[Macworld.com]

With a few hours of iPhone usage under his belt, Rob Griffiths presents a list of 10 iPhone applications he hopes to see -- and soon! [more]

[zensunni]

Quote:

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With a few hours of iPhone usage under his belt, Rob Griffiths presents a list of 10 iPhone applications he hopes to see -- and soon! <a href="http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/editors/2007/07/10iphoneapps/index.php">[more]</a>

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I understand your need to get an iPhone for 'work' /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif but would hope that people unhappy with this restriction would hold-off on buying an iPhone until Apple does the inevitable and opens it to third-party development.

[SeattleProf]

I was working on my own list when this article came out. Note some overlap in my wish list:
iChat including Video iChat (recognizing that video chat is not possible on the current version given camera is on the back)
Voice recording, especially to support hands-free dialing
Add a to-do list option to Notes
To reduce typos, add visible password option such as in OS 10.4
Direct access to contacts without have to click through Phone
Add CoverFlow in other apps such as e-mail
Add widescreen keyboard and view in Mail
Slide finger to right and tap to delete option in all apps I love this!
iTunes-based ringtones
Download songs, TV directly from iTunes (when in WiFi mode)
Download directly from iTunes (when in WiFi mode)
Unified Inbox option in Mail
Allow developers to create apps that appear in the button section
Make home page buttons live (e.g., show the current weather and temperature)
Small elegant $5 adaptor to allow usage of 3rd party headphones.
Postal zip code brings up cities in Clock (like zip codes bring up cities in Weather)

[andrewburke]

After tapping the Outliner icon on the home screen, you will be taken to the Outliner overview. Here you will see the first line of each entry; tapping on a line will cause the entry to slide into view from the right.
The entries are pure text. The first line of the text is the header of the entry that appears in the overview, so an entry could be a large body of text with a descriptive first line or just a few words, to be used as part of a list of bullet points to be dragged and re-arranged when in the overview screen; as in a checklist, or shopping list, or ideas list.
To make it easier to scroll through the text of a long entry one page at a time, a simple tap on the lower half of the displayed text will advance the entry one page. A single tap to the top half will take you back one page.
To edit the text of an existing entry, first tap the edit button, then tap where on the entry you want the insertion point.
Whenever you go back to the overview, or return to the home screen, Outliner will remember your position within the current entry.
Back in the overview, you can drag the headers up and down to re-arrange them. You can also nest headers within other headers; by holding, say, Get toothpaste over When shopping, a space will be made below When Shopping where you can drop the entry. Get toothpaste is now a child of When shopping, and a triangle now appears to the left of When Shopping. Tapping the triangle causes the new outline to collapse or expand.
Tapping on When shopping will reveal the When shopping entry on its own tapping on the symbol to the right of the entry will reveal When shopping together with its child entries.
When you are typing within a entry, you can create a new entry, simply by starting the next line with a space. Press Return, then a space to start your new entry; pressing space twice will cause the new entry to be a child of the current entry.
Entries are synchronized between your iPhone and your Mac every time you charge the phone. Applications and context menus on the Mac have the option to Export as an Entry; placing a new entry in the Outliner Folder that syncs with the phone.
Opening the Outliner Folder on the Mac reveals an interface similar to that on the phone, for re-arranging and editing the entries. You could select the text from several sequential web pages and export them as entries, those entries can be found within the Outliner Folder, selected and combined into a single entry for reading.
Using Outliner:
You could simply use it as somewhere to jot down ideas and reminders, creating new one-line entries, then jumping back to the overview to re-arrange them or nest them within other entries, making those other entries into categories. It would be useful just for that.
You could use it to write a blog entry or an article. Write a header, then Return andSpace for each new paragraph; jump back to overview to re-arange or delete paragraphs before publishing.
You could take massive text files on your Mac and add spaces to the start of new paragraphs to create new sections and sub-sections dropping the modified file into the Outliner Folder for export as a nested collection to the iPhone.
As described above, this app could be eminently useful obvious and straight-forward, while at the same time adaptable to your imagination. For those who want more, an advanced version might enable the following features:
A button to turn the text of an entry into an email message
An Urgent button to color an entry header red, along with a way to filter the Overview to show only theUrgent items
A Set Reminder button to set a due date and time when an alarm would sound and the Outliner icon in the Home screen would show the number of due entries

[Swift2001]

