If you’re looking to disable push notifications completely, it’s obvious on iOS 4 because there’s an option for you to turn off that says ‘Notifications‘. But with iOS 5, you’ll notice that there’s no such option.
Yes, the notifications is much less intuitive now. However, not everyone agrees to it. There are other alternatives that works but may not appeal to some.
The first idea I’m suggesting is to turn on ‘Airplane Mode‘, however, you will end up not receiving any text messages, phone calls nor Internet connection, this will stop all push notifications from appearing.
The second solution is similar in a way because you will still receive text messages and phone calls. But there’s no way of accessing the Internet unless you’re connected to a WiFi connection. This is possible by turning off ‘Cellular Data‘.
But if you’re thinking of just disabling push notification on one or more apps, it is possible too. Go to ‘Settings > Notifications‘. Select an app from the list that has the Notification function. Inside, you’ll notice a few more options for you to turn on or off. The one we will be looking at is the ‘Alert Style‘ field. Choose ‘None‘. This means that new notifications won’t come in Banner nor Pop-up alert. It will be silent.
The choice is yours. Enjoy.
iHowToGuide 
If I just change the Alert Style to none will it consume less battery?
In a way, yes. Because there won’t be any alert. When your iDevice is locked, it doesn’t need to light up, therefore conserving battery.
This really helps thanks – however will it still pull the data in the background and just not inform you? I’m going to the States soon, and need to be sure that the data isn’t being used whilst out there! It’s very expensive!
Usually kilobytes. Do keep in mind that Push Notification sends little pockets of data to check your notification status. So it’s recommended to then off notification for apps that you’re don’t use.
If you disable data-roaming this also disables push notifications if not on wifi.
yes, just turn off data and data roaming in the settings while you are on vacation..
hope this helps!
I have an iPhone 4S and no matter what I do (short of turning off data connection), I could not turn off the sound/vibration notification for push emails. I set Notification Center for Mail to off and Alert Stype of None. A bug???
For the sound and vibrations, I believe you need to go Settings > General > Sounds and turn off sound for mail.
Toggling the notification center will only hide notifications from the swipe-down notification center.
Likewise, toggling the notification style will only change the style of notification, not the sound nor the vibration.
Hope this helps.
I agree with you. No way to turn my push email notification off on the 4s. The option is there but doesnt work
none of these worked for me to turn them off for textplus. i used to be able to send them to my phone but i cant anymore