eljeffe
Jul 8th, 2007, 8:58 pm
I have several touchscreen devices that I use on a regular basis. Since I have been playing with my iPhone so much, I hadn't touched the GPS in my truck in over a week. Today I started to put in a destination and a list of choices was presented to me on the screen. Without thinking, I actually motioned the iPhone's multi-touch finger flip to scroll through the list. Of course, nothing happened. When I caught myself doing it again, I had to laugh at how accustomed to the finger flip gesture for scrolling though a list of items on a small screen.
I guess this could be called a symptom of the iPhone Effect.
Even with the short-comings of this device, it still amazes me every day. It really is a hand-held computer that just happens to be a phone and iPod. For those of you wondering what the short-comings that I have found, here they are:
1. All applications be "orientation aware" and work in both normal and widescreen. There is no reason why not.
2. Calendar Application - how about a "week" view?
3. Speed dial. I should be able to set up one-touch dialing from the keypad. Sure, favorites allows something similar, but if pressing and holding "1" sends me to voice mail, I should still be able to set up other speed dial numbers. Also, at this time, it does not have voice dial. I can't see why this couldn't be included in a future software update.
4. Camera. Come on, this is the most basic camera application I have ever seen. Give me a software update that gives me zoom, lighting, video capture, and even audio capture. The thing has a mic, so it's just a software issue.
5. User customizable keyboard. Having two pages of keys to swap in order to type is very cumbersome. Have the keypad change based on the shift button (lower case to upper case, numbers to punctuation) like a normal QWERTY keyboard.
6. Copy/Cut/Paste. Give me more control over text. The Jeweler's Loop and delete key are great for short SMS messages and other limited text, but give me the tools to do real work on this thing. Sometimes, I'd like to copy and paste something from one application (like Safari) and into another application (like Mail).
7. Applications. This revolutionary device is hobbled by the fact that there are no applications like word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, games, etc. Sorry, but Web 2.0 apps through Safari aren't gonna cut it.
8. Video out adapter. I've seen the video iPod speaker/screen units for watching movies, so I know that video from the universal dock connector is possible. Can it be adapted to connect to a DVI or VGA device? I'd love to be able to show customer presentations from my iPhone.
9. Google Maps needs to be Bluetooth GPS aware. I can find a Bluetooth GPS receiver for about $50, so GPS enable the maps application so I can really get some good use out of it.
10. Okay, maybe this is a nit, but you would think on a device this sophisticated, you might be able to provide a calculator that goes beyond simple arithmetic.
Since the iPhone really is an iLife device and not just a phone, I think applications should reflect that. Sure it's a simple ARM processor, but if you can make a Sharp Zaurus act as a Linux workstation, I am sure the iPhone hasn't scratched the surface in terms of what the processor can do.
Issues that will require new hardware
1. Desperately needs a SiRF III GPS chip. Why would you have a killer app like Google Maps, and NOT have the ability to self locate and navigate using GPS?
2. G3 Network capabilities. Unless EDGE can start to approach the 500+ kbps speed, something else is needed. The iPhone is a joy to browse from when connected to WiFi, but EDGE is excruciatingly slow most times.
3. The speaker is absolute crap. Even my Motorola L7 SLVR had better sound. It is distorted with anything above about quarter volume.
I guess this could be called a symptom of the iPhone Effect.
Even with the short-comings of this device, it still amazes me every day. It really is a hand-held computer that just happens to be a phone and iPod. For those of you wondering what the short-comings that I have found, here they are:
1. All applications be "orientation aware" and work in both normal and widescreen. There is no reason why not.
2. Calendar Application - how about a "week" view?
3. Speed dial. I should be able to set up one-touch dialing from the keypad. Sure, favorites allows something similar, but if pressing and holding "1" sends me to voice mail, I should still be able to set up other speed dial numbers. Also, at this time, it does not have voice dial. I can't see why this couldn't be included in a future software update.
4. Camera. Come on, this is the most basic camera application I have ever seen. Give me a software update that gives me zoom, lighting, video capture, and even audio capture. The thing has a mic, so it's just a software issue.
5. User customizable keyboard. Having two pages of keys to swap in order to type is very cumbersome. Have the keypad change based on the shift button (lower case to upper case, numbers to punctuation) like a normal QWERTY keyboard.
6. Copy/Cut/Paste. Give me more control over text. The Jeweler's Loop and delete key are great for short SMS messages and other limited text, but give me the tools to do real work on this thing. Sometimes, I'd like to copy and paste something from one application (like Safari) and into another application (like Mail).
7. Applications. This revolutionary device is hobbled by the fact that there are no applications like word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, games, etc. Sorry, but Web 2.0 apps through Safari aren't gonna cut it.
8. Video out adapter. I've seen the video iPod speaker/screen units for watching movies, so I know that video from the universal dock connector is possible. Can it be adapted to connect to a DVI or VGA device? I'd love to be able to show customer presentations from my iPhone.
9. Google Maps needs to be Bluetooth GPS aware. I can find a Bluetooth GPS receiver for about $50, so GPS enable the maps application so I can really get some good use out of it.
10. Okay, maybe this is a nit, but you would think on a device this sophisticated, you might be able to provide a calculator that goes beyond simple arithmetic.
Since the iPhone really is an iLife device and not just a phone, I think applications should reflect that. Sure it's a simple ARM processor, but if you can make a Sharp Zaurus act as a Linux workstation, I am sure the iPhone hasn't scratched the surface in terms of what the processor can do.
Issues that will require new hardware
1. Desperately needs a SiRF III GPS chip. Why would you have a killer app like Google Maps, and NOT have the ability to self locate and navigate using GPS?
2. G3 Network capabilities. Unless EDGE can start to approach the 500+ kbps speed, something else is needed. The iPhone is a joy to browse from when connected to WiFi, but EDGE is excruciatingly slow most times.
3. The speaker is absolute crap. Even my Motorola L7 SLVR had better sound. It is distorted with anything above about quarter volume.