What Features Should Be Included With iPhone 3.0? 606
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?
What about ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What about ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What about ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes! Bluetooth Serial I/O and I would write all my hardware control interfaces for iPhone.
Re:What about ... (Score:5, Informative)
Exactly. Main features I am looking for:
1. tethering
2. OBEX file management (to replace USB sticks)
3. A2DP
All of which are part of the gimpy bluetooth stack.
What bugs me the most on the list is the A2DP. My old corny ass motorola phone from 5 years ago can play music through my bluetooth headphones, but my iPhone, which is supposed to be a modern marvel that actually evolved from a music player, cannot.
Also on my wish list is the ability to develop iphone apps on my computer (OSX does not work at all in vmware), and maybe someday I have dreams of being able to get firmware updates, and be able to install them from linux.
Re:What about ... (Score:5, Informative)
It's interesting that the G1 (which I have) and the iPhone are the only "smartphones" which such crippled bluetooth stacks.
Lack of A2DP was shortsighted (admittedly cupcake firmware for the Android rectified the A2DP issue for android handsets, but its still lacking compared to other phones)
My Nokia N95 did a lot better in terms of Bluetooth.
In fact, one of the best Bluetooth implementations I have seen was on a SonyEricsson phone, which was not even a smartphone, the K800i.
It has
- OBEX (send files/contacts/calendars to other devices)
- OBEX FTP,
- A2DP,
- HCI (Aka bluetooth remote control built in, use it to control media player, and even a mouse pointer)
- HDCP (print to a bluetooth equiped printer)
- Blutetooth PAN gateway (a Network Access point via bluetooth, allows one or more computers to wirelessly tether the internet connection on the phone.) This is unique as I have not seen any other phone implement this, and implement this well. IT also exposes a USB based Ethernet network too, for wired access. No need to remember APNs, or do a dial up on the computer using either of these two methods.
- Bluetooth modem the "alternative" common method of accessing the net/modem/fax wirelessly
- BlueTooth SIM- A funky way of allowing another mobile device (such as a car phone) to use the SIM card on your handset to log in to the network. So you can have a car phone, with the full radio stack, and everything, but keep the SIM in the phone (this will cause your car phone to handle all calls, instead of the mobile handset)
- A2DP implemented WELL (For example, I had a iPaq as a music device, and i was able to connect this and the ipaq to the BT headphones, and when a call came through it woudl take over the headset using the headset profile, then properly release it afterwards, if the ipaq was NOT paired, then it would also use the A2DP to have a single device connection).
- Bluetooth serial port.
It even had an option to allow more than one device to connect at the same time (at the expense of greater battery usage). With this option, I was able to have my Moto A2DP headset, iPaq, and K800 connected to each other. with music going from ipaq to headset. Calls from k800 to Headset, and internet from k800 to ipaq. It worked pretty well.
Not bad for a non-smartphone. I really miss that trio now, with my "next generation devices".
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
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 ne
Re:What about ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Nothing is disabled, turned off, removed, commented out, locked etc
And yet, OS X on the desktop supports a bluetooth keyboard. The iPhone supposedly has a stripped-down OS X. Therefore, they must have stripped out USB HID support.
I've not seen bluetooth keyboard in ANY other phone I've ever owned,
See other posts in this thread. It's not just the keyboard, and other phones -- even the ones that aren't "smartphones" -- do far better than the iPhone in that respect.
Re:What about ... (Score:5, Informative)
Using apple keyboard -
http://www.modmyi.com/index.php?pageid=home&news_page=2 [modmyi.com]
video showing iphone to iphone gaming
http://www.flickr.com/photos/56083335@N00/3288725388/ [flickr.com]
Now, like the man said, its crippled.
A printer! (Score:4, Insightful)
... 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! :)
Re: (Score:2)
The Blackberry Storm is worse
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re:A printer! (Score:5, Informative)
skipping tracks is as simple as clicking the inline button on the earbuds. pause is a double click. The buds also double as your headset so that phone calls automatically pause the music and give you a chance to answer with another simple squeeze of the button. Hanging up is just one more squeeze again and then back to the music. It's not advanced, but it's perfectly sufficient...
Re:A printer! (Score:4, Informative)
Click the headphone button twice to skip to the next track, three times for the previous track.
I'm not sure why I bothered responding, though. It's pretty obvious you just wanted to get a quick bash in.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
That is if you still have original headphones... Mine disintegrated after 6 months of very light use.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Mine, and most people's I know, are doing fine. But there are lots of 3rd party alternate headphones out there made to work with the iPhone. They have the microphone and control buttons. Some of them are dirt cheap. And, oddly enough, the apple store carries many of them.
Re:A printer! (Score:4, Informative)
I had couple of pairs of apple ipod and one iphone headphones but they are all the same concerning the build quality.
The rubber rim on the earbuds start to crack and disintegrates whether you use them or not after couple of months. After that the rubber which is around the (male) connector likes to get loose because it dilates after a while. After it gets loose, it starts to crack, and in couple of weeks time it will fall apart too. Lastly, as the rubber around the connector is finished, the wire will snap just at the connection with the plastic at the connector itself. This happened 3.5 times now (I managed to save the last pair with alot of electrical tape and handling it like its a grat mogul diamond) out of 4 pairs I have. I have never seen such poor quality from so expensive players/phones before.
