This next installment of our topic-specific wishes for the iPhone covers the phone and Contacts features.
(To review, we asked seven iPhone-using Macworld editors what new features they’d like to see, and which existing features they’d like to see improved. We came up with a consensus list, but that contained just a fraction of the full list. We’re covering the rest here on iPhone Central. So far, we’ve posted our wishes for hardware, the interface and general features, and Mail. We’ve got Safari and Text, the iPod, the camera, and “everything else” on the way. As with previous lists, the number after each item represents how many editors, out of seven, requested that feature in our informal survey.)
THE PHONE
Already covered: custom ringtones (6) and the ability to use the iPhone as a modem (5).
Voice dialing (3): As I mentioned the day after the iPhone’s release, I haven’t seen a decent mobile phone without voice dialing in years. The lack of such a feature means that even if you have a “hands-free” Bluetooth headset, such as Apple’s own offering, you still have to take out the iPhone and use its onscreen controls in order to initiate a call. A month later, I’m still puzzled by this one; I’ll be surprised if we don’t see voice dialing added via a future software update.
Speed dial feature (3): Allow me to paraphrase my comments from June 30: Even though I’ve added my wife to my iPhone’s Favorites list, calling her requires 3 (or 4) steps: waking up the phone, switching the iPhone to phone mode (if it’s not already there), tapping the Favorites button, and tapping her entry. On my previous phone, I could perform the same action by simply pressing 2 and then Send; on the phone before that, I could just hold down the 2 button for a couple seconds. On both phones I could perform the action without actually looking at the phone. The challenge here is that the iPhone has only a single button — how would Apple implement a speed-dial feature? The obvious workaround would be voice dialing…
Outgoing list in Recents (3): The iPhone’s Recents screen displays all recent and missed calls; you also have the option to view just missed calls. But there’s no way to view just calls you’ve made, a feature available on many other phones. A minor feature, but one that’s useful for heavy phone users.
Length of each call in Recents (2): Recents displays the time each call or missed call began, but not its length. That would be useful information, and the details screen for each call has plenty of room to add it.
Louder speakerphone (2): The iPhone’s built-in speakerphone works fairly well, but it can be difficult to hear; the maximum volume level just isn’t very loud. We know the speaker is capable of more—you can listen to music at louder volumes. (Perhaps the speakerphone limit is designed to avoid feedback, since the microphone is so near the speaker?)
Louder ringer (2): I’ve been surprised at how soft the iPhone’s ringer and alert sounds are, even at maximum volume. I’ve missed more than a few calls because I couldn’t hear the ringer from the next room.
CONTACTS
Already covered: Contacts accessible from the Home screen (5).
Search/filter (3): Sometimes you remember the name of a company, but not your contact at that company. Other times you remember where a business is located, but not the name. A simple search or filter for finding a contact would be a great feature. (This wish could also be satisfied via an iPhone-wide search, which we mentioned in our consensus list.)
Swipe to delete (3): As noted in the consensus list when we talked about interface consistency, it seems obvious that you would be able to delete a contact via the same swiping motion you use to delete a message in Mail. Until you try it and it doesn’t work.
Groups (1): You can create “groups” in Address Book on your Mac and sync those groups to your iPhone as subsets of Contacts, but these are really more like categories. What’s missing in Mail on the iPhone is the capability to email multiple contacts via a single group name, as you can in most desktop email clients.
View by Company (1): If there’s no chance of getting a search or filter function, the ability to sort or view contacts by company would be useful. The current workaround is to place the company name in one of the name fields.
You could EASILY make a 1 button speed dial by offering the home screen icons to act as speed dials when clicked and held. So your wife can be speedialed by clicking the calc app for 2 seconds
Another little thing I would like to see is when you turn sound back on, that rather then showing an icon of a bell, show the current volume as well, in fact pop up a list of profiles to choose from right there.
Albums in photo...
Multiple attachments when sending photos...
Keyboard volume slider icon on the keyboard..
add linked phone number in email to address book for new contact. currently you can only choose to dial that number...
All that being said. I LOVE my iPhone, and I own a treo, E61 and have a blackberry too, so I know power tools and I think most can be accomplished with software updates on iphone, where my other phones have never offered upgrades without new handset purchases so I'm feeling quite good about where we stand at 1.01
rsoussan, that's an interesting idea.
"Speed dialing" is a tough feature to figure out a good UI for. Holding an app icon doesn't really sound that good to me myself. For instance... What happens if you didn't mean to hold the calculator app to call someone? You can't lift you finger quickly, since that will launch the app, then you have to hit the home button again.
It would be good to have a "speed dial" app that brings up a screen of buttons that have names on it so you can actually "see" who the button will call when you press it. I have always hated speed dialing since I could never remember what number would dial what person.
Maybe after unlocking the phone, holding the "Home" button for 2 seconds or longer would launch the "Speed dial" app. Or just have a Speed dial app on the app list.
Currently if you hold an icon and change your mind, you simply drag it away and it won't launch the app.
Ultimately your right, a multi-function home button is a nice approach, the app approach was more of a hack idea that perhaps can be implemented through the hacking community? I'd take it over nothing, and with no voice dialing, i'm finding iPhone the most dangerous device to use while you drive! Well, second to iPods :)
PS: yes, technically we should just stick to driving!
What about multitouch gestures for speed dial?
Draw an S with two fingers and it could dial the person you setup to call if S was gestured. If you setup more than on person for S, then show them as buttons.
How about adding speed dial icons to the Unlock screen.
But you'd need to hold them for a number of seconds, or hold them then hit another button (so you don't accidentally dial people while the phone is in your pocket)? The unlock screen has the room, and it's the first thing you see when you turn on your phone.
In Address Book you can do companies using Smart Lists. Unfortunately, Smart Lists don't appear to transfer to the iPhone (even though Smart Folders in iTunes do).
Iphone moving violation.
Yesterday I saw proud iphone owner pulled over and ticketed by the Chicago PD, for using his phone while driving - hands free only allowed in Chicago.
His loaded BMW even had blue tooth to boot - I didn't know if I should laugh or feel sorry for the guy.
But if you use your phone in the car, then I guess you deserve the ticket for paying 600 bucks for a so called state of the art phone without voice recognition.
Wake up Apple, not only is illegal in more and more cities but is unsafe everywhere.
I will second the need to sync Smart Groups of contacts from Address Book to the iPhone. I would add that Address Book's Smart Group criteria are woefully inadequate. For example, you cannot create Smart Groups based on whether a contact is in another group or not. Hopefully Address Book will see major improvements in this area in Mac OS X 10.5 ("Leopard").
Maybe I missed someone else saying the same, but searching a contact, in Phone, by typing the first character, or few characters, of a name, like every other mobile phone in the world, is the single most-missed feature about the iPhone, for me.
Push Calendar
Wouldn't it be nice to have a push calendar, such that all calendar stuff placed on ical or the iphone would push to the .mac calendar
A more comprehensive list of options related to calendar postings would be good. I use a calendar for reminders, to-do's appointment, meetings, events, etc. Setting up these types of categories, and allowing some type of filtering would let us view sub-sets of up coming things we need to pay attention to.
I really wish I could dial phone numbers that are listed in appointments, like teleconference calls. Could do this on my old Windows Mobile phones. Anyone know a workaround until they implement this?