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9 Things on the iPad 2 Wish List

Liam Cassidy — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 19:00:24 +0000

Let’s be clear; the iPad rocks. If it never changes, I’d still be happy with it. But since we’re at that point in the year when we’re offering offering predictions and hopes regarding what’s to come, here’s a list of must-have features in iPad 2.

Some things we can be fairly certain of. Storage capacities will increase while prices (particularly for the entry-level model) will decrease. Battery life will probably improve, and the iPad chassis may well get even thinner (more on that later). A new talking-heads video will also be streamed from Apple’s website, featuring an ever-increasingly-earnest Jonny Ive declaring the iPad 2 is even more elegant and magical than its elegant, magical predecessor.

Magic is nice, but all users really care about are the feature and usability upgrades, and these are the ones that would most benefit the iPad 2.

Improved Display

I don’t mean a retina display, either. The resolution on the current iPad is just fine, thank you. Brighter, higher contrast, more colors and a wider viewing angle would be just swell.

Integrated SD Card Reader

MacBooks now have them, and the iPad seems a natural next candidate for a built-in SD card reader. The SD card reader Apple