updated: What the iPhone 3G is still missing: the wish list

Apple iPhone

Having been on the market for slightly over one year, the iPhone is growing to be a respected and proven mobile handset both in the minds of consumers and businesses alike.  I was the proud owner of the first-generation model and since the beginning of August have the latest 3G version (8GB).  I can safely state that the iPhone 3G is the best device I have ever used and it’s the one device I use most often.  And while parts of the iPhone ecosystem - such as the App Store – are getting great reviews, there is still work to be done on the device software and feature set.  What follows is (what I believe to be) an all-encompassing list of features that are missing from the iPhone 3G today.  To the best of my knowledge, all of these features can be added with a software update to the iPhone 3G, meaning that Apple can surprise us any day with any of these highly-requested features.

1. Cut/copy/paste.  Can we beg for it any more?  I am really frustrated by not being able to copy a part of a web page, paste it into Jott, and refer back to it as part of my to-do list.  The lack of this highly useful and much-anticipated feature is becoming embarassing to us iPhone-wielding types.  After more than a year of iPhone software development, the feature is it still missing.  I think the reason for its absence has somethig to do with Apple trying to avoid a slippery downward slope of double standards between it and 3rd party developers.  Say what?  Well, to implement cut-and-paste, Apple would have to enable a background process to run – something that third-party developers are currently forbidden in using with their apps.  By enabling this background process, Apple might generate a fire-storm of disgruntled third-party developers who will question why they don’t have the ability to use the same processes in their own apps.  Another part of my crystal ball says that the background process issue might not turn out to be such a big deal afterall, since Apple already has had the necessary background processes running on the iPhone (WiFi, Bluetooth, and surely – the GSM radio).  In any event, Apple must be planning to introduce the feature down the road.  It’s all just a matter of how high a priority the feature is on Apple’s to-do list. 
   But how would cut/copy/paste be implemented?  My bet is on using the magnifier glass for selecting the exact text to be cut/copied.  If the user holds the magnifier in place for longer than three seconds, the device will know that the user intends on copying/cutting the text starting from this particular point.  Then, the user can drag the finger to select the end of the copy/cut space.  The text to be cut/copied will become highlighted.  The user can then leave a finger on the screen, which will bring up a contextual menu with the option to cut or to copy.  Pasting the cut/copied text can be accomplished by holding a finger down on the screen for a few seconds and selecting paste from the contextual menu. 
2. MMS.  Let’s take a look at our friendly neighborhood AT&T store for a sec.  As of this writing, AT&T is offering the Sony Ericsson W580i phone for free with a two-year contract.  Guess what feature the free Sony Ericsson has that our favorite iPhone doesn’t?  MMS.  If you’re not familiar, MMS - short for MultiMedia Messaging – is a form of text messaging that allows a user to send photos and video along with text.  If you get down to the tech basics of MMS (and SMS – the standard form of text messaging), it’s really just a form of email – something the iPhone does quite well.  So the question from unsuspecting iPhone users goes something like “Why can’t I just send you that photo by email and not need MMS?”  Well, you can send it by email  The problem with doing that is that most basic phones don’t have email.  But they do have MMS.  So until everybody gets a smart phone or a phone with an email client – MMS will need to do.  And it will need to get to the iPhone. 
3. While on the topic of MMS and SMS, here’s another item that’s a pet-peeve of mine: SMS rate plans.  As I mentioned previously, SMS (text) and MMS (media) messaging are just forms of email (data) tailored for a mobile phone user interface.  The AT&T iPhone plan comes with an unlimited data plan.  So why is it that AT&T is charging iPhone customers a separate fee to send text messages?  I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s gouging, but it’s certainly playing to the weakness of the uneducated consumer.  If customers were at all educated about how this stuff works, noone would opt for the text messaging plans at all and just use the iPhone’s email and web surfing capailities to use SMS and MMS over the web – for free.
4. And while that free Sony Ericsson W580i from AT&T is still fresh in our minds, let’s bring up one more feature that’s near and dear to my heart: Stereo Bluetooth, also known as A2DP.  Everybody is familiar with Bluetooth, right?  And the iPhone has it.  So what’s the bid deal?  Well, the iPhone supports only half of the Bluetooth protocol – the part that supports voice.  The A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) part allows you to listen to music (besides using the technology to make calls) through that wireless Bluetooth headset.  Besides bringing world peace, this would solve all of my problems.  I would no longer get my earbuds tangled up and try to untagne them.  I would no longer need to carry a wireless Bluetooth headset and a wired pair of headphones.  All I would need around town is my high-quality Bluetooth set – and A2DP is, as far as I can tell, only a software update away.  So why is it still missing?  It’s all in the priorities – and A2DP is obviously not a feature on the top of that holy list within Apple. 
5. Better quality image capture camera:  So the pimp-daddy of all cell phones is the iPhone, eh?  Then why is it that the already-mentioned (and dare I mention again, the free) Sony Ericsson W580i from AT&T not only match the iPhone camera quality (2MP), but also beat the iPhone by having a 4x zoom?  How much zoom does the iPhone have?  Zipp.  It doensn’t even support it.  And how about video?  Oh, I think you’ll really begin to hate me here: our free contender – the Sony Ericsson – records video as well.  The iPhone?  Not so much.  Actually, not at all.  So how does a free, free as in strawberries, middle-of-the-road Sony Ericsson have zoom and a video recorder while our greatest and latest iPhone lacks both?  Well, it’s not all about the feature list; it’s about the software.  iPhone’s memory-capturing capabilities (read: photo/video camera) can be improved by adding more pixels, tweaking other settings in the image-processing department, adding zoom capability (by utilizing the up/down ringer buttons on the side of the phone), adding a flash, and adding video.  For now, let’s move on to
6. Turn-by-turn voice navigation: the iPhone 3G has a GPS sensor in it.  It is able to pinpoint the exact location of the iPhone and follow its every move using the built-in Google Maps application.  Yet it does not guide me using turn-by-turn voice commands and directions to my local Wal-Mart.  In fact, it won’t guide me using such commands anywhere.  This feature is an interesting ommission by Apple. 
   When I hear the word “GPS”, I instantly associate it with a unit by TomTom, Garmin, Sony, Magellan, Dash, and even overly expensive in-car units that tell you to “make your next right in 1 mile”.   Yet the iPhone doesn’t do this and in some ways waves a deception flag in the wake of the uneducated consumer.  I have heard the dissapointed sighs in not having this feature many times from friends and family who have either purchased an iPhone 3G or were playing with a borrowed unit.  The interesting part is that the iPhone has the potential to completely replace a stand-alone GPS unit by any of the aforementioned companies.  But it doesn’t.  Yet.
7. Mail.app signatures: not to be a total nit-picker, but a certain feature of the Mail application needs to be refined.  For power users who have multiple mail accounts set up (such as yours truly), it would be great to have the ability to pick between email account signatures.  Currently, there is only one signature availale as a preset.   
8. App Store Terms and Transparency: let this be your “free gift” of the day, since it’s more of a bonus topic, but a very important one at that.  First, please allow me to set the background: with the iPhone App Store (short for Application store), Apple has uneaerthed an entire goldmine of usability.  Third party developers are able to write programs (applications) for the iPhone such as games, GPS-aware restaurant finders, medical applications for doctors, CRM apps, note-takers that synchronize to the web… the list goes on – the limit on what can be built lies only in the creative genius of the programmers.  The applications are distributed through the App Store on iTunes (on the desktop) and through the App Store “app” on the iPhone/iPod Touch.  They range from being free to being priced at a few hundred dollars.  Sounds great so far, doesn’t it?  It does, but as always – there are a few catches.  The “catch” I’d like to focus on now are the terms and conditions of the App Store.  Without delving too deeply into legal-speak, the applications – after being made by the developers – must go through and approval process by Apple.  Thus, it is entirely up to Apple to decide whether an application ever makes it to the App Store.  This decision is made after the developer has spent the last month of his/her life designing, writing, and debugging said application.  And therein lies the weakest link of the entire process: Apple ultimately makes the decision on what becomes available to us end-users in the form of applications.  What can go wrong?  
   There is so much wrong with this “system”, that I don’t even know where to begin.  The process can be termed “anti-competitive” and might - after a few rejected programs and disgruntled developers – leave Apple with a court date.  In the last two weeks alone, there have been two widely-publicized instances of rejected applications:  

