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Name something the iPhone could learn from competitors.

T

thermal

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 3, 2009
294
370
Vancouver, Canada
I love my iPhone 3G, but am secure enough to admit it's not perfect and that competitors (droid/w7/bb) do some things better.

What's one thing you think the iPhone could learn/improve on from other smartphones?

My choice: I'd love for Apple to incorporate an led notification light, as used by Blackberry. I owned a BB Pearl ages ago, and found the led notification light to be incredibly useful.
 
HDMI Output? That is all I can really think of. Even so, it is still not that important, but it would be nice.
 
First and foremost, the iphone needs to glow in the dark.

Secondly, be able to boot up in iphone OS, palm OS, android, and windows 7.
 
I'd really like to see better sound management. My last phone, a non-smartphone, allowed "sound profiles" that controlled how sound worked in certain modes. This could be expanded on and work well for iPhone. One could have a sound profile where everything is loud and vibrates, one where everything is silent, one where your ringer goes off but nothing else makes sound, one where your alarm apps or whatever certain apps can make sound and vibrate but nothing else can do either. I would really like this. Right now when I flip the mute switch I feel like I'm never sure if it's really going to be silent, if I hit that app icon if I'm going to be greeted with loud music, or if the alarm app will actually sound.
 
Ditto on the LED light. Something like the indicator light on a closed macbook pro, for example.
 
The app icons could be dynamic.

Don't think that I care if I have widgets or not, but say for example the calendar app's icon could actually display the correct day or the weather icon could change depending on the weather.

Actually, it seems that the calendar app already does that ;) (now if my calender app I downloaded also could do the same thing on its icon... I bet they would if they could but I bet apple reserved that little function just for their calendar app... their sucky calendar that is almost useless - I use mobileme to sync it and then use an app that syncs with the ical app as to get a better interface/functionality) .

Oh, there we go. I'm certain most other smart phones have to have a much better calendar program than what comes on the iPhone. I can't imagine a much worse one.
 
Better background notifications like Web OS, Blackberry and Android.

Background notifications are virtually non existent on iPhone.

Intrusive notifications that you have to view or skip are annoying as FU<K!
 
Voice commands like Android. I would kill to be able to write a message or email by voice (natively) as DragonDictation is not available in my App store.

Custom gestures to open favourite apps would be cool too, I used that on Android all the time.
 
tigress666 said:
The app icons could be dynamic.

Don't think that I care if I have widgets or not, but say for example the calendar app's icon could actually display the correct day or the weather icon could change depending on the weather.

Actually, it seems that the calendar app already does that ;) (now if my calender app I downloaded also could do the same thing on its icon... I bet they would if they could but I bet apple reserved that little function just for their calendar app... their sucky calendar that is almost useless - I use mobileme to sync it and then use an app that syncs with the ical app as to get a better interface/functionality) .

Oh, there we go. I'm certain most other smart phones have to have a much better calendar program than what comes on the iPhone. I can't imagine a much worse one.
Click to expand...

taking it a step further, like windows phone 7, is really the way to go imo. It doesn't seem like much, but with all the icons moving all the time, it really makes the "springboard" feel alive
 
dccorona said:
taking it a step further, like windows phone 7, is really the way to go imo. It doesn't seem like much, but with all the icons moving all the time, it really makes the "springboard" feel alive
Click to expand...

I'd rather not. I would much prefer more subtle than that.

Plus the way they laid out the tiles and everything, Windows 7 just is ugly. I really don't get the appeal. I tried to play with one and I found it far from intuitive (like when I picked up the iphone for the first time it was natural on how to use it, no instructions required. It really felt like I needed to read the manual first before using Windows 7 to even be able to get a feel for it).
 
Would be nice if Apple alowed us to map the hard buttons without the need to jailbreak. On my jailbroken IP4 all I have too do is hold down the bottom volume button for the camera app.
 
Every single thing mentioned in this thread...
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1021233/

If I had to pick just one thing, it would be a 4" screen. A bigger screen makes routine tasks much more plesant, browsing the web, reading ebooks, watching videos, playing games, everything looks much nicer on a bigger screen.

Sedrick said:
I worked some mock-ups in my cad program and a 4" screen will fit (in the iPhone, without making it bigger):

attachment.php
Click to expand...

If Apple cuts down on the amount of room the bezel takes, the screen could be made 4 inches without making the phone any bigger.

It would be like having to choose between two otherwise identical tvs, both with the exact same size and shape, with the only difference being that one is 13" with a really thick bezel, and the other is 17" with a slimmer bezel, and opting to go with the 13" inch version with the thick bezel. There is no rational reason why someone wouldn't atleast want a 4" screen if the phone remains roughly the same size and shape.

Unless you actually like looking at a black bezel and want the bezel to be as thick as humanly posible.
 
PsstGreek said:
FaceTime over 3G without having to jailbreak my iPhone. (not that I think jailbreaking is bad) > just sayin'
Click to expand...

I'd bet that has more to do with AT&T than Apple.

The 'vibrate' switch on the side should be turned into a function switch. I should be able to turn it into a wi-fi on/off switch, or anything else. I'd also like the option to turn the volume up/down buttons into skip forward/backward buttons. It's probably like a 30:1 ratio of times I want to skip songs to times I want to adjust the volume.
 
-LED Light
-Customize sounds for SMS/Email
-Sound profiles. Work mode, home mode, bar mode.
-Notifications need to work better
-Widgets
-SMS privacy. I don't like a big fat notification popping up (jealous gf).
-Lock screen customization, lots of wasted space on the lock screen.
 
thetexan said:
-LED Light
-Customize sounds for SMS/Email
-Sound profiles. Work mode, home mode, bar mode.
-Notifications need to work better
-Widgets
-SMS privacy. I don't like a big fat notification popping up (jealous gf).
-Lock screen customization, lots of wasted space on the lock screen.
Click to expand...

My sentiments exactly.
 
One thing I hear a lot from iPhone users.. different notification sounds. Seems like a simple customization to add.
 
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