[linx]

NO SMS FORWARDING
NO SMS REPOSITORY IF THERE IS NO RECEPTION TO SEND A MESSAGE
CANNOT ADD A CONTACT WHILE ON THE PHONE
Just to name a few things STILL missing. All basic fuctions that are on £30 phones as standard.
WTF Apple

[jmincey]

Alansky characterizes this article and thread as a waste of time, and users jstunna and kboone34 agree. I guess you folks think the iPhone could not possibly be improved, eh?

Jeff Mincey

[Tom_Diola]

It is just a phone after all. Until it can connect at reasonable speeds (face it 3G is not reasonable) it's pretty much useless for browsing. Email okay but for real stuff forget it. Everyone get real about this!

I have the original iPhone bought last September - mainly for the phone and gmail...
I upgraded it to 2.0 and noticed that it overheats when I load apps onto it... I removed all the stupid hacked apps immediately.

[tactics]

Great list. I own an Apple laptop and desktop, and am a complete Mac evangelist, but I still won't buy an iphone. It's a great media player and web browser, but it's a lousy communication device. Voice dialing and an actual keyboard are musts for me, and from what I understand, the third party voice dialing apps have a 60% failure rate. I just bought an HTC S730. it may not be as fun, but it's a helluva lot easier to make a phone call or type an email message on.

[douglas_goodall]

I couldn't agree more. The Apple desktop and notebook are superior devices, and work well for me each day. As for whether the iPhone is a better phone is questionable. Browsing the web on a handheld is problematic for 40 year olds with declined eyesight. I am excited by the potential of handheld internet applications, and the proxy "push" support proposed by Apple is exciting. I see huge problems though about Apple's choice of ATT as their cellular partner, and the pricing and contract issues have quite a ways to go before they will be workable for the general users. Given the recent laws about hands off cellular devices for drivers, the missing voice dialing functionality is a problem/opportunity for Apple to differentiate their product from some others and some timely updates could help in that area quite a bit. As far as the use of the iPhone as a portable music device is concerned, The iPhone battery needs to be used for phone support and not for music player use. iPod users are blessed with a superior player and I am a proud owner of an iPod touch which I consider to be a fine device with advanced functions. Now I am sorry to pay $10 for the 2.0 firmware upgrade that does little more than provide for the ability to spend money via the App Store. I upgraded my iPod touch expecting to see some exciting changes to the GUI but found few obvious changes. The common source base wherein the iPod, iPhone, and computers use the Mac OS X source base is clever, but the delay of the Snow Leopard release, on the heals of the delay of the Leopard release last year troubles me because it indicates a shift of priorities from the computers operating systems to the consumer handheld devices. I am more interested in Apple maintaining their leadership in the computer area rather than the handheld area. I also think it is crucial for Apple to pay their software engineers fairly now that things have changed and they have the money to do so. If the software engineers jumped ship over money, that would be a major catastrophy for Apple. I also think it is very important for Apple to create a viable plan for others to take charge should Steve Jobs leave his position should conditions change. Apple's decisions to base their software on standards based software such as the Mach kernel and the BSD userland were good moves. As a long term user of Unix, I appreciate the value of the Unix base when it comes to porting software to the Apple platforms. I am excited about Mac OS X being certified as real Unix.

[Morrick]

I don't want MMS, an integrated IM application, Flash support, or a camcorder, thank you very much. And frankly I'm getting more and more tired of articles like this.
It's been the same with the iPod. "The iPod is a great MP3 player, but it lacks this, and lacks that". Fortunately, Apple didn't listen much. The result: millions of iPods sold, and a very strong iPod identity -- that is, the iPod is not just another MP3 player.
The point is exactly the lack of features. It's the feature-orgy what makes other smartphones very NOT smart. I for one don't want the iPhone to become a Nokia with a gorgeous user interface. Live with it, Apple will never add a slot for a memory card or a replaceable battery or a bunch of gadget-features.
And the iPhone will sell very very well, and thankfully it won't be "just another phone".
Cheers
Rick

[jstunna]

I would love to respond to this personally, but I think user Morrick put it better than I could.

