????蘋果公司（Apple）的iPhone通知功能一向運行良好。它能很方便地讓某個應用在屏幕上彈出一個提示，告訴機主在其沒有用到這個應用時發生了什么。就算手機鎖屏時它們也能用，所以當口袋里的手機震動時，機主能看到這條短信重不重要（實際上，它們有點太好用了——成了一種常常冒出來的干擾）。

????目前市場上涌現出來的各類智能手表雖尚處發展早期，但卻似乎是為通知功能度身定制的。以在眾籌網站Kickstarter上一炮而紅的成功之作Pebble為代表，智能手表已成為智能手機功能有限的伴侶。智能手表能讓人更方便地看到通知——這主要是因為手腕翻動靈活——所以機主不必從口袋或錢包里掏出手機就能看到提示的內容，或是誰打電話來。

????但是蘋果手機的通知功能比較局限，而且只能顯示內容。而谷歌公司（Google）的Android系統（及其窗口小部件）及微軟公司（Microsoft）的Windows Phone（憑借其動態磁貼）則能讓人以更富動感的方式查看實時提示。不過，查看提示的這整個過程還是效率低下：要激活一個通知，就必須從口袋或錢包里掏出手機，解鎖，再打開相關應用。

????保羅?尤金是一款名為Human的健康應用的iOS開發者。他稱蘋果手機現在的通知功能作用十分有限，因為它們一般用不了多久就會蜂擁而至，擠得滿滿當當。他表示，鎖屏上的通知列表充斥著“太多無用擾人的通知”。“我就是那些會關掉通知功能的人之一，因為它們根本沒用。比如收到Facebook的50個不同的‘贊’真是乏味至極。”

????印度公司MetaRain的應用開發人員阿尼如斯?庫恩涂爾稱，蘋果公司亟需找到一種辦法，“顯示并清除那些瑣碎的通知，而不是打開一款”一開始就促發提示的“應用”。

????上周，蘋果公司在舊金山舉行的全球開發者大會上讓公眾一睹了其全新移動操作系統iOS 8的真容。大會期間及之后的絕大多數媒體報道集中關注的都是蘋果推出了全新的健康追蹤軟件HealthKit，全新的便于家庭使用的iTunes賬戶結構，全新的QuickType鍵盤以及全新的編程語言Swift。

????但實際上蘋果公司也徹底改進了通知系統，并讓第三方應用可以運行信息量豐富、遠不止一行文本的所謂小部件。在iOS 8中，你可以直接敲擊一個提示并執行操作——所以如果同事發給你一個會議邀請，你可以馬上接受，而不用在走過去那種先看見，再點擊，再打開日歷應用，最后才接受這種老路。

????在發布大會上，蘋果軟件工程高級副總裁克雷格?費德里吉展示了這些改進。他手機上的易趣（eBay）應用提供了一種動態的及時更新小部件，能讓他看到自己正在出價競拍的實時情況。只需輕輕一點，他就能提高自己的出價，而無需再打開應用本身。

????對應用開發者來說，這一改進十分令人激動。保羅?尤金稱，他的Human應用就是測量一個人每天的活動量再催他們動起來，完成30分鐘鍛煉的；互動式通知能大大增強這款應用的功能。他說：“更智能的小部件能讓我們把自己的應用全天候地呈現在用戶眼前。并能幫助他們在健康方面逐步做出更明智的決定。”

????那些靠與用戶頻繁互動發展壯大的應用肯定會從蘋果的這次徹底改進中受益良多。但庫恩涂爾也對這一改進背后的技術十分興奮，并計劃用小部件來改進他的社交照片聚合應用Colorbay。今后它能顯示“你所有上傳照片中三到四張的縮略圖。而且自從你最近打開這款應用以來，很多照片都已經更新過了，”他說。而如果Colorbay能做到這一點，Instagram當然也能。

????不過蘋果的全新通知系統可能對下一波智能手表——對蘋果來說則是首款——的影響是最大的。這個系統可以讓智能手表的設計比現在更動感，從而讓各種應用可以往手表上推送有意義的、可馬上操作的信息。

????蘋果公司以外很少有人明確知道蘋果是否正在計劃生產可穿戴設備，更別說手表之類的了（一般蘋果會在每年秋季推出新品，在冬季宣布其他新品開發計劃；隨著時間推移，大家自然會知道今天的這些傳言是否會在今后實現）。不過本次全球開發者大會上推出的其他新技術，如不同設備間點對點AirPlay視頻分享技術，將iPhone上的呼入電話轉到Mac上的技術，都表明蘋果最終還是對互通技術投入了很大精力，也正是這種技術可以讓iPhone和iWatch實現連接。

