June 3, 2012

Top 10-MIA iPhone Features

iPhone Top 10-MIA features.Just to fit in with the other cool kids on the block, here’s our official list of the iPhones’ top 10-MIA (Missing in Action) features. The features that Apple hasn’t spoken about but in all honesty should be a part of the iPhone right out of the box. There’s only one rule to this list: The features must be technically feasible to be integrated into the 1st generation iPhone. [Read: No GPS or 3G - Sorry]

Without much further ado and in no particular order:

1. Vibration Alarm

This one should be a no-brainer for a cell phone; however, there’s no mention about it in any of Apple’s tech specs. It should be there, but one never knows with Apple. A phone without vibration alarm could be a deal breaker for many.

2. .Mac Integration

Once a week. That’s how often I plug my iPod into its docking station to synch new tunes and Podcasts. I’m lazy like that. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if the iPhone could sync with Apple’s .Mac as well? You enter a new calendar entry or change someone’s phone number on the go, and once you log into your iMac at home, all the changes have already been integrated by magic. The iPhone has all the ingredients to make this possible; Apple only needs to fix up the recipe.

3. Bluetooth Sync

Bluetooth Sync might be overkill if we already got .Mac Integration. However, not everyone might be willing to sign up for .Mac, so for these folks we will need some good old Bluetooth syncing. Four year old Sony Ericsson’s can do it on OSX, so why shouldn’t the iPhone?

4. Horizontal Keyboard

You can turn the iPhone to show Coverflow, you can turn the iPhone to show widescreen movies, why shouldn’t you be able to turn the iPhone to have a larger keyboard? Come on, just give it to us already!

5. Third Party Apps

Not much to say about this one, because so much has been said about it already. All that’s left to say is this: Just make it happen Apple!

6. Flash/Java/PDF

Even though all of the above could fit into the 3rd Party Application list, the iPhone should be able to support Flash, Java and PDF from the get go out of the box. It’s not a ‘real’ browser unless you give us the above Mr. Jobs.

7. Camera-Address Book Integration

Okay, this one sounds much more complicated than it really is. Here’s what should happen: When you enter a new phone contact, you can tap on the picture-placeholder, which will automatically bring you into the iPhone’s camera mode. Now you can take a snapshot of your new contact and the iPhone will integrate it in your address book entry. Now when that date from last night calls, you will actually remember his/her name.

8. iPhone Automator Scripts

This one is a little geeky, but wouldn’t it be great if iPhone users could write themselves some simple automator scripts? Let’s say for example, you want make an international phone call with your calling card: You’d write a small script, that first dials the access number of the phone card, followed by the security code, before it dials your international number. Once you want to make a call you simply press and hold the contacts name and choose ‘Dial with International Script’ from the pop up menu. (And of course you could share all of your cool scripts with the iPhone community.) Wouldn’t that be great? YES!

9. Over the air iTunes downloads

Even though most iPhone users could probably live without purchasing music albums on the go, this would be a neat feature to have. Especially for Podcast addicts, that just can’t live without the latest episode of ‘The Linux Action Show‘ during a week long road-trip. (Do Linux people go on road-trips btw?)

10. FM Radio

“Hey! I thought only features that can be easily added to the 1st generation iPhone are allowed in this list?” – Okay, okay… an FM Radio Tuner add-on would do for now then. As long as the iPhone software will be able to support it like the 5th Generation iPods do. Still…. built in would be nice! (And how about some radio-shifting a la TiVo?)

There you have it. The Apple Press’ official top 10-MIA iPhone features. We’re sure you disagree with some and would rather add others instead. Let us know what you’d like to see in the 1st generation iPhone by commenting bellow. Just remember: It’s got to be feasible…

About Philipp
Philipp lives in Los Angeles and writes as a freelance author for The Apple Press and FOCUS Online. You can contact him on his Twitter.

Comments

  1. unloud says:

    Just so you know, I asked David Pogue if the phone had vibration, and he said in the menu there was a listing for vibration. I was also under the impression that bluetooth syncing would be a feature.

  2. Philipp says:

    Hi Jake. Sure, I hope that all of the above will be actual features of the iPhone, and I assume that many of them will. However, Apple just hasn’t made anything official yet. Thank you for giving us hope for vibration and bluetooth synching though. :-)

  3. Kris says:

    Does the damn thing have GPS or not?

  4. Philipp says:

    Kris: The iPhone will not have GPS built in. However, if Apple decided to open it up to third party developers, an add-on might be provided by them. It’s all up in the air for now.

  5. Reza says:

    GPS and memory card reader are missing and that is too bad since most of the new phones have them….

  6. Philipp says:

    I agree Reza. But we all know how Apple loves to keep things simple. They did it with the iPod, they will do it again. 100 Million iPod’s don’t lie. ;-)

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