What do Apple fanboys want to see in the next iPhone?

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It seems there are may sites that are gathering ideas from the community as to what they wish to see in the next generation of the iPhone. This list was taken from Tuaw.

Part 1

1. The lock screen needs to change.

90% of us want a new lock screen. We think the current screen that only shows the date and time, and only the most recent missed call or SMS, is not particularly helpful. If you get a text message, then a calendar alert, and then a push notification, the only one you see is the push notification message. Being able to swipe through them or have a table list would be far more useful. But even then, we still have to enter our four-digit unlock code to see if we’ve received any new emails. From the new lock screen we want to see all the calls we’ve missed and the number of new emails and texts we have. We want to see which apps have sent us push notifications, and what appointments are coming up. We want a brief overview of all the new data we’ve received to be presented to us before we have to enter our unlock code.

BlackBerry Lock ScreenHey, that sounds a bit like the BlackBerry lock screen. When your BlackBerry device is locked you can see exactly how many missed calls you have, along with the number of missed text messages, email messages, upcoming appointments, and even individual app notifications. To the left is my lock screen. In the status bar from left to right, we can see the battery level, current notification profile (silent, normal, vibrate, loud, phone only, off, quiet, etc), the number of unread email messages followed by an envelope, the number of unread text/mms messages followed by a chat bubble, the network, time, date, alarm if set, application notifications (in this example, I have a new instant message), network type (GPRS/GSM/EDGE/3G), signal level, and transmit status. Icons that have a red star to the upper right indicate new messages that have not been seen yet, whereas the number indicates the number of unread emails all together.

2. A new home screen. The iPhone is the smartest phone on the market. Make it smarter. Introduce a location-aware home screen.

Over 90% of us also want a new home screen – and we want it location aware. Let’s say we live in London, but travel to continental Europe many times a month. We’d love to turn on our iPhones in the country we just landed in and see the local weather, currency, transit maps, and news displayed right on our home screens. Not only would it save us time and money, it would save something just as valuable to an iPhone owner – battery life. If all these things were displayed on the home screen the first time you turn on your phone, you wouldn’t have to open five different applications to get what you want.

Imagine a ‘Genius Location’ feature as well: the iPhone would show you (through an app like Yelp – or a new Apple-branded app) what restaurants or businesses are around based on your ‘likes’ in your home town. We know you were granted a ‘Transitional Data Sets‘ patent for a location-based home screen back in February 2008 – let’s hope this sees the light of day in iPhone OS 4.0.

Sounds a lot like a BlackBerry location aware applications. My home screen has a weather application that will show me, on the home screen, the highs and lows for today, along with the current temperature and if there are any weather alerts in my area. It can be updated as often as every 15 minutes and will use my current location when determining which weather information to give me. This can be done either by GPS for a more exact location, or via cell towers which is less accurate, but consumes less power in the process.

3. That new home screen? Let us access it by vertically swiping.

Imagine this: no matter what home screen page you’re on, if you swipe up you are presented with a ‘feeds screen’ that works much like an RSS page. This feeds screen could be set based on in-app preferences so we could fully customize it. Ours might show our latest Facebook posts, last five emails received, our To Do notes, our Mint.com balance, missed calls, text messages, and upcoming iCal events. The guys at teehan+lax have a pretty cool mock-up of this feeds screen, but the killer feature would be how you could access it from any app page – by vertically swiping.

This sounds very much like what the Android has been doing since day one. Scratch that, it’s exactly what the Android is doing. I could see why iPhone users would want this. Now imagine this, you’re playing your favorite game, or working on something in your favorite app. Suddenly, you get get an important email that you have to read and respond to. You must now quit out of the application you were in so you can switch over to the mail application to send an email. Then, you go back to the home screen, flip through the pages until you find the app you were working in, and re-launch it only to find out everything you were doing was lost because iPhones can’t run applications in the background.

