Our iPhone Wish List: Safari and Text/chat

Continuing the Wish List series, here’s our list of features we’d like to see in Safari and Text (chat); the number after each item represents how many editors, out of seven, requested that feature in our informal survey.

SAFARI

Already covered: Flash support (7).

Remember usernames and passwords (4): One of our favorite features of Safari for Mac—and other modern browsers, for that matter—is that the browser can save login information for Web sites that require it, and then automatically enter that information when you visit those sites. We’d like to see iPhone Safari offer a similar feature, the lack of which is especially frustrating given that you can’t copy/paste text from, say, an email message or Notes note.

Option to open a link in a new window or tab (4): Safari on the iPhone lets you open multiple Web pages at the same time, via separate windows, which is a great feature. However, there’s no way to force a link to open in a different window. We’d like to see that functionality; for example, if you tap-hold on a link, you could get a menu with an “Open In New Window” command. (A workaround for now: bookmarklet #2 on this page. Save it to your bookmarks; whenever you choose it from your bookmarks, every link on the page you’re currently viewing will be changed so that it will open in a new window.)

Option to save a page locally (4): You aren’t always in range of a data network, and sometimes you choose to disable network access (for example, when using Airplane Mode on a plane). The ability to save a Web page for offline viewing would be useful.

Save a photo on a Web page to Photos app (3): Since there’s no Finder or accessible file system on the iPhone, if you find an interesting image on the Web, you can’t do anything with it. A cool feature would be the ability to save images from Safari to Photos.

Better page caching for offline viewing (2): Safari on the iPhone does some fairly aggressive caching to make browsing seem faster. If you're out of range of a data network, you might think Safari would let you view the cached version of a Web page you previously viewed; instead, when you switch to Safari it attempts to reload the page and fails. At least a couple editors wish Safari would let you view cached pages when a network is unavailable.

Home page setting (2): An admittedly minor nitpick, but two editors wish Safari on the iPhone had a home page setting. The current workaround, which isn't too onerous, is to put that "home page" link at the top of your bookmarks.

Option to email a page's contents (1): You can currently send the URL of a page you're viewing to someone via email, but one editor wishes you could email a page's contents, as you can with desktop Safari.

TEXT/CHAT

Already covered: a true iChat/AIM client (5).

MMS support (4): As I explained back at the end of June, MMS is basically the multimedia version of mobile text messaging. Whereas SMS is plain text, MMS lets you send images, audio, video, and rich text. For example, with most modern phones, if you take a photo with your phone and want to send it to someone else’s phone, you send an MMS. Sure, email is available, but that assumes the recipient's phone supports email and email attachments--many more phones support MMS.

Send SMS to multiple recipients (3): Many mobile phones let you send an SMS message to multiple recipients simultaneously; for example, to send the address of a restaurant to each of the friends you're meeting for dinner. The iPhone doesn't offer this feature, so you have to type the same message once for each person and send each message separately.

Support for SMS groups (1): As with Mail, Text won't let you send SMS messages to a group of contacts. For example, a Family group could contain the mobile numbers of your family members; sending an SMS message to that group would automatically send it to every member. Although such a feature wouldn't be as important if the previous feature was available, it would still be convenient to have as an option.

Change location of Send button (1): I've personally sent several SMS messages prematurely because the Send button in Text is so close to the I, O, and P buttons. A bit more space between the keyboard and Send would be welcome, at least by my (evidently larger) fingers.

Be sure to check out our consensus list, along with our complete lists for hardware, the interface and general features, Mail, and phone and Contacts. We've got the iPod, the camera, and "everything else" on the way.

Category: Musings

Posted by Dan Frakes on Aug 2 2007, 2:11 PM ET

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