[wingsy]

I can only think of 2 things for BT on the iPhone. Handsfree cellphone through your car's built-in BT. And the peer-to-peer connection for games and sharing tunes. Oh wait, they won't let you share your tunes with a neighbor.... and why not?... you can lend them an earbud so why not a BT signal?
As far as docking my iPhone so I can get a bigger screen or a keyboard, I've never felt the need. That's why I have a laptop & a desktop.

[igamogam]

Hardware intergration with heart rate monitor and ANT compatible bike power/cadence/speed data transmitters would be fantastic. Along with turn-by-turn GPS that would be a unbeatable training tool. Someone's got to do that - wouldn't surprise me if the likes of Polar/Suunto are already twitching about lost revenue if they don't do something.

[golomtb]

When you charge or sync, laptop has no dedicated number keys and your iPod is right there. An extra option that brings number keys beside your short keyboard is might be not necessary, but some might prefer it. Another option is a temporary mouse when your regular mouse is out of order. How about function keys that you can customize and locate it wherever around your regular keyboard. Sliders of an equalizer or a mini console is an example.

[thetideishigh]

That's true, some little app that would customize the entire iPhone/iPod touch display into a keyboard or specialty input device. It would be great when playing games on your computer and having the iPhone give you a menu of special in-game commands. It would also be great if the OS 3.0 would unlock audio INPUT into the iPod touch. I have a feeling that there is audio recording circuitry on the board too, even though there is not built-in mic, earbuds with an on-cord mic would allow some great VOIP with all the OS 3.0 features they are talking about. Or a third party snap on mic (like my age-old Griffin iTalk for my 2G iPod) would hit the spot.

[flyperson]

I heartily approve of more integration between the iPhone and accessories. I therefore hope that Apple will activate the functionality of its own Radio/Remote which I was able to use with my iPod nano but which sadly is not supported by my iPhone.
I hope that Apple will put their money where their mouth is and get this very useful device working on the iPhone and iPod touch.

[dbutenhof]

ksujeff99 said:

Nope. A separate glucose meter with its own display and processing power was demoed. It just happened to connect to the iPhone and upload data. A glucose meter should be an accessory that is simply a device to read the strip. All the processing power and display should be from the iPhone itself.

Interesting idea, and there was a device like that for the original Handspring (PalmOS) models. The problem is that the meter then won't work without the phone. Personally I'd rather have a real meter that broadcasts than just a "head" for the iPhone; which frankly I doubt would save much money on the meter.

My daughter uses a Minimed insulin pump. LifeScan makes a OneTouch meter that wirelessly integrates with the pump to help the pump's bolus wizard set up a correction. Now OneTouch has shown a prototype that beams the data to an iPhone. Nice, really nice; but not enough. Now LifeScan and Minimed need to rev that up so the iPhone gets both glucose and insulin data (bolus and maybe even basal) for database management. That would absolutely guarantee my daughter an iPhone of her own. (And probably a new meter and pump as well.)

[john0879]

I would not put the card reader in a netbook category. Check out the Epson P-3000. A card reader and a RAW image viewer (not sure if the iPhone photos app supports RAW images) would fill my, and probably many amatuer photographers', needs for storing photos on the go so that memory cards can be reused. Also gives the added benefit of a larger screen than most older digital cameras. A netbook would just be another device to carry around and likely cost more than the p-3000.

I'd love to see this product hit the market. My $0.02 on features: 1. Compact flash and SDHC card support, 2. RAW image viewer, 3. Sync images to computer without using iPhoto (at least ability to copy back to memory card)

[aceshelman]

golomtb said:

iPhone and iPod touch themselves ...

Say what?!

sorry my humor is rather juvenille ;)

[lynnfredricks]

I want an attachable, collapsible keyboard, like I used to use with my Palm V. Ive attended my share of MacWorlds (RIP) and left my notebook in my room, relying only on my Pilot and that keyboard for handling articles and email. For many tasks, the iPhone can replace a notebook, but not being able to type makes it a lot less attractive a device.

[tony_d]

Eye-Fi needs to get their cards to communicate with the iPhone directly now instead of through a router (which is how they work now.) Then those of us with DSLRs can shoot and upload our images through the iPhone to our home computers or wherever.

[El_Mengi]

Keyboard: Yes—still think it would be handy to have. (No, I'm not smokin' bat crap.)

[cal_gecko]

There are still radio stations on the AM dial? Why?

[timrowledge]

I'm pretty sure the Eye-fi SD cards can do all the wi-fi uploading you'd want in most cases but I suppose there might be some value to using an iPhone as a review screen. A number of cameras already have screens of a similar size though.
What I want ( and let's face it, I'm much more important) is a decent car audio integration setup. A slot to slide the phone into. Integration with the steering wheel buttons to control stuff. Forget the stupid cd/dvd slot, just get the media off the iPhone and add radio (RDS obviously) in the in-car unit. Add iPhone app to control said radio and record/display the car's maintenance details, performance statistics, whatever. Use the car audio speakers and a steering wheel mic for phone calls. Add better GPS pickups in the car and feed the info to the new gps turn-by-turn system. Let the iPhone be the ignition key; use BT or wifi to lock the doors.
You know it makes sense.

[JeffHagen]

Great move by Apple. In case anybody is taking suggestions, here are some things I'd like to see:
1) An infrared remote control plug paired with a universal remote application.
2) A radio receiver plug paired with an AM/FM radio application. (Why doesn't Apple just make their ipod plug work with the iphone?) It would be nice if it could also record show, sort of like a pocket Tivo for radio.
3) A TV receiver plug and application. Same thing as above, but for broadcast TV. Maybe even a single receiver plug?
4) An interface for transferring images and videos from cameras. If not a direct connection, the SD card reader idea would also work for me. (and to al the naysayers; you miss the point. I want to be able to transfer pictures from my good camera to my phone that can upload them from anywhere.)
5) An interface for USB memory sticks or to let the iphone act as a memory stick. I assume this is really more a matter of a Finder-like application though?
6) A GPS chip for first generation iphones. (Although I will probably upgrade to a third generation iphone anyway.)
7) A digital compass chip. Hopefully this will be a built in sensor in the next iphone though.
8) An analog to digital converter interface. The most obvious application would be a multi-meter, and possibly even an ocilloscope. Something along the lines of an iphone version National Instruments' Labview.
9) Expanding on number 8, a number of customized analog input interfaces and application for some niche markers. For example, a poor man's instrument panel for ultralight aircraft that would include interfaces to engine sensors and air data sensors such as pitot - static ports and thermometers and accompanying software that would display engine instruments, airspeed, altitude, etc. It might also be possible to have an interface to aviation radios so the iphone could be used as a display for traditional radio navigation aids and a comm panel control for aviation radio channels. (Maybe even routing audio over the headphone / microphone jack?) An external (hopefully soon to be internal) digital compass along with a gyro compass accessory could be used with the iphone's accelerometers and GPS to create flight attitude and navigation instrument displays. Using the new cooperative capability of multiple iphones and the bluetooth or wifi connections, it might even be possible to build a scalable instrument panel of multiple iphones (or touches) that cooperate with each other. With an analog output interface to flight control actuators, it might even be possible to create an autopilot application.
I know I'm dreaming, but it does seem like with just some analog input ports to existing sensors, the iphone has all the remaining sensors, display, control input, audio I/O, and smarts to make a very nice instrument panel for very low cost. Maybe something similar could be done for cars, boats, etc.?
But to start with, I'd be happy just to see that universal remote.