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iPod touch Features you'd like to see on the iPod touch

CTU Kyoto

CTU Kyoto

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 12, 2006
92
10
London
OK, everyone wants editable calendars, installable applications etc... but apart from iPhone hand-me-downs, what features/improvements would you like to see added to the iPod touch over time with updates? Here are the things I sent on the Apple feedback page.

  • Smart Playlists that use Date Added seem to use the date a song was added to the iPod, so the playlists isn't the same as in iTunes. There should be an option called "Use iTunes song data when compiling Smart Playlists".
  • Option to/by default, only show audio podcasts in the Podcasts list accessed through Music.
  • Podcast chapters and chapter artwork. (Maybe this is already included but none of my podcasts have this? Anyone got any that are good for testing this?)
  • Scrub bar for long files such as podcasts and video podcasts is not granular enough. It should respond better to subtle movements.
  • Access to lyrics and iTunes-style options such as "Skip when shuffling" from the Now Playing screen. Maybe when you flip an album over, there could be several small tabs underneath the rating. The first tab, displayed by default, is the track list, the second is Lyrics, third is Options.
  • Ability to view multiple album art pictures for tracks that have them. Maybe translucent left and right arrows could appear at the top of the art for such tracks.
  • Tag editing. Now that we have an input system, it would be great if I could fix up inaccurate tags as soon as I notice them on my iPod at work, instead of having to e-mail myself about it to do when I get home.
  • Option to display the wallpaper when a song with no artwork is playing, even when the iPod isn't locked. It always feels like such a waste of the gorgeous screen when I see that giant blank cover.

What do you think? Any more ideas or comments on mine? I don't have much use for the calendar/mail stuff that everyone seems to want (maybe my life just isn't so packed and exciting as everyone else's :eek:), so I'm much more interested in fine-tuning the actual iPod touch experience.
 
The real no brainer for me is the inability to search for music. Just like you can search youtube videos or iTunes music store songs, how come we can't search for songs using the keyboard. Just like in iTunes.app on the computer. It's present on the iPods from about 2005 onwards. It kills me. Oh well, we'll see what happens.

:apple:Matt
 
Funny, the Search feature is something I never used on my nano and didn't even notice was missing on the touch.

With the nano, it just seemed like by the time you had span the wheel around and entered the first few letters, you could have just scrolled down the Songs list. Maybe it works better for songs where you know one word, not necessarily the first one in the title, but that's never happened to me.

But like tag editing, this also seems like a no-brainer on the iPod touch given the touch-screen keyboard.
 
YES!!!...searching would be good

- in-built games (perhaps EA ones you can buy)
- calculator that can do trigonometry (maybe even cartesian graphs)
- moving wallpapers
- Alphabetical catagories within the catagories in contacts...not just for all contacts
- widgets (including webclip)

i would love those in the next update:p
 
I think that when considering what will and won't likely be added, you have to bear in mind the image Apple/Jobs want to project for the device.

It seems obvious to talk about games, but while something like Solitaire and iQuiz would work great, anything requiring games console style controls is probably not going to appear.

Why? Picture Tetris touch. Your finger is not precise enough to drag the pieces into place, and with a lack of physical buttons they only solution is to add touch-screen controls to the bottom of the game, like the NES Emulator does for iPhone.

This doesn't seem so bad but I can see Jobs throwing such design "solutions" out the window, because they're basically an admission that you can't do everything with multi-touch, some things require buttons, and that in some ways the new interface is a step backwards from the Click Wheel + centre button (of course, those small backwards steps are far outweighed by the leaps forward in usability and coolness that multi-touch brings to the table).

As for moving wallpapers, it sounds nice in theory but the first things that come to mind are battery life and the fact that you really only see the wallpaper for seconds at a time when unlocking the iPod touch. Unless you're going to sit looking at it move without unlocking and using the machine it doesn't seem very useful.
 
simie said:
Flash support in mobile Safari
Click to expand...

I thought it was up to Adobe to produce a version of Flash that supports the processor used in iPhone/iPod touch? Or am I getting that wrong?

Either way it would still be a huge battery drain I suppose.
 
I want the touch to have a "smart shuffle", where the touch remembers the exact point it was at in the shuffle (ex: song 45 of 280) when you power it off and power it back on. Right now, the shuffle option forgets where it was and you have to start over again after powering it off. That sucks.

I like to shuffle through a few hundred songs, listening to them each once, then wipe it clean and load a couple hundred more. Etc., etc.
 
only when you're using it:p...and that would be up to you

the same goes for the moving wallpaper...but i was only thinking of something like what you see on iPod classic

and as for games...i'm sure you don't need buttons to control a game...they just have to invent controls that are touch screen friendly;)
 
Genghis Khan said:
only when you're using it:p...and that would be up to you
Click to expand...

That's true... But Apple usually seem to not include something potentially useful if it has a potentially negative effect on the experience. For however many users there are dying to use Flash, they probably think more about the vast numbers of "average" users who don't know what Flash is or why some pages use it and others not, who would look at MySpace or whatever on their touch and then complain about "how fast the battery when I'm using the internet", without realising why.

