P.O.Cs for 3rd party notification and widget support in iOS 5, unofficially

Apple announced that iOS 5 will be coming to i-devices everywhere by this fall. They failed to mention any access to public API’s for developers to toy with in time for summer app updates to take advantage of the new Notifications Center. However that hasn’t stopped some developers and hackers from already making it happen.

Developer, WillFour20′s widget P.O.C

We gave you a quick look at the Notifications Center in the iOS 5 beta just a few days ago, and reported our full review thereafter. The Notifications Center was one of the most obvious new features in the upcoming release. It interacts with your lock screen and can be opened by a swipe down gesture once you’re on the home screen, much like Android. As we’ve said though, it’s disappointing that we were only seeing notification information and widgets from Apple’s own apps.

Be that as it may, developer WillFour20 have unraveled the latest iteration of iOS code and stuck it back together which has allowed them to effectively create their own 3rd party widget. The image above shows their new “Hello World” message displayed under the stock weather widget as a proof of concept, but this space could effectively be filled with any sort of information. Jailbreak developer Chronic, expanded on the process, saying that all developers need to do is create a “custom view interface” and “compile it as a bulletinboard plugin”, bulletinboard being Apple’s internal codename for the iOS 5 Notifications Center.

The latest iOS 5 utility widget, available from Cydia

Jailbreak fans too get a little more bang for their buck with this news (figuratively). The jailbroken iOS 5 has received a utility widget, again similar to power management widgets found on Android, but one that drags down into the Notifications Center. It allows you to toggle commonly used features like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, brightness, airplane mode and so on and is available now from the Cydia store. It installs itself into the Notification Center similarly to SBSettings so go grab it now if you’ve already upped your device to iOS 5.

One thing of note at this stage is that the Notification Center code, is only compatible with the iPhone and iPod Touch. This might mean that iPad users will be getting a similar, but altered experience to make use of the extra screen real-estate. For our full review of Apple’s upcoming OS update follow this link.

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