Apple hires iPhone jailbreak notification developer for iOS team at corporate HQ

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
A software programmer who wrote a jailbreak application that would replace and improve upon Apple's own iPhone notification system has been hired by Apple, AppleInsider can confirm.



Last week, word went out that Peter Hajas had stopped work on his "MobileNotifier" application for jailbroken iPhones. That, along with Twitter posts saying he had gone to work for a "fruit" company in California, led to speculation, from sites like iPhoneinCanada.ca and RedmondPie that Hajas was hired by Apple.



AppleInsider was able to independently confirm on Friday that Hajas has indeed landed a job with the iPhone maker. He is said to be working in Apple's iOS Applications & Frameworks division, at the company's corporate headquarters in Cupertino, Calif.



MobileNotifier is an application that was described in the jailbreak-only Cydia application store as "iOS notifications. Done Right." The application had nearly a quarter-million downloads from jailbreak users, and had been upgraded numerous times to reach beta 4.



On his own blog, Hajas said he would be taking a break from the software, but added that his departure was "definitely not goodbye."



"I can't say why, but it's worth it. Trust me," he wrote. "If you look around hard enough, you'll probably figure it out."



Apple's notification system in iOS is often widely criticized as one of the weakest aspect of the mobile operating system. The company is set to show off the next version of its software, iOS 5, at next week's Worldwide Developers Conference.







Though it's possible iOS 5 could include a new notification system for iPhones and iPads -- and has even been rumored as a new feature -- it's unlikely that the recently hired Hajas played a role in the development of any features that might be shown off on Monday.



Hajas is another notifications-centric developer who has made headlines after being hired by Apple. Last June, Apple also hired Rich Dellinger, previously the User Interface Design Architect for Palm, where he designed the notification system for Palm's webOS mobile operating system.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 49
    smallwheelssmallwheels Posts: 584member
    If You Can't Beat Them, Hire Them.
  • Reply 2 of 49
    tulkastulkas Posts: 3,757member
    They should also hire the team (person) that made LockInfo. On it's own or combined with MobileNotifier, it is a great add-on for iOS. Anyhoo, good to hear they hired Peter. For all the things I love about iPhones and iOS, APN is what I hate most.
  • Reply 3 of 49
    wovelwovel Posts: 956member
    This is good news, that system is great. I seem to recall a story last year about Apple hiring back a former employer that went to Palm and created the WebOS notification system too.



    I hope these changes make it into iOS 5. I imagine they will come up with something pretty slick.
  • Reply 4 of 49
    sierrajeffsierrajeff Posts: 366member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    MobileNotifier is an application that was described in the jailbreak-only Cydia application store as "iOS notifications. Done Right." The application had nearly a quarter-million downloads from jailbreak users, and had been upgraded numerous times to reach beta 4.



    ...



    "I can't say why, but it's worth it. Trust me," he wrote. "If you look around hard enough, you'll probably figure it out."



    Can anyone who's used this app describe it in more detail than is in this (deliberately?) vague article?
  • Reply 5 of 49
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    Though it's possible iOS 5 could include a new notification system for iPhones and iPads -- and has even been rumored as a new feature -- it's unlikely that the recently hired Hajas played a role in the development of any features that might be shown off on Monday.



    Don't forget that his work is open source and Apple's developers have had access to it for some time. His coming on board may be for the next release and for Apple to avoid a PR issue. Too, he has proven himself as an able developer. And, has been able to build a good team around him.



    Considering Apple''s developers access to iOS 5 and private frameworks it will be interesting to see how much more advanced and better integrated the new notification system will be.
  • Reply 6 of 49
    I think he was hired to dive into the new notification system Apple has developed for iOS 5 to help polishing it.



    MobileNotifier in the form it was presented in video brought few good and few bad things to the notification system. For instance, using the vacant space above task bar is a good thing. Blocking part of the screen with notification while an app keeps running underneath is a bad thing (I would even say Windows-like thing).
  • Reply 7 of 49
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Sierrajeff View Post


    Can anyone who's used this app describe it in more detail than is in this (deliberately?) vague article?



    Here is the Apps site:



    http://www.peterhajas.com/



    And here is a Video describing the latest features:



    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mP0C...layer_embedded
  • Reply 8 of 49
    [QUOTE=ViktorCode;1874983Blocking part of the screen with notification while an app keeps running underneath is a bad thing (I would even say Windows-like thing).[/QUOTE]



    That was fixed in the newer betas. It's more refined now.
  • Reply 9 of 49
    tulkastulkas Posts: 3,757member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Sierrajeff View Post


    Can anyone who's used this app describe it in more detail than is in this (deliberately?) vague article?



    It completely replaces the UI of Apple Notification system. Right now, with Apple's implementation, if you get multiple notifications, you only see the last one when you look at your phone. If any apps you have provide notifications are not on your first screen, then you might have to periodically scan the other screens to see if you missed any notifications.



    With this app, you get a bar that appears at the top of whatever screen you have open (instead of a bubble). From this bar, you can dismiss the message, open the app that has the notification and you can see a list of all pending notifications. This bar doesn't block you app, the way APN's do, so you can just keep doing what you are doing if you want and it will fade away. If you double click your home button to bring up the multitask dock, the unused screen space above the multitask bar is used to display any pending notifications. You can also select to dismiss all pending notifications in one step. If your phone is locked, then when you wake it, while on the lock screen you will have a list of any notifications that came in while the phone was locked/asleep.