You know, I've heard this since WWDC, that Apple MUST open the iPhone. I don't know. Didn't various people predict the death of the iPod unless it had a radio or a replaceable battery or-- It never seemed to hurt that much. Jobs, on the other hand, kept implying he wasn't interested in video on the iPod, and gave a convincing reason -- and then introduced the video iPod.
I'm not much convinced by Rob's list of necessary apps. None of them turn me on. And even more important, especially early on, is that there aren't major problems with stability and/or malware, and opening up the SDK right away is probably asking for trouble. Even the fact that they're services of the "always on" variety makes them a slowdown problem; and one of the very best things about the iPhone is how fast it reacts.
There was a "rumor" printed on AppleInsider as true, but then they took it off the front page. The usual "I was in a coffee shop and an Apple employee I knew said" variety. But I found that list much more compelling: like the Leopard Finder in coverflow. iChat's in their list too, and, when Office 2008 for the Mac shows up, there "will be" complete Exchange server syncing.

[vfx2k4]

How about a full version of OS X Mail.app with two key features I'm kinda surprised were left out:
Unified Inbox- did no one at Apple even try out a Blackberry?
Mark all Messages as read- see above.
Rest of the apps requested in this article are secondarily important to me, save of course for iChat. Another one of those major head scratchers...

[saxguy]

If you spend some time with the phone and really get to know its interface. You'll realize that all of the programs are "already running," a simple tap and/ or button push and you're doing almost everything on that list. Rather than memorizing a bunch of key commands or running other programs, one of the iPhone's mantra is that it's only tap, flick, or slide away. The whole point of the iPhone is that people know exactly what it can and can't do. Now, I'm not doubting that in the whole U.S. that there are dreamers, but there are strong reasons as to why Apple decided to put or not put certain apps in the iPhone. Trust the UI, you'll find that you'll be having more fun with your phone than just 'using' it.

[rembert]

Although, as I'm from Europe, I have to wait a while for the iPhone, I won't buy the iPhone when Apple decides to keep it closed for developers. The main reason why I'd buy something like the iPhone, is navigation software. I currently use Route66 on my HTC Wizard, a WM5 phone with touchscreen. Google Maps might be nice but it's definately not the solution as wireless internet is very expensive here in Europe, especially when you leave the country. Besides, network coverage might be in issue, of course at the moments finding your way gets really tricky.
Route66 already has a OSX version of their software. The step towards the iPhone cannot be very difficult. But as long as Apple keeps the doors closed, we're stuck with the probably fantastic but impractical google maps.
Apple, please reconcider this weird approach. Everyone can install software on WM-phones and developers can build software for those phones easily. That's one of the causes of their success. With the Palm devices in the past, something similar had happened: it was extremely easy to develop software for those handy little devices and to install it on the palmtops. I just cannot understand the Apple approach: although it's a lot of eyecandy, the openess of the platform is a leap back in time.
I do have faith in all those hackers trying to hack the iPhone. They'll succeed, as they succeeded with Apple TV. And I'd even not be suprised if Apple launches a special development iPhone development platform within weeks.
We'll see. I'm stuck with my contract until november. Then I'll decide. Will it be the iPhone? Or another WM phone?

[BrooklynNYC]

What I would like to see is less people complaining about what the iPhone doesn't have. For Pete's sake, the damn thing has only been out a few days and people are saying, "I wish it did this, I wish it had that." It's the first generation!!!! Compare a first generation iPod with the fifth generation iPod - what a huge difference!
This phone will go through changes (some good, some bad) like everything else.
You can't have your cake and eat it too. Just be thankful that you make enough money to buy one.
However, what I would like to see is a patch for the new iTunes. The new upgrade damaged my sync; damaged my music library files; and caused havoc on my MBPro.

[BrooklynNYC]

I was talking with someone I know who is a Mac Genius at the 5th Ave (NYC) store. I told him that I had a contract until December for my phone and my wife's and that it would cost over $100 per phone to cancel, in addition the price of the iPhone and paying the new contract with AT&T, it just was too much money to spend. He said to me, "what if Apple was willing to buy out your contracts as incentive - sort of a gift - for buying the phones?" Wink-Wink.
He wouldn't tell me if that was just a nice thought or something that Apple was planning in order to get the sales up in the first year.
I would certainly consider that if it were true.

