[Dan Frakes]

Quote:

---

Actually, GPS should NOT be a hardware change. All current phones are required by FCC rules to be able to pinpoint a caller's location to within some distance for 911 calls.

---

The FCC rules don't require GPS hardware; they simply require that a carrier be able to locate a phone, as you note, within a certain distance. As I understand it, for many phones the carrier simply triangulates the location using the closest towers.

Quote:

---

And even if you ignore that, you can easily add GPS capability by way of Bluetooth.

---

Sure, but that requires a separate receiver. Our wish was for built-in capabilities.
And I think it's only a matter of time before most phones have such a feature. I personally think standalone GPS units will be limited to things like cabs and truck drivers before too long. It makes too much sense to include GPS functionality in a phone, provided it has a big enough screen.

[melgross]

One thing that Apple will have to contend with is this:
http://arstechnica.c...ully-uses-uikit
I would imagine you know about it, even though I haven't seen you report on it (why is that?).
This will give exactly what Apple said they didn't want, uncontrolled third party access to the phone.
Unless Apple has some way of preventing it from working, and can legally do so, this will develop into a sophisticated system development tool, people who are familiar with it have told me.
The only way to prevent this from happening is to release their own development kit as soon as possible, before this becomes too good to ignore.
I wanted to add, but forgot, that the genie may already be out of the bottle with this. Even if Apple had their own, good, SDK, malware writers might choose this instead, if it gives access that Apple's own kit doesn't.

[smax013]

Quote:

---

If my iPhone had Push to Talk I think I might drop it in a blender like that guy in the YouTube video. Push to Talk is a pox upon the land. You're already subjecting us to half of your conversation -- don't force us to hear the other half too! /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

---

Amen!
I tend to want to throw my phone at those annoying people talking on their Nextel phone at the next table in a restaurant! /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif

[RASTERMAN]

On a scale from 1 to 10 (10 being high) I currently rate my iPhone a 5.5 or 6. This is an improvement from when I first acquired it (~4.5 at the time.)
I actually considered returning it for about a week, then decided to tough it out. I'm glad I did... It's starting to grow on me, but I'm certainly looking forward to improvements.
The fact that the iPhone can be "easily" upgraded by even a novice or casual user is something that seems to escape many folks perception of the device. While I'm sure many mobile phones or especially smart phones out there can be upgraded, I have a hard time imagining that average users would even consider trying it. I don't think that will be the case for the iPhone.
We're looking at version 1.0, or 1.01 if I include todays' update. It has room to grow and I'm looking forward to it's inevitable evolution.
With regard to the "Wish List"... Good summary, MANY of your observations are on my list as well. Looking forward to reading the Big List.
For myself, I would like to see ALL applications support screen rotation or pivot functionality. For the life of me I can't understand why it was not available from day one. I know it would have taken more programming to accommodate portrait AND landscape, but I was seriously disappointed it was not a universally available feature.
Improve the camera functions. I'm curious if at least stabilization and digital zoom could be implemented in software. I know, digital zooming stinks, but it would be better than nothing. Also, please move the shutter release button! I think James Duncan Davidson, or John Gruber suggested that the whole display or at least a large portion of it could act as the shutter release... That seems very reasonable to me.
Give us a real Note pad application. Let us select a different font and other formatting features. While I don't hate Marker Felt as many do, I would like to have a choice.
My list could go on for pages so I think that's all I'll share for now, at least until we see the MW Big List.
Time to go update my iPhone!
Cheers!
---RASTER

[George76]

Quote:

---

More importantly, everybody who asks for 3G forgets a patent fight over key technology is currently being fought out in the courts. Currently, there is an injunction in effect regarding some of this technology. Could you imagine if Apple had selected a Qualcomm 3G chip for the iPhone? If it had, it probably couldn't ship iPhones into the Country right now. With these right up in the air, I hardly find it responsible to select 3G technology until these issues are settled. Last thing Apple needs is another 100 million dollar pay out to somebody.
I trust Apple's judgement. It didn't include 3G because the time wasn't right.

---

Yeah, I'm so sick of hearing the patent issue as an excuse for why Apple left out 3G on the first version. I feel like the people who keep dragging it out think Apple had some sort of divine knowledge that the patent dispute wouldn't get resolved before the iPhone launched or that an injunction would be put in place. Nonsense! Maybe they had some inclinations things would be complicated, but it seems clear that Apple could have pretty easily gotten around it by simply not using the affected chips.

[leesmith]

Excellent article! In addition to those items, I also want to see...
Hardware: add a zoom lens to the camera
Software: a News app w/ sports scores (perhaps powered by Google?); ability to purchase from iTMS over-the-air.

[griffman]

Apple has stated, in several interviews, that the size of the 3G chipset and its impact on battery life were the primary reasons the first generation phone uses EDGE instead of 3G.
-rob.

