3rd
iPhone OS feature wishlist
TUAW’s collecting requests for the next Apple iPhone OS update. Here’s hoping they can have better luck persuading Apple than any of us individually, so here’s my wish-list:
1) Incoming Phone calls as Text Pop-up while in games: I’m tired of losing a game or having to restart anytime someone calls and interrupts me. Airplane mode isn’t a viable option, but there’s no reason to close the game when you can simply show a pop-up like for text msgs, etc.
2) Easier way to send GPS/Map link in replies: I want to auto-notify my wife of my location with a simple button press when she texts me, etc. Why not have a GPS button in the SMS/Email apps like they do for photos?
3) Timestamps on Notifications: It doesn’t help to get a notification like a txt msg, but not know how long ago it was sent, etc.
4) Better app-switching: I’m not convinced I need back-grounding, but I would like to be able to better switch between recent apps w/out having to constantly go back home, and relaunch from springboard.
5) App-support for search window: Search on the phone home screen is pretty useless as is as all the iphone apps have a search bar. What I would like is to allow other 3rd party plugins access to this search area. So I could do a Google Search, IMDB search, etc. from that screen w/out launching an app. Installed apps should have access to relevant data to provide this functionality as well.
6) Application access to SMS/Email/Phone/Calendar - Apps can access my contacts which is awesome. I wish they could w/ permission access my text/phone/email history and data, etc to give me better access and use to that data as well. For example, open-table should be able to auto-add a reservation to the calendar of my choice.
7) Vibration management: If I say I want my phone SILENT, then no game or app should be able to play sounds or force a vibration.
8) Screen Orientation Control: Games allow you to control the access, but the iPhone should allow me to specify my preferred landscape orientation. I prefer to have it clock-wise so the headphone jack doesn’t protrude into my left hand.
9) App-store update control: I should be able to hit edit and select which apps I want to update instead of doing 1 at a time or ALL. Additionally if there’s an app I don’t want to upgrade, I should be able to remove the reminder/notification-count for it until the next version.
10) App-rating on phone: Why can’t I rate an app unless I delete it? Seems unfair.
11) Lockscreen Widget support: I want to see more data on my lock screen, like upcoming calendar appointments, unread email count, etc.
12) Permanent Do-Not-Allow-Location-Use setting per-app: I’m tired of continuously having to tell the camera app and others that I don’t want it to have access to my GPS data.
13) Let Apps send TXT for me: You let them open up email forms w/ pre-populated data, why not the same for TXT messages? As long as I can decide whether to send or not, I see no harm.
14) App-URL catching: It would be cool if when I go to a URL in Safari, if an app can provide a better experience, why not let it open up instead of the site? Like when I get a facebook email, I’d rather the facebook app launch and show me the info than take me to the mobile Facebook website. This would be a logical extension of how google map URLs open the map app instead b/c it’s a better experience. I should be able to control this similar to how you let me control App Notifications in settings, etc.
Julie Hilden is 