   - Podcaster App: this app is one that I have been waiting for ever since the iPhone was released: it allows me to download podcasts directly to the iPhone.  Yet Apple rejected the application from the store, noting that the application “duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes”.  There are three things wrong here.  One: Podcaster App does not duplicate the desktop functionality of iTunes, but extends it by allowing the user to download podcasts directly to the iPhone using built-in WiFI or 3G data connections.  If the user were to use iTunes, the only way to get podcasts on the device would be to plug the phone into the computer – someting the Podcast App aims to eliminate.  Two: Apple is being hypocrytical in its explanation of why the app was rejected.  Watch and see: the iPhone ships with a built-in calculator application, yet there is - as of this writing – another calculator application on sale in the App Store.  Does the calculator app on sale in the store also duplicate functionality?  It does, so the question is – how did it get there and why?  Three: by providing the reasoning behind the rejection of the Podcaster App, Apple has set themselves up for an anti-competitive fiasco.  The reason given for the rejection – duplicating functionality – would be analagous to Apple forbidding Mozilla and Google from offering FireFox and Chrome web browsers on the Mac because OS X already comes with Safari, and other browsers (from these companies) would duplicate the functionality already existant in Safari.  Moreover, this app would actually benefit many an iPhone user, since more and more services like calendaring and contacts no longer require tethered synchronization by way of plugging the phone into a computer.  Even Apple’s own MobileMe service is moving users away from directly plugging the iPhone into the computer to synchronize contacts and calendars and instead accomplished the synchronization of said items over the air (wirelessly).  The Podcaster App aims aimed to do the same.

