Notes From the Trash Bin

iPhone fans and followers will find this story from InfoSync to be of interest, as the new version 3.0 will likely bring some new (as well as some overdue) features to the iPhone. The expected Tuesday's announcement, will be the likely chance for the always secretive Apple to announce the next version of the iPhone, most likely at some point during the summer. Your Humble Pie correspondent hopes these and other surprises are part of the announcement:



Apple will be showing off the new Apple iPhone 3.0 software later this month. Here's what we would like to see

Today, Apple issued a shot across Palm's bow. While the latter smartphone maker was planning a Web cast to tout the features of their upcoming Palm Pre, Apple announced an event later this month where iPhone OS 3.0 will be unveiled. It was an obvious way to draw attention away from Palm, so clearly the iPhone maker has Palm in its sights with the new OS upgrade.

In the couple years since it was first announced, the Apple iPhone has easily become the biggest thing in mobile devices since, well, the mobile phone. Still, its surprising that even with its advanced multi-touch interface and great third-party applications, there are many ways in which the Apple iPhone 3G still comes up short compared to even the simplest carrier feature phones. When Apple shows off the new Apple iPhone 3.0 software later this month, there are a few groundbreaking features we're hoping for, but just as much we hope that Apple finally catches up with the rest of the phone world.

Necessities

The iPhone needs MMS for picture messaging. It might shock non-iPhone users that the iPhone can't send simple picture messages. You have to send pics in an e-mail or upload them to a photo sharing site. This has gone on long enough, and we think this will be one of the key fixes for the iPhone OS. We're also hoping that the rumored tethered modem support becomes a reality. Right now, we rely on a separate dongle (with a separate AT&T account) for reliable wireless Internet on the road. We'd prefer if Apple would adopt the NDIS APIs for tethered support, as this would make the iPhone compatible with the built-in software in Windows, instead of requiring another app or iTunes for wireless data. While they're at it, why not add NDIS support to the upcoming Snow Leopard version of Mac OS X, so that we can finally take advantage of the "Internet Sharing" app on Windows Mobile phones that makes tethered modem support so easy. Both MMS and tethered modem support should be no-brainers for Apple and AT&T, as they both provide potential added revenue as users will message more and consume more data.

Apple also needs to fix the problem with applications running simultaneously. Palm's new WebOS handles this nicely, with apps running side by side in separate "cards" on the home screen. In the iPhone OS, however, its only one app at a time. Apple had previously promised some sort of background notification system. This would help apps like instant messaging clients, Facebook and other social networking apps to notify users of incoming messages or status changes. This was a promise Apple made when the last iPhone OS was released, and it's time the promise was kept.

We would like to see a new method for managing applications on the phone. If you have more than a page or two of apps on the home screen, it can be a nightmare to rearrange the icons. Then, when an app gets updated, the icon is moved again and you have to start from scratch. This is a very non-Apple way of handling apps on the iPhone. We've seen better ideas floating around the Web, but essentially Apple needs to integrate the app management and icon layout into iTunes. This should have been done from the start.

Extras

After those necessities have been dealt with, we think Apple will do what Apple does best: steal someone else's idea and make it insanely great. The Palm Pre promises integration with your Facebook, MySpace and other online contacts. We'd like to see the iPhone take this even further. We'd like to see integration paired wth de-duplication, so that our address book doesn't pile up with multiple entries for the same people. We'd also like to see Apple borrow some features from Google Voice (nee Grand Central). Google Voice offers an integrated solution for all of your phone numbers, text addresses and contact points. If Apple really wants to tackle the business world, creating a meeting place on the phone for all of our contact numbers would be a nice start. Call us on our work number, or our home, or by text, and the iPhone will figure out how to handle the incoming calls. Android will certainly have this feature soon, now that Google has announced their game plan for the Grand Central service.

Another neat trick that the Palm Pre performs is a wide-reaching search on the device. Start typing a name and the Pre will bring up contact details, messages, and lots of relevant information. Keep typing, and the Pre will search through Google, Wikipedia and other sites. Apple already has search built into their Mac OS X in the aging Spotlight search feature. It's time that this feature was updated and mobilized for the iPhone. We'd like to type a name or a search term and have the iPhone search through our documents, our e-mails, even our third-party apps on the phone. Then, make these search results available when and where we need them; during phone calls, while writing e-mails, etc.

Widgets are also hot this year, but no phone manufacturer has been able to get it right. Samsung's Omnia and other TouchWiz phones (to see our comparison of TouchWiz phones, click here) had some nice widget features, but using the widgets on the Omnia's tiny screen was a mess. We think Apple can do better. Again, Widgets are already a feature built into Mac OS X, but we think widgets on the iPhone could work more like the Dock on Apple's OS. In the Dock, apps can act as miniature widgets, giving live status updates. In the same way that an e-mail app indicates how many messages you have in its home screen icon, or the way the calendar updates with the correct date on its icon, we think that homescreen widgets could be put to work. Weather widgets could reflect current condition. Music widgets could have playback controls. All of these could take up the same space as current application icons, but could be so much more useful.

Don't hold your breath

Of course, there are a few features that we've always wanted on the iPhone, but we're not holding our breath. Before we get to those, though, we're predicting that the iPhone OS version 3.0 will not support all iPhones and iPod touch devices. We think the first generation will be left out of the loop. This is par for the course for Apple, who pulled the same stunts with classic iPods. An update would come along, and if early adopters wanted it they had to buy new products. It's not a hardware issue, its shrewd business. Almost all of the first generation iPhones have 2-year AT&T contracts that will start to expire in the summer. Those people need new phones, if they didn't buy the iPhone 3G. We think that if legacy users want the newest features, Apple is going to force them to buy a new device. Hopefully we'll still get some more life out of our current Apple iPhone 3G, at least another year, until iPhone OS 4.0.

We've been waiting for Adobe Flash support for some time, but we don't think its coming just yet. Steve Jobs has been vocal about his contempt for Flash Lite, so we're not expecting Flash Lite 3.0 support. Furthermore, Adobe is notoriously loose-lipped about their iPhone developments, so we imagine we'll hear something from Adobe about a new Flash product before we hear something from Apple. It would be great to be proven wrong, as Flash seems to be the last brick to lay in Safari Mobile's tower, but we're not holding our breath.

Finally, there have been many rumors about a Verizon Wireless iPhone, but we don't think this is going to happen just yet. It isn't easy to create a CDMA version of a GSM device. It isn't just a matter of swapping out the radios. We think AT&T's exclusivity might have another year on it, or at least last through the rest of this year. Next year, however, Verizon Wireless will start launch on its next generation LTE network. That might be a more opportune time to get on board.