Round 2: What the iPhone Doesnt Got

Posted on 12 Oct 2008 17:49:44 by John Slater
Well i had a little bit of response from my last post titled "What the iPhone doesn't got" so i thought i would make another post with more than just feature requirements, we have feature requests and a few bug fixes too. These are all things that i didn't think of before but after reading some threads it has jogged my memory, so here is round 2.

Wifi Syncing
I want to be able to have my iPhone sync whenever i come in range of my computer, this means i don't have to constantly plug in my phone just to update it with one Podcast.

The Zune has been able to produce this quite well and it's something it has been praised for. It would make sense now because both the iPhone and iTouch have Wifi built in but allowing them to sync with the computer would be swell.

One problem i can see happening with this feature is people popping in a room and having their iPhone start syncing, then they leave the room and it is half done, which i'm sure would cause a problem. But Apple have lots of employees, i shouldn't have to recommend a fix for them. Let them work it out.

Wifi iTunes Store. Without Wifi
This was huge when it was released and Apple received a lot of buzz when they announced it. And i personally love the idea. However i just don't go near a Wifi spot on a daily basis so it wouldn't be possible for me to use it, and personally i don;t trust them with my iTunes password anyway. 3G and Edge has proved that download speeds on a mobile device can be very close to Wifi and the average size of a song is 5MB tops. So why the hell can i not download songs over Edge or 3G. I'm sure Apple are thinking of bandwidth usage, but seriously? some of the apps i download are 3MB, an extra 2MB isn't a massive leap and it would increase sales because i often use Shazam to identify songs and then hit iTunes. But i always get faced with a screen telling me i cannot view the store because of the lack of WiFi.

Note Syncing
I can write all the notes in the world on my iPhone but when i sync i cannot do anything with the notes. I can't e-mail them. Can't download them. Can't upload them. So what the hell is the point? what can i do with something that remains stuck on my phone like a lemon?

Allow me to sync the notes with my iMac into a special folder somewhere on my computer. Simple.

EDIT: Apparently you can e-mail notes. but still cant sync them

Sync ONLY Unplayed Podcasts
I'm a massive podcast fan. I watch massive amounts of video podcasts from Revision3 including Diggnation, Scam School, Digg Reel and Tekzilla and i also love TikiBar TV (when they decide to do episodes). The problem i'm faced with is space issues, i have 16GB of space on my iPhone and the majority is music, but i often sync podcasts which fill at least 2GB of it up. However when i set iTunes to sync podcasts i'm never given the option to Sync podcasts that i haven't watch. Instead i have to sync the last 3 episodes of a podcasts if i want to watch them because iTunes/iPhone are too stupid to see i have watch episode #1 and #2 but haven't watch #3. Yet it syncs them all.

This is something for them to look into, they have clearly done a smashing job of syncing TV Shows and Movies if they haven't been watched.

Lock Screen Display
Lets face it. The lock screen is very bland when you have no text-messages or missed calls. One thing I'm sure thousands of people want is the option to view different information on the Lock Screen.

Personally i want to be able to whip my iPhone out of my pocket and have a quick glance at the screen to see what e-mails i have, text messages, missed calls and upcoming events.

I know Apple has patented this idea and there are mock-ups all over the internet of what the lock screen will look like. But i want it now. This is something my iPhone should do now because the glance screen at the moment is pretty crap. All i can see is a background image which i change every now and again to liven things up.

Contact Search
I know a few people that i have assigned nicknames to on my iPhone. Some of these people will not like the nicknames i have given them, but they will never find out anyway. What i find annoying is that even after going to this length of assigning nicknames to people i cannot search for people using their nickname. In fact the only thing i can search for people by is there real first or last name. I would love to be able to type in TJ and Thomas Johns show up or if i typed in 'swellhead' and see James Hothersall's name pop up. But it doesn't. Why?

Built in Apps Be-Gone
I'm a student/geek/web designer/awesome but i'm not a business man, i don't own shares in any companies and i don't give a flying-fudge whether or not Apple stocks are dipping because of the "Global Economic Crisis" so why do i have to look at that stupid stocks icon? The iPhone should have an option in the settings menu to hide or delete the built in apps i don't use. Just a little sliding box in the settings pain or a little cross when i hold down an icon will do. Weather & Stocks are stupidly pointless and should be hidden.

Turn off Multiple Alerts
When i'm at work, college or in the car i often receive a text message, i normally take a little glance to see who it is, what it was regarding and then put my phone down because normally the full message is visible on the lock screen. Then every 5 minutes (for 15 more minutes) my phone beeps to tell me i have a message, i want to switch this off. Its stupid.

If you MUST remind me then just a quick vibrate every 10 minutes 3 times would be fine. not ideal. but i could live with it.

I have a few more little things too...
I have a few additional requests to make however they are not deemed as important as the above for me. It's also because i cannot be bothered writing any more.

Cut/Copy & Paste
I would love to be able to Cut/Copy & Paste between applications and is something that has been created on the odd app.

Message Forwarding
People like to forward HILARIOUS jokes via SMS to all their friends. But on the iPhone you cannot. Fix It!

Widescreen Keyboard
It is easily the best way to type and feels more natural yet it has been left out of the majority of apps. [picture]

Make ALL Accessories work
I know there might be some cellular interference from the iPhone with my accessory but that's my problem. not Apples. So let me make the choice of using it.

Character Recognition
The Chinese have it. why cant we. Our language is much easier than theirs.

Physical Keyboard Feedback
On the hacked iPhone people can have the phone vibrate a little when they hit a key, this is so they know they have hit it and is very useful for people who like to hit non-existant keys while driving down a motorway at 70Mph

Summary
Clearly apple is missing a trick here from them to have 2 posts about features the iPhone doesn't have. Now the ball is in Apple's court and now they need to add all the missing features.

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