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What Features Should Be Included With iPhone 3.0?
With the announcement coming tomorrow, Macworld has posted their top list of 15 features they would like to see in an iPhone 3.0 update. The list includes some things that people have been asking for since launch (like cut and paste) and things that were once there but have since been silently removed (like push notifications/background apps). With almost 2 years of time to grow and learn, what other things are woefully inadequate on Apple's popular handheld?
... a keyboard?
Should be top of the list.
"So is the BSD licence even more 'free' (than GPLv2)? Yes. Unquestionably." --Linus Torvalds (TinyURL.com/2vugzl)
unlimited porn subscription
-Standard USB data/charging cable
-USB mass storage support
-Video recording
-Tethering
-Multitasking
-MMS
I'd like to second the desire for copy-and-paste; it's the thing that has really been bugging me since I got an iPhone.
Being able to sync with Thunderbird, without having to do the "Thunderbird sync to Google, iPod sync to Google" thing would be nice. If they could add support for syncing calendars with Sunbird at the same time, that would be spiffing.
Yeah, I had a sig once; I got bored of it.
The iPhone has quite a few otherwise great apps (like IM clients and such) that don't get used much because they can't run in the background. AIM or Yahoo IM aren't much use to me if, in order to stay connected to the IM service, the phone has to have that app running in the foreground at all times. Seriously, add multitasking. Let users answer texts or change the current song while still running another application in the background.
The Apple music store is DRM free now.
Are you proposing they remove the DRM support in hardware, so people who bought DRM'd media can't play those files?
Or are you just bitching about something that's sure to get a bunch of other putzes to agree with you?
The current (legal) ones really tie your hands.
... a keyboard?
I think they should include a printer as well, one which prints out money! That way, the owners might have some way of recouping the cost of a ridiculously overpriced telephone/mp3 player!
On a more serious note. They should include proper buttons for skipping tracks and and changing albums. Whilst the touch screen might look all fancy, it's not very useful when you're walking down a crowded street and just want to stick your hand in your pocket and skip to the next track.
I personally use an MP3 player which doesn't have a screen at all. I don't need one. I don't need to be able to see what tune I'm playing, I can hear which one it is! Maybe with the crappy earphones you get on an iPhone it's harder to hear what tune is playing!
On that note, they really need to include that 8A83E3 chip so we can't accidentally plug in a competitor's earphones and be hindered by superior sound quality! :)
Not just because it's absolutely awesome to download horror films in a field somewhere and watch them on a real screen, but because it would force mobile phone service providers to offer it as a consumerland option. It beats the hell out of a seperate USB-stick mobile broadband package, even at £5 extra per month. And it would mean that you finally have a mobile broadband option for your Macbook.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Google Maps on the phone is useless for actually getting somewhere. It draws a nice line but without turn by turn navigation or even detecting when you're off the path and re-calculating it's no good for driving.
I know it says it's not meant for that but that strikes me as trying to cover up being inadequate with some after the fact documentation and legalese.
No contracts to buy one would be number one on my list
-Ability to use as a modem (via bluetooth and USB or even ad-hoc WiFi).
How about the next version include less smugness?
Sent from my iPhone
This one drives me nuts. My life is conf calls yet when a call number in included in a meeting invite, IT'S NOT LINKED like phone number are EVERYWHERE else in the phone apps.
would be a way for the apple software to prevent people from posting "First" comments on any website via the iPhone.
-- All this knowledge is giving me a raging brainer.
The iphone is awesome and I want one but it's still a walled garden so I'm avoiding it. Here's a perfect example:
http://appstorehell.chocoflop.com/wiki/Main_Page
What the hell is wrong with my iPhone / iPod application and why do I not get any answers after months of waiting ?
So you got an iPhone and thought it was a great device and you decided to write software for it:
* You learned objective-C and Cocoa programming
* You paid 99$ to register as an official developer
* You wrote a nice application
* You submitted your application.
* and then...
Image:mail.png It doesn't get rejected, but you get a message that says...
Your application YourApp is requiring unexpected additional time for review. We apologize for the delay, and will update you with further status as soon as we are able. Thank you for your patience.
Looks like nothing to worry about. So...
