Divergent Thought

         by Josh Barfield

Years ago when the iPhone had been out for a few months I had made a rant about some features I felt were missing. At the time I was using an unlocked iPhone with T-Mobile service. A lot of my complaints were directed in the AT&T direction. On the cusp of a new iOS release and with possible new hardware coming this year I want to take a look at my original rant, compare with where we are today, and discuss any new things I feel are lacking.

The original rant, circa December 2007:

iPhone, unlocking and AT&T

I often wish I didn’t have to deal with the unlocks and jailbreaks for my iPhone. And I’ve told myself that when they release a new one, I’ll probably switch to AT&T. I’m currently sticking with T-Mobile because it’s [much] cheaper and has pretty decent coverage in my area. So I started to think about all of the odds and ends of the iPhone that irk me and I came up with this list. I think if all of these items were satisfied in iPhone 2, I would switch to AT&T like Apple wants me to. Forgive me if I get carried away. In no specific order, I wish for:

• Copy and paste
• Multiple SMS recipients
• MMS (SMS pictures, picture messages)
• SMS “Call” button at the bottom of the history
• Charge indicator on computer
• Syncable to-do items (sync with iCal/Mail)
• Syncable notes (not this IMAP inbox note junk)
• Emailable/exportable contacts or contact info (I want to share!)
• Uncrippled Bluetooth (sync, file transfer, etc)
• Some Apple spin on a chat client (seamless EDGE <-> Wifi)
• More control over ringtones (schedules)
• Some sort of file manager
• “Rules” (think Mail.app) for calls and SMS. Missed call from X = Email to Y
• Flash!
• iTunes music lyrics

Looking back at my wish list I see a lot of items that have been added, a few that will likely never be added, and some that I still long for. While we’re at it, I’ll lump in a few new things that bug me.

Copy and paste were added to iOS to the rejoicing of the masses. I’m happy with the implementation. SMS and MMS work pretty well and I don’t have any real complaints in that department any more.

I’m still searching for a good way to handle to-do items. I do not understand why Apple does not have an app that just lists my to-do items from iCal! It seems so simple to me. Am I missing something here? The same kind of goes for Notes. It could be as simple as having a Notes pain pane in iTunes that lets me type/edit and sync. So simple!

Flash never was a huge deal for me. I think I was just on the bandwagon of haters at the time. Now I couldn’t care less that we don’t have Flash in iOS. If the battery life savings claims are true [and I believe they are] then it’s better that we don’t have it.

I doubt Apple will ever un-cripple Bluetooth profiles or give file manager control over the OS. I don’t think those are make or break features for their target demographic. The tech in me says this is a mobile computer. I want to be able to fully utilize it as such. I would really like to see some sort of AppleScript for iOS. Being able to configure rules for mail/calls and time based event triggers has so much productivity potential.

Everyone is talking about notifications in iOS 5. I agree, the current system needs a revamp. I don’t have any ideas there but I’m excited to see what Apple will cook up. At the end of the day I really enjoy my smart phone. Life would be quite different without it. I don’t know that I’ll ever be content with the feature set but complaining about it makes me feel good!