4. Overhaul app navigation.

85% of us think it takes too long to swipe through all our pages of apps. Even though iTunes 9 made a step in the right direction by allowing the user to organize apps and home screen pages visually, there has got to be a better way. Swiping through ten screens to get to the last apps page is tedious.

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could press the home button and see all the home pages on one screen? The guys at Ocean Observations think so. Check out this concept video of what this feature would look like (their ‘Cover Flow Multitasking‘ concept is quite cool as well). Don’t want to do it their way? Give us stacks, give us folders, give us App Store-like category views. Just give us something that makes it easier to get around our deluge of apps.

Simple solution, get rid of all the pointless applications. Idiot test? Flashlight? iBeer? I mean seriously. First of all, the resolution on the iPhone is sub-par. If you were to try and display all the home screens on the screen at once, the resolution of each screen would make their contents indistinguishable from one another. Come up with a better idea.

6. Almost 80% of us want Flash, even if it’s a bad idea.

No, not camera flash (we do, but that’s for the next letter). We want Adobe’s Flash Player, though Flash on the Mac is a giant performance and stability headache. Get your heads together with Adobe and make it happen (and fix the Mac version while you’re about it, please).

Calm down fan boys, it’s not just the Mac edition of flash that gives performance headaches. Adobe flash is a complete disaster. They still don’t have a 64 bit version out for Windows. Flash on a mobile device would be like prison rape. Adobe has the internet by the balls when it comes to streaming media, but HTML5 is trying to change that with open video standards. Until this happens, the web is forced to use a God awful video player that uses more resources than Crysis (for you Mac users, that’s a computer game). While Flash is already coming to the BlackBerry and Android devices, I don’t know about an iPhone version. I doubt it though, Apple seems to block any type of device usage that may drain the battery too fast so people don’t complain about poor battery life.

7. We love that you introduced landscape mode across virtually all apps in iPhone OS 3.0, but 70% of us want the ability to selectively turn it off.

Give us a setting to switch off the automatic “turn to landscape mode” when the device is turning. Why? When we lay in bed on our side we can’t read our mail. The app is always turning and that’s really annoying. A system-wide ‘ignore orientation’ switch would be a good start; app-by-app options would be better.

Pro-tip, get out of bed if you want to be productive by reading email. The only thing I have to say about this is get used to it people. Apple locks you out of an ENORMOUS amount of operating system features.

8. When we leave an app, we want it to remember where we were.

If we click on a link in an app that takes us to Safari or if we switch apps to copy/paste, 70% of us want the app to remember where we were in it when we come back to it. Some apps do this, some don’t. Make this an OS-level feature so they all do it.

Well that’s simple, just press the end call key to minimize an application, or use alt+back to bring up the application switcher. Oh wait, that’s the BlackBerry that can switch between applications without losing your work. Android and Windows Mobile devices can do it too, I’m just unaware of any keyboard shortcuts to do it. I find it hilarious that you can’t click on a link in an application that opens up Safari without losing your work in the app you came from. I’ve never seen a smart phone that couldn’t run applications in the background.

9. 65% of us want the ability to remove Apple-branded apps.

That Stocks app? Cute, but the Yahoo! Finance [iTunes] app is so much better. We don’t need both on our phones.

You can’t remove the applications your iPhone came pre-loaded with? Wow… Just wow….. RIM at least lets you chose what you do and don’t want on your phone. This is just another example of corporate takeover. Apple wants you to use their applications so you can see how pretty they are.

10. 60% of us want a universal “documents” folder.

We want one location, accessible to all apps, to store documents on the iPhone. Whether we need to send that PDF via IM through Nimbuzz or via email through the built-in Mail app, it’s no problem. Either one can do it because the docs are all stored in one place, accessible to all apps. (We realize this breaks the sandboxing model that prevents one app from blowing away data belonging to another one, but we have every confidence you can make it work.)

