While I think the iPhone 3G is one of the best smartphones ever, I do think it has plenty of room for improvements. I use my iPhone so much I find I reach for it more and more and find myself not needing my laptop as often.

The MacWorld Phil-note is next week and I am hopeful we will see some updates coming to iPhone. With 2009 only a week away I thought I would discuss my iPhone wish list.

Many improvements can be added to the iPhone by Apple with a software update alone. Many of the over 13,600 apps in the App Store have filled in these gaps in the iPhone’s features and there is nothing wrong with that. With what has become a powerful developer community for the iPhone and iPod touch this is an important option.

Here is my wishlist. Let me know if I missed one of yours.

Software Updates
Apple has pushed out several updates that have added features in 2008. Now in 2009 we may have more to look forward to.

MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) – I have to admit I personally have not missed this much. But MMS is a pretty basic function that is offered on most cheap camera phones to quickly send a picture from one cell phone to another. Sure sending the picture via email is more sophisticated, but some of buddies do not own smartphones that have mobile email.

Cut-Copy-Paste – Probably the talked about feature. Personally I do not see it as important as some might suggest, but it needs to be added.

I have used two text editing apps TextGuru $4.99 and MagicPad $3.99. They provide cut-copy-paste inside a text editor where you might need it most.

I use Send Contact, $0.99 to email a phone number or address to someone else. For iPhone to iPhone contact sharing get Handshake (free) to send contacts or photos to other users over WiFi, 3G or EDGE. These features should have been included on the iPhone.

Keychain Manager – Saving your logins and web forms would be a really useful feature on any mobile device. Adding long keys into a web form over and over again is a bit of a pain.

I am using 1Password – free, and Easy WiFi,$1.99, a helpful utility to alow you to connect to WiFi networks that you need to connect to over and over again that make you login with Safari each time. Also take a look at Easy WiFi for AT&T, $0.99 which allows a fast way to connect at all the AT&T hotspots that are free for iPhone users. Works like a charm.

MobileMe “Back to my Mac” – adding screen sharing to the iPhone for MobileMe users would allow an easier set up for many users who want Remote Desktop.

There are a few nice apps in the App Store that do a good job of this, but they use VNC or RDP (Windows). I would like to see support for Back To My Mac similar to what is built in to Leopard.

Jaadu VNC, $19.99 – You can have complete access to your remote Mac or PC. If this is too pricy for you try Mocha VNC, $5.99 is not quite as polished, but also works pretty well. There is also a free version Mocha VNC Lite that is less featured.

Jaadu Remote Desktop, $19.99 or WinAdmin, $11.99 – Windows Remote Desktop client using RDP (Windows Remote Desktop Protocal) that allows you to remotely access and manage Windows Vista, Server 2003/2008, Windows 2000/XP/Media Center.

LogMeIn Ignition, $29.99 – provides one-click remote control for PCs and Macs. Requires you to set up a LogMein account with annual subscription and to install software on your computer.

Subscribed Calendars – one of my personal most desired features that is missing from the iPhone. I need to be able to subscribe to calendars and see them on my iPhone.

More Home Screens and More Apps Allowed – The iPhone allows for 9 home screens and 148 apps or bookmarks at any one time. I filled my iPhone and now rotate apps to review them as I reached my limit long ago.

Video Recording – Still no video recording on the iPhone. Although, I do not expect high quality video, even cheap camera phones can record some form of video.

Qik and Flixwagon have showed video and streaming apps for jailbroken phones but leave us waiting for them to show up in the App Store.

iChat IM Native – My favorite chat client for the iPhone is BeeJive, $ . I also like Fring as it supports Skype. But iPhone should have IM built-in. Put a front-facing camera on a new iPhone and video chat would be a great feature.

Notes Syncing – the notes app really needs an overhaul as it is limited the way it is now. Without sync and viewing different types of documents you are forced to look elsewhere. I hardly ever use the Notes app anymore as there are several App Store apps that are more useful. The iPhone Notes app not having at least sync is pretty lame.