[Albatrou]

No one mentioned Powerpoint, why is its support missing? wouldn't it be nice if you get an email with Powerpoint attachment to launch it and then flick through the slides?

[Terrin]

See that is the crux of my issue with the article. I think titling the article as listing fixes, as opposed to containing a wish list, isn't fair in regards to some of the listed items. A fix suggests something is broken, a wish list says, "hey there is this feature I really wish the iPhone had."
Everybody knows the iPhone doesn't have 3G, so listing 3G as a wanted "fix" suggests the iPhone is broken in that regard when it is not. It merely is something you wish it had, which is fine.
It is because this is Macworld that I expect better.

Quote:

---

notwithstanding the merits of Apple's current decision, it's more than fair for the Macworld editors to put 3G on the wish list for the next iPhone.

---

[imagewrangler]

You had me until the whole "third party app" meme came up. This usually happens by the Mac zealot zanies who don't get out much and/or must love screwing up their home or laptops with crap from VersionTracker et. al. Any user of a Treo or device with MS Mobile will know otherwise third party apps are a bane to their existence. To wit: want to crash your perfectly good PDA? Install third party apps.
Sadly, these same clearly clueless whiners wanting third party apps on their iPhone are the same ones that will blame Apple when their iPhones become unstable, buggy and crash-prone when they jam up their iPhone with crappy third party apps. Why is it the clueless make the most noise always about what they don't know. No third party apps to those who know are a good thing for the iPhone.
That said, I'm holding out for GPS, not because people need it (as much as they think) but just because I want it.

[bjanz]

It is PLAINLY RIDICULOUS for Apple to ship Bluetooth-enabled systems that don't support A2DP. And, now that we have the ability to use a combined phone-mp3 player from Apple, I wonder how they could have omitted/ignored/forgotten about A2DP.
To review: A2DP is a high-speed, high-fidelity protocol that allows the use of Bluetooth stereo headsets on properly-equipped systems. I have a pair of Motorola HT-820 headphones that work properly with Bluetooth adapters on my WinXP and Linux systems and are a joy to use, but just don't work properly (yes, they work, but only in mono sht-sound quality) on my MBP. These, and other A2DP headphones, would have been IDEAL for use on the iPhone.

Apple has promised A2DP for Leopard, but that's in October - maybe. No mention has been made whether A2DP will ever be supported on the iPhone. Competitors such as RIM (Blackberry), Motorola, Nokia... all support A2DP today on some of their products.

If Apple is really* interested in "consumer products", where is the support for A2DP?
burt

[lhudd]

I would add:
Stop suggesting "locked" wifi networks when you get the pop-up connect to wifi dialog. If it's a locked network, then I'd like to only "approve" it through the settings box.
Similarly, i'd like to be able to say "no" to a network once and not have to do it over and over again. I just moved into a new house and don't have internet yet, and it pops up the neighbor's Locked wifi every time i wake the device.
Landscape VIEWING of email. Duh... that's a no brainer. With all the rich text email out there these days, this would be a big plus. Personally, i find the landscape keyboard more difficult to type on because it's hard to hold the iphone and type at the very bottom (portriat has that black space around the home button to hold on to).
Of course... MS activesync. For whatever reason, when i move an e-mail to a folder, it doesn't do the same on my exchange server, only on the iPhone. I'd like that to work properly.
Other than that, great machine!.

[griffman]

I had a Treo. I had tons of third party apps. I also had occasional crashes. Did I ever blame Palm? Nope. Why not? Because I knew I was running third party apps on my phone, some of which did some things that Palm might not have anticipated.
I will gladly give up a bit of stability for third party apps -- because Ajax-enabled web pages simply don't cut it as a way to provide the iPhone's missing functionality. Ideally, Apple would write all these missing apps themselves, but I don't see that happening.
Just because you could run third party apps doesn't mean you'd have to run third party apps. Those who are happy with the iPhone in its stock setup would continue as they were. But for those of us who find certain critical features missing (iChat, ssh, etc.), third parties would provide solutions that we could use. But with third party apps locked out, we're stuck.
-rob.

[mouse]

Quote:

---

Does anyone else find it annoying that you can't easily email an Address Book Group? As of now you have to individually add each contact.
Would appreciate the ability to email groups and text message groups, easily. (currently there is no way to text message a group of people and with no cut and paste feature this is even more tedious). This definitely makes it harder to keep in touch, en masse, social butterfly that I am.
And please for the love of Jobs!!!....give me an iCal syncing ToDo list. I've resisted every other handheld out there that attempts to help organize my life (because of the utilitarian blandness)...until...this past June 29th when I shelled out $6oo+ only to find out that the one obvious feature that was omitted from all the reviews, announcements, and keynotes because of its glaring obviousness was actually not a feature. hmm...

---

Ditto!I do not understand why you can't add more than one contact in SMS!