iPhone 2.2 Firmware Is Pure Fluff.
The rumors of the soon to drop iPhone 2.2 firmware features better not be true. Plain and simple, the iPhone could be such a better device if Apple concentrated on core functionality instead of fluff.
I, and many others, use my device as a phone, email client, web browser and messaging client.
The phone feature works as advertised and I’m not sure what they could improve on.
The email client is good, but it doesn’t always work. Nevermind, it only works when my iPhone is charging. I have it set to get my email every 15 minutes from Google’s IMAP server. It never looks for new email when the phone is not either in use or plugged into the wall. This has become increasingly frustrating. I came over from years of Blackberry and then Windows Mobile use with push email. I’m already sacrificing real-time for 15 minutes, now I have to manually go get the email.
MobileMe would fix this problem if they allowed custom domain mapping, but they don’t so it’s not really like Exchange for the rest of us. I’ve heard rumors that the poor battery life problem was fixed in 2.1 only because Apple turned off the fetch email service while the phone is in sleep mode.
The rumors say they are improving mobile Safari by making it easier to access the Google search box, this a good UI improvement in my opinion, so congrats Cupertino.
I’d love to be able to receive Gtalk or AOL Instant Messenger IM’s on my iPhone regardless of whether I have an IM app running. Apple promised a notification server when they released iPhone 2.0. They said it would be here in September, it hasnt been heard of or seen from since July.
A notification server would make the phone a much, much better device. If my iPhone could notify me in sleep mode when I receive a instant message I would be a happy individual.
I would also like the homescreen (before you slide to unlock) to diplay how many emails I’ve missed, how many IM’s I’ve received, upcoming events from my calendar and how many Tweet’s I’ve missed since I last locked my phone.
Yes, make the homescreen customizable. Let me decide what to display on it besides the default missed calls and text messages.
If Apple did that, and perhaps added MMS and copy/paste, it’d be about as perfect a phone as you could have.
Instead they insist on adding fluff features like over-the-air podcast downloading, Google maps streetview and icons in the App store (if the rumors are true). These are novelty features that are cool, but essentially not useful. How useful is over-the-air podcast downloading compared to a notification server? How useful are new icons on the menu in the App store compared to an actual working email client that fetch’s your email?
I also realize that usefulness is relative, but I think it’s a losing argument to put OTA podcast downloading and company ahead of a notification server.
Having said all of that. I can’t not use my iPhone. I’ve tried, trust me. I tried to go back to my Blackberry Curve and I couldn’t stick with it.
I’ve used T-Mobile’s G1 Google phone (Android) and I stuck with the lesser iPhone. I got my hands on Nokia’s E71, which I thought would surely get me to forget about my love-hate relationship with my iPhone. Nope.
The E71 is a great phone. It’s way better than the iPhone in terms of what it does. But there is something about the iPhone that has me locked in (and it’s not my 2-year AT&T contract).
I know what that magic is that keeps me and many other frustrated iPhone owners locked in, but I’m going to save that for another post.
