Missing iPhone Features that Regular Cells Have

[mechanesthesia]

OK, so today I saw the presentation for the new iPhone OS 3.0 and was incredulous when I saw:

And now featuring:

MMS!

MMS has been around since 2002.

>Bluetooth file transfer, which is also "new," is common in any cheapy cell phone in the market today.
>Copy and paste... I had a phone in 2004 that did that...
>I remember when the iPhone first came out, it had no way of setting normal audio files as ringtones without hacking it, which really irritated me. The point of having an iPHONE, iPod + Phone, was the music, that was probably it's biggest selling point at the time. And it didn't even have the option to set your favorite songs as ringtones until later on.

I feel almost insulted as a consumer.

I still haven't made the switch. I guess I'll wait for the OS 3.0.
But I can't believe I would have made the switch, and have key functionalities missing which my cheap little LG flip phone has. Especially when considering the market price.

To get to the point:

I've heard and read other "basic" things that the iPhone is missing.

So I came here to ask, are there any other things that the iPhone is "missing" that you can have in other phones [or other smart phones].

Things like missing MMS really scare me in making such a big purchase.

 

[joeshell383]

OK, so today I saw the presentation for the new iPhone OS 3.0 and was incredulous when I saw...

(ton o' troll crap)

I wouldn't normally ask this but, are you a troll? It is one thing to observe and comment about missing functionality, but to complain that something is being offered because it wasn't before doesn't make sense. So, it wasn't there and now it is, what is your point? Should they have not added it because it wasn't there before? Uh, DUH, NO!

 

[mechanesthesia]

No not a troll.

If the iPhone is almost 2 years old, and NOW is when they are going to release these basic features, it leads me to think what other things are STILL missing?

 

[lazydesi]

video calling (real 3G feature missing)

 

[wetrix]

Removable battery.
Affordable price.
Non-retarded interface.

 

[dustinl4m3]

The iPhone, with 3.0, will do all of these things better. Have you tried to use Copy&Paste on Symbian or Blackberry? Yes these features should have been in 1.0, but the totality of the iPhone experience dramatically exceeds all other platforms.

 

[efice32]

I'd challenge that an LG flip phone has copy and paste

 

[mechanesthesia]

I'd challenge that an LG flip phone has copy and paste

No, but I remember my old motorola flip phone had it.
I miss that phone.

I have to wait for August to be eligible for an upgrade so I don't have to pay an outrageous price of $600.

 

[milani]

No not a troll.

If the iPhone is almost 2 years old, and NOW is when they are going to release these basic features, it leads me to think what other things are STILL missing?

It doesn't actually work that way. Things that are missing are compensated by things that other phones don't have. For instance, no other phone has an iPod, no other phone has mobile Safari (wap browsers - including BlackBerry's - is a joke), and no other phones have enjoyed the kind of support that Apple has given iPhone owners. So yes, you don't get everything, but there are a lot of things you get that no other phone has. Also, this is how Apple does business. If you don't like it, you're probably looking at the wrong product.

 

[ZebraineZ]

Just want to add something here...geuss what, you shouldn't have bought an iPhone back then, and you should have gotten some other phone which, I'm just guessing, didn't have most of the features that everyone is supposedly whining about now, but you should have taken notice that the iPhone had ALOT of innovative features to begin with that those rocks that you compare to the iphone didn't have anything that can even add up to.

Blackberries and Palm phones and what not, didn't have multitouch did they? Some of them didn't even have touch at all, the way the iPhone does it, and even until this day they still don't have a touchscreen that works the way the iphones does, which is a huge quality it self.

Those phones didn't have a way to get music bought and be able to listen to easily, considering the way apple markets the iphone as 'omg you can buy this with one click' which I think is gey cuz of the economy, but to be able to sync it with itunes, and in a VERY easy and fast way is VERY nice. None of those phones are that easy to get all your favorite music (wherever you get it from) on your phone to listen to, at that time (2007), unless you install this that with the disk and then wait this and that for the music, trust me I have seen alot of the phones and they usually get the music from those cheap online stores which *cough* can't even compare to iTunes mobile.