[griffman]

Over the last three days, I have probably spent (conservatively) 24 hours using the iPhone. I think that's quite a lot of time to "get to know its interface." And that intuitively simple "always running" interface is exactly what drives a lot of my list. Why? Because things aren't one tap away, they're three. Or four. Or five. Do that enough times in an hour, and you really begin to get annoyed.
For instance, want to watch a video, and you're preesntly in an email? Press the Home button. Tap the iPod button. Tap the Video button. Scroll and tap your video of choice. That's one hard button press and three taps. Give me a Video button on the home page, and I save at least one tap, if not two.
Another example. Want to delete a contact? Press the Home button. Tap Phone (becaues you can't reach Contacts without going to the phone -- what if I just want to look at a contact entry, not call them?). Tap Contacts to view your contacts. Tap-drag to find the contact, tap to activate the contact, tap to edit the contact, tap-drag to scroll to the bottom, tap the Delete Contact button, tap the confirm delete request. That's eight taps!
Forcing everything to go through the Home screen is very inefficient when you know where you want to go and what you want to do.
-rob.

[griffman]

"What I would like to see is less people complaining about what the iPhone doesn't have. For Pete's sake, the damn thing has only been out a few days and people are saying, "I wish it did this, I wish it had that." It's the first generation!!!! Compare a first generation iPod with the fifth generation iPod - what a huge difference!"
And if we don't post our lists, air our complaints, and suggest changes, then how do you think Apple will know what people want to see? Consider Jim's writeup about his weekend with the iPhone. The email app lacks a unified global Inbox, as you see in OS X's Mail app. For me, that means a minimum of 33 screen taps to simply open and close one unread email in each of my five accounts. I had eight acconts on the iPhone at first, but removed three seldom-used accounts; it was just too annoying.
Now Apple had at least a year to develop the iPhone. Don't any Apple employees have more than just their "@apple.com" email addresses? Apparently not, or there would have been someone who said "gee, it takes a whole lot of mouse clicks to see all your new mail. Maybe we should add a unified Inbox."
Now, I know that's not true. So instead, it was a conscious decision on Apple's part not to provide one. How do we get that changed? We all write and discuss and post about how annoying it is not to have a unified inbox! If we don't, then iPhone v2, v3, etc. will never change.
Criticism of lacking features, poor functionality, and expected but missing behaviors (drag-delete a contact, perhaps?) is something that I hope every iPhone user does. For while it is a ground-breaking device, there are things it can definitely do better to make it even better. Only by letting Apple know what we think is important will they be able to see how actual iPhone users feel about their new phones. (And yes, I've sent a copy of my complaints into Apple's feedback box. They don't have an entry on the feedback page for the iPhone, so I used AppleTV /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif ).
As a friend said, the iPhone is 90% genius and 10% "what the heck were they thinking?!" I want it to be 100% genius -- or at least at lot closer to that mark. That's what will make it truly revolutionary.
-rob.

[rebelrouser]

I, too, wish third party developers would be allowed to create apps for the iPhone. I use my Palm TX to carry medical information to use in my practice. The iPhone would be ideal to keep drug lists or even text books for various professions. An app to read books with, such as eReader or iSilo would be great.
However, my most basic desire would be to have a functional Dictionary. I use that app often on my Palm, and it would seem to be a very simple thing to do on the iPhone. Maybe it's already available, but I've seen no mention of it anywhere.
I also love the ability to "jot down" a note or draw a picture on my palm (by writing on the screen) and then being able to add an alarm as a reminder to check it at a later date. Very quick and handy, it has become my peripheral brain.
Agree with the observation that Notes and/or To Do lists should be integrated with iCal and sync with your computer. Maybe in Leopard?

[BrooklynNYC]

Your gripes are understandable. But it seems that you (and many others) were expecting an error-free (or annoying-free) device from its infancy. How many iPhones has Apple released over the years? This is a product in its birth and growing pains must be anticipated and expected.
People want everything "right now" without any allowance for growth. Don't you think that the next phone will be better? And the one after that even more so? Maybe Apple should have beta-tested the phone and then asked for user input (kidding). Unfortunately critics and journalists do not have an idea of critical thinking.
I still think that there is too much complaining over a product that is so new that there hasn't yet been time for improvements and the complaining is not constructive critism, it's really just whining ("mommy, I wanted THIS, not that!!!")
Give Apple some time to look at all of the feedback so that they can build upon this great technology because they certainly can't anticipate what every single person in the world is going to want in their product(s).