If you don't believe me, take a look at the pictures here [blogspot.com] and here [blogspot.com].
Lastly, I would have bought some other iphone compatible headphones but there are none in croatia unfortunately. Moreover, I still haven't found the adapter to use any other headphones in my first gen iphone.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Oh..and I think it is from the website I liked...but, when you order, call them and ask for the 'code' to get the discount. Usually it is just the model of the earphones, in this example se530 did it. I got them for about $200+ off the MSRP.
Re:A printer! (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and state that people do *not* rush out and replace their standard iPhone headphones with a $100-300 pair.
On the other hand, I found some $7,250 [gizmodo.com] speaker cables that you may be interested in!
Re:A printer! (Score:5, Insightful)
I think you might be overestimating what's possible with a software update. ;)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
They could repurpose some of the buttons on the device if the screen is currently off. Leave the on/off button doing it's current function ('waking' the screen), and change the home button to play/pause, push-and-hold on the volume up/down changes track, instead of making the volume repeatedly go up.
Er, at least I think the iPhone has a volume control on it. I know the iPod Touch 2G does, and I'd love this to be done for it's controls...
Free Marketing (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
And your post isn't the same? "I'm so much better than those sheeple who buy iPhones!"
Bah. Let people have their baubles if they want them. Don't put them down unless they first put you down, lest you become just another variation of that which you despise.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I second that, and if you haven't seen this, I recommend reading it now: :D
http://thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=iphone [thebestpag...iverse.net]
Old, but funny
What about common-sense PHONE features? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
> iPhone is all about status/style anyway, it's got NOTHING to do with functionality...
Pffft. I went through two dumb phones immediately before the iPhone. Here are some of the things I could not get working:
1) syncing anything with my PC
2) getting photos off of it
3) playing music, although both claimed to be able to do so
4) using the web, which was useless
5) using any sort of e-mail
6) using any other apps
7) using the picture system with anything else, including the MMS that was built in ($5 charge PER)
T
User-changable battery? (Score:5, Insightful)
Should be top of the list.
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Via software update? (Score:2)
If so, that's some pretty impressive software.
A free (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
That's for their specialty product, the iWack.
Pretty easy list (Score:4, Interesting)
-Standard USB data/charging cable
-USB mass storage support
-Video recording
-Tethering
-Multitasking
-MMS
Re:Pretty easy list (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Pretty easy list (Score:5, Funny)
-Tethering
Well shoot, you can just put your own tether onto it, be it lanyard you made at summer camp, a dog leash, one of them there chains that keep people from stealing your wallet, or something else. Or you could just hold onto it better.
-Multitasking
Here again, no need for updates from apple. I mean, I talk on my phone all the time while doing other things. Not driving though, they just outlawed that. And if you buy TWO iphones, you can use two apps at the same time. Imagine being able to use the lightsaber app while using the zippo app!
-Video recording
Tape a video camera to the iphone.
-USB mass storage support
While you're taping a video camera to the phone, go ahead and throw a USB thumb drive in there.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't know, to me the best answer to the article's question ("what other things are woefully inadequate on Apple's popular handheld?") was:
- Choice of Wireless provider
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Even on your Mac Pro? Odd..
I remember being very frustrated with Flash performance back in the PowerPC days, but I thought most of the performance issues had been settled since the Intel switch?
Hard to believe that Flash would slow your wohle system to a crawl on a Mac Pro...
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Child porn is illegal in many countries, and yet Apple chose to include a camera on a phone which is often given to horny teens who are tempted to make nudie shots of themselves and send them to SOs, who promptly forward them to friends. Should Apple not have included a camera since the camera could potentially enable aspiring underage pr0n starlets?
C&P and Thunderbird support (Score:3, Informative)
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.
Multitasking (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
the newest AIM client gets around this. it will leave you signed into the system if the app isn't running, it'll then send you a text message for any incoming message which you can reply to via text.
it isn't the prettiest thing, but it works.. though obviously you'll want unlimited texts
Maybe let me choose my own provider? (Score:2)
How about letting me use something other than AT&FT? No? Then I don't care what shiny new items are on your feature list.
Improved camera APIs (Score:3)
The current (legal) ones really tie your hands.
Tethering (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Amen, I won't be buying any smartphone until I can tether.
Usable Navigation (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
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.
What does it say it's "meant" for? Entertainment purposes only? Google maps by miss cleo?
Re:Usable Navigation (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Usable Navigation (Score:5, Insightful)
No, but apparently you are the only person who doesn't believe in improving things.
Re:Usable Navigation (Score:5, Informative)
The reason you don't get turn-by-turn directions with Google maps is that Google's agreements with map/GIS data providers (all those with copyrights listed in the bottom corner of your map) forbid it.