????只要這種手表不會又變成讓信息復雜化，甚至讓人抓狂的來源就行。iOS開發者，開發了個人助理應用24me的吉拉德?赫塔駑表示：“你知道，那些簡單、用的最多的提示只需點一下就行：接受、拒絕，或其他操作。”智能手表能干得好嗎？“它會變得更有效率也更有趣的。”（財富中文網）

????譯者：清遠

????Apple’s AAPL 0.59% iPhone notifications work pretty well. They’re a convenient way for an app to pop an alert on your screen to say something has happened while you weren’t using it. They even work when the phone is locked, so you can see if the SMS that just made your phone buzz in your pocket is important or not. (In fact, they’ve proven to be a little too good—a constant distraction. But I digress.)

????The current crop of smartwatches, a type of device still very much in its infancy, seems tailor-made for the notification. Typified by the runaway Kickstarter success Pebble, the smartwatch serves as limited-feature companions to smartphones. A smartwatch puts a notification closer to your eyes—thanks to a flick of the wrist—so you can check what an incoming alert says, or even see who’s calling you, without digging a phone out of your pocket or purse.

????But Apple’s notifications are limited, and display-only. Both Google’s GOOG -0.28% Android (with its widgets) and Microsoft’s MSFT -0.39% Windows Phone (with its Live Tiles) offer a more dynamic way to check real-time alerts. Nonetheless, the entire process is rather futile: To act on a notification, you must fish your phone out of that pocket or purse anyway, unlock it, and launch the app in question.

????Paul Veugen, an iOS developer behind a health app called Human, says that Apple’s current iPhone notifications are limited because they rapidly become overwhelming. The notifications list on the lock screen fills with “so many useless, disrupting notifications for most apps,” he says. “I’m one of these guys that turns off notifications because they don’t work. It’s just not interesting to receive 50 different notifications for ‘likes’ on Facebook.”

????What Apple really needs, Anirudh Coontoor, an app developer at the Indian firm MetaRain, is a way to “display and clear trivial notifications instead of opening the apps” that have triggered the alerts in the first place.

????Last week, Apple gave the public its first look at iOS 8, the newest version of its mobile operating system, at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. Much of the coverage during and after the event focused on Apple’s introduction of HealthKit, its fitness tracking software, a new family-friendly iTunes account structure, a new QuickType keyboard, and a new programming language, Swift.

????But the company also completely revamped its notifications system, and created a way for third-party apps to run information-rich, so-called widgets that go beyond a simple line of text. In iOS 8, you’ll be able to tap on an alert and perform an action—so if your colleague sends you a meeting invite, you can just accept on the spot, instead of see it, click on it, launch the calendar app, and accept it.

????At the event, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, showed off the improvement. His eBay app provided a dynamic, updating widget to report on a live auction in which he was bidding. With a tap, Federighi was able to increase his bid without launching the app itself.

????The development is very exciting for app developers. Paul Veugen says his Human app is all about measuring a person’s motions through the day and then prompting them to get moving and complete 30 minutes of exercise; interactive notifications could really boost the app’s abilities. “Smarter widgets will allow us to put our app in front of users almost 24/7,” he says, “and will help nudge them into smarter decisions about their health.”

????Apps that thrive on repeated interactions with users will certainly benefit from Apple’s overhaul. But Coontoor is equally excited about the underlying technology, and plans to use widgets to improve his social photo aggregation app Colorbay. In the future, it could show “small thumbnails of three or four photos from all your feeds, and say, ‘This many photos have been updated since you last opened the app,’ ” he says. And if Colorbay can do it, so can Instagram.

????But Apple’s new notifications may have the greatest impact on the next wave of smartwatches—or in Apple’s case, its first. The system allows for a far more dynamic smartwatch design than is currently available, allowing apps to push meaningful and actionable information to a wrist-bound device.

????Few outside of Apple’s walls know for certain whether the company plans to make a wearable device, let alone one worn on the wrist. (Apple traditionally introduces new products in fall and announces others in winter; time will tell whether today’s rumors are based in tomorrow’s reality.) But other technologies introduced during WWDC, such as peer-to-peer AirPlay video sharing between devices and the ability to transfer phone calls from an iPhone to a Mac, suggest that Apple is finally focused enough on interoperability to make an iPhone-iWatch combination possible.

????Just as long as the watch doesn’t become its own source of complication, and by extension, frustration. “You know, the simple, most frequent alerts are those that need just a tap: Accept, decline, and so on,” says iOS developer Gilad Hertanu, who built the personal assistant app 24me. The smartwatch that gets it right? “It’s going to be much more productive and fun.”