We know Apple iPhone is already a joy to use, with ample amount of cool features splashed allover the operating system – fading out of songs when you receive a phone call, the awesome simplicity of visual voicemail, for instances. But let’s face the truth. The graphical user interface and built-in apps also have their annoyances e.g. you can cut video on your iPhone 3GS, but you still can’t edit a playlist!
Here is a list of simple and yet magnificent ways Apple can enhance its own suite of apps and the iPhone OS itself. Here goes our top 20 iPhone wish list:
- Better Battery life. We don’t mean that the current battery life is bad. But if you are a bluetooth junkie, listen to music all day long and use GPS and 3G network, then your iPhone battery may not last even a day. Hence an improved battery life is something, any serious iPhone user should welcome with open arms.
- Setting your iPhone automatically to silence-mode if you are flagged to be attending a meeting on your calendar.
- A more useful “slide to unlock” screen. Show your unread email count, the weather, or upcoming appointments.
- Improved camera. The current 2 mega-pixel cam is good enough in decent lighting condition. But when it comes to outdoor shooting in poor exposure, it may certainly get blurry and darkish. A situation, where a flash and a better sensor could come in handy. While we’re at it, why not some digital image stabilization?
- The ability to delete a single particular received call as opposed to deleting all or none.
- Fewer taps to move between mail inboxes. Right now, checking two inboxes requires at least seven taps: Mail >> Gmail >> Inbox << Gmail << Accounts >> Newsweek >> Inbox. There has to be a better way to navigate.
- iPhone MMS. We know that finally MMS has been available for AT&T users and is now live in the USA. But what about users from other countries and other networks?
- Facebook and Twitter integration with Contacts. Once we’ve logged into the Facebook app, why can’t it populate the contacts list with photos, birthdays, and other information?
- iTunes Music Downloads. One should be able to download music from iTunes right onto the iPhone, and it should automatically upload to the computer.
- Physical buttons for basic playback control. The iPhone’s touchscreen interface is stunning, but it’s useless when the phone is in your pocket or a bag. A good music player needs physical buttons for at least basic playback controls: play/pause, forward, back, volume.
- Clockwise and counter-clockwise video rotation. A minor criticism, but one wonders why, if you can turn your iPhone clockwise or counter-clockwise to get a horizontal display in Photos or Cover Flow, why can’t you do the same while watching a video? (Only counter-clockwise works.) Why indeed?
- The weather icon should show the current weather. Just like the calendar icon displays the current date.
- A new app that shows your minute and text message balances. Yes, you can get this information by dialing *646# and *3282#, respectively; and yes, AT&T offers its own app. But both methods are annoying. (The AT&T app requires a password every time you use it.)
- A battery app. This could show the battery’s overall health (as degraded from its factory state), its expected replacement date, plus stats like average use between charges.
- A character counter when composing text messages. I’m always wondering if I’ve gone over 160 characters. Not having this simple feature is a no brainer, really. Even most basic phones have this built into their text editor. Then why can’t you iPhone?
- A way to delete built-in apps. Some aren’t so great. I never use Stocks, and there are better calculator apps than the one Apple offers. Why can’t I hide, or better still, delete/uninstall these?
- Improve how appointments are scheduled in the calendar. The current method requires too many finger taps, and there’s no way to add default settings, like always having a 15-minute alert.
- “Alarms” built into Maps. If you’re using the Maps application while driving (I know, I know, bad idea), it would be super useful for the phone to sound an alert when GPS detects that you’re at a given distance from your next turn – say, one mile before your highway exit, or one block before your left turn.
- Ability to set custom sounds for text, email, etc. You can set ring tones, but you can’t create your own sounds and use them on the iPhone without hacking it. A feature that is available on almost every other phone but not the iPhone.
- A calendar you can view and print from the iPhone. Especially with a one month view.
What iPhone tweaks would you like Apple to address officially? What are the things that you would want Apple to implement in the future versions of iPhone so that you wouldn’t need any jail-breaking or hacking to do the trick for you? Leave your wish list items in the comments. You never know if Apple is listening and your wishes may just come true! 