A license that allows turn-by-turn directions that is controlled by GPS costs money, hence why there aren't any free apps that do this, except for one, AndNav [andnav.org] for Android, that uses Open Street Map data instead of commercial map data.
In fact, AndNav started out doing this with Google Maps until running into this problem.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Unless you're referring to a 3rd-party app or a beta firmware or something like that, you're smoking crack. The Maps application built into the iPhone does not automatically recalculate directions when you go off-course.
No contracts (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
http://shop.o2.co.uk/promo/iphoneindex/Pay_And_Go/3G [o2.co.uk]
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Modem (Score:5, Insightful)
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Less Smugness? (Score:5, Funny)
How about the next version include less smugness?
Sent from my iPhone
Re:Less Smugness? (Score:4, Funny)
In that case I'd like the next version to be named iRony, just for you.
linked phone numbers in meeting notifications (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
what I want (Score:4, Funny)
Self-Destruct Function (Score:2)
which can be activated remotely by sending "666" to the phone.
Voice Dialing? (Score:2)
walled garden (Score:5, Informative)
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 [chocoflop.com]
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.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Putz! I can't believe you just let Apple win on this point via Godwin's Law.
Cheaper price (Score:2)
And I have seen posters in Australia advertising pre-paid iPhones.
Freedom from AT&T? (Score:5, Insightful)
A choice of any bandwidth provider out there?
Working Exchange support (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:Working Exchange support (Score:4, Informative)
Can I ask what problems you have with the Exchange support? I don't really have any problems, but maybe there's something I haven't really tried?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
1. Only the inbox will download new messages, all other folders must be synchronized manually
2. Manually syncing a folder fails about 2/3 of the time
Both of these bugs are pretty major on their own, but together it makes iPhone is basically worthless as an Exchange client.
Additionally, IMAP support has the same bugs.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Exchange support seems to work great if your exchange server is setup to support it. Everyone I know who has an iPhone plus Exchange (including myself) never complains about it except for one friend who can't sync at all....but it's a server configuration issue for his company...not an iPhone issue.
If Steve Jobs is reading this... (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Anonymous Nick (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Cribbed or Coincidence? (Score:3, Informative)
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.
a fan? (old joke) (Score:3, Funny)
Maybe one of the 25K apps simulates the sound of a fan.
My Wishlist (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Best.....Feature.....Ever..... (Score:4, Insightful)
How about being 'Unlocked' as a feature?
The ability to set the text notification to 1 or X (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Weapons (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Not just better than the current i-phone... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Additional features (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
***
Re:Additional features (Score:5, Insightful)
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!!!
Not to be disrespectful, but are you frikkin' nuts?
Apple's success outside of the computer market over the past few years has been due to their ability to:
iTunes is the key to Apple's strategy. They're not going to dump it, they're going to use it to continue to make boatloads of cold, hard cash. If you want to rename the application to "Apple Online Store", I'm sure they wouldn't mind you doing so on your own computer. But in my mind it's fair to say that iTunes is currently Apple's most important asset.
huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
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?
Re: (Score:2)
The Apple video store, and the Apple App store, are however swimming in DRM.
Your point was?
Re:huh? (Score:4, Insightful)
The video store has the same issues that the music store had - the content providers. That's not a product issue. What's more, the tone of the original post was that somehow Apple is fucking in love with the DRM and wouldn't ever leave it out of their products given the choice - something that seems unlikely given the change to the music store.
As for the app store, well, that's not really DRM. That's a closed platform, something which Apple does appear to have some affection for.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
How is this Apple's fault? The content providers insist on these restrictions when they make their deals with Apple. If Apple doesn't make these deals, the content doesn't show up in iTunes, and people like you complain about how the industry is working in an "obsolete business model" and not embracing the online world.
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Re:huh? (Score:5, Informative)
You do know that you can use a shared iTunes account on multiple phones and you won't have to purchase apps twice, right?
That's not a "workaround" (Score:4, Interesting)
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"
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I don't know what girlintraining was talking about, but I'd love to see the whole thing just opened up in terms of installing applications. Give up control. Let me install things straight from the Internet without the store. Stop restricting what applications people are permitted to write.
I don't know if Apple is allowed to do that because of some deal with AT&T. Maybe they're required to take measures to restrict certain kinds of functionality. Still, it's something I'd like to see.
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Nah, something that would let -me- (the developer) write an app for the iphone, and run it on -my- iphone without paying Apple $100 for the privilege of doing so.
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I'm wondering if the GP is talking about the lock-in of the hardware which != DRM
It is funny/sad though how Jobs/Apple supposedly bullied the music industry into letting them drop DRM, but believes it has the right to tell people what to do with their iPhones.
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Most Asked for Feature that Will Never Be Implimented on an Apple Product Getting rid of AT&T.
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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 t
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yeah, but (Score:2)
Your other choice would be T-Mobile, which has crappier service than ATT. Anything else would require a significant redesign of the product.*
*yes, I'm aware there are other, smaller GSM carriers in the US; realistically speaking, you're still tied to ATT or T-Mobile for most population centers in the US.
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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 speakin
Re:Bluetooth (Score:4, Insightful)
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...