[lorskyfink]

I would love to see more fine control over scrubbing in the iPhone. On an iPod with a scroll wheel, I can get to the exact second that I want.
On the iPhone, I get near the time that I want and as I pick up my finger... Blammo, I get off by a minute.

[pln]

Queued podcasts: Odd, I never thought of this. What I do is I have a smart playlist of unplayed podcasts. When it finishes with one podcast, it goes to the next one in the list.

[dreyfus]

I only have minor complaints about the iPhone features:
- No marqueeing (if that's a word) of long titles, old iPods auto-scroll them, the iPhone cuts them off and leaves you guessing
- The lyrics overlay has some glitches (sometimes shows a blank overlay, even if there is content - pausing and starting the title again brings it back)
- No title/track info in the video player. You have to exit a movie and go back to the list to see e.g. the episode name
- Scrubbing (volume and track position) is quirky
- Now there is this great multi-language and CC feature, unfortunately there is almost zero content in the iTunes store making any use of it
- I do not know all my track names by heart - seeing at least the star ratings (and maybe the play count) in list view would be charming
- The "viewed" indicator with video podcasts and TV shows is not 100% reliable - sometimes the content stays on the iPhone after syncing, even if it has been watched from start to end (the workaround to mark the track as "not new" in iTunes and sync again is not really like "it simply works".
- Video syncing is painful - going through one flat list (not possible to have subfolders for organization) that does not even indicate (or simply leave out) titles that are not iPhone compatible is not really Apple-like (trial and error is sooo Windows)
- Video podcasts show up in the audio podcasts list and will then play with audio only? That is not severe, but somewhat a joke?!
- Lack of a real EQ is severe, especially with good head/earphones
- I really liked the brightness control on the old iPods with video (worked while watching video) - if a movie is too dark or bright, now I have to stop it, go to settings, guesswork a new setting, and try again... why is that?
Well, so yes - there are a few items for me, but there are more severe items elsewhere:
- still no copy and paste
- no pairing of the iPhone with a Mac (e.g. show HUDs with caller information when a call comes in - and he muted phone is in the pocket - or text messaging on the Mac) - every BT phone could do that using the address book in Tiger - want it back (not talking about modem use here)
- Last and unbelievably: still no notes and to do syncing (not on the iPhone and not on Mobile Me)... they must be kidding, right?

[Dan Frakes]

atchius said:

i second the cry for A2DP. My understanding is that this would only need to be a software update—Apple could add it as part of the 2.0 software and first-generation handsets would get the functionality as well—but I don't think a third-party app could do it.

It's been suggested to me by several vendors of iPod accessories that Apple may be omitting A2DP support because doing so could significantly impact the market for dock-connector accessories. Apple makes a good chunk of change from licensing fees on dock-connector accessories such as speaker systems and stereo docks. If people could send audio directly from the iPhone (or, perhaps in the future, a Bluetooth-enabled iPod) to a speaker system using industry-standard Bluetooth, many vendors would stop making iPod/iPhone-specific docking speaker systems and opt for Bluetooth speakers that would work with any Bluetooth device.

Granted, this is speculation on behalf of the vendors, but it does make some sense.

[jscottk]

I'll second that!

I don't live under the AT&T republic where I live in California, so an iPhone is out of the question. But, I have been looking very hard at the iPod Touch. The only thing keeping me from making Citibank happy (or is it happier) is the limited storage (32GB is gigantic for music, but pathetic for video, and I have a lot of video). Using that 20GB of storage space on MobileMe as additional, easily accessable storage on an iPhone or iPod Touch would be VERY cool! And a deal maker, in my case. You could keep your essential stuff onboard (for when you're off the grid) and put your less often accessed stuff online for access when WiFi or EDGE/3G was available.

[Dan Frakes]

DominikHoffmann said:

What about being able to play audio through the iPod connector at the bottom of the iPhone. With the current iPhone you can't play audio that way, presumably, because the cell network radio interferes with the transmission of the audio signal.

Nope, the iPhone works with dock-connector speakers. There is the potential for GSM interference, which can manifest as static or buzzing noises coming from the speakers when the iPhone is accessing the phone network, but this affects some speaker systems more or less than others. (You can switch the iPhone into Airplane Mode to eliminate this interference; alternatively, some vendors have released speaker systems specifically shielded against this interference.)

[doglesby]

lorskyfink said:

I would love to see more fine control over scrubbing in the iPhone.

Agreed, there ought to be a way to do a sort of loupe like for text editing.

[Dan Frakes]

jmkowalski said:

Forget A2DP, in practice it sounds like a good idea, in reality the quality just isn't there. I have a bluetooth stereo headset from WiRevo and the sound quality is simply awful. Even on higher end BT headphones the quality is awful.

I have to disagree on this. There are definitely poor-sounding A2DP headphones, but in my experience, it's usually because the headphones themselves are poor-sounding, not because of the Bluetooth signal. Although Bluetooth does compress audio for transmission, many people don't have headphones or stereo systems good enough to notice a potential decrease in quality. And even with such equipment, you can still get impressive sound quality; for example, Etymotic's ety8 uses Bluetooth and it sounds very good.

[doglesby]

corbywan said:

I know this article is about the iPod portion of the iPhone. But it just occurred to me; still no copy and paste? Really? If the original Palm could do this with a stylus, surely the brilliant people at Apple can do this. (And I will call you Shirley.)

The two tasks are not at all comparable. I remember reading discussions of how to do it, lots of really bad ideas (people don't understand what a huge change it is to use fingers as pointing devices).

[dreyfus]

One thing I forgot - and it is more iTunes than iPhone related - but the iPhone clearly "supports" the urgency: Apple needs to support more than one library location in iTunes. With more and more stuff ending up in the iTunes library (mine is at 380 GB right now, and no record and movie industries - not a second of illegal material is included) this is getting out of hands. At least one storage location for music, one for video/TV shows, one for own movies, one for podcasts is required. The alternative to just have one location OR manage it manually is no good, especially if you want to keep e.g. all music in sync on a laptop, but only have everything on the desktop. There are ample utilities that assist with that to some degree, but if iTunes wants to remain the No. 1 choice for managing media libraries, they should make more of an effort here.

[doglesby]

pln said:

Queued podcasts: Odd, I never thought of this. What I do is I have a smart playlist of unplayed podcasts. When it finishes with one podcast, it goes to the next one in the list.

Furthermore, I like the fact that it stops when the current episode ends. I let my iPhone go to sleep and wait out the episode (I might even walk away if it has some sort of sign-off). If it went on to the next one, I'd have to stop it (and it'd be virtually impossible to avoid "playing" the next one while reaching the end of the first so that iTunes will auto-delete it). As long as queuing is an additional option, I'm fine.

[mrhoni1]

I have the same problem. I walk away and screen goes dark and I come back, press the button on the headset and play begins, but sometimes not. I however thought there was time limit I was encountering.

[Hobdul]

I want to be able to shuffle by album. I like listening to albums, rather than individual tracks, so I really miss this feature from the iPod.

[czantra]

SandroM3949 said:

My current iPhone seems to have a really tough time resuming playback of a paused song using the remote built into the headphones. Normally, I'll put on some music and then walk into a coffee shop and pause whatever's playing using the button on the headphones. If I wait too long, I can no longer resume using the button.

If the iPhone goes back to sleep then the remote button will not resume but if you press the wake button or home then the remote button, it should carry on where you left off. You should not need to pull the phone out of your pocket.