iPhone should make sound and fury smarter

So as long as we’re revolutionizing the whole phone thing, here’s a suggestion from out in left field. I frequently switch back and forth from ring to silent; I often wear an iPod as I walk, I prefer to have my phone vibrate when it’s in my pocket. But when I’m at home, I usually leave it on a desk, where ringing would be more noticeable. And sometimes I forget to switch to the right mode—hey, I’m only an incredibly advanced cyborg like everybody else.

Wouldn’t it be great if the iPhone was smart enough to realize when it was in my pocket and when it was on the desk? I used to wish for this feature in my old phone, but it occurs to me that the iPhone has something my old phone lacked: three spiffy sensors that measure ambient light, proximity, and orientation. Surely there must be some way of using all that information to have it figure out where it is: measure the light for inside a pocket, for example? Or the orientation vertically as opposed to horizontally? I imagine some combination of the three would be most efficient.

I don’t think this feature should be mandatory; maybe just have a switch in the Settings that lets you turn on “Location-based ring modes” or some such (I’m sure Apple can come up with something catchier). It may be a little detail, but that’s just the kind of elegance that Apple does best.

Category: Musings

Posted by Dan Moren on Jul 10 2007, 3:00 PM ET

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