iPhone 3: My Short Wishlist

With just a few hours before the Apple iPhone 3 announcement, I thought it would be interesting to post a short list of my “I wish they added…” stuff, just so I can compare it to what actually got announced.

Like many iPhone users, I’d really like to see the cut/paste added. But my greatest, most important wish is for the iPhone 3 to get full support for bluetooth: I really would like to have a portable keyboard that would work with the phone. I used to have one that worked just great with my Palm (actually, a Sony Clié running Palm OS). I like to be able to take notes and type stuff on the go, and then transfer that to my word-processing program. iPhone 2 already has a few reasonably good (if basic) text editing apps, but without a regular size, portable keyboard they are not really useable at this point, except for short, 1-2 sentence notes. This really is my only urgent wish for the phone. The second one is the ability to turn on and off the 3G support with one tap, without having to go through all the menus… I live in an area that does not offer 3G support, but often spend my weekends in an area that does, so I need to turn 3G support on quickly, on the go (usually, as I drive). The current setup makes this cumbersome.

Sure, I’d like some new software (like “mobile” version of iWork), and perhaps turn-by-turn driving directions, and some more efficient way to manage multiple apps (folders or group icons), but these are of secondary importance, compared with my URGENT need for a real keyboard support. My guess is this is one feature that would instantly increase the popularity of iPhone several times, perhaps presuading many people not to get a cheap NetBook-type computer. On the other hand, if Apple really plans to announce their own 10 inch tablet or netbook sometime soon, then adding a keyboard support to iPhone is probably NOT going to happen, since it would lower the need for such a device… We’ll see in a few hours…

Update on Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 23:00 by George

A brief re-hash: cut-n-paste - YES; keyboard - NOPE (conclusion: Apple will release a bigger version of tablet/netbook this summer, otherwise there would be no reason NOT to have Bluetooth keyboard support); all my other requests - nope. Turn-by-turn driving directions - maybe. Not much to write home about, in fact…