Audio Recording – There are many third party audio recorders (below are my favorites), but I think a basic audio recorder should be included natively for making quick voice notes that can sync back to iTunes (my older iPod does this).

I wish there was a way to add a quality external microphone to the iPhone for recording lectures as there was for some of the iPods. The built-in iPhone mic isn’t bad for personal voice notes.

Note2Self Audio Recorder, $2.99 – Fantastic app that can easily record, save and email the recording fast. Uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to detect when you are making a note allowing ease of use in a car or meeting. Includes WiFi access to allow downloading of recording to your computer using just a browser.

SpeakEasy, $1.99 – Record lectures, voice notes, or whatever you want. Has a really nice UI and can sync your recordings to iTunes with its free SpeakEasy Connect software as regular audio or a ringtone.

VoiceNotes, free – Nice free app for recording audio on your iPhone if you need a basic functionality on a budget.

Also check out Jott and ReQall both free apps offer voice recording and text transcription that can help with to do lists, etc.

Two more free apps worth a look are Evernote and YouNote that offer audio recording as part of their features.

Landscape Email and Filters – I actually like the email support on the iPhone. I even have no problem with the iPhone’s virtual keyboard. Not having a landscape mode in Mail is ridiculous. The keybaord is easier and faster to use in landscape mode.

Again the App Store can help, but it is not a complete solution. Apple needs to add a landscape mode ASAP. There are four apps in the App Store that are clever that helps you get landscape mode for email.

TouchType, $0.99 – works ok and has a decent price, but not as functional as Wide Email or Sideways.

Wide Email, $0.99 – this one offers a Subject Line that is missing in the others leaving you with no way to fill in the subject line in the app causing you to have to do this in Mail. Also Wide Email keeps copies of drafts. This is good for safety, but also good if you want to use one of them as a template! Very clean looking interface and not as cluttered as Sideways.

Big Keyboard Email, $0.99 – supports font size, special charaters and International keyboard support. Also has Subject line.

Firemail, free – adds landscape email to the iPhone. Has a Subject Line that is missing in some of the others leaving you with no way to fill in the subject line in the app causing you to have to do this in Mail. You can also save text as snippets and then quickly insert them into your email.

EasyWriter Pro, $0.99 – Landscape email with spell checker and snippets.

Sideways, $1.99 – this one has a trash button. Saves text between launches, but does not seem to have a draft library like Wide Email does. Developer claims to be adding the ability to send text to Twitter and possible other services.

Compose, $4.99 – seems to be most basic and most expensive. Does the same thing as TouchType with no additional features.

ReplyButler 2.0, $1.99 – similar to QuickSend and Maildash in many features. Very simple to use, nat as feature rich as Maildash (but cheaper). Also has landscape mode for email.

Adding some filtering for email would bring the iPhone email support to equal Blackberry which my be only place that Blackberry has an edge on the iPhone as far as software in my opinion (I do not need a mechanical keyboard to be satisfied).

Landscape SMS – The iPhone needs to have landscape mode for SMS as well as email. Right now you can download SMS Landscape Big Keyboard, $0.99 or iPod SMS – SMS Touch, $1.99 from the App Store.

Also take a look at Maildash (with SMS), $2.99 – allows you to quickly send pre-formatted email or SMS messages. You can send or reply to emails and send SMS messages via Email-to-SMS gateways. Nicely polished app.

Integrated MobileMe To Do Features – the iPhone begs for an integrated To Do List. There are plenty of third party apps in the App Store that address this (I list a few favorites). The iPhone should have this included natively. Maybe as part of MobileMe and the iPhone Calendar.

These days I am using ReQall (free) as my To Do list app. I like their voice to text transcription and sharing features.

