Back and Forth Forever

Everyone seems to have their predictions of what the new iPhone OS will have, so I’ll throw my .02 in to the virtual hat.  The Palm Pre seems to be the closest thing to an iPhone killer we’re likely to see in the foreseeable future.  Don’t misquote me and say that the Palm Pre is an iPhone killer, because it’s not.  I think Roger McNamee went too far out on a limb with that statement.

Apple has to swing for the fences on this one.  The 2nd generation iPhone, or iPhone 3G, was a minor upgrade at best.  Everybody else had 3G speeds and GPS — welcome to 2005 Apple.  Unfortunately for Apple everyone else has quite a list of features that are mysteriously missing on the iPhone: copy/paste, MMS, turn by turn directions, backgrounding apps, a decent camera, laptop tethering, and stereo Bluetooth.  Back to the Palm Pre, I think it has a decent shot at stealing a customer or three but Apple has one thing that acts as a buffer between delivering what users want and what they want to dish out in small bite sized doses.  The iPhone is a product by Apple, it doesn’t matter what they push out in any quantity people will snap it up.  I’ll admit, I was a early adopter of the first iPhone and while it was a technological step backwards from my AT&T Tilt 3G phone it just felt like a better phone even without the App Store and almost-broadband Internet connection.

The iPhone needs to catch up where it still has been lacking some seemingly simple features and here’s what I think they’ll deliver tomorrow.

WILL HAVE

• Copy & Paste — Kevin Rose said it’ll be there, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be.
• Stereo Bluetooth — Another simple feature that free phones from AT&T offer.
• MMS — It’s holding them back in European markets they need this for success outside the US.
• Push — Push technology is useful for IM and periodical update applications that don’t need to be running 24 hours a day.  Jobs promised this to us in September, it’s March, it should be ready by now.
• Premium App Store — The App Store is flooded with garbage and a few gems.  This would give applications a way to stand out and say, “I’m not another iFart app.”
• Backgrounding Apps — I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this will be allowed in some form.  Windows Mobile does it, the Pre does it, Apple has to do it to be considered a smart phone.  Do I really think backgrounding will be in 3.0?  I’m going to say yes, but it’s probably just wishful thinking.
• Turn by Turn Directions — I’d like this to be a standard feature not a 3rd party app.  I remember in 2006 a co-worker did this on his flip phone and found a pool hall in the middle of Nowhere, KY.  My Jesus Phone can’t do it 3 years later.

NEEDS TO HAVE

• Everything above
• New design — It’s nice to match the competition but that’s not exactly Apple’s style.  The current iPhone was a leap forward now it’s just another phone.
• Higher resolution screen
• Improved battery life
• Flash support — okay, the iPhone doesn’t need flash support, but it’d be nice to have.

WISHFULL THINKING

• Play remote library — doubt AT&T or any other carrier would let this fly over 3G but over WiFi it’d be nice.
• WiFi iTunes sync
• Improved springboard — it worked great when we had 14 apps, it works okay when you have 50.
• Improved keyboard — I’m used to it now, but I’d still like a physical keyboard.
• iChat — And it can be ran in the background
• Notification screen — When are my next appointments?  I missed 3 calls but why do I have to click 3 times to see from who?
• Front facing camera — It’s 2009, I should be able to video conference while driving my flying car
• Voice Dialing — I truly miss this feature from Windows Mobile phones
• Email Improvements — it works okay now, but it could be considerably better
• Video capture/improved video — Qik has been great for now but the video quality could be a lot better using Cyrecorder (jailbreak)

We’ll see how accurate I was in another 24 hours.  I’ll be surprised if they don’t announce everything in the first section.  Steve Jobs said they’re two years ahead of the competition two years ago.  Lets see if they can pull the same feat this time around, or at least give us what most smart phones had 4 years ago.