What Do You Want In iPhone 2.0?

Ian Lamont writes "The predictions about the iPhone being a bust have so far been way off the mark, but that doesn't mean the device is perfect. Besides the dependence on the AT&T Edge network and the lack of an iPhone SDK, there are a boatload of UI, software and hardware issues that should be addressed in the next-generation iPhone. Some complaints include GPS functionality, allowing iPhones to be used as hard drives, adding RSS support, and turning auto-correct into auto-complete. What would you want to see in the next generation of iPhone?"

Comments

I don't want much more

[blantonl]

But this would do it for me:

1. Native iChat functionality
2. Ability to tether the device
3. Some level of copy and paste.
4. Ability to clear all SMS conversations

That's about it.

Re:I don't want much more

[powerpointmonkey]

I'm in the UK, and for me the killer feature would be HSDPA. My 2year old HTC phone has 'propper' 3g, why was the iPhone crippled?

Re:I don't want much more

[bstadil]

It was not deliberately crippled. The current chips uses too much power and would make the battery life unacceptable. Google for more info and Jobs' comments on the subject. 3G with less power is scheduled for 2Q08 if I remember correctly.

Re:I don't want much more

[Zonk (troll)]

What I'd like is:

1) Free of AT&T
2) VOIP, used by default when WiFi is available
3) Designed as an open platform to be modified easily (custom apps, alternative firmware, etc)

Of course, that will never happen.

Re:I don't want much more

[jtroutman]

Everything else should be second

Don't you mean fourth?

Re:I don't want much more

[djh101010]

But this would do it for me:

1. Native iChat functionality
Download "AppTapp installer" from http://iphone.nullriver.com/beta/ and install it. Then have it install "MobileChat", or one of the other native apps for chat.

2. Ability to tether the device
Check YouTube, some guy demo'd that during week 2.

3. Some level of copy and paste.
4. Ability to clear all SMS conversations

That's about it.
Not sure I can help with the last two, but check out all of what apptap can do. Make sure you install "summerboard" so you can scroll your main screen once you get too many icons to display on one page. You'll also want to add "community sources" so you can have more stuff to choose from. The list increases a couple times a day.

Re:I don't want much more

[bwoodard]

5) Search through contacts by business or other methods
6) cut/paste
7) Categorize contacts/memos
8) task list
9) Scientific calculator mode
10) Bluetooth GPS profile
11) A2DP Bluetooth profile

Re:I don't want much more

[DDLKermit007]

Yeah, you can have your HDSPA. My Nokia N95 needs to be charged twice daily due to how badly 3G sucks down the battery. Jobs & them are waiting for the less power hungry 3G, and sticking with what works for now.

Re:I don't want much more

[plalonde2]

12) PDF reader 13) mpeg player 14) cut/paste (again) 15) split screen so I can see some data I have to retype because of lack of 6/14

Re:I don't want much more

[Namarrgon]

That's the excuse Jobs is giving you, yes. Of course, when the iPhone inevitably gets HSDPA, the extra power usage will be glossed over ("We knew consumers wouldn't be satisfied with a mere 7 hrs talk time instead of 8, so we intentionally limited its capabilities.").

Funny how battery life on 3G just isn't that big an issue on other phones. Personally, I'd rather have the choice, and just switch back to GSM if I need the extra life. But that's not really the Apple way, is it?

Re:I don't want much more

[Zeinfeld]

#1) Does it work well as a phone ?
#2) Does it work well as a phone ?
#3) Does it work well as a phone ?

Precisely and the thing that was actually amazing about the iPhone is that it is the first PDA phone that has not been a half baked POS. I have had a Blackberry, an iPaq and a Treo. They all suck. They crash, they drop connections, they are unreliable. The Treo is a vast improvement on the iPaq but its still a POS.

The iPhone on the other hand is competently engineered and actually works. What would it take for me to buy one?

For me to buy one for my personal use it would have to be really, really good. It would have to be good enough for me to carry a second phone around with me for a start. If it had GPS capability and I could use it to auto-navigate in the car that would make me buy it. In fact I would even buy one if there was a GPS adaptor kit available that I could fit in the car and then plug the iPhone in when I am driving the car without a GPS.

For the phone to be acceptable as a work phone it would have to meet two particular requirements. First it has to synch with Exchange email and calendar, either natively or through a third party plug in like Goodmail. Second the email capability must provide for a 'reset' facility in the case that the phone is reported lost or stolen. Without that capability I can't use the phone for work.

Those 'must have' items apart, I would like to be able to use my iPhone as a remote control for arbitrary devices in my home. I would also like to be able to use it as a one time password token.

Another very nice to have feature would be to be able to use the iPhone as a VOIP phone when in range of a suitable WiFi source. I doubt that will be an option until sometime after the AT&T exclusive deal expires though.

My list of nice to have is not actually very long, I don't want my phone to do absolutely everything. I don't even care about having a camera on my phone. But I certainly would like to see the way phones are sold change so that instead of having to buy the phone through my network provider I buy the phone and then decide what network to use it on. I want to see the phone become a commodity communications device.

