With only a few hours left before the announcement I’ll give a brief list of the features I would like to see in the updated iOS (some have been predicted, but regardless…). Some of them, not all, are actually critical if I am to consider upgrading to an iPhone 4S/5.
- Less strict rules for background apps. E.g. currently you cannot have an alarm app play a song instead of an alarm without leaving the app running which drains the battery at night.
- Improved soft-keyboard: I would like to see long presses to access numbers and other characters, instead of having to switch to a different mode (think Android on HTC phones).
- Customizable ring/sms/mail tones. ‘Nuff said.
- Much improved notifications.
- Quick access to the different radios, instead of having to dig down into the settings, in various places, only to toggle the radios.
- User accessible file storage. Let users manage part of the memory as file system where they can freely create files and folders and move them around, and also to allow to use the phone as a thumbdrive.
- Widgets. Doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but simply make the app-icons “live”, meaning that they update themselves with the relevant information. You could take it one step further and allow icons of different sizes as well in order to provide more information.
- Video calls over 3G as well instead of Wifi only. As it is now it’s virtually a useless “feature”.
- Active lock screen. Display some useful info on the lock screen as well.
- Text reflow in the browser when you pinch to zoom.
Regarding the hardware, despite the rumors of a delay, I would like to see:
- HD video recording (a given).
- A louder speaker, as the current one is ridiculously low, you are guaranteed to miss many calls and all messages/mails with the phone in the pocket right now.
- A notification LED! Having to wake up the phone only to see if you missed something the minute you have been away from the phone is a chore, and just awful usability. Apple should really know much better!
- Larger display. I think 3.8″ – 4.0″ would be ideal.
But in a short while we’ll see and I will know what my next phone will be, as I have several contingency plans…!
If you added Flash support, this would look like the set of features that came with my Android phone 10 months ago.
LOL! You are absolutely right of course!
And the only reason I didn’t add Flash to that list is because I don’t expect it to *ever* appear in iOS; but it does make you wonder why I don’t simply move on to the platform that will provide me with all those features instead of keep waiting for them, doesn’t it? But trust me that is what I am looking into right now (as I also mentioned in my post).
OT: not having Flash in iOS is one big reason why I would never buy an iPad tablet: at that level I do expect almost desktop capabilities and certainly the full web experience, including Flash, which means that Android or WebOS are the only options (QNX just seems unfinished at this point).
I moved to Android for that exact reason. There’s absolutely no question that it’s a rougher UI with some inexplicable errors now and then, but for me functionality is king. Honeycomb tablets are a blast. I’m sure Ipads are as well, but the web today just has way too much great stuff in Flash. Hope you’re able to get the right combo for you mate. Cheers.