How exactly to use Notification.Builder

in addition to the selected answer here is some sample code for the NotificationCompat.Builder class from Source Tricks :

// Add app running notification  

    private void addNotification() {



    NotificationCompat.Builder builder =  
            new NotificationCompat.Builder(this)  
            .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.ic_launcher)  
            .setContentTitle("Notifications Example")  
            .setContentText("This is a test notification");  

    Intent notificationIntent = new Intent(this, MainActivity.class);  
    PendingIntent contentIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(this, 0, notificationIntent,   
            PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);  
    builder.setContentIntent(contentIntent);  

    // Add as notification  
    NotificationManager manager = (NotificationManager) getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);  
    manager.notify(FM_NOTIFICATION_ID, builder.build());  
}  

// Remove notification  
private void removeNotification() {  
    NotificationManager manager = (NotificationManager) getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);  
    manager.cancel(FM_NOTIFICATION_ID);  
}  

This is in API 11, so if you are developing for anything earlier than 3.0 you should continue to use the old API.

Update: the NotificationCompat.Builder class has been added to the Support Package so we can use this to support API level v4 and up:

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/v4/app/NotificationCompat.Builder.html

Notification.Builder API 11 or NotificationCompat.Builder API 1

This is a usage example.

Intent notificationIntent = new Intent(ctx, YourClass.class);
PendingIntent contentIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(ctx,
        YOUR_PI_REQ_CODE, notificationIntent,
        PendingIntent.FLAG_CANCEL_CURRENT);

NotificationManager nm = (NotificationManager) ctx
        .getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);

Resources res = ctx.getResources();
Notification.Builder builder = new Notification.Builder(ctx);

builder.setContentIntent(contentIntent)
            .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.some_img)
            .setLargeIcon(BitmapFactory.decodeResource(res, R.drawable.some_big_img))
            .setTicker(res.getString(R.string.your_ticker))
            .setWhen(System.currentTimeMillis())
            .setAutoCancel(true)
            .setContentTitle(res.getString(R.string.your_notif_title))
            .setContentText(res.getString(R.string.your_notif_text));
Notification n = builder.build();

nm.notify(YOUR_NOTIF_ID, n);