   - Pull My Finger App: it’s in the name – press a button and the phone will reproduce a tooting sound.  This application was also rejected by Apple from being in the App store.  The reason?  “We’ve reviewed your application Pull My Finger. We have determined that this application is of limited utility to the broad iPhone and iPod touch user community, and will not be published to the App Store.”  If you look at the demoof the app in action, it’s very well done.  John Gruber puts it best on his blog, Daring Fireball: “With all the absolute crap that has made it into the store, which includes apps based on nothing more than sample code from Apple’s SDK, it seems ridiculous for Pull My Finger to be rejected on these grounds. The current number one app in the store is Koi Pond, which is utterly useless but extremely well-done. ”   

   - Personally, I don’t think that Apple really wants to become the “content cop”.  The task is extremely time-consuming and very subjective.  In the long run, such behavior on the part of Apple (as described above) will only introduce fear and uncertainty into the iPhone development community.  As Mr. John Gruber points out in his post, he knows a top-tier developer who - after witnessing the above behavior by Apple – has curbed plans developing for the iPhone.  What this will do is only hurt the iPhone/iPod touch platform and its users.    Moreover, companies such as Nokia and Google - currently behind Apple in terms of delivering actual iPhone competitors - are positiioning themselves as being the “open” alternative to the big giant (read: Apple); see Google and Nokia.  What Apple needs to do is become transparent by publishing the criteria for application approval/rejection in relation to the App store.  If they don’t, there will always be a negative, mystifying aura when it comes to developing iPhone/iPod touch applications.  And the longer Apple waits to do this, the more sour the iPhone becomes for those developers who are currently on the fence. 

9. Better IM clients: in my experience, the native AIM client on the iPhone does not work.  It doesn’t pop up new message notifications if the app isn’t running and doesn’t refresh the online/offline lists of buddies very well.  More on the topic of IM clients and SMS later (in a different post).
10. Adobe flash: the web, whether you like it or not, has many Flash web pages. Websites written in Flash are seen as cool and hip by those unsuspecting users who don’t know the upsides and downsides of using the technology.  I personally think that Flash is best left to play online movies and video rather than having entire websites coded in it.  I say that because, more often than not, Flash websites are just too “flashy” for my taste and their navigability is poor (read: difficult to use).  I believe that the reason Flash has taken so long to come to the iPhone has something to do with Steve Jobs and Adobe’s CS4.  I think Steve Jobs realizes that Flash on the iPhone is important.  But it very much annoys him that the steps Adobe has taken with Creative Suite 4 in relation to Mac OS X.  Here’s a bit to set the background: ever since its release, Mac OS X Leopard has been heralded as the first mainstream operating system to handle 64-bit the right way.  64-bit support is built-into Leopard and will run this way automatically if the hardware supports it.  Contrast that with how Windows Vista handles 64-bit and it’s clear that Apple has done a great job with 64-bit on OS X.  And herein lies the rub: CS4 won’t be available in the 64-bit flavor for the Mac.  Adobe simply decided that it was more important to release the suite on October 25 (2008), than to wait a bit longer and code the 64-bit version for the Mac.  Moreover, Adobe has gone on record saying that 64-bit support in its Creative Suite won’t be available for the Mac until CS5 – a product that’s at least a few years away from being released.  And this is where Steve can raise his hand and decline Adobe Flash for the iPhone: because Adobe was too lazy or not forward-thinking enough to build CS4 in 64-bit flavor for the Mac, he will deny their Flash the bragging rights of “running on the best-selling, most-popular smartphone.” 
    Whether or not this is a good thing for consumers is a different question: it isn’t.  Yet there is no reason to believe Steve’s comments earlier in the year when Adobe says it’s possible.
11. Voice dialing: this is getting to a point to be considered ridiculous.  A phone as advanced as the iPhone with no voice dialing is embarrassing.  I’m not saying this in the name of tech snobbery or because I want every single feature to be in the phone.  No, voice dialing is something that should’ve been included right from the release, if not for a feature checkmark, then for safety.  The iPhone has not tactile buttons that control navigation.  This makes dialing while driving – even from the Favorites list – a dangerous task: one is forced to look at the device to see which contact is being “touched.”  This would be somewhat eliminated with the use of tactile buttons, but the real solution is voice-dialing.  Can I get a “yeehaw”? 

Well, there you have it.  That’s my all-encompassing list of features and complaints about the iPhone as it exists today.  Now before you email me to let me know that a certain feature I have listed already exists in the jailroken version, please know that I am only talking about non-jailbroken, Apple-blessed features.  The truth of the matter is that most iPhone users will not be hacking their iPhones.  

Also, it is important to understand that the iPhone is what it is today not because of its many features, but because of its simplicity and usability.  The device brings features that have once been reserved for the power users and geeks to the mainstream users. 

Finally on a positive note, I would like to extend great thanks and appreciation to Apple for not only creating this beautiful device – which is the best device I have ever owned, but for tuning things up in the speed and stability departments in the most recent iPhone firmware release (2.1).

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• Updated 10/2/2008:
  • Revised “camera” section
  • Added “Better IM clients” 
  • Added “Adobe Flash”
  • Added “Voice Dialing”