I also very much like Appigo’s Todo – $9.99 that can sync with Toodledo or Remember The Milk (paid pro account needed). Toodledo can also be used with a paid Jott account making for a very useful and interesting combination for a To Do list and task management.

There are many cheap and free To Do apps in the App Store, but Todo is the one that most looks like something Apple would have made right now. It has a clean and smart interface.

MobileMe iDisk Support – The iPhone needs access to MobileMe iDisk as a native feature. This would be great to store documents, pictures, movies, etc on your iDisk and have access to this from the cloud.

There are several apps in the App Store that can help like iStorage, $5.99 to access my iDisk. There is also MobileFiles, free MobileFilesPro, $9.99 that offers Excel editing, OneDisk, $7.99 or ReaddleDocs, $9.99

Apple should offer their own solution as part of MobileMe in my opinion.

Support for iWork and Office Editing – probably one of the most wanted features for business users considering the iPhone. DataViz has already announced Documents To Go will be coming to the iPhone, but Apple needs to allow support for a centralized space for documents and attachments that third party app developers can address or develop an app for themselves.

Tethering – AT&T has announced tethering is coming to the iPhone so you can share your iPhone broadband connection with your laptop. The App Store had NetShare available for about a day and pulled it. NetShare allowed you to connection via proxy and WiFi, not true tethering. NetShare works quite well by the way.

GPS Audio Turn-by-Turn Navigation – Many all iPhone owners would probably like to see a great turn-by-turn navigation app. Apple may be developing one. I would also like to see Apple open up the iPhone to developers. TomTom has expressed interest as has TelNav.

Delete Audiobooks and Music Feature – You can delete videos directly on the iPhone so why not Audiobooks and Music?

Bluetooth Stereo Audio (A2DP) – This is a feature have longed for on iPods. I would love to be able to listen without wires or dongles, even it the sound quality is less than wired headset.

Bluetooth Keyboard Support – It would be fantastic to allow the use of external bluetooth keyboard. I had a folding keyboard on my Palm device years ago. Love to see this on the iPhone.

Printer Support – It would be great for Apple to add Bonjour printer support to the iPhone. Just like bonjour printer sharing between my Macs and Windows machines (running Bonjour for Windows-free) being able to print documents, attachments, photos, directions or webpages directly from the iPhone would be awesome.

For now there is Print, $2.99 – print any Web page, contact or photo directly from your iPhone & iPod Touch via the free helper software on your laptop/desktop computer. You could even print remotely back to your office printer or print travel photos back home.

HP iPrint Photo, free – enables easy and fast wireless photo printing to HP Inkjet printers connected to a local wireless (WiFi) network. Could be great at parties.

Flash Support – Sure would be nice.

Alerts and Messaging – Apple has promised to bring alerts via the cloud. I hope we see this soon. This could seriously improve on the usefulness of not allowing third party apps to run in the background.

Audio Streaming via Airport Express – Would be very nice if you could wirelessly stream audio directly from your iPhone to an Airport Express or an Apple TV. Battery life would be a bit of an issue here.

Hardware Updates
In my opinion software updates are more important than hardware to make the iPhone an even better product.

Faster Processor – This is a no-brainer.

Better Camera with Flash – The last hardware update for the iPhone did not see the camera being improved. I would like to see a better camera with improved resolution and better close focus. Flash would also be welcomed.

Front Facing Camera – Video iChat please.

Extra Side Button or Two – I would love t see Apple add an extra mechanical side button or two that allows users to assign them to different tasks. They can be used to launch a certain app, voice dialer, camera, etc.

More Battery Life – We all want more battery life in our gadgets. I however do not think a removable battery for the iPhone is all that important. There are quite a few battery extenders available that cost less or about the same as a removable battery. We have an original iPhone that still shows no signs of the battery fading so replacement is not a big deal to me.

Improved Video Out – Allowing games to be played on a big screen would be very cool.

  Email Post   Print Post | Tags: appstore, iPhone