* You wait for a week, then two, then three, four, five, six...
* You write e-mails to devprograms
* You make phone calls to developer support
But you never get any answer ? After a pair of months you get used to the idea that your app will never be accepted nor rejected.
Image:question.png So what is happening really ?
Knowningly or not you most likely hit on one of the "secretly forbidden" features that Apple doesn't want on the AppStore. Those are issues that are not specifically mentionned in the agreement and that they are not willing to defend. Their solution, which is unofficial but which has proven to be systematic is to let developers linger in silence for ever.
It's a cool technology but Apple's engaging in superdickery here, same as the American cell carriers. Apple had to use their clout to get unmetered broadband from ATT but cheering them on for that feels kind of like WWIII Ukrainians cheering on the nazis for pushing out the communists.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
A choice of any bandwidth provider out there?
I can't believe nobody has mentioned this yet. It plagues everyone I know who bought one of these stupid things thinking that Exchange support meant WORKING Exchange support.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Agreed. AT&T service is pointless in PA/NJ.
Most Asked for Feature that Will Never Be Implimented on an Apple Product Getting rid of AT&T.
Please, deliver on your promise and fix the app notifications you've announced when the first SDK shipped. There are so many great applications out there that would get a much needed enhancement - IM, GTD apps, Email, etc.
My #1 request is push email that doesn't involve Yahoo, Mail2Web, or Me.com
MMS. Actual take-a-picture-and-send-it-to-another-phone MMS. Not this half-assed email attachment crap.
Not everyone in my life wants to check email on their phone, even if they had the capability. But everyone, including my grandmother, texts and uses MMS.
In my view, Cut-N-Paste, MMS, A2DP and other such features are point items to be added to a stable release. They do not justify upping the major release number. And Apple has been fairly logical about release numbering if you look at OS X. You need something really major to update the release number, possibly something that changes the entire framework.
So with that view, here's my list:
1) Background apps and/or push notifications: Its fairly obvious why this hasn't happened yet. AT&T. Enable push notifications and AT&T's revenue from SMS/texting goes down in a major way as everyone starts using their favorite instant messenger. Not sure how Apple will handle this, but I wouldn't be surprised if push notifications came with a tax/twist of some sort.
2) Mobile Me As an Application Platform: This would work wonderfully with Apple's approach to integrating hardware, software and services to enable a better user experience. Push notifications could be channeled through Mobile Me. In essence open up Mobile Me as an application platform for creating cloud based apps for the iphone. This would also enable syncing for non-apple applications which in my view is a major hole today. Additionally, this ups the ante by an order of magnitude beyond what the other phone vendors can offer. (expect perhaps Google and Android) It could also spur Mac sales if some parts of the Mobile Me integration are Mac only.
I am fairly certain (2) will happen. Whether its tomorrow or later I don't know but I hope tomorrow.
You know that the mic tab on the iPhone 3G is a button, right?
You can answer/end a call by clicking it.
You can also start/stop playing music by clicking it when not calling... and you can double-click to advance to the next song, and triple-click to go back a song.
Unfortunately, the lack of voice dialing is really something I don't understand. I can connect my Acura audio system to act as a bluetooth speakerphone for my iPhone... but I cannot dial numbers by just clicking the button on the wheel and speaking, the way my parents can with their cheapo phones...
What DRM? I keep hearing about how much DRM there is on my iPhone and all the things it prevents me from doing. So I keep looking for it, but I have yet to find it. I mean, all those pesky mp3s I ripped from various CDs seem to be playing fine. And those DVD rips that I converted into mp4s with open software play happily. With one of the many file handlers on the app store, I can open and read 99% of the text formats out there. As far as I can tell, the only types of formats the iPhone won't play are ones that do include DRM or are simply beyond the hardware. So what DRM is on the iPhone?
You can start to think about it, but you won't ever finish, because Bluetooth is just plain too slow for that.
It should be able to sync over 802.11 though. From your pocket. With no user interaction. Finding your computer with Rendezvous.... Mmmm...
We've got an entire company of these things, and no one seems to complain about exchange support.
I personally have one as well, and I have yet to have a problem with it.
-ted
Most of this list matches the top items on www.pleasefixtheiphone.com.