SuperDaddy said:
I want the touch to have a "smart shuffle", where the touch remembers the exact point it was at in the shuffle (ex: song 45 of 280) when you power it off and power it back on. Right now, the shuffle option forgets where it was and you have to start over again after powering it off. That sucks.
Click to expand...

100% agreed! I have wanted the shuffle feature to remember where it left off per-playlist since my first iPod, a 3rd gen unit I got back in 2003. It's amazing how far iPods have come since then, yet something seemingly so obvious has still not been added. I hate when I'm listening to a playlist on shuffle, then choose a random other song or listen to a podcast or something, then have to start another shuffle session on the original playlist, therefore getting some songs I've already just heard...
 
There are a couple of no-brainers for me:

- The ability to wirelessly sync with iTunes
- The ability to act as a remote control for Airtunes/AppleTV
- The ability to listen to streaming music

Stuff that would be nice:
- Better "on-the-go" playlist creation (can you even do it on the touch?)
- Ability to play music from iTunes shares
- Ability to download YouTube movies (will never happen due to copyright concerns)
- Ability to share music with other iPod touch users (similar to squirting with the Zune except it would actually work because people actually buy iPod touches)
 
I would share other users desires for features such as Flash and swapping music with other iPod users.

However, the two features I want:

- ability to transfer PDF to the Touch and read them (not using Safari)
- syncing up with multiple computers.

I wouldn't mind seeing a version of Google SketchUp developed for the touch either... but that, I'm sure, is just wishful hoping.
 
Tres said:
There are a couple of no-brainers for me:

- The ability to wirelessly sync with iTunes
- The ability to act as a remote control for Airtunes/AppleTV
- The ability to listen to streaming music
Click to expand...

I think battery life concerns would kill most wireless music features. The remote control idea is interesting, but without an IR port it would be another wireless batttery-drainer that most people probably wouldn't use or could find a better solution for. Apple isn't usually about packing their products with features just because they're technically possible.

Tres said:
:
- Better "on-the-go" playlist creation (can you even do it on the touch?)
Click to expand...

I think On-The-Go is the first item in the playlists screen.
 
Nothing. Fow how much this thing costs, I'm blown away with what it offers, especially after it has been jailbroken.
 
Notes, Flash, Search Ability, and Tag Editing are the only big ones for me.

I would like weather and stuff, but i know those should be iphone - exclusive features.
 
Headphone Jack on the top of the touch instead of the bottom for belt clip cases
External Volume and Next/Previous Song buttons
Improved Transfer speed
 
just a wired remote on a short cord, I don't want to get out my iPod when I need to change the volume on my commute to work. I suppose disk mode may come in handy but I haven't needed it yet

The ability to delete more than one/all contacts

As someone below says, the ability to rotate the Touch so the headphone socket is at the top
 
Why is there no option for repeating a playlist. This also seems like a no-brainer to me, that you cant just choose an option in Music Settings to 'Repeat All' ...or is there something Im missing???

Also, yes, disk mode would be fantastic too
 
CrockettGTO said:
Headphone Jack on the top of the touch instead of the bottom for belt clip cases
External Volume and Next/Previous Song buttons
Improved Transfer speed
Click to expand...

You know, there's no reason that Apple couldn't have the interface right itself for whatever orientation you hold the touch at, so if you wanted to use it upside down (the headphone jack on top) it would display the screen correctly... the home button would be in the "wrong" spot, but it really shouldn't matter.

I, too, wish Apple had stuck with offering FW as a connection option for iPods. :(
 
CTU Kyoto said:
Scrub bar for long files such as podcasts and video podcasts is not granular enough. It should respond better to subtle movements.
Click to expand...

Yes - I found this was not that accurate when scrubbing through a movie and trying to get to a particular moment.

However, I did find a workaround...

  1. Scrub to the approximate position of the movie/podcast you are viewing.
  2. Leave your finger on the screen, don't move it from the position it's in but simply roll it left or right.
  3. You'll see the time indicator in the scrubber bar increase or decrease.
  4. Release when you get to the appropriate time.

It's still not totally accurate - and I'm not sure if this will help you! But I thought I'd post it anyways :)

Rod.
 
RodThePlod said:
  1. Scrub to the approximate position of the movie/podcast you are viewing.
  2. Leave your finger on the screen, don't move it from the position it's in but simply roll it left or right.
  3. You'll see the time indicator in the scrubber bar increase or decrease.
  4. Release when you get to the appropriate time.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately for a 2 hour movie this doesn't work much better (it's hard to get closer than 3-4 minutes to the point you want).

I'd LOVE to see a "fast forward" implemented by holding the "next track" button like the older iPods do.
 
cwolves said:
Unfortunately for a 2 hour movie this doesn't work much better (it's hard to get closer than 3-4 minutes to the point you want).

I'd LOVE to see a "fast forward" implemented by holding the "next track" button like the older iPods do.
Click to expand...

Yeah - I wasn't sure how helpful that would be on long movies. I have a series of 10 - 15 min tai-chi videos that I watch and find this technique invaluable when trying to study what's going on...

Rod
 
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