    It isn't perfect and lacks Apple's polish, but functionally it is way ahead of Apple's APN UI. I find it to be both less intrusive and yet more interactive and more functional. It really provides powerfully quick access to notifications. Combined with LockInfo (or some other LockScreen utility which shows mail, SMS, calendar, etc info) and SBSettings, I have almost no complaints about my iPhone these days.
  • Reply 10 of 49
    tulkastulkas Posts: 3,757member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by stingerster View Post


    That was fixed in the newer betas. It's more refined now.



    yep. A great improvement.
  • Reply 11 of 49
    tulkastulkas Posts: 3,757member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by stingerster View Post


    Don't forget that his work is open source and Apple's developers have had access to it for some time. His coming on board may be for the next release and for Apple to avoid a PR issue. Too, he has proven himself as an able developer. And, has been able to build a good team around him.



    Considering Apple''s developers access to iOS 5 and private frameworks it will be interesting to see how much more advanced and better integrated the new notification system will be.



    The code might be open source, but that might be a reason for Apple not to use it, depending on which license it was opened under. Apple doesn't need the code. I think the hired him for his ideas and insight. APN was great when it first came out and filled a lot of holes (multitasking) that were glaring in iOS. But, it has stagnated and has been in need of massive improvements for a long time. Peter (and the guy from Palm) can bring in the ideas as to what is needed.
  • Reply 12 of 49
    prof. peabodyprof. peabody Posts: 2,860member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    ... Though it's possible iOS 5 could include a new notification system for iPhones and iPads -- and has even been rumored as a new feature -- it's unlikely that the recently hired Hajas played a role in the development of any features that might be shown off on Monday. ...



    I would think they just hired him because the system they worked out is likely similar to his. HIring him stops the IP problem.
  • Reply 13 of 49
    tulkastulkas Posts: 3,757member
    Some interesting ideas here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pyg0oTzYeE



    The notifications they show are not far off of what Peter implemented.
  • Reply 14 of 49
    lilgto64lilgto64 Posts: 1,147member
    Hire him - make him sign an NDA and a non-compete - and sign over rights to any code he develops while employed - don;t let him develop anything for jail broken iOS while employed of course - then after he has contributed significant updates - let him go with legal guarantees that he won't be able to come up with anything that be releasing any apps that compete in any way with Apple's own. could be a plan - or I am being a bit paranoid here?
  • Reply 15 of 49
    bcahill009bcahill009 Posts: 163member
    WHy did this post just become breaking. If it was such a breaking story, would you not have made it breaking to start. You actually proved that it was not a breaking story by not giving it breaking status until 20-30 mins after you wrote the story. What a hilarious contradiction you just self imposed. In a dry way, this is the funniest thing I have read all day.
  • Reply 16 of 49
    _hawkeye__hawkeye_ Posts: 139member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lilgto64 View Post


    Hire him - make him sign an NDA and a non-compete - and sign over rights to any code he develops while employed - don;t let him develop anything for jail broken iOS while employed of course - then after he has contributed significant updates - let him go with legal guarantees that he won't be able to come up with anything that be releasing any apps that compete in any way with Apple's own. could be a plan - or I am being a bit paranoid here?



    Perhaps. The first part may very well be close to the mark. I doubt that they plan to torpedo him though. That's M$'s style, not Apple's.



    What's the old adage? Oh yes: Keep your friends close, keep your enemies even closer.



    By the way: When he became an employee, he signed a contract that Apple owns all code he writes during his employment (unless he specifically gets a written waiver, on a project by project basis), with likely a non-compete clause for a year or two after employment termination.
  • Reply 17 of 49
    29922992 Posts: 202member
    yet another example why Apple is such an innovative company, not copying anything from others, THE original fruit company... :/



    Anyways, I DO look forward for a nice notification system for iOS, as now it's cr@p!
  • Reply 18 of 49
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tulkas View Post


    Some interesting ideas here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pyg0oTzYeE



    The notifications they show are not far off of what Peter implemented.



    1) The app widgets that are on the Home Screen I like in lieu of the current option but overall I'd have to say they are too limited and tacky.



    2) I like the frequently used Settings on the Home Screen as an icon but think this would be better served in a different way (which I won't get into here).



    3) Notifications on the bottom I don't care for. Much prefer Hajas implementation at the top of the display. Again, anything is better than what is in iOS 4.0.



    4) I strongly dislike Fast App Switcher showing you an image of the app. Icons are much easier to discern.



    5) I love the Favorite Contacts on the Home Screen.



    The whole video is well done. I wonder how long it took to make.
  • Reply 19 of 49
    ghostface147ghostface147 Posts: 1,629member
    I guess the Palm guy they hired isn't getting it done right.
  • Reply 20 of 49
    mj1970mj1970 Posts: 9,002member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lilgto64 View Post


    Hire him - make him sign an NDA and a non-compete - and sign over rights to any code he develops while employed - don;t let him develop anything for jail broken iOS while employed of course - then after he has contributed significant updates - let him go with legal guarantees that he won't be able to come up with anything that be releasing any apps that compete in any way with Apple's own. could be a plan - or I am being a bit paranoid here?



    I'm guessing you're being a bit paranoid. I'm sure they liked his work. Weren't getting it done internally. Hired the best guy for the job. Pretty straightforward.
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