Sounds kind of like a BlackBerry. But wait, how ever do we keep applications from deleting all of our data! Well that’s easy, BlackBerries have per-application restrictions. That is, when an application tries to access the internet, you must explicitly allow it to (with the option to never ask you again). Same goes for accessing files, contact information, phone logs, usb connections, bluetooth, screen grabs, automated input, and may other types of access.

11. Better Support for Codecs and Add-ons.

It’s not just Flash, you know. WMV and AVI still rule on lots of sites. Let us see them (60%).

I haven’t seen an WMV file in years. AVI is garbage. Now if you wanted to support MKV, then we can talk. Otherwise, take your awful encodings elsewhere.

12. The iPhone is a hard drive with a screen, so….

Give us Disk mode in the OS. 50% of us want to use our iPhone as an external USB/Wi-Fi hard drive.

You guys can’t do that? Weird, every Smartphone I’ve heard of has external storage. The BlackBerry takes the security a step further and requires you to enter the phones password in order to enable “mass storage” mode. Aka mount the phones storage as drives on your computer (both internal and expandable memory)

Part 2

1. Status indicator light.

90% of us want this. Some of us think a series of green dots (ala the MacBook’s battery indicator lights) that flash when we have a new text or voicemail message would be cool, while some of us want a pulsating light like the sleep light on a MacBook. A few of us even think an illuminated Apple logo that pulsates when we’ve missed a call would be novel. While you may laugh at the last suggestion, it illustrates the fact that we’re dying for a status indicator light in some form.

Once again, sounds a lot like a BlackBerry. Red for messages, Blue for a bluetooth connection, and applications  that can custom set the color of the LED notification. My instant messages are yellow, texts/mms are green, email is red, and the color possibilities go on.

2. A new design casing.

90% of us think the 3G and 3GS are starting to look their age (and hey, in tech, a device that hasn’t changed looks in 18 months looks ancient). We want a thinner casing – approaching iPod touch thinness, if possible (a tough request, we know, considering how much room the radios take up in the iPhone). We also want the new iPhone casing to have a look that mimics the industrial design of the aluminum unibody finish on the MacBooks – in other words, we love this mock-up Gizmodo did.

Compare the G1 to the Droid. Compare the BlackBerry Curve to the BlackBerry Bold to the BlackBerry Storm. Every other smartphone company has a new look for every new model they come out with. Apple, on the other hand, hasn’t changed the look of their device since their initial launch. It’s been the same old boring case for 3 generations. But hey, you can get it in white now!

3. Front-facing camera.

80% of us want a front-facing video chat camera. Why? Because 80% of us believe we are good-looking enough that the people we talk to want to see us. It might also be good for conference calls: turn the iPhone to its side and see up to three people on your screen at once.

While this seems like a good idea, do you REALLY think at&t can handle video conferencing? It’s one of those things that sounds like a good idea but would fall through. And why didn’t you specify something it could actually be USEFUL for, like sending you pictures of whoever just stole your iPhone (but that would require a $99/yr subscription to MobileMe)

4. LED flash.

Yeah, 75% of us believe the iPhone blows at taking low-light pictures. It’s not exactly unreasonable to ask for a flash on phones nowadays.

Terms And Agreement PaperiPhones don’t have a camera flash? Now that’s just unbelievable. How the hell do iPhone users take pictures or video in low light situations? To the left is a picture I just took on my BlackBerry Bold 9700. It’s the back of a document I got from my cable company who gave me a $10 gift card for “going green.” The picture was taken in a room with no light what so ever. The room was pitch black, yet you are able to make out all the detail on the paper. The BlackBerry will begin by turning on the flash and adjusting the cameras light balance so you don’t get a picture that’s been washed out by the flash. As it’s doing this it will also focus the camera lens to insure the photo will be in focus. The flash will then turn off, and flash for the picture. The result is an in focus, properly lit photo taken by the phone. Has this picture been taken on the iPhone, it would appear completely black.

5. 5MP+ camera.

70% of us want a new 5MP camera (or above) to go along with that new LED flash.

Droid Does..

