by Tom Nelson
The Notification Center, introduced to the Mac in OS X Mountain Lion, provides a unified method for applications to provide you with status, updates, and other informational messages. The messages are organized in a single location that’s easy to access, use, and dismiss.
Screen shot © Coyote Moon, Inc.
The Notification Center is an outgrowth of a similar service originally introduced on Apple’s iOS devices. And since many Mac users have a wide collection of iOS devices, it’s no wonder that the Notification Center in OS X parallels the one in iOS.
Notifications appear in the upper-right hand corner of the Mac display. You can receive notifications from many sources, including your Mail app, Twitter, Facebook, iPhoto, and Messages. Any app can send messages to the Notification Center if the app’s developer chooses to make use of this messaging facility. In most cases, developers seem to love to have their apps send you messages.
Fortunately, you have control over which apps are allowed to send you messages and how the messages are displayed in the Notification Center.
