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January 8, 2007

speculation

How Apple can make a phone that doesn’t suck

Posted Jan. 8, ’07, 12:40 PM PT by Pat Nakajima
Category | Apple » Speculation

iPhone mockupWith iPhone rumors resurfacing like a herpes infection that just won’t quit, no matter how many times you thought you had it licked, and despite the fact that nobody had ever said anything about herpes in the first place, I thought it might behoove me to rattle off a list of things that I personally, and hopefully as a pseudo-mouthpiece for the Mac community, would find appealing in such a device. I thought it so behooving, in fact, that I neglected to come up for breath in that last sentence. I apologize.

Without further ado, I present to you my hopes for the iPhone, keeping in mind that despite my geeky tendencies, this product will most likely be aimed at average consumers.

  • RSS Support: Email on a phone is as exciting as exciting as biscuits at a dog show. With Leopard’s introduction of RSS features into Mail.app, being able to grab that news on the go would be a perfect extension. I have confidence in Apple’s designers to put together a mobile RSS reader that just works.
  • Competent Scheduling: Unless you have a Blackberry, scheduling on your phone probaby doesn’t go beyond setting an alarm for a future date with a memo. If Apple can get a mobile version of iCal into a phone, it would immediately trump everything that can currently be found in the market today.
  • Make it just work: No sector of consumer electronics suffers from interface design shortcomings like the cell phone market. If Apple’s interface gurus could whip up a smooth way to navigate, what I hope to be, an incredibly feature-heavy phone, it could possibly be the next iPod in terms of showing the world what Apple can do. Halo Effect 2.0 anyone?
So there you have it. I’ve been sucked into the vortex and as a result, you now have a list of my hopes for a product that has never been announced, hinted at, or even winked about. Anybody else care to join me?


6 Comments

Matt Williams said:

Personally while I may love something like that. My job doesn't require a phone with something even remotely close to that sort of functionallity. I't cool factor and neat features will just lead my to high phone bills. I'm also incredibly clumsy with portable electronics. So unless it's built like a brick, I'll be sticking to my old startac a little bit longer. Nice ideas though!

January 8, 2007 2:07 PM
WERNER Vavken said:

I heard recently on the national news that someone other than Apple owns the name i-phone. I don't think that will stop the Cupertino boys, however. I'd also like to see a phone made by Apple. They seem to know how to build rubust, feature rich products that usually trumps the other folks in spades. I'd like to see all of the features that we see in a video ipod + an ichat video capablility (1:1). That should be possible with todays wireless speeds.
That's my nickel's worth

January 8, 2007 4:31 PM
Island in the Net Author Profile Page said:

Personally I want my cell phone to do one thing well. Make calls. I just wish there was a simpler interface for the whole thing. Syncing with iCal would be great as well but superfluous to my use.

January 8, 2007 4:46 PM
dan said:

"If Apple can get a mobile version of iCal into a phone, it would immediately trump everything that can currently be found in the market today."

Duh, jesus, do you get paid to write for macuser? I hope not.

January 8, 2007 8:44 PM
James said:

I will settle for make it just work. I imagine it will have music playing functionality, maybe a camera, but really all I need is something that syncs nicely with Outlook, Mac Mail and Calendar. That would be priceless.

January 9, 2007 6:04 AM
Paul said:

I'll settle for a replaceable battery.

January 9, 2007 1:43 PM

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