iPhone 3.0: Let’s Get Real

16 Mar 2009

Apple is hosting an event tomorrow, March 17th, to discuss the new features in the upcoming iPhone OS revision, 3.0. A whole lot of people have speculated that features such as copy/paste, internet tethering, and MMS messaging will be included. At this point, that’s all it is: speculation.

Let’s get real.

Let’s look at iPhone 2.x and what absolutely needs to be improved. My first thought was Mobile Safari which is clearly the weakest part of the experience, and I posted it on Twitter:

Bwana: I can't figure out why people want copy/paste so bad on iPhone 3.0 when Mobile Safari crashes every session.

about an hour ago

Mon Mar 16 18:20:30 +0000 2009

davepearson: Can't say it's ever crashed for me.

about an hour ago

Mon Mar 16 18:22:04 +0000 2009

jrblaze: I want Flash, stable Safari, and easier app organization.

about an hour ago

Mon Mar 16 18:22:05 +0000 2009

JordanPatterson: All I would like is background applications, and lockscren and task bar notifications.

about an hour ago

Mon Mar 16 18:24:34 +0000 2009

delmauriow: I want copy paste as a way to forward parts of text messages and the like or copying links from websites and posting them on Twitter

about an hour ago

Mon Mar 16 18:25:32 +0000 2009

miclothing: I turn off JavaScript and Mobile Safari behaves. Granted a lot of web sites dont work but for the ones I need it on I turn it back on

about an hour ago

Mon Mar 16 18:25:36 +0000 2009

virustricks: do you no if iphone 3.0 will be for ipod touch?

about an hour ago

Mon Mar 16 18:26:13 +0000 2009

brandenwill: Agreed. All I want is MMS. I hate that my friends phones that cost a piece of gum and a shoelace can send MMS but my $200 phone cant.

about 58 minutes ago

Mon Mar 16 18:35:11 +0000 2009

Here’s my list of “must-haves” for iPhone 3.0:

Mobile Safari stability - For me, my wife, and many, many others that actively use Mobile Safari on their iPhone, we find that it crashes pretty much every single session. Now if you stay inside of iPhone optimized websites, the probability of a crash decreases, but if that were the case, it’d be just like any other mobile browser. Apple should absolutely address this in 3.0.

SMS improvements – Basic features in SMS are missing which is kind of embarrassing. SMS forwarding should be included in iPhone 3.0 at a minimum and maybe even MMS. I’m hoping they merge SMS with Mail.app and give us a Pinger like application which includes social apps like Facebook and Twitter. But that’s really REALLY reaching for the stars and we’re keeping it real in this post

Better organization of applications – The longer you own an iPhone, the more applications you’ll obtain. Given the incredible amount of applications available, the current pagination system is reaching a wall. Usability becomes a bit clumsy as you have to scroll through 10 pages of applications and there needs to be some sort of organization/categorization/folder system in iPhone 3.0

Background notifications/processes – As I stated on TWiT 186, Apple absolutely has to make a statement regarding the status of their promised background notification system shown in 2008. Tomorrow, Apple either has to announce plans to keep it, scrap it, or discuss other alternatives. Right now, it’s embarrassing for them since it stands as vaporware at the moment

I believe these four absolutely have to be addressed in some form or fashion before any new bells and whistles are added. As for the copy/paste ninjas, I’ve never used copy/paste on a mobile device and don’t foresee myself using it if it’s implemented. I wish the noise was around the instability of what’s there instead of the missing features.

We’ll see tomorrow after Apple lets us know what they’re going to do.

Tags: 3.0, apple, copy, features, flash, iphone, mms, os, paste, rumors, sms, speculation

16 Responses to iPhone 3.0: Let’s Get Real

jrblaze

March 16th, 2009 at 8:08 pm

I Forgot one other thing that I would love to have and that is MMS. I hate when someone wants to send me something and I'm like the iPhone doesn't have MMS.

Marco

March 16th, 2009 at 8:19 pm

I hope they include multiple everything ( multiple pictures in one e-mail, multiple apps opened @ same time, … ), Copy, Paste isn't so important. MMS integrated with SMS ( but who needs MMS if you have e-mail? Push notification, IM integrated in OS, Faster Page loading ( safari ), having Spotlight that would be awesome!!! Sometimes contacts that have a lot of info take some time to load, or they just freeze so you can just restart. Something like iWork for iPhone ( that would be just cool to have ). Basic tools for picture ( Hue, Brightness, color enhancement ( by touching the color ( like Nik software does in PS ) )

Bwana

March 16th, 2009 at 8:59 pm

I posted a video comment reply here, but it just vanished… very weird.

Geekologist

March 16th, 2009 at 10:36 pm

I can agree with this post 100% I have been developing iPhone apps and I can agree completely with every single feature request. One thing I would like to mention is the instability of Safari Mobile does not stop at just the Safari.app but also reaches into the UIWebView API within app development. My best guess is that the version of webkit that runs the mobile experience needs to be fixed dramatically. Other things I want to see our improved features in the iPhone SDK. Anyways great post bwana and keep up the great work.

Christwitty

March 17th, 2009 at 9:14 am

I heard that the 3.0 sdk would be improved. I don't now in what way though.

Christwitty

March 17th, 2009 at 9:26 am

Actually the Spotlight feature doesn't have to slow the iPhone down because it could be embedded into Springboard. also there is a solution for your apps if you jailbreak your iPhone (or if it is jailbroken) you can use categories which doesn't run in the background. I use it just for my games and I've cut out 3 pages. Also I didn't video comment because I don't have a good camera. ohhhhhh. The excuses!

Bwana

March 17th, 2009 at 2:35 pm

I've used categories before. It's a pretty clumsy hack that can really mess up your phone if you're not careful. The idea is good, the implementation isn't (but I commend them on hacking it on top of Apple's existing architecture)

WebBasedApps

March 16th, 2009 at 9:04 pm

iPhone 3.0: Let’s Get Real | Bwana.org: miclothing: I turn off JavaScript and Mobile Safari behaves. Granted a l.. http://twurl.nl/ezt4×5

This comment was originally posted on Twitter

Bwana

March 17th, 2009 at 1:34 pm

Looks like Apple covered 3/4 out of my “must haves” list http://bit.ly/bM3ff No mention of more stable Safari.

This comment was originally posted on Twitter

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iPhone 3.0: Let’s Get Real

16 Responses to iPhone 3.0: Let’s Get Real

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