards doing so.

SimpleCenters: customize Control Center and Notification Center

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated June 12, 2018

SimpleCenters is a $1.00 jailbreak tweak that brings tons of customization options to both Notification Center and Control Center. The tweak features a bevy of switches in its preferences that allow you to toggle on or off nearly every facet of both overlays.

This widget adds a phone dialer to Notification Center

Lory Gil ∙ Updated May 17, 2018

There are dozens of apps out there that offer a streamlined interface so you can find contacts and make phone calls quickly and easily, but how many can you count will put a widget on your Lock screen so you can make phone calls in Notification Center?

YoBu is a Notification Center extension that allows you to search for contacts by name or number, and then call them right from the Today view on your Lock screen.

1SecMoney review: record income and expenses right from Notification Center

Lory Gil ∙ Updated May 17, 2018

How people keep track of finances is a personal preference. Some like complex, feature rich programs that allow them to connect and follow all of their income and expenses meticulously. Others are happy with simplicity.

1SecMoney is a simple finance-tracking app that lets you add daily additions and subtractions for your bank and credit card accounts. You can also input items directly from Notification Center using the Today widget. We’ve got a hands-on app review of 1SecMoney for you today.

How to browse the web from Notification Center

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated May 17, 2018

NCBrowser 8 is a jailbreak tweak that allows you to browse the web via Notification Center in iOS. The most obvious benefit to being able to do this is that the web is now instantly accessible from any app courtesy of the Notification Center pull-down interface. In a nutshell, NCBrowser 8 provides you with pseudo-multitasking ability between an app and the web browser in Notification Center, and it can be customized to your liking via the tweak's preferences.

Cheatsheet: a widget for all those little things you can’t remember

Sébastien Page ∙ February 5, 2015

Your license plate, your driver license number, your hotel room number, the combination of your locker at the gym. All these are little things that we sometimes need to have quick access to but not necessarily remember. This is where an app like Cheatsheet comes in handy. Simply write things down in Cheatsheet and refer to them at any time directly from the widget in the Today tab of Notification Center.

SimpleNC streamlines the look of Notification Center

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated May 17, 2018

If you're looking to simplify the look of Notification Center, then SimpleNC is probably up to the task. It is a tweak that features tons of switches, which allows you to disable specific Notification Center assets individually. The wonderful thing about SimpleNC is that it gives the user choice. You can go the subtle route, and only simplify bits and pieces of Notification Center, or you can go to extremes, and give it a makeover that you won't soon forget.