After a little over two weeks with my fancy new iPhone (yes, I was one of those nerds who braved the opening day hordes to have one on June 29 — it took me all of an hour to get my Jesus phone), I’ve started to compile a list of the things I think the iPhone is missing.
Let me start off by saying that I’m a fan of this thing in just about every regard. I find the virtual keyboard to be more functional than any BlackBerry I’ve used, the battery life to be more than acceptable for a smart phone, and despite being tossed in my pocket every day, neither the screen nor the back of the case has a scratch on it.
Basically, what’s included with the iPhone ranges from good (the YouTube or Notes apps, for example) to un-freaking-believable (Mail, Safari, and the overall user experience). Well, with one minor exception; this is the first phone I’ve had with a camera, and I have to say that I’m totally underwhelmed. Then again, my regular camera is a Nikon D40.
No, my quibbles with the iPhone aren’t about how Apple implemented what’s there as much as they are about what Apple left out.
First on my list: lists. Specifically to-do lists. While the iPhone is a double-plus good media device, it’ll only be so-so at helping you get things done without real to-do list functionality. To be sure, Apple’s default to-do solution in Mac OS X Tiger, iCal, is a less-than-stellar product itself. Be that as it may, Apple’s iPhone calendar doesn’t support iCal’s to-do list feature, so iPhone users are pretty much out of luck if they wish to rely on their shiny new devices to help them to remember to do stuff that might not be strictly calendar event driven.
Any to-do list feature worth the name would also be tightly integrated with the user’s desktop; not much value in a get-things-done tool that only addresses your life on-the-go, is there? You should be able to take action on your to-dos whether you’re at your desk or not, and the action you take in one situation should be automatically reflected in the other.
One possible way of addressing this would be an online application like 37signals’ Ta-da List. I certainly intend to give it a try as a way to keep universal to-do lists across mobile and desktop situations.
Next on my wish list: blogging/tagging/sharing tools.
Sent from my iPhone
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