I’ve read many glowing summaries of the new iPhone 3G. And I agree with all of them. I can’t wait to get one myself on July 11. However, despite Steve Jobs claiming that Apple listened to customers to incorporate everything missing from the first generation iPhone, there are still a few misses.
Here’s my list of what I wish would have also been included in the Apple iPhone 3G.
- MMS – It’s still not possible to send pictures to other cell phones. Sure, you can e-mail pictures, but the iPhone is a cell phone and should include the ability to send picture messages to other cell phones.
- Copy and Paste – Even my 10-year old Palm could do this. Enough said.
- Video Recording – Pretty much every camera phone can also record video. I’m sure there will be 3rd party software to do this, but this should be included by default.
- Notes Syncing – Why include a notes function when it doesn’t sync through iTunes or Mobile Me?
- Bluetooth Stereo Headphone (A2DP) support – Isn’t the iPhone also an iPod? Why can’t it connect to stereo bluetooth headphones? Doesn’t it already have the required Bluetooth chipset inside?
- Landscape mode keyboard – Why isn’t it possible to rotate the e-mail and SMS application into landscape mode and give a bigger on-screen keyboard? Hopefully a 3rd party app will offer this.
- Voice Recognition – It would be nice to say a persons name and have them dialed. Especially when in the car. Third-party software opportunity.
- 32GB option – More space is always better. I’m not sure I’d need 32GB, but many people were speculating that it would be offered.
- Physical Keyboard Option – Apple recently filed a patent showing an iPhone with a physical keyboard. Many speculated there would be a second model focused on businesses that use Blackberry.
- Front-mount Video Camera – There were many rumors that the 3G iPhone would have a front-mounted video camera, allowing 2-way video conferencing.
- Haptic Vibration Feedback – Many reviews call this feature “gimmicky”, but it would be nice to have as an option to give tactile feedback when an on-screen button is pressed.
- $10/month increase from AT&T – This was not at all surprising, since the data connection is exponentially faster. At least the price of the phone is substantially lower, completely offsetting this increased data charge.
Despite these misses, the iPhone still destroys the competition. Check-out Walt Mossberg’s lackluster review of the Instinct, the latest iPhone competitor from Samsung. “iPhone” is mentioned more times than “Instinct” is mentioned. Samsung has had a year to respond to the original iPhone and this is the best they could do?
In order of importance, I agree with 7, 6 and 11. My LG4400 had fairly descent voice dialing, and that was released in 2003. This is a feature that, after having it for 5 years, I’m not certain I would/could go without it.
It seems ridiculous that they didn’t integrate a landscape keyboard. I’m sure adult size thumbs will mistype when using the portrait keyboard.
Having haptic feedback on my Voyager is a really nice feature and I’m surprised that Apple hasn’t incorporated it.
Copy & paste is one of my biggest pain points with the current model and it doesn’t look like it’s been solved. As is the can’t-search-contact and no-save emailed photos (will be corrected under 2.0). I thought I read somewhere about a landscape keyboard in 2.0 software, but maybe they were wrong or perhaps my memory is poor.
I bet Apple will pull the trigger on A2DP support at the same time they launch a stereo Bluetooth headset. I see this is inevitable.
Probably scared to pull the trigger on video recording with the current hardware. The one third party (jailbreak) app I’ve tried produces crap video (and they *charge* for their app). I saw a blog post regarding a iPhone camera developer opening – so I assume this will improve over time. Might be on different hw though.
I played with the Instinct at CTIA in April. Eh. And the haptics didn’t feel as strong as the Voyager, for whatever that’s worth.
For number 12 that is for locked iphone right?
Yes, I suppose #12 does apply only to a locked iPhone, since an unlocked phone could be moved to a different carrier. Unfortunately, unlocking doesn’t get you much unless you break your contract and pay all of the early termination fees. You’re basically “locked” to AT&T even if your phone isn’t.