If I were Mr. Jobs ...

[bigviking]

I love my iPhone. The things that it does, it simply does so much better than everything else that I have almost forgotten about some of the things my prior phone (a Nokia e61i) could do that the iPhone cannot. In my opinion Apple has done an outstanding job delivering basic functionality in rev 1.0, and things will only get better over time.

The one thing many people are forgetting is that Apple is a company that is in businesss to make money (as is any other public company). I don't intend this to be a negative comment, it is simply an undeniable reality. So, there are occasions where what is in Apples best interest is contrary to what an iPhone user may want.

That being said, my recommendations for the next release, and a later one (if I were wearing an Apple hat) are:

1) Detect hacked iPhones and permanently disable them. I know this wouldn't be popular, but it would be in Apple's best interest to do so ASAP. This would really send a message and eliminate a great deal of hacking.

2) Digital Volume Leveling (iPhone DVL), sample phone audio and digitally boost soft content. The phone just plain needs to be louder when the person on the other end isn't speaking up as they should. Ultimately this should be done by AT&T at their end, but they obviously aren't doing it.

3) A single icon on the main menu that when pressed brings up a select menu providing direct access to commonly used Safari bookmarks.

4) Better navigation within the mail program for dealing with multiple email accounts. Currently, to go from one inbox to another it requires a total of five clicks. This is a real pain, and very easy to fix.

5) Minor stability bug fixes (battery charge indicator, occasional Safari crashes, ...). For me, I have no stability issues but others have reported them.

6) Encrypt the file system based off of a derivative of each units device ID. This cold be done by making iTunes communicate with a server at Apple, and re-encrypt the file system on the fly during an OS upgrade. Any single key encryption mechanism will eventually be cracked. Perhaps they are doing something like this, but if they aren't they should be. Also, make it "phone home" periodically through the internet. If anyone figures out how to unlock it, you could have the phone disable itself if it wasn't associated with an AT&T account. This would really make the whole point of trying to unlock the device a dead end.

Longer Term:

1) Partner with TomTom or Garmin to release a native GPS routing solution that works even in areas without cell coverage. A web based solution will never be anywhere near as nice as TomTom is right now on a Symbian device. Garmin and TomTom already have touchscreen enabled devices, just partner with one of them. The iPhone with a bluetooth GPS would be an awesome platform for GPS routing. Reception and battery drain are generally a problem with internal GPS units, so I really don't mind having to use an external one. I have a bluetooth GPS permanently wired into my car.

2) Stereo headset bluetooth capability

3) Disk access, but using a FUSE technology so I wont have to dedicate a fixed portion of my capacity for disk use.

4) Flash support

5) Video capture

6) Some hooks into .mac accounts for real-time picture and video upload to users websites

7) Email retrieval scheduling (every x minutes during the day, but don't check at all after 5:00, ...) like many of the Nokia S60 phones have

8) A "Developers Utilities" package that has native ssh and sftp clients. I realize most people will never use ssh, but for Linux geeks like myself it would be very very useful. You can sort of address this with a web 2.0 app, but not really in a very effective way.

9) The ability to interface with exchange servers (outside of IMAP). I hate the fact that many people are already saying things like "a Blackberry is more businesss oriented, and the iPhone is more of an entertainment device thereforee they shouldn't even be compared". I believe these overly simplistic comparisons are mainly caused by the lack of a native interface with exchange. If you have the best phone, the best web browser, and the best email reader in my mind that makes for a pretty damn good businesss device, much better than any Blackberry or Treo.

As a user and a developer, I would like Apple to open up development to third parties, but as a businesss model I am not sure that I would do so if it were p to me. Apple could make a ton of money selling things like best in class phone navigation, .mac subscriptions that were integrated into iPhone based applications, ...

Anyway, just a few of my thoughts ...

 

[TrippalHealicks]

1) Detect hacked iPhones and permanently disable them. I know this wouldn't be popular, but it would be in Apple's best interest to do so ASAP. This would really send a message and eliminate a great deal of hacking.

Good god, nice post.
I don't have time left in my work day to read the whole thing, but about this first point.

I'm not sure this is even legal, outside of the hacked phone having some negative effect on the network on which it operates. You paid for the device, it's yours. No company has the right to just "disable" it.
That's like an Apple tech walking up to someone with a hacked phone and smashing it with a hammer, and just walking away. lol

 

[tharmsen]

The way I see it, I own the phone. If I "hack it" it doesn't harm Apples businesss in the slightest, and it doesn't harm AT&T. Do you "hack" your PC? Have you pulled out an old hard drive and put in a bigger one? How about installed applications that make your machine do something it didn't do out of the factory? No kidding.