Now for the flame bait: Most of these features are on the latest BlackBerries.
Steve hates fans and keeps them out of this toasters, oops, computers.
Maybe one of the 25K apps simulates the sound of a fan.
1. A more complete bluetooth stack that does OBEX and A2DP and Syncing.
2. an IChat client.
3. A side swipe like the one in Mail and SMS to delete individual calls from the recents List.
4. Notes Sync with the Desktop.
5. Voice Dialing (ala Voice Commmand on Winmo) would be nice.
Do not read this
How about being 'Unlocked' as a feature?
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
Well, that is a workaround
No, a workaround is something you have to do in order to do something the product was not designed to do.
The App Store was designed to work with all of the products you might own, so being able to use the apps on multiple devices is not a "workaround", it's by design.
Stripping out the DRM to give free apps to others is a "workaround"
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Aka recents. You can't even tell how long an individual call lasted with the current implementation.
Right now, it defaults to once, and if you don't unlock the phone, it does it again. I'd like to set it just to once ... period. I figure if they allow you to set it to once, why not to X with some suitable max value.
But I'd settle for once. I get a lot of texts while in meetings, and I don't need the confusing second notification in there making me think I got another. Right now, I just glance at the screen and see what's there without unlocking--it's annoying when I see it's the same text from before.
"Doubt your doubts and believe your beliefs." -- Switchfoot, Ode to Chin
Run an app that you didn't purchase from the App Store. *That* DRM. I have an iPhone 3G and I wish I could get apps elsewhere that Apple didn't approve of for whatever reason.
In the dark, dank economic times ahead, we need weapons in the iPhone because its cheery and inviting glow will attract the unemployed proletariat riff-raff out on the streets.
I suggest a titanium telescoping katana that rotates into a Calabi Yau hyperspace manifold when not in use, or an iPhone app that opens a wormhole to a universe full of angry bees.
Whilst the touch screen might look all fancy, it's not very useful when you're walking down a crowded street and just want to stick your hand in your pocket and skip to the next track.
Ah, but how would they receive free marketing if you never pulled out your fancy device in a crowded area? People would not be able to woo as they watch you touch your phone and wish to themselves they had their own.
No doubt Apple realized that each time someone used it in a public setting it would be a conversation piece or at the very least get people to think to themselves, "Oh, hey, it's that one phone!", at least during the phone's initial debut. If people are simply pressing buttons, let alone out of the view of public, they lose some buzz.
There are people who are still in awe over the phone, however most of them have gone out and bought one themselves so that they can publicly display the phone themselves. This then becomes a situation of people simply displaying it publicly in hopes to look important or culturally elite, as no doubt all of us have seen quite more than we'd care to.
Prove it.
Most of these points have already been made -- sync all your stuff, not just your email. Make everything searchable, not just contacts. Apple, PDAs have done this since before the turn of the century. Get on the stick.
Full bluetooth support. The i-phone should pair seamlessly with car audio systems that support stereo bluetooth. Blackberry already does this. Funky, proprietary cables and scratchy FM transmitters are so two decades ago.
Support for bluetooth peripherals, including (let me be clear on this) a decent keyboard. Blackberry already does this. Apple, you're missing out on a whole new line of stylish white iphone peripherals. Your marketing geeks should be thinking "micro-office".
Not just tethering, but bluetooth tethering. It's just amazing to me that you can tether a Blackberry to a Mac but you can't tether an i-phone to a Mac. How could Apple allow this to happen?
Speaking of proprietary cables, it's time Apple take a clue from the rest of the cell phone industry and switch to a micro-USB connector on the phone. Last time I said that in this forum, someone replied that Apple has been providing USB support for some time, which just goes to show how misunderstood this issue is. All three of our phones, and the company phone when I have to carry it, will charge from the same charger despite being different manufacturers. The ipod touch needs that proprietary stylish white charger with the stylish white proprietary connector. Where the hell has that thing gone now... Apple, please hear this. Proprietary data connectors are so last century.
MMS... geeze... don't get me started...
