iPhone 3.0 Preview Wishlist (update)
The web is a wash with speculation over the coming iPhone 3.0 preview along with the new SDK scheduled for tomorrow, March 17th, at the Mighty Blue Apple’s HQ in Cupertino. It is worth noting that this is version 3.0 of the firmware, not 2.3, so we should be expecting something fairly major. Although the major works could be under the hood. Continuing from my iPhone 2.2 Wishlist, here are some of the additions I would hope have made the cut.
One of the most fundamental things (still) missing from the iPhone is the ability to copy and paste. This seems to be one of the most common rumours doing the rounds at the moment and, whilst not being particularly groundbreaking, would be greatly received by many.
Tethering (using your iPhone as a USB or bluetooth modem to access the net) also seems high on the rumour mill, fueled by comments from an AT&T Mobility Exec that they would have a solution “soon”. Time will tell if users would be willing to pay (in the case of the USA) the $30 extra per month that their BlackBerry cousins do.
A hope of my own being mirrored by others is also that the widescreen keyboard in Safari will be available in SMS and Email programs to ease text entry, particularly in long emails and the like. Something which will no doubt be a shame to here for Michael Schneider, author of the $1 TouchType app which does just that.
Multimedia messaging (MMS) is rearing its head too. Something missing from the iPhone, but not something I’ve found myself beside myself without. There is a handy app to view your received MMS already, and you can send them by purchasing credits through the application, but it would be better to see it all integrated the Apple way. Something which should have been done from the off. Another ‘from the off’ is the ability to forward text messages, also rumoured to be on the way.
‘Spotlight’ search functionality is also on the rumour cards, along with turn-by-turn voice directions following the ‘talking’ iPod Shuffle this week and voice speed dialing for when you’re driving are also possibilities.
One which would be a big seller for me, as I have said before, would be the inclusion of an A2DP (bluetooth headphones) profile for the iPod side of things. Oh how I long for a life (and car) free from wires trailing all over my dashboard! 
The other biggie, of course, would be the inclusion of background processes for 3rd party applications. Even if it were just a polling/cron system to allow applications to check for updates/messages, for example, this would be a big win. The Facebook app makes use of the red bubble notification to tell you about unread messages in your inbox, but only after you’ve fired up the app (and most likely read them). This is just one way thing that could be improved by background processes. Of course, it’s only a small leap until your phone is buzzing every 30 seconds with Twitter updates - something which I’m sure we’ll all agree would be a bad thing.
So what’s in store? Only Apple knows at the moment. The rest of us will have to wait until tomorrow to find out, when I really hope they announce the following three (excluding Copy/Paste, which should have been in from the off ;)):
- Landscape Keyboard
- Background Processes
- A2DP Profile
Update: 18th March 2009
So, lots of good things yesterday! 2 out of my 3 biggies are coming, and the background processes (which I wanted primarily for notifications) has been addressed. Copy/Paste is in (finally) and there was a weird round of applause for supporting sending multiple pictures in an email (really guys, that exciting? Everything else has been doing it for ages!). Spotlight, voice memos and landscape keybords all look good. But some of the more interesting features announced yesterday I think have to be the peer-to-peer and in-app purchase functionality. That’s really gonna open up a whole new world of possibilities.
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