Notifications in iOS 5

In past versions of iOS notifications would pop up, interrupting whatever you were doing, and wouldn't go away unless you told them to. With iOS 5 that's a thing of the past. The default is that they will briefly fold down from the top of the screen and then go away. If you miss an alert it will go to the Notification Center, which you can reach by swiping down from the top of the screen.

Notification Center comes with a number of pages by default including (obviously) notifications, weather, reminders, stocks and more. These can be custom configured in the settings. To do this go to Settings, then Notifications. Notification Center options are found further down the page. Tap any of the items listed to choose how or whether they appear, or any settings unique to that item.

When changing how an alert appears you can choose between the classic pop-up alert, the new fold-down banner alert or no alert. When changing email notification settings you can also turn View in Lock Screen to on to see a preview of your email in the lock screen. Tapping an item and sliding sideways in lock mode will unlock your phone and bring you straight to the new notification.