6. OLED display.

70% of us think the iPhone’s 320×480 screen is a little too dainty for today’s standards. We want a higher screen resolution to make our text and games pop and we think that higher res should be 480×800 on an OLED display for its clarity, thinness, and battery saving abilities.

And correct you are, the resolution and pixel density is awful. The Droid and Bold 9700 both have a higher pixel density and resolution than the iPhone. It’s actually quite sad how bad the iPhone resolution actually is.

7. 64GB storage.

We’ve downloaded over 3 billion apps. Add those to the video we’re now recording on our iPhones, in addition to all our songs and photos, and one thing becomes obvious: 32GB doesn’t seem enough anymore. 60% of us ask that you plop 64GB of flash RAM in the next iPhone.

Now you don’t even know what you’re talking about. You want 64GB of RAM? That’s the amount of RAM mainframes have. Oh, you mean STORAGE, 64GB of STORAGE. Well that works. Nearly every smartphone on the market, and even dumbphones have expandable memory. That is, you can insert a 32GB memory chip into a Droid or BlackBerry device and instantly expand its storage space. Need more? Get another chip! You can have 1 chip loaded up with just movies, and use the other for songs. The choice is yours.

8. 802.11n.

We’re dying to have Wi-Fi syncing, but we realize that 802.11g might not be fast enough. 50% of us want faster wireless so we can sit on our couch and sync the latest photos and videos we took with our iPhone to the computer in the den.

While were at it, lets put in an optical connection to so I can access my network at blazing speeds of 10Gb/s

9. RFID.

Why? Besides some pretty cool near-object-based interaction, imagine the next iPhone eliminating the need to carry car keys or credit cards. Key fobs and ‘smart’ credit cards use a type of RFID called Near Field Communication. NFC consumes very little power, so it’s attractive to add to mobile phones. Instead of using our keys to enter that new Prius, imagine just having the doors auto-unlock when we get in range of our car, or by launching an app.

Better yet, let us leave our wallets at home. What if Apple teamed with Visa or MasterCard? We download the Visa app and use it to review our purchase right on the screen, then we simply swipe our iPhone at checkout and we’re on our way. And we’re sure you guys at Apple wouldn’t mind take a half percentage point of every transaction too (from the credit card companies, not us!). You’ve already redefined the music, movie, mobile, and (soon enough) publishing industries. We think the credit card companies could use some Apple ingenuity as well.

Ah yes, because you can use one single RFID module that will work with every car, credit card receiver, and anything else you wish to control. This is totally possible. Very few establishments have RFID readers for credit card purchases. It’s just extra money you have to spend. I got excited when I got my American Express card with the Express Pay on it which allowed me to wave my card in front of places that had special readers for them. I’ve still yet to be able to use it….

10. Multi-touch casing.

This one seemed like a long shot until recent rumors, but 40% of us would like to see some Magic Mouse-type love applied to the iPhone. The iPhone has a lot of surface area that isn’t the screen. What if this currently un-utilized area could be transformed into a multi-touch surface? Imagine each side by the home button and speaker slit as a multi-touch area. When playing a video game in landscape mode, this new multi-touch surface could be used as physical buttons for some games, saving the display from your fingers and allowing you to see more of the action on screen.

Yeah lets cram the touch censors right in with the 802.11n and RFID module. While we’re at it, can we add in an IR module so I can control my TV, a radio so I can use it as a walkie-talkie, and a xeon processor? The multi-touch casing idea just seems stupid to me.

Conclusion

It seems as though, when it comes down to it, Apple users just want a smartphone that’s actually, well, smart. Almost all of the realistic things requested by them are already offered by other smartphones. Perhaps it’s just time for iPhone users to switch back to a real phone instead of putting up with Apple’s crap. They’ve fallen into a trap with the iPhone. They think if they switch back to another device that they wouldn’t be loyal to Apple. The fact is, the fanboys need to take their heads out of their asses and realize what’s going on, Apple’s screwing you.

 
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