[macwilf]

I wholeheartedly agree! I had a look at the specs for Nokia N95 and it took the breath away from me - not because I was so impressed but rather confused! No other than ubergeeks and engineers will be able and willing to dive into that jungle of features to try to figure out how to use them. It is like Words. Most people just want to write a letter or set up a simple document. Most people just want to make and receive phone calls, browse the internet, send and receive e-mails, send and receive text messages and listen to music.
With the iPhone you can also check out where you are and take the occasional snapshot - and why not send the latter as an attachment to an e-mail? Then there will come a lot of extra features through third party developers.

But the important thing is that all of this is not that difficult to figure out how to do. Youʼre not lost in an impenetrable jungle of features.

But, having said that; I cannot understand why it is so difficult for the design-gurus at Apple to have the battery replaceable? With the features the phone has now and with the G3, people travelling may have to charge the battery before the day is over and if they are not in a hotel room or the like of it, what do they do then?

[jmincey]

We ought not mistake the poor implementation of features with their mere existence. That other smart phones have a clumsy or confusing interface is no reason for Apple not to add features to the iPhone. The question is not whether to add features so much as whether to add them elegantly and simply.
Apple has demonstrated its capacity to do precisely this.

Now, sure, it's still possible even for a company like Apple to err on the side of feature bloat. But many of the features in this article and thread are very reasonable. I hardly think, for example, that the implementation of copy and paste will ruin the device for you.

Just because Apple could add too many features doesn't mean it should therefore add none. So, again, why the strong objection to this article?

Jeff Mincey

[jeremyab]

> The lack of Flash support means Safari fumbles when it comes to YouTube clips embedded in blog posts or other pages; those just show up as broken plugin icons, with no option to launch the clips in the iPhone’s separate YouTube app. <
[/quote]
This is incorrect. When you come across a YouTube video, it displays a picture of the video with a link you can tap on to load the video in the YouTube application. At least, it has done that on the blogs I've been to so far.

[jprusins]

I recently heard a rumour which indicates that cutting and pasting is likely to be included in the soon-to-be-released 2.1 software update...

And as far as Notes syncing, I found the Evernote app to be a worthy replacement... syncs to its own data cloud and desktop application, and lets you take audio and photo notes as well as written ones...

[jhawk95]

"Online Voicemail
Why can't I log into ATT.com and listen to my voice mails? I could really use that NOW, since I don't have my iPhone with me (I sold it to get a 3g, and they're out everywhere. So, I'm using an old phone in the meantime"



Why not just call your own number and when you roll to voicemail you hit the * key and enter your password when prompted and then listen you your voicemails?

That way, you can do it from ANYWHERE without the need for a computer.

Sorry, but this is not a needed addition for AT&T or Apple to provide at the moment.

[cluhn]

I live in New York, and we also have a law prohibiting the use of phones to-the-ear while driving ($100 minimum fine). This is especially problematic since the iPhone is all visual and flat-touch. Besides the no-brainer fact that it IS irresponsible and careless to be fiddling with a dam phone while behind the wheel of a moving vehicle, it seems silly that Apple has not taken care of this oversight from a purely marketing standpoint -- that is, how many more iPhones would Apple sell in just California and NY alone if it offered a high-quality voice command app as "standard equipment"? I, for one, would have switched long ago were it not for the lack of voice command dialing and hands-free voice mail retrieval on the iPhone. I know a number of people who have also held-off for the same reason. It would be nice is Apple were to at least "leak" out word that such a thing is on the horizon. (Hint, hint . . .)

[jonro]

Download a free app like iSpeak from the App Store. You do have to press the button to activate it, but it works very well and is helpful when you are driving.