The 3G iPhone has finally arrived--a year and a half after CEO Steve Jobs first confirmed rumors Apple would indeed be making one of those fancy mobile phone things.
Since then many iPhone clones have been born--many with fleeting lives--and the mobile industry has done a whole lot of waking up and smelling of coffee.
But we're not about to sit here going gaga over the gadget, sleek though it may be. There are plenty of functions and features where we feel Apple could up its game--so here are 10 things we'd like to change about the 3G iPhone...
1. No keyboard...
The touchscreen is certainly the best on the market but it's never going to be everyone's bag, certainly not if you are a touch-typist. Plenty of mobile bloggers out there would jump at the chance to pair some kind of Bluetooth keyboard (foldable and/or otherwise) with their iPhone.
2. The camera needs more megapixels...
2.0 megapixels is camera phone 1.0 when you consider there are mobiles out there that are pushing eight megapixels now. And while we don't expect Apple to stretch itself that much we'd like at least three megapixels--and a better lens please. The camera also has no flash, so photography in low-light conditions is a no-no.
3. Still no cut and paste...
We're children of the internet and life without cut and paste is like living with one arm tied behind the back--especially when it comes to swapping the web's official currency: URLs. Apple is reportedly 'working on the issue'--but it hasn't delivered yet.
4. You can't use the 3G iPhone as a modem...
In an age of miniature laptops and mobile working in the unlikeliest of places we think this is a crying shame--and an opportunity missed.
5. SMS/MMS...
Clunky texting is a frequent gripe with the iPhone: One person who was planning on buying Apple but has gone for the Samsung Tocco instead, points out: "For those who text a lot, the iPhone does not really stand out as a suitable option."
So a better text client is on our wish list--"designed by a European instead of a backward US perspective", in the words of silicon.com columnist Peter Cochrane.
Being able to use a wider version of the virtual keyboard - by turning the phone on its side--would also improve the texting experience, yet this is not currently possible. You can use the wider keyboard when web browsing but not, bizarrely, when texting. The phone also does not do MMS--so double thumbs down on the messaging front.
6. Where's the video record?...
With such a nice screen it's a crying shame the iPhone can only be used to watch videos not to record them too. This is the age of user-generated content, you know.
7. Non-removable battery...
We're not happy the battery is welded into the iPhone and can only be removed by qualified Apple engineers at remote locations--and, when out of warranty, for a fee. Not least because it would be nice to be able to carry a spare in case we run out of juice in the middle of watching Lego Star Wars videos on YouTube.
8. No pay-as-you-go iPhone--yet...
It is on the way to the UK but we can't get it yet--and may well have to wait until Christmas--Christmas! We also don't know how much it will cost. And considering the iPhone pay-monthly tariffs are still on the steep side and the phone is only available from one operator, it would be nice to have another way to be an iPhone owner.
9. No built-in VoIP client...
Getting voice over IP calls to work on iPhone 1.0 has been a story of messy workarounds, complicated bypasses and remote use of third-party VoIP clients running on a PC. Not ideal. Face it Steve, people want to use VoIP and trying to stop them is a pain.
10. Give us more colors--and more storage...
It's back to black for the 8GB iPhone--with the addition of white to the range for those shelling out for 16GBs. No green, blue or red to jazz up our mobile computing experience. No pink either--so [irony] presumably Apple is not interested in selling to women [/irony]. But we suppose Steve needs to have something up his sleeve to brighten his keynote at the next Macworld. And while we're at it, there's a 32GB iPod Touch but only 8GB and 16GB iPhones... Where's the super-sized 32GB iPhone?
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