While people who have used both iOS and Android devices will argue over which OS exhibits a greater degree of polish, Android definitely has the better notification system. Even the addition of multitasking to iOS 4 did little to improve the state of notifications on iOS devices compared to Android.
Boxcar, which just reached version 4 on the App Store, is a great improvement over standard iOS notifications. Boxcar enables super-fast push notifications for services ranging from the internal mail app to Buzz, Twitter, Facebook, and Google Voice. An ad-supported version of Boxcar is available for free, but an in-app purchase of US$4.99 will eliminate the ads. The app is so good that TechCrunch's MG Sieg
