Push Notification

Confirmed: Sparrow for iPhone push notifications will require a yearly subscription

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 13, 2018

If you need yet another reason to jailbreak your iPhone, here it is: The popular Sparrow for iPhone email client will require a yearly subscription to enable push notifications for incoming messages. The sad news has been officially confirmed by developer Dom Leca and the Sparrow team.

Apple apparently told them they "are not willing to do any exception to the rule" concerning push support in Sparrow. Of course, those with a jailbroken iPhone can simply download Sparrow Push, a handy little tweak that adds this useful feature to the otherwise awesome email client at no additional cost.

Push notifications are coming in a future version of Sparrow for iPhone, which has just been updated with the following new features...

‘Sparrow Plus’ now available on Cydia

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated May 30, 2017

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AfGbZv7gQM[/tube]

Sparrow+ — the jailbreak tweak that allows you to set Sparrow as the iPhone's default mail client, along with enabling push notifications — is now available on Cydia.

Sparrow is the 3rd party email client that has proved to be a popular alternative to the stock iOS Mail app, despite some glaring shortcomings.

You can download Sparrow+ for free from Cydia's BigBoss repo starting today. You can also download the Sparrow iOS app for $2.99.

Once you give it a try, be sure to share your thoughts on the combo in the comments section.

‘ClearLockNotifications’ updated with pull to clear functionality

Jeff Benjamin ∙ April 19, 2012

About 5 months ago we reviewed ClearLockNotifications, and it was pretty good. Now the developer has updated the tweak to make it even better, more intuitive if you will.

ClearLockNotifications now features 'pull to clear' functionality right from the Lock screen. This means that you can clear all of your Lock screen notifications by simply pulling down on the list of notifications.

For a sneak preview of how it works, take a look at our video walkthrough...

How Apple can solve the multiple iMessage alert conundrum

Jeff Benjamin ∙ April 13, 2012

If you've taken advantage of iOS 5's iCloud functionality, you understand how much potential is on tap. iCloud coerces all all of your iOS devices to stay in sync; at least that's the theory.

While the potential is certainly there, iCloud still has a way to go before all of its issues are ironed out; though I definitely commend Apple for being gung-ho about its rollout.

One of the main issues that I've personally experienced — and no doubt countless others share similar sentiments — is with iMessage. More specifically, since iCloud can sync every iOS 5 device you own, all of your devices alert you when you receive a new iMessage.

Now I know; why not just disable alerts altogether for all but one device? Well, there's a number of reasons why I would not want to do that. The main reason being is that you shouldn't have to select one feature over another. iCloud is meant for convenience, and taking such a step would certainly be a leap backwards.

Instead, let's examine a more proactive approach — utilizing the iPhone's built in technology to solve the issue. That's exactly what we tried to do. Introducing our solution to the multiple iMessage alert conundrum — Alert Priority.

Sparrow push notifications reportedly working for some users? [Updated]

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated May 30, 2017

It looks like the folks at Sparrow have started to enable push notifications for a handful of users. Perhaps this is a part of a larger rollout?

YouTube personality Duncan33303 has reported that push notifications are now working on his 1.1 installation of Sparrow, as have others.

According to a blog post on Sparrow's website, the push update was supposed to be available in the next released of Sparrow, that being version 1.2. It appears, however, that the developers of the highly popular Mail app alternative may have included code in the 1.1 update to make push notifications work without the need for Apple's approval...

‘AppUpdateNotifier’ keeps you informed about App Store updates

Jeff Benjamin ∙ March 26, 2012

First there was CydiaBulletin, and then there was the dead on arrival Aptdate. These jailbreak tweaks were conceptualized and/or created to provide notifications whenever an app or tweak had a pending updated waiting in Cydia.

Due to traffic concerns, it's unlikely that either of these tweaks will ever see the light of day. That's unfortunate, but it's the reality of the situation unless the developers can come up with a way that won't put too much stress on the repo servers.

But what about the App Store? This sort of functionality would be useful for pending App Store updates as well, would it not? Thankfully, someone was listening.

Check out our video walkthrough of AppUpdateNotifier, a jailbreak tweak that provides banner notifications when updates are waiting in the App Store...

‘Aptdate’ provides push notifications for Cydia updates

Jeff Benjamin ∙ March 21, 2012

Ever since we first saw the sneak preview of Ryan Petrich's CydiaBulletin, we've wanted something like it.

Now it looks like having notifications for Cydia updates is finally a reality, even if it's not exactly as Petrich had envisioned.

Aptdate is a new jailbreak tweak that will be soon available on Cydia, which provides banner notifications to alert you when there are updates in Cydia.

We've given it a spin on video, check out our walkthrough inside...

Sparrow Push email notifications in action

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated May 30, 2017

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swQdIS0jH-Q[/tube]

Earlier we reported that a new jailbreak tweak was on its way to Cydia to enable push notifications in Sparrow. That tweak has finally touched down on Cydia's BigBoss repo for free, and we've taken it for a thorough spin.

Do the push notifications make Sparrow a legitimate Mail app replacement, despite the flaws that we uncovered in our previous video review?

Check out our video walkthrough of Sparrow Push for the answer.

Sparrow Push tweak adds push notifications to Sparrow for iPhone [Updated]

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 13, 2018

Sparrow for iPhone would surely file as a dream come true for mobile email addicts if it weren't for its lack of push notifications for incoming email messages, as we noted in our video review. Enter Sparrow Push, a handy little Cydia tweak for jailbroken devices that adds this useful feature to the otherwise awesome email client.

Once installed, Sparrow Push will enable notifications for incoming email messages even when the program is in the background, allowing you to stay on top of important email messages as they hit the server...

PushTone: Change push notification alerts sounds on a per-app basis

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated May 30, 2017

PushTone is a jailbreak tweak that allows you to customize audible push notifications on an app to app basis.

That means that you can change something like the standard Tweetbot notification into a duck quack, or any of the other alerts and ringtones available in the ringtone library.

If you've been looking for a convenient method for customizing your alerts down to the app level, then look no further than PushTone...

You Can Sort Notifications in iOS 5 By Time of Arrival

Alex Heath ∙ December 2, 2011

OS X Daily reminds us of a helpful tip for displaying push notifications in the iOS 5 Notification Center. By default, iOS 5 displays notifications manually, meaning that they are organized by their associated apps.

For those of us that get tons of notifications throughout the day, it can be better to have things sorted by time of arrival. Changing this setting is actually dead simple.

How to Forward Push Notifications to Your Mac or PC Using ‘GrowlNotifier’

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

Wouldn't it be awesome if you could forward all of your iPhone's push notifications to your Mac or PC? Well now you can, if your iDevice is jailbroken.

GrowlNotifier is a free jailbreak tweak that allows you to easily forward all of your push notifications to your Mac or PC with just a few easy to configure steps.

Check inside for a video walkthrough and tutorial...