Wanted to post my thoughts on the product for others to comment on and hopefully Apple to read and put on the dev list for future development. I tried to submit this into the Apple forums but they removed it almost immediately saying this stuff wasn't in line with the forum... Basically, they don't want to know about it... So I thought I'd put it here...
Let me start by saying that the Apple iPhone is a fantastic looking product! No question, and usability is also fantastic... Again, Apple have produced a product like nothing else, they have broken the mould and done something very different - I love it! I especially love the way you move between and zoom in on pages...Just sliding the finger was a fantastic innovation.
Unfortunately, there is some functionality missing that is quite disappointing when you consider how advanced the rest of the design and usability is... While you can operate without this functionality, it would just make using the device so much easier if it were implemented...
1. SMS - Trying to send an existing contact to a friend is unbelievably difficult. There is no option to attach or insert a contact into an SMS and therefore the only way to get this information is memorise it (or write it down with pen and paper) and then close contacts, re-open SMS and type it into a new message. For one of the most advanced devices on the market, sending a contact via SMS can only be done by using one the most archaic methods known to man...
2. Copy and Paste - This makes the above even more difficult - sure, if you can't insert/attach a contact to a message, it wouldn't be such a problem if you could just copy the number from your contacts and paste it into the new message but alas, there is no copy and paste functionality... To get a number from your contacts into an SMS to send to another contact with an apple iPhone, you actually need pen and paper! Who would have thought it... A device so advanced in it's design and usability still requires pen and paper to perform an extremely simple task.
3. Landscape Mode - It appears that landscape mode works fantastically in most applications except the one where you need it the most - SMS & Email - Both these applications require extensive keyboard use when trying to type a message and they are almost the only applications that wont allow you to use landscape mode to enlarge the keyboard for easier typing!
4. Contacts - When you add a number or any other detail to an existing contact on your iPhone, it does not transfer this information back into your Outlook - This means that there is no point updating your contacts on the iPhone as you'll just have to do it again in Outlook. This is apain as where do you capture and store most new numbers? If you're anything like me, you do it oin your phone!
5. Calendar - When you create a calendar event there is no option to invite other attendees. This means that the usefulness of having access to your calendar immediately is removed if you want to invite attendees - you'll still need to remember to add the attendees when you get back to your computer therefore, you might as well just add the whole event at the same time!
6. Bluetooth - You cannot synchronise over bluetooth! This makes it extremely difficult to keep your iPhone and computer in sync as you must fumble around with a cable everytime you want to sync - annoying! I understand that syncing videos, pictures and music is a data intensive operation and this should definitely be restricted to cable only however, surely a feature whereby ONLY contacts, calendar and bookmarks are synchronised over bluetooth could be incorporated so that I am not forced to plug it into my computer everytime I make a change to my calendar.
7. Access to Inbox - While this issue is hardly critical, it would be nice to also synchronise your inbox for those users who still only have access to POP email. Once the email is downloaded to the desktop, it is no longer accessible on the server and therefore, referncing an email from the iPhone can't be achieved if you missed the window of opportunity to get it onto your iPhone before the desktop downloaded it.
8. Mail download - I have mixed feelings on the way the iPhone downloads POP email. It is good that all messages are accessible once downloaded (even after they have been deleted from the server) however, this is a bit of a nuisance... I love using my handheld to check email outside of hours and delete the rubbish (i.e. spam, uninportant messages) however, it does not delete these messages from the server MEANING, I still have to perform a 2nd delete from my desktop... If I could just remove these permanently from the server from the iPhone it would be fantastic. (Perhaps this feature is available if using an IMAP server I'm not sure, either way, I still access my home email service which there is no IMAP option (many email providers do not provide IMAP) so there is still a need to cater for POP)
9. Photos - There seems to be a bug/problem with downloading photos from iPhone to the desktop. When you select the option to delete them from the phone it does not always work and sometimes causes my iphone to reboot. I am forced to delete photos directly from the iPhone so individually selecting, confirming and deleting all images is pretty painful. An option to select and delete multiple photos would be a logical inclusion.
10. Camera - Strangely, this camera is very, very limited considering that this sort of thing is the type of feature I would consider to be the most advanced on an Apple product. There is no zoom feature on the camera and there is no option to record video! Two basic functions on my old Nokia that I would have thought to be standard on an iPhone.
11. GPS Mapping - Navigation is non-existent. Google Maps is ok but it is pretty basic - If you don't follow the route on Google maps then you have to start again and remap from your new current location. I don't think this is really Apple's fault... Just need some big players like TomTom or Destinator to catch up and develop an iPhone version of their software.
12. Notes - You can synchronise contacts and calendar from outlook yet it does not synchronise notes. I like to keep a lot of important information in my notes and no longer having access to them on my phone is a little bit of a nuisance. hardly a deal breaker but having notes on the device would be a great idea.
13. Settings - Could it be any more painful to have the equalizer from the ipod application in a completely different application of its own? To test the equalizer you must: go into settings, , select ipod, modify equalizer, close equalizer, open ipod, play music. If you are not happy, you need to do this all over again for the next setting... and if you're anything like me, I like to test all of them to determine which one gives the best sound...After 10-15 minutes of this it gets quite annoying.
14. Having to close and reopen applications - Whenever you get an email on the iphone that has a link in it and you follow it, there is no real easy way back. the iPhone automatically closes the mail program and opens safari to view the page. Of course, when you want to go back to the message, you can't just go back or close safari, you need to reopen mail... Not a big drama but one step to many, interupting easy mail viewing.
That's all I've got for now but I'm sure its more than enough to keep everyone busy for sometime...
