[Review] SmallBanners - Get Less Pixel-Hungry Banners On Your iOS Device

[Anthony Bouchard]

While the iOS 5 banner system is nice, we just can’t help ourselves but to find even this great notification method to get in the way of our phone usage. It’s pretty annoying when you’re playing a good iPhone game or watching a video and then a banner comes up in your face and starts eating up your pixels until it goes away. Fortunately, iOS developer Ron Melkhior has been able to reduce the size of iOS 5’s notification banners to half of the original size with a new free jailbreak tweak dubbed SmallBanners.

As shown by the comparative screenshots above, the banner is literally a normal iOS 5 banner cut in half. While the idea is a good one, it would have been nicer if the developer took the time to round off the corners of the banner so that it matches Apple’s design instead of simply slicing the banner in half. The good news, on the other hand, is that the banner uses less pixels, by cutting out the name of the application from the banner and reducing the size of the application icon, ultimately allowing you to play games and watch videos with less pixels dedicated to the banners.

Since all the design does is cut out the name of the application, the smaller banner is still fully capable of getting the notification’s point across as it still shows the notification preview and still shows the application icon of the application where the notification stems from. That being said, the smaller notification banners won’t decrease the quality of iOS’ ability to notify you of new events.

SmallBanners doesn’t have any options to configure and it requires iOS 5 to install since no older versions of iOS support the banner notifications introduced in iOS 5. SmallBanners won’t affect any other notification functions of iOS such as the icon badges or Notification Center/lock screen notifications as it was created only for the banner notifications. If your limited pixels are precious to you, then give this a try and see if it helps make the notifications less intrusive.

Name: SmallBanners
Price: FREE
Version: 1.0.0
Requirements: iOS 5
Repo: BigBoss
Developer: Ron Melkhior
Editor's Rating:  3/5

Sources: Ron Melkhior

[BhadKarma]

Nice tweak. Good idea

[Zokunei]

I like it a lot. If you use Vexillum the bottom corners are rounded. I like that the quick dismiss button still works too.

[hank197857]

what an unnecessary tweak, the apple banner is fine just the way it is. the tweak that i'm waiting for is one that allows me to change the color of the text.

[StarrMatthieu]

much appreciated

[skrApy]

after install smallbanners, i cant change textcolor with Tweak "Chip"

[Zokunei]

what an unnecessary tweak, the apple banner is fine just the way it is. the tweak that i'm waiting for is one that allows me to change the color of the text.

You can already do that with Vexillum.

[willryan42]

what an unnecessary tweak, the apple banner is fine just the way it is. the tweak that i'm waiting for is one that allows me to change the color of the text.

Right, because changing text color is absolutely necessary...

I like this tweak because I find myself being blocked by a banner when trying to hit a button at the top of an app. However, the icon isn't showing in the smallbanner for me like it does in the original post.

[Paulw2008]

what an unnecessary tweak, the apple banner is fine just the way it is. the tweak that i'm waiting for is one that allows me to change the color of the text.

Ii agree brother ,

[DayumQuitPlayin]

what an unnecessary tweak, the apple banner is fine just the way it is. the tweak that i'm waiting for is one that allows me to change the color of the text.

I find this tweak very necessary, especially when the banner pops over a button I'm trying to click on.
It's much more necessary than changing it's color.

[cristian_12_]

Nice Tweak

[HotBlack]

This is nice... but what I'd really like to see is a tweak that allows you to change the length of time the banner displays for. I find the default a little too long.

[fpena]

Works fine with Messages+. BUT, the close button (for sms notifications) is being cut off...

Any solution for that?