I can't argue about the phone for the iphone since it is an ok phone but the others win here....but seriously who uses there phones as a phone anymore? Get with the technology!

Last but not least, memory. Now even though alot of phones have big memories now, most phones had very low memory at a relatively high price for the phone. Now look at it this way, you are getting a 4/8 gigabyte phone which has all the features mentioned above + countless more, and your still complaining? Now even though the iphone WAS up to 500/600 bucks (I think), the price went down ALOT in a rather short time, so stop complaining for once. Just because you now noticed in 2009 that the iPhone can't copy paste because you just HAVE TO have it, doesn't mean its a bad phone. I bet those phones that had them 'supposedly' weren't able to use it as efficiently as the iphones considering the fact that alot of phones designs and UI's have changed over the year(s) to be able to do about 1/50 of what the iphone can already do and has already done, while the iphones has remained the same bringing only better things to the table.

Now to sum up my huge wall of text, the 3.0 OS is probably one of the best 'feature' upgrades for the iphone, so I don't see why people should complain about it, specially if your a legit iphone user this is a VERY good thing for you guys who jailbreak only for tethering and what not, can get all of that (maybe better and for sure stable once finalized) in a simple update.

Bleh. Just my 2 centos.

 

[RonCarr]

Removable battery.
Affordable price.
Non-retarded interface.

Removable battery- Get real. Not a single iPod has had a removable battery and look how may of those they have sold and are still flying off the shelves. Simply put, it doesn't need one. You can recharge it pretty much anywhere and it has great battery life anyway.

Affordable price- Wha? Do you not remember the original price of the iPhone? It was $500 just in case you forgot. They drop it down to $200 and you still think it is not affordable? Holy crap man I have never heard of a phone like the iPhone being that cheap! Not to mention you can get a refurbished for $99.

Non-retarded interface- I will admit that it needs some work but to call it retarded is a bit overboard. Have you ever used a WinMo phone!? That is what would be known as a retarded interface my good friend. The iPhone interface is very simple and straight forward, just as OS X. That is the whole point. The deep menu system of WinMo is total rubbish (as is Windows) and most people will agree.

 

[dav146]

I have only missed not having MMS around 6 times since purchasing iPhone 1.0. I upgraded to iPhone 3G on launch day because I was so happy with the first generation but also wanted GPS.

I have always questioned why (on every mobile device with MMS) you have to enter different screens to use MMS & Text - basically it just wastes more of my time. This is where Apple look to have nailed it! It can all be done from the one screen, genius.

I was a little disappointed that I could not forward funny jokes from my friends, but I learnt to live with it. Looks like I will be able to do that again soon!

The only thing that I want to see now is a GOOD turn by turn GPS solution. WM6 devices have some good software like TomTom and CoPilot Live - If these appear on the iPhone it will kill off the other Phones. Without a doubt.

 

[takenthesmeg]

My guess is that Apple focused #1 on what they do best. And #2 on what they thought was important (putting too much into V1.0 would have been too risky). MMS isn’t much of an innovation, and is now superseded by email. Apple always looks to the future rather than the past. I.e. the first iMac had USB and no parallel port. I believe Apple only added it now because so many people asked for it and now they had time to implement it better.

 

[Boxer757]

I have only missed not having MMS around 6 times since purchasing iPhone 1.0. I upgraded to iPhone 3G on launch day because I was so happy with the first generation but also wanted GPS.

I have always questioned why (on every mobile device with MMS) you have to enter different screens to use MMS & Text - basically it just wastes more of my time. This is where Apple look to have nailed it! It can all be done from the one screen, genius.

I was a little disappointed that I could not forward funny jokes from my friends, but I learnt to live with it. Looks like I will be able to do that again soon!

I agree. I didn't even realize I didn't have MMS until 2 or 3 months after I bought my iPhone 3G. It was a bummer and every now and then someone goes "Did you get that picture I sent you?" and I have to say "No I have the iPhone " or I have wanted to shoot a pic to a friends cell and cannot. But I am agreeing with you that this has happened maybe 10 times or so? Obviously I can live without it and I believe that the iPhone's other features more than make up for the lack of MMS.