Apple has got to stop screwing around with locking down memory and calling it a feature. Flash memory is cheap, plentiful and standardized. A phone without a micro-SD slot is just plain not interesting. Why in God's name should you have to buy another phone to get more memory? How green is that? How financially responsible is that? Ipod and Iphone owners -- let me clue you in on a secret that Apples doesn't want you to know about... Memory has been cheap and more importantly, interchangeable for years. To upgrade my Blackberry from 8 Gbytes to 16 Gbytes costs $40.99 (Amazon) and can be done in a few seconds. To do a similar upgrade to an ipod touch is $284.95 (Amazon) minus whatever I could get on the used market for the old ipod. This is incredibly backwards. Flash memory is a commodity item.
I'm sure there are Apple marketing people who will say that locking down memory in iphone and ipod devices is a positive revenue stream for Apple. To them I say, the current arrangement results in a thriving used device market, from which you don't get revenue. Wouldn't you rather be selling stylish white SD cards at Apple's usual markup?
And finally, I won't even consider a phone that doesn't have a user replaceable battery. My phone is, like, my phone, it's what I use for my livelihood. I can't be without it for any longer than it takes to pop off the back and put in another battery. I'm sorry, if you're going to be a serious contender to serious phone/pda users, you're going to have to rethink this.
Again, I expect the next i-phone to be like the current 3G phone except more memory and a few bugfixes. What I hope happens is that Apple steps up to the plate and fields a phone that does everything the current competition does, only better. But -- reality check -- different isn't necessarily better. Example: Email is not a substitute for MMS. Email is Email, and MMS is MMS, and your competition has both.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Additional Features:
1) Flash Player, especially since Adobe's been working on it and stating that it's more so a policy issue. (Policy is what seems to be blocking Flash, TomTom, multi-tasking, and more.)
2) Set WiFi alert time. I mean seriously, you drive through downtown and you can't even use your iPhone thanks to all the wifi alerts. That said, you'd still like to know if wifi is available when you're lounging around somewhere. Let us be able to set the following: a) Alert after 30 seconds of availability (this would eliminate the alerts popping up while driving), b) alert met to open/unlocked networks or ALL networks.
3) File transfer (let me be able to easily move files I want available locally on my iphone). And let me move files from other iTunes manually. Enable disk use (wireless and USB), USB a must and wireless a plus.
4) Dump iTunes. Seriously, talk about specification creep. When a music player now manages movies, television, that's one thing. But when it's your application manager and synchronization tool as well. Apple really needs to launch a new tool, call iLife or what not. Where iTunes would just be one category. I mean, I really hate having to go under music to find my TV shows and apps and such. LAME!!!
5) Ability to print basic text would be nice.
***
I dont know wbout the iPhone, But for its phoneless cousin, Id like to see it retain its GPS and Microphone capabilities. There are tones of fantastic apps that dont work because they dont have the GPS antenna or audio mic that the iPhone version has. Also decent file transfer. I had to buy a wireless router and a third party app just to get non-itunes related files on my itouch. If they dont get some of this basic functionality, they are going to loose to Blackberry pretty fast
Common Sense isn't as Common as people think...
I always found the weakest part of the iPhones interface to be the lack of the Magical Pony to ride around while you laugh at the poor fools stuck with lesser phones.
My old Nokia 6310i did all of the above (SMS -> note was actually "move SMS to another folder"). Also, its battery, after 57 months of daily usage, would last about 6 days with medium-light usage. My iPhone sees a bit more usage, but it needs to be recharged every day.
Apple will never sacrifice usability just to throw the latest gizmo in a device.
I'm not so sure I would describe such basic things as the ability to find a network signal or having functional bluetooth as the latest gizmo. Apple's computers, whatever else we may think about them, fill their niche so well at least partly because they are a fully functional product. Seems to me there are just too many things they couldn't be bothered implementing on their phone in their haste to get it on the market.
The next offering is going to have to be more carefully thought through if Apple wants to maintain any kind of edge. People were prepared to forgive the iPhone's quirks when it was new. Now it's had time to mature and is no longer so new and shiny, people will expect a more mature product.
Complete cleaving the tether to a local machine: permit downloading files (txt, pdf, etc.) while browsing and allow access to them between apps (e.g, safari, mail, Annotater, who's going to write vi?).