Apple event wishlist
As one typically does before a big event like the one going down tomorrow morning, it’s time to chime in with some predictions and hopes of ones own.
That new product everyone is talking about
Calling it something that includes the word ‘tablet’ is lame. Can’t see it happening.
Calling it something that includes the word ‘pad’ will cause hilarious giggling fits amongst the general populous. Not going to happen.
iBook is a strong contender in my… err… book. It’s no longer being used for one and for two provides a direct link to the intended purpose of this ‘thing’, that is if you believe all the eBook-killer, magazine publishing and textbook platform rumours floating around.
update: How wrong I was: presenting the Apple iPad!
iLife ‘10, iWork ‘10
It happens every year about this time, why would they change it now? Not hoping for much in particular, I’d be much more excited about an upgrade to Final Cut Express or Aperture than iMovie or iPhoto. If they do get an update, I’ll likely buy them regardless.
iPhone 4.0
Not entirely convinced they’ll show this with everything else that’s supposed to be going down, but if by chance they do – here are my wishes for the next-gen iPhone OS. If that great new product everyone is talking about indeed runs iPhone OS (which it is strongly tipped), it would make sense to at least talk about the next version for iPhone during this event.
Mail.ipa
Unified mailboxes: all my accounts in one list, rather than having to switch back & forth all the time.
Tweetie-style refresh: I hate that it always tries to connect/sync when I open mail. When purposely offline, all those modal dialogs get tiresome very quickly; Same for when I’m online, I’d rather have to manually refresh than have this performed automatically. I mention Tweetie because I like the way you can force a refresh by simply scrolling past the top of the list, rather than having a specific button on the screen to perform the same task, elegant and simple.
Load remote images: Mail app on iPhone is great for spammers. Apple gives you two options for loading remote images: load or do not load. There’s no option to not load, then manually load images when you want to. Apple’s manual for iPhone mentions an option to load images manually, though it seems that feature was not actually implemented. Gmail does this well, it won’t load remote images by default, then gives you the option of remembering your settings on a per address basis. I mention spam because iPhone will load remote images by default and, for the vast majority of iPhone users without much of a clue about such things, this is bad form. More often than not, spam messages use specially crafted remote images to confirm your address is working and once confirmed the address will invariably be flooded with yet more spam.
Messages.ipa
Data roaming: Similar to Mail, it find it annoying that every time I open Messages when data roaming is turned off, it get a modal message telling me that roaming is turned off. I’d guess that it’s warning me that sending an MMS message is not possible, which is fine, I just wish there was some other visual indicator that data is off, rather than any annoying popup modal dialog stating the bleeding obvious. Have been finding this one particularly annoying whilst o/s with roaming switched off and using SMS to communicate regularly.
Phone.ipa
Stability: Main gripe is the propensity for calls to drop out, though the jury is out on whether this is more of a problem caused by the network operator, iPhone hardware or iPhone OS. I’m leaning toward the latter two options, hopefully something can be done to fix it. I’ve never owned a phone that has had so many failed calls.