But now we will have it, which is awesome

 

[Nanook]

Removable battery- Get real. Not a single iPod has had a removable battery and look how may of those they have sold and are still flying off the shelves. Simply put, it doesn't need one. You can recharge it pretty much anywhere and it has great battery life anyway.

OK, now I've done my share of criticizing the iPhone's lacks, but I still own one and am mostly happy with it, so I was perusing this thread with mild interest until I read this.

An MP3 player isn't a phone. If your iPod battery goes dead, bummer no more music. But if your phone goes dead, well some of us need our phones to make a living. I've actually developed a kind of OCD paranoia about always making sure my iPhone's fully charged since getting one. Never needed to be so on top of it before. Of course, EVERY other phone I've owned has had removable batteries, so I always had a spare on hand, or I could commandeer one from a coworker in an emergency.

It's just weird instituting that kind of design in to something they hope to get business users using. Actually, business or not, nobody wants a dead phone battery. Sorry Apple, I'd sacrifice the seamless plastic back for a useful feature like a removable battery in a heartbeat.

 

[sergiuria]

OK, now I've done my share of criticizing the iPhone's lacks, but I still own one and am mostly happy with it, so I was perusing this thread with mild interest until I read this.

An MP3 player isn't a phone. If your iPod battery goes dead, bummer no more music. But if your phone goes dead, well some of us need our phones to make a living. I've actually developed a kind of OCD paranoia about always making sure my iPhone's fully charged since getting one. Never needed to be so on top of it before. Of course, EVERY other phone I've owned has had removable batteries, so I always had a spare on hand, or I could commandeer one from a coworker in an emergency.

It's just weird instituting that kind of design in to something they hope to get business users using. Actually, business or not, nobody wants a dead phone battery. Sorry Apple, I'd sacrifice the seamless plastic back for a useful feature like a removable battery in a heartbeat.

A removable battery would shorten the battery's life, because it would have to be smaller. And I bet you use your iPhone way more than any other phone you've had.

Oh, instead of having an extra battery, you should take a look at one of the battery juice packs, you attach it to the iPhone and it recharges on the go, they are pretty good.

 

[peperoni]

I tried to use iPhone fo few weeks, but in the end what it really needs to be usable (for me) is true multitasking, full filebrowser with BT file send, BT sync and atleast as good cam as in N95, so I had to pass it on for now. So many great phones available so not too bummed. Atleast no itunes for me which is a plus!

 

[FearNo1]

Removable battery- Get real. Not a single iPod has had a removable battery and look how may of those they have sold and are still flying off the shelves. Simply put, it doesn't need one. You can recharge it pretty much anywhere and it has great battery life anyway.

iphone and "great battery life"...what are you smoking??

Affordable price- Wha? Do you not remember the original price of the iPhone? It was $500 just in case you forgot. They drop it down to $200 and you still think it is not affordable? Holy crap man I have never heard of a phone like the iPhone being that cheap!

Heh you must be related to steve jobz or something..sheesh

 

[anjinha]

Affordable price- Wha? Do you not remember the original price of the iPhone? It was $500 just in case you forgot. They drop it down to $200 and you still think it is not affordable? Holy crap man I have never heard of a phone like the iPhone being that cheap! Not to mention you can get a refurbished for $99.

The iPhone is not $200, that is the subsidized price. The real price is about $500.

 

[diemos]

My guess is that Apple focused #1 on what they do best. And #2 on what they thought was important (putting too much into V1.0 would have been too risky). MMS isn’t much of an innovation, and is now superseded by email. Apple always looks to the future rather than the past. I.e. the first iMac had USB and no parallel port. I believe Apple only added it now because so many people asked for it and now they had time to implement it better.

THAT IS 100% CORRECT.
it's common sense, look
MMS is not that important IMO, i bet most people who wanted it, wont even use it. Why do you even need it, you have email! Oh yea that's right most of the other great phones DON'T HAVE IT and if they do, its a pain to get to, takes to long or not convenient.

