Duane Newman

So, I finally bought an iPhone since the 3GS has come out.  I’ve began to notice some missing features I really wish it had–some that I miss from my Windows Mobile phone.  I must preface this list though with the fact that in general I love the iPhone and would still get it even after this list.

• Add a USB accessible unified file storage location
  This is my number 1 complaint with the iPhone. I used my old windows mobile phone to carry around lots of important files and I could easily access them over USB and ON THE PHONE by any app or EMAIL. This is a huge deficiency in the iPhone and I know there are “apps for that too” but they are all clunky and feel like after thoughts (because they are). I would like to see Apple add a USB accessible storage location where I can add/edit/delete files over USB, save files from emails, include files in emails, and access as needed through other applications. This API could work just like the location services and push do now where you have to authorize a requesting applications access to the file store and all listing/access would be through the API to keep security and privacy intact.
• Seperate brightness settings for on/off charger
  It would be nice to be able to set the brightness seperately, so if I am at the office or somewhere else where I have the phone on a charger it automatically can go to a brighter, more user friendly setting and then return to a dimmer, more power friendly setting when it is taken off of the charger.
• Support Flagging emails for followup
  This may not seem like a big deal to some but having the ability to read an email while I’m out so I know what is happening and then flag it for followup so that when I get back into the office I can still easily find/remember the important emails and address them.
• Support for moving files between IMAP accounts
  I have four email accounts I track on my iPhone (and one or two more I will probably be adding soon). On my desktop email clients I can move an email from one IMAP account to another. As life goes I have friends that have several of my email accounts and I happen to know them through both personal and business. So I sometimes get business related email in my personal account and the other way around. I would love to be able to move that email to the right account so I can track it better.
• Add a plugin framework and support into Safari (and get flash)
  Okay, Flash is not as huge a deal-but come on, is it that hard? Also, how many apps have built in browsers now because you can’t create a plugin for Safari?  I would love to see plugins that are accessible from inside Safari (like delicious, password managers, etc).  This could also allow for some apps (like password managers) to still run as an application but have an extension that is accessible through Safari to make the whole experience much richer.
• Custom Alert Tones
  Here is one that is just annoying (because about every other phone out there supports it). Why can’t I upload custom alert sounds? Seriously I only have a couple sounds that are usable as alarms and I don’t like them.  And why can’t I select different sounds for events like email, voicemail, and calendar alerts?  At the very least I should be able to select from my ringtones for these items.
• Wake to iPod alarm
  I have lots of music on my iPhone and some of it is great for waking to in the morning. I know I can use a ringtone for my alarm but as far as I can tell they can only be 30 seconds long.  What if I would like to wake to a specific song, or artist, or album, or play list? You could make the list short and manageable and just do play list and album.
• WiFi auto on/off with configured apps or “as needed”
  I would like a feature that made it easier to manage when my WiFi is on or off rather than having to manually switch it all the time.  I keep hearing solutions to battery longevity problems that include only having it on when you need it.. but it is a minimum 3 steps to get to (and that is only if you keep your settings button on your home page, which I do-only for this reason).  I don’t have a good solution to this one yet but am sure there is something that can be done so it doesn’t stay on all the time.
• Sub Pages or better app management
  This is more of a preference thing.. I like the pages concept and how it works-but I would like to either be able to create page groups or sub pages.  Take for instance that I try to keep my pages organized-my front page is all my commonly used every day apps, next page is all my standard productivity apps, then all my games, then all the stuff I use sometimes or just have for novelty (like the app store, or the lightsaber app).  When I add a new item and it suddenly extends a “section” to a new page I have to go to a lot of effort to move all of them over one page to keep it all consistent. It would be nice if either 1) pages where easier to insert or shift as a whole, or 2) I was able to create sub pages that only had the apps in them I want in that category (like a link on the main page that says “games” and it takes me to a set of pages that are only my games). I think something like this would make app management a lot easier.
• Turn just the phone service off*
  This may seem like an odd one, but it is part of the reason I have to keep my iPhone plugged in charging at work.  My office building does a good job of consuming any external radio signals (partly because we have a lot of RF in the building).  On my WinMo phone I could go into airplane mode OR turn WiFi on or off and/or turn the phone/data connection on or off independently of each other.  I rarely have good phone connectivity here in the office but regularly use my WiFi-but since I can’t turn off the phone without turning off WiFi as well I have to let my battery get drained while it constantly searches for signal (it gets one bar every now and again-just enough to keep trying all day long).
• Profiles*
  It would be nice to have profiles that can quick set all these little options. I’d like to be able to set the ringer/WiFi/3G/brightness/etc all together with a preset.. like turning off/down the ringer, turning on WiFi, turning off 3G, upping the brightness a little, etc when I am in the office with one profile option, and then turn the ringer up, 3G on, WiFi off, brightness down, etc when I leave the office.  Maybe even change the default ringer as well.

I’m sure there are more things I will think of as time goes by but this is my initial list of observations and wishes after two weeks of usage.

* New items added 7/13/09