Display the reason I just got an alert? My phone makes a noise when I get a text or email.

Can it also display a line of text saying what the text or email is from? I hate having to check all my apps to see which one wants my attention. 

I also want to know why it wants my attention, as in, who just texted me? Who just emailed me? what did they say?
You should see a notification icon in the bar at the top of the screen.

Swipe down and you can click on the notification to load the application that generated it.

In addition you can install SMS Popup or something similar to display the details of the SMS on screen immediately. I haven't found anything like this for email though.