Okay, so I've had my iPod Touch with the software upgrade for the past week or so now, and I can't help but make a few observations about missing features/things I'd like to see in the future. We know that Apple reads MR posts, so where better to voice our opinions? Here we go...
Observe away. Seriously though it does both Apple and us, the consumer, a lot of good to air complaints and ideas. In my case it looks like the tax check is back and the SDK announcement tomorrow could add up to new product in daves hands in a few days.
- links to the iTunes Store capability available in the music app, when in wifi zone or whatever
I'm not sure I understand this one. All you have to do is hit the Home key and pop into the store app right?
- ability to click on artist name for more songs (there has to be an alternative to coverflowing through an artist's albums from the 'Now Playing' screen)
- support for smart playlists on-the-go (i.e. if i change a song's rating to 5 stars, it should be added to my 5-star playlist)
I think the two items above highlight that I'm not the big music fan that many here are. That is I can't ever imagining myself creating a play list.
- support for airtunes (not so much streaming ipod to stereo, but rather just as a remote [yes, i am aware of Signal and Remote Buddy -- and their lagginess])
There wold have been a lot of potential in using a Touch as a remote if Apple had simply added BlueTooth. Unfortunately they didn't. NO IR either. I'm really hoping for a Touch upgrade to deal with the lack of BlueTooth real soon now. That one little addition would have a huge impact on the Touches usefulness.
- calendar and contact support of grouping (like choosing which category an event or contact goes into)
I'm sure these will improve over time. Mainly to track features on the desktop variants. Personally I'd like to see complete integration with Yahoo.
- sorting of videos like in other apps, with tabs at the bottom separating podcasts, movies, music videos, etc.
Like your item two below I think Apple really needs to expose the file system to the apps. As your ability to store large collections grows you need to be able to organize it. The best approach here is the traditional file system with trees of folders or directories.
- ability to delete playlists (especially that annoying 'Purchased') and rename on-the-go playlists
- support for folders for iTunes playlists and iPhoto albums! if i need folders to organize on a desktop computer, what am i to do with a tiny LCD?
Exactly and frankly I don't understand why Apple hasn't dealt with this yet. Even the free software guys and gals have been dealing with the issue as file flow type views of the file system. Currently one of the biggest shortcomings with respect to the Touch is the lack of an easy way to manage all of that storage space.
- reviews showing in iTunes Store, to be able to make informed purchases
This one I have the least confidence in. Lets face it first you have to find a reviewer with the same tastes you have. Then you have to be willing to give up on your own ability to assess the quality of a performance.
- notification of new e-mails appearing on "standby" screen (does this not already happen with the iPhone?)
- tactile remote accessory for those of us that don't want to go for those cheap-looking third-party ones
I have no idea what you are talking about here.
Now, about Thursday, I think Apple needs to simply port a bunch of their Dashboard widgets to the iPhone/Touch interface, like Dictionary, Translation, Unit Converter, etc.
I couldn't agree more, Apple needs to take responsibility for the base software stack. Things like Dictionary should be a no brainer. But if I might Apple needs to go even baser, that is flesh out Mobile OS with things it needs at a lower level. Things such as a file browser (Finder), Bluetooth and networking stacks, BSD components and a terminal. The Browser of course implies access to the files system for all apps.
Like all great things there is always room for improvement. As alluded to above I think the place to start on the Touch and iphone is in base features and services. A quick but incomplete list would be:
- Full Bluetooth stack
- More complete networking stack
- File system access from many of the suplied apps.
- Enhanced mail support including offline behaviour.
- A file Browser or "Finder"
- A real PDF app for viewing PDF of course. A strong emphasis should be placed on large PDF's.
- Disk mode or share directory access to at least the users file system. A whole bunch of corporate type things could be done easily if one could access the file system from PC's.
- A terminal app an a reasonably large subset of the BSD system.
- A Flash video (*.flv) player.
- wget
- Python with a targeted set of libraries.
- A vastly improved calculator. Actually in some ways this is a real big embarrassment with respect to the touch devices right now. All that computing power and all the app can do is add, subtract, divide and multiply.
Well that is just a quick short list! Honestly it only covers software and I could also offer up suggestions for hardware. For a generation 0.75 the touch based devices are off to a good start. I say 0.75 becasue I still don't believe that even Apple has gotten the device to where they want them to be. Hopefully with the SDK event coming up we will get to see what the stable platform will be like, that is the 1.0 version of Touch!
Now if by iPT updates you meant hardware there would be a different set of answers. So here we go:
- For the current form factor I don't expect a lot fo change except to offer up Bluetooth and possilby a USB port. Of course I expect flash storage to grow.
- On todays device and future devices I expect to see more RAM. Potentially a doubling of available RAM, maybe even more if possible. This should lead to much more useful performance out of things like Safari.
- A larger device with an HD screen.
- The larger device should have atleast double the flash memory of the current Touch.
- The large screen device should have a suitably larger battery.
- Speaking os which the Touch could user a larger battery too. The goal here would be 24 hrs of connect time to the RF network (WiFI)
- The larger Tocuh needs to have an optional RF connection outside of WiFi. in other words the user should be able to plug in the "modem" of his choice be it WiMax, Edge, 3G or whatever.
- Temeprature and other atmospheric conditions sensing.
AS you can see this list doesn't take long to fill out either. The nice thing here is that all of these functions don't need to be built into one unit. It is a family affair you know.
Dave