If I want to use my phone as a storage device, why shouldn't I be able to? If you want your car to go faster, should Chevy repossess your car if you put exhaust on it? A new chip in it? I think not.

Now, if you're talking about stealing proprietary information, stealing AT&T network services, or otherwise really harming someone's businesss - then I agree something should be done. But to suggest we should immediately lose our $600 phones because we "hacked" it to gain disc access or to install 3rd party applications is beyond retarded.

 

[bigviking]

That up to interpretation

Good god, nice post.
I don't have time left in my work day to read the whole thing, but about this first point.

I'm not sure this is even legal, outside of the hacked phone having some negative effect on the network on which it operates. You paid for the device, it's yours. No company has the right to just "disable" it.
That's like an Apple tech walking up to someone with a hacked phone and smashing it with a hammer, and just walking away. lol

Actually, you have bought hardware and licensed software that runs on that hardware. The software that runs on the iPhone has a licensing agreement. I believe that one of the terms of this agreement deals with not altering the software. If the users voilates the licensing agreement on the software, I think it's ok to make the software stop working. In fact, many software companies to this today with complex key validation techniques. In this case, a side affect of making the software stop working would be that the phone would be useless. No physical damage would actually be done to the phone.

I really don't think it's practical to build up an army of Apple tech's to walk up to everyone with a hacked phone and smash it with a hammer. My solution is just more cost effective, and easier to implement.

 

[miamibusta69]

i agree with u on that one.^

 

[bigviking]

Yes, I have done all of these things

The way I see it, I own the phone. If I "hack it" it doesn't harm Apples businesss in the slightest, and it doesn't harm AT&T. Do you "hack" your PC? Have you pulled out an old hard drive and put in a bigger one? How about installed applications that make your machine do something it didn't do out of the factory? No kidding.

If I want to use my phone as a storage device, why shouldn't I be able to? If you want your car to go faster, should Chevy repossess your car if you put exhaust on it? A new chip in it? I think not.

Now, if you're talking about stealing proprietary information, stealing AT&T network services, or otherwise really harming someone's businesss - then I agree something should be done. But to suggest we should immediately lose our $600 phones because we "hacked" it to gain disc access or to install 3rd party applications is beyond retarded.

I have done all of the things that you have mentioned.

From an end user / hacker / technical perspective I like the idea of hacking the phone to gain access to new features.

Once again, my original post was meant to look at things from an Apple Corporate perspective, not from an end user one.

I bet that less than .0001% of all iPhone users have modified the root filesystems on their phones. You would have a small group of very pissed off owners.

To me, as a company Apple either needs to open up the iPhone to everyone for third party development, or really really lock things down and get serious about security. Anything in between is fairly pointless.

 

[J-Sauce]

Actually, you have bought hardware and licensed software that runs on that hardware. The software that runs on the iPhone has a licensing agreement. I believe that one of the terms of this agreement deals with not altering the software. If the users voilates the licensing agreement on the software, I think it's ok to make the software stop working. In fact, many software companies to this today with complex key validation techniques. In this case, a side affect of making the software stop working would be that the phone would be useless. No physical damage would actually be done to the phone.

I really don't think it's practical to build up an army of Apple tech's to walk up to everyone with a hacked phone and smash it with a hammer. My solution is just more cost effective, and easier to implement.

By federal law, unlocking of our mobile phones is completely legal.

It would be an enormous risk for Apple to so something like disable our phones just because we practice our own rights.

Besides...don't you think that if they made a "phone home" feature as you stated that would check and disable any hacked phone, that a competent hacker would just disable that feature as well?

 

[bigviking]

Who is "beyond retarded" now ?

The way I see it, I own the phone. If I "hack it" it doesn't harm Apples businesss in the slightest, and it doesn't harm AT&T. Do you "hack" your PC? Have you pulled out an old hard drive and put in a bigger one? How about installed applications that make your machine do something it didn't do out of the factory? No kidding.

If I want to use my phone as a storage device, why shouldn't I be able to? If you want your car to go faster, should Chevy repossess your car if you put exhaust on it? A new chip in it? I think not.

I know that only unlocked phones got bricked, but does my original post seem that far off now ?