Furthermore, people say oh iPhone doesn't have this or that, or my phone can do that and iPhone can't, but do you realize how many things iPhone CAN do that your phone CAN'T(JUST with the apps) and HOW it does it is the key really. For example, yea you say, your phone can get email, but how easy is it? If its easy, why do you need MMS? iPhone does every thing better than every other phone, yea, it might not have some "basic" options, but do you really need those? Copy and Paste...? it would be NICE, but necessary? I don't think so, its a PHONE not a WYSIWYG editor!

 

[RJ17]

The iPhone is not $200, that is the subsidized price. The real price is about $500.

That is the real price of almost every new phone. The price you pay at the store is always subsidized.

 

[RonCarr]

The iPhone is not $200, that is the subsidized price. The real price is about $500.

Well if we are going to look at that price then ignore the super low price of ever other phone on the market. Take a look at the REAL price of even some of the free phones out there. All phones have a high unsubsidized price.

About the removable battery: take a freaking charging cord man, you can charge it with any computer! Plus it has the wall adapter. I even have a car adapter but I only used it once. I get great battery life, at times two days before a recharge. I always have WiFi on and it checks two email accounts every 15 min. Plus I have no service for about an hour every day which drops battery because of searching for a signal.

 

[FlintAlt2]

OK, so today I saw the presentation for the new iPhone OS 3.0 and was incredulous when I saw:

And now featuring:

MMS!

MMS has been around since 2002.

Do you know what really pisses me off the most about posts like these and people like this?

Complete and utter ignorance.

You will put something down and exaggerate it out of proportions to make it look old/rubbish without even seeing the miles ahead advantages it has. You only see the negative.

Lets forget that the iPhone was a complete revolution in the mobile phone market, lets forget all the things it CAN do, lets forget that the entire mobile phone world is gob smacked and trying the best they can to copy this phone which doesn't even have what " regular cells have had since 2002 ".

Please go ahead smash the iPhone down because of the things it doesn't have compared to " regular cells " but DO NOT try to bash those " regular cells " with what the iPhone has.

Man this is like me turning round and saying that a Aston Martin is **** because It doesn't have cup holders... " Oh my god my 10 year old VW has had cup holders obviously this Aston Martin is missing features there its crap . Better yet I feel insulted as a customer because of it "

Get real.

There is a reason why the business world is going nuts over the iPhone, or is it just because its made by Apple

 

[anjinha]

Do you know what really pisses me off the most about posts like these and people like this?

Complete and utter ignorance.

You will put something down and exaggerate it out of proportions to make it look old/rubbish without even seeing the miles ahead advantages it has. You only see the negative.

Lets forget that the iPhone was a complete revolution in the mobile phone market, lets forget all the things it CAN do, lets forget that the entire mobile phone world is gob smacked and trying the best they can to copy this phone which doesn't even have what " regular cells have had since 2002 ".

Please go ahead smash the iPhone down because of the things it doesn't have compared to " regular cells " but DO NOT try to bash those " regular cells " with what the iPhone has.

Man this is like me turning round and saying that a Aston Martin is **** because It doesn't have cup holders... " Oh my god my 10 year old VW has had cup holders obviously this Aston Martin is missing features there its crap . Better yet I feel insulted as a customer because of it "

Get real.

There is a reason why the business world is going nuts over the iPhone, or is it just because its made by Apple

Finally, someone with some sense.

When I got my iPhone I missed some things a little bit (MMS, SMS forwarding) but not as much as I missed the iPhone's features when i had to use my old Nokia for a couple of days. I missed Safari, I missed a lot of apps, I missed it's ease of use, etc.

 

[wil49]

There is no pleasing some people, if you wanted MMS that bad why didnt you buy another phone?? Sure the iPhone lacks some features, but what you dont realise is that more than 70% of the features are used regulary by users, I would doubt if any other device can beat that.

And best of all it works, and to me that is worth its weight in gold. Who was the first to intro a fully touch screen interface, that has every company following suit and wait its an iPod as well!!!

If you want to moan about what iPhone doesnt have I think you have bought the wrong device.