If that happens then instead of having one phone and many batteries I would be just as happy taking a second phone with me on a trip. If one phone goes flat I switch to the other. I should be able to receive calls from either my home number or my 'mobile' number when I am out of the house and the phone should be able to reconfig itself to my wife's preferences if she needs to use it when I am out.

Instead of buying one phone per person I buy one for every room that currently has a telephone handset.

Re:I don't want much more

[shmlco]

Quotes off page one of a Google search for HTC battery life, giving 1,750,000 results...

"The only gripe I have about this device is the poor battery performance. ... I usually need to recharge it in the late afternoon because the battery gets below 10%."

"I'm very disappointed with the battery life on my 8525, especially compared to the 8125. ... I lost 10% on my 35 minute drive to work This included no voice calls but a fair amount of text messaging, internet use, and emails."

"The battery on the htc tytn sucks, ... using wifi on it for 20 minutes drains 30-40 percent of the phone already! the phone's absolutely amazing but the battery life is it's downfall."

"However when I am using the built-in wireless extensively, when I am traveling, or when I am not able to recharge at some point during the day, I have noticed a definite need for a backup power solution."

IOW, battery life under 3G would appear to be a "bit" of an issue...

Re:I don't want much more

[shmlco]

So they should have added the feature so it can be turned off?

Further, I think you should check out AT&T's 3G coverage. Until their network gets a MAJOR set of upgrades, having 3G on the phone isn't going to do you a lot of good.

Errr, yeah, GPS is just what it needs...

[Anonymous Coward]

GPS functionality? How about moving to this side of Y2K when it comes to cellphone technology first? I don't know, maybe start with MMS?

Easy answer

[obender]

In iPhone2 I want OpenMoko.

Re:Easy answer

[goombah99]

I suppose you want, nay, DEMAND, ogg vorbis before you will buy?

Re:Easy answer

[Jeremi]

The fact that people are willing to buy something that officially can't have new software written for it suggests they are not very serious technical people.

How do you like your open-source TV? Is your open-source refrigerator working for you? And your open-source car is doing fine, I trust?

Surely you didn't buy closed-source versions of these products... that would suggest you are not a serious technical person.

The perfect OS

[gardyloo]

Windows Me.

Really?

[jvagner]

We just went through months and months of iPhone discussions. Then we re-hashed half of those details in the way that the iPod Touch is a little disappointing. A lot of progress has been made in terms of getting unofficial 3rd party apps installed to the device. Do we really have to talk about this already?

Here's the thing: Apple, and Steve Jobs, will do exactly what they want and nothing more. We may get iChat support, we may get video at some point, but we're probably not getting an official SSH client. We're probably not getting VOIP, even though Apple has made obvious their disdain for the cell industry.

Once a product is launched, Apple tends to make small, incremental improvements. I don't see the iPhone 2.0 as a huge step up. In his "Steve Takes Europe" tour, the timelines for a 3G iPhone seem to be pointing more towards the end of next year, not sooner.

Be happy with your iPhone now. I won't be getting one, but that's okay. But I *am* done thinking about the iPhone, because for me it really is short of the mark. I'm in love with the interface, the form factor, and the degree to which Apple was able to think very differently than the rest of the industry. But, Apple's self-imposed product limitations are too annoying for me. It's just not going to be the device I really want.

Voice Synthesizer/Modulator

[kwabbles]

I want to be able to change my voice when I call people.

Options must include:

Barry White
Liz Hurley
Megatron
Gary Coleman
Jerry Lewis
R2D2
Bobcat Goldthwait
Herve Villavechaize
Smeagol (post-ring)

I'd switch to AT&T for that.

Short list.

[mypalmike]

- SW: Todo list.
- SW: WiFi SIP phone application that I can use with any SIP provider.
- SW: Dev kit. (Partly so I can implement/port these if Apple or "official 3rd party developer" doesn't.)
- HW: HSDPA (3G).
- Service: Wireless sync calendar/contacts over WiFi or Edge/3G.

I was one of the naysayers, but I ended up buying one of the $300 4GB models a couple weeks back to try it out. Now, it's "from my cold dead hands." Web browsing and email on the iPhone are simply leaps and bounds better than what I had on my Samsung Blackjack.

It really only needs two things

[StarKruzr]

which will enable everything else (short of 3G).

1) SDK
2) Uncrippled Bluetooth.

That's funny...

[SuperKendall]

Hardware keyboard

Funny, the lack of a software keyboard or renewed form of Jot was the reason I never purchased a Treo.

After you use a virtual keyboards, and you find that it changes to symbols that make sense for the context you are in... I never ever want to go back to a real keyboard. Even desktop keyboards I find annoying in the rigidity they offer, especially when playing games.

UNIX apps? Already got 'em.

For $600, again?

[RingDev]

Hell, I'm still waiting for iPhone 1.0 to give me a blow job. For another $600, iPhone two better come with a twin.

