Five Things I would Change About the iPhone

I've had my iPhone for about a month now and for the most part I'm very pleased with it, but if I could have a meeting with Apple engineers, there are a few things I would tell them to change:

1 Protect the Glass Out of the Box

Perhaps my biggest pet peeve is the exposed glass front. I tried one of those silly protective plastic layers, but I couldn't get it to line up right or get rid of the air bubbles. It ended up in the trash in about 2 minutes and I bought a Marware case from Amazon, which protects the glass in my pocket, but it adds significantly to the bulk. It's a trade-off I was willing to make, but it would be better if engineers would provide a permanent protective layer out of the box and not force me to try to apply one.

While they're at it, maybe Apple engineers could try to figure out a way for the glass to be self-cleaning. I'm going to need to take out stock on the makers of iKlear because I'm constantly cleaning the finger prints off the glass. Seems those clever Apple engineers could come up with a way to protect the glass from scratching and finger prints. That would be something.

2 Enable 1-touch Dialing

One thing I loved about my previous phones was the ability to assign a key number to my most frequently-called numbers. Home was 2. Wife was 3. Daughter was 4 and so on. Easy peasy. I know I can set up Favorites on the iPhone, but it's not the same thing.

Why not provide the ability to assign a number to a phone number, then use that to order the Favorites list and attach it to the number, so you can enter that number on the number pad to dial. Doesn't seem it would take a huge leap of engineering magic (unlike my self-cleaning glass idea, which would take some doing).

3 Add Better Camera and Video

One of the early iPhone ads had a guy boasting he could take along an iPhone instead of carrying a phone, PDA and a camera. Fair enough to a point, but the camera is a bit of an afterthought on the iPhone. It's only a couple of megapixels for starters, doesn't have a high quality lens (like the Nokia N96) and doesn't let me record video. I've had a taste of using Flixwagon and I want video recording on my phone.

Again, Apple, not a huge leap, but it would really make the iPhone a must-have device. You have the cool factor down cold. Now let's get practical and add some quality components for the camera.

4 Let me organize App Store Apps

The App Store is great, but once you download a bunch, the desktop icons become unwieldy. You end up with multiple pages of icons and no way to organize them. Operating System 101, Apple engineers: we've been organizing our desktops in folders for years.

How about at least a way to create a favorite Apps folder and while you're at it, let me delete the ones I don't like easily. Sometimes I download an app that looked interesting and it turns out to be a dog. It's not a simple matter to get rid of it and it should be.

5 Let me Attach Pictures to Text Messages

The other day I was at a hotel where I could get cell phone reception, but there was a WiFi connection so I could text my kids. I wanted to send a picture of a nice view I had seen during the day along with my text message, but I couldn't because the Text Message tool doesn't allow it.

I realized upon checking that I couldn't even put so much as a smiley face into my text. What's more, I was able to send a picture easily using the Twitterific program. C'mon Apple engineers, this couldn't be that hard to do. My old cheapo Nokia phone could do it. This is really a must-have option.

So iPhone users, what are your iPhone pet peeves. Leave a comment and let me know.

[CharJTF]

Are you sure you can't organize the apps? I watched a friend do just that on their iPhone one time...IIRC, they were able to group them onto different pages. (I can ask how they did it if you want.)

And text messages usually only allow...well...text. My not-an-iPhone lets me select from text messages, video messages, or picture messages.

[Techwriter10]

Right. There are no multimedia text message options on the iPhone. As I was I writing this I did learn how to order the Favorites list, so there is that.

And it turns out you're right about organizing the apps icons too. You need to press and hold one of the apps and they start to wiggle. You can then drag and drop them across pages or within the page.

When you do this, an X appears next to each icon, enabling you to delete the ones you don't want.

Thanks for stimulating me to find this. I tried doing this earlier and nothing happened. I just didn't press and hold long enough.

[mikempls]

I don't think you've played aroudn with your phone enough to understand its features - some of the things you have mentioned above don't make sense to me.

Regarding #4 above - you can in fact organize your icons, just press and hold the hold for about two seconds - all your icons will start to jiggle - you can then move them around from page to page - as you like. Press the home key when done.

As far as deleting an app - it could not be easier - agian, just press and hold the icon until it jiggles- then pressy the 'x' on the icon and boom, it's gone - it's that easy.

[Dani]

You can change your settings to where double clicking the one button on the iPhone takes you directly to your Favorites, so that is *almost* like one-touch faves.

Biggest wish is that the camera had a flash and did video. I'd settle for just video because that could be accomplished with a firmware update.

[Techwriter10]

Yes, I figured out how to rearrange icons, which means I can put my favorites on the first page, something I've already started doing, and then I can use the button to access my favorites more quickly. First thing I did was put my camera icon in the first row right next to Maps. :-)

Another pet peeve that didn't make it on the list, was the lack of a shutter button on the side for the camera. Annoys me that I have to open the app to take a picture, but having it in the top row where I can easily find it, makes it easier.

[John A]

It's really silly that Apple hasn't created a video recording app for the iPhone, as it's not even a hardware issue. There are various folks that have been creating apps that do this very thing.