Notifications on Apple's iOS remain poor. When they pop up, you have to exit what you're doing and move into the originating app--which may have to restablish its connection first (depending on how the app was written).

By contrast, Honeycomb's approach to is much more direct, and less disruptive. If you receive an incoming text or e-mail, you'll see the item pop up at the bottom-right corner of the screen (with or without an audio alert). The alert then disappears on its own, without interrupting what you're doing, leaving behind only an icon in the notifications pane to indicate that something awaits. If you tap at the bottom right, the notifications display expands upward. The design offers an easy way to stay abreast of what's going on.

Apple's iOS holds appeal in part because of its simple elegance. iOS doesn't offer nearly as many tweak options as Honeycomb does, and that's mostly a good thing. It would be nice, however, to have a greater degree of customization on iOS. I'm not asking for excessive options that would overwhelm the user or mirror Honeycomb. But I would like more customization options, implemented in ways that most benefit the iPad and positively affect how people use it.