According to
this video, Notification Center now displays all notifications at once instead of hiding "earlier" ones behind a gesture.
Good.
It's a start.
Now if you want them to put grouping options back in, then get out there and send feedback! Send it every time an update comes out until it's back. It was there once before, people liked it, they probably forgot about it and didn't know people like it, so send that feedback guys!
I know I'd like to see some grouping options again, and easier clearing options. I mean I understand why you can't swipe notifications away, because you would end up accidentally doing that when you want to view Widgets or go to the Camera shortcut. So I get it. Since there's no longer a space at the bottom for swiping to unlock, there's not a lot of room that isn't a notification on a full list. So I get it. But they could offer an option. I mean I don't really mind really. 3D touching is fine for me. But not everyone can do that and long-pressing as an alternative is really cumbersome.
Personally I'm mostly happy. I love Control Center, and like the new Notification Center paradigm. But I also know they all need work. If I were to make changes, here's what I'd do:
Control Center: The Music widget is almost more cumbersome to use now that it's not on another page. Since it's squished into a small 2x2 box, you can't tell the current play time or whole song title unless you expand it, which then you need to retract when you're done. I'd much rather the Music box take up a 4x1.5 size rectangle that shows most of what is in the expanded version. Even if you can't actually slide through the music from there, I want to at least see where in the song I am. At the same time change the top left toggle box to a 4x1 rectangle that works the same way. But fits better. Next, move music down above the customizable region so it's not ALL THE WAY AT THE TOP OUT OF REACH. (When I have a full screen of controls.) Also change the screen mirroring button into a single square, and make all three of those into customizable buttons I can remove and move around if I want. Then rotate the volume and brightness controls into 2x1 boxes next to each other. Also, the Alarm button could use a 3D Touch gesture that brings up a list of your most recently set alarms. Also, when a timer is running, display the time in the button under the icon. And when an alarm is set, display the next alarm time on its icon too. And when a stopwatch is running, you get the idea. Display more info in those buttons when the information is relevant. Also let me move the icons around using the same press and hold move as I do on the Home screen.
Widgets: All I really want here is for Apple supplied widgets that can sometimes be empty, i.e. "No Upcoming _____" should disappear. I'm talking about the "Maps Destinations" and "Reminders" widgets. There's NO REASON these should be taking up space if there's nothing to display.
Spotlight: The gesture to get to spotlight on the Home screen is redundant. You already have a Spotlight on the left end. Why do you need another one? I'd rather get rid of it. Instead, here's an idea. Why not make the swipe down gesture BRING DOWN THE NOTIFICATION CENTER?! In the world of large phone screens, no one wants to have to use two hands to open NC. So change that gesture to bring the NC down. Much more convenient. And yes, I understand the irony of replacing one redundancy with another. But it would be making it so much more useful for one-handed use.
The Mail widget should show recent mail. Not "Favorite contacts". So useless. I don't care about sending mail to people. I want a list of like 3-5 of my most recent emails. But whatever. I don't work in an office. For me email is all newsletters and junk. When I want to send a message, I use iMessage, SMS or FaceBook. I just want to see incoming stuff. Why would I want to email my dad?
I dunno. Just some ramblings.