-Rick

lame article, fit for Digg only

[Jeremy_Bee]

I was struck by how stupid most of the 15 things listed in the ComputerWorld article were and how the list seemed to be a big confabulation of every complaint we have ever heard about the iPhone. Don't we know enough already to steer clear of any article that starts with "15 things..." or "10 great ways..."? :-)

Several of these "things to fix" are things that only third parties can accomplish, several more require entirely new hardware, and most of the rest are already slated to appear when Leopard comes out. At the very least, the article could differentiate between things requiring new hardware, and things that could be 'fixed" on the original iPhone.

For software related issues, it's hardly worth talking about until Leopard is out as it's pretty clear at this point that the iPhone was originally intended to be released in a post-Leopard world and is not "all that it was meant to be" at the moment. For hardware related stuff, GPS, G3, better camera, and second camera are too obvious to really mention (over and over again).

Ho-hum (yawns)

Re:be carful

[Captain Splendid]

be carful

Well said, sonny!

Now why'd you moderators mod this fine, upstanding young man a "troll"? As can be seen from his subject line, he just wishes all of us to embrace the the principles of carpooling! Frankly, we need more of his kind! None of this mamby-pamby talk about Global Warming, just get out there and make sure your car is full ! This kind of lead-from-the-front can-do attitude is our best bet to lick this yet!

ttapper04, I salute you, Sir!

Few things needed to make a Palm PDA killer

[poopie]

As a palm faithful for years and years, it was with great reluctance that I jumped ship to the iPhone. The browser and media player on the iphone are FANTASTIC. I can't say enough good things about them. There are however, a number of problems I've had dealing with my transition from Palm to iPhone.

- Few key *NATIVE* apps that I can't or don't want to replace with a web-based app: Let's face it, EDGE or wireless networking isn't good enough everywhere to completely depend on for frequently used apps. I want a local password manager app. I want a multiprotocol IM client. I want ability to record voice and video clips. I want a global search function. I want a draw/paint/notepad app where I can draw things like I do on cocktail napkins. I want a *REAL* todo app that ties into my calendar. I really miss my car maintenance/gas mileage app.

- mail app. Make email able to open any audio/video attachments with "itunes" multimedia player. Give me per-email account config options for # of messages to download, how many to keep. How about download and keep all messages until free ram less than X? Need ability to search email subject, to:, and email body.

- Integration features: I want my phone to "guess" my location based on cell towers, wifi access points and show a 'you are here' in Google Maps. I want to be able to select text from a webpage, and have the option of emailing the text with a link to source page to anyone in my address book. I want to be able to enter a phone number in the "location" field for a meeting and be able to touch the number on a meeting reminder and have the iphone dial my meeting number.

- Sync: Please oh please, let me sync my calendar with Google Calendar and Google contacts - I'd like to be able to do it wired or wirelessly. Add support in iTunes for syncing with Mozilla Sunbird. Add support for syncing with multiple calendar sources that have different sync locations and rules -- let my sync my work calendar and have events show up in red. Let me sync my personal calendar and have events show up in blue. Let me be able to toggle viewing my wife's personal calendar on and off as I wish and have it show up in a different color. Let me schedule events for multiple calendars. Please also add support for syncing with Palm Desktop. There aren't many good free PIMs on Windows. Outlook blows. Not everyone or every company uses Exchange. I wasted days trying to get 10 years of Palm data into outlook and into my iPhone. In the end, I only got about 80% of it over. That's a tragedy -- Apple should make it trivial for a Palm user to switch to iPhone with all their data.

- Browser: Flash, Flash, Flash... oh and bluetooth printing support

- Remote access: If you don't open up the iPhone, at least give us a multipurpose remote access app. I want to choose from the following options: 1) text-based ssh console, 2) RDP client that support multi-touch screen scaling and screen tilting, 3) VNC client that supports multi-touch screen scaling and positioning

- Hardware enhancements: Bluetooth - give me a tiny, foldable bluetooth keyboard and iphone stand that pairs with the iPhone so I can put it on the desk and type faster. Keyboard folded over should be about same size as iphone. Give us Stereo Bluetooth support and sell a stereo bluetooth headset with a MIC for phone use too (We hate wires). Keep larger flash drive capacities coming. Keyboard slider might make an interesting device - I won't be typing any novels on my current iPhone.

- Provide a *FREE* SDK for 3rd party development. Don't force me to jump ship to a gphone in 1 year. Let me hack my iPhone without worrying about Apple updates needing me to "reformat" my device and resync all my data. Come on, now!

- iTunes - let me grab new podcasts wireless and sync up info when I sync with itunes

Did I mention native, multiprotocol IM client? Oh, well let me mention it again. Let me specify my own XMPP/jabber servers too so I can connect with my corporate IM servers.

Lastly, one app I re

Re:be carful

[JebusIsLord]

I mostly just want more memory... my CD collection is at about 30GB right now. Put 32GB of flash in there and we have a deal.

I'm not carrying one of these AND my iPod. I want an all-in-one.