Could the iPad bring “intelligent” notifications?

One of the biggest issues that consumers appear to have with the Apple iPad, is its lack of multi-tasking. Especially with this device being said to replace a netbook and be the best web browsing and e-mail experience, only being able to do one task at a time really seems to limit your workflow.

When I’m using my MacBook for general day-to-day tasks, I have Mail, Safari, iTunes and iChat open, and switch between them depending on what I’m doing. Catching up on the day’s news while chatting with friends is the norm, but is also something that could prove a little difficult on the iPad.

Lets say, for example, that Apple have plans to release an iChat application for the iPad. It would likely be a great IM client for the device, and could also be the first application to use what I like to call “intelligent” notifications.

We’re all aware of Steve Jobs stance on multi-tasking. The loss of battery life and performance just doesn’t seem to be worth it. But if the iPad is going to be a netbook replacement, and a decent productivity tool, surely it’ll need some way of allowing you to do more than one thing.

Let’s stick with iChat. If this application does make it to the iPad, it would probably use push notifications. So, while you’re browsing the web in Safari, you’ll get a little pop up notifying you of an updated chat. The annoying thing of exiting Safari and opening iChat then would follow, meaning your productivity slows down. What if though, the push notification had a little more power.

You’re reading the New York Times, and a friend from college signs in to iChat. A pop-up appears, making you aware of this, and gives you the option to start a chat. Still in the notifications pop-up, a small window appears and allows you to input text. The message is then sent, the same way that the push notifications are sent and received, and you can go back to reading the headlines. Your friend replies, and the same pop-up again appears, allowing you to quickly reply. You can go into iChat if you want to focus on the conversation, but for most, this is all they need. The same scenario could be applied to the Facebook application, allowing you to quickly reply to a wall post without leaving what you’re already doing. Surely these “intelligent” notifications wouldn’t drain your battery life that much.

Maybe I’m just wishing here, but for Apple to bring something along these lines to the table for the iPad would greatly increase its productivity, and would add to the already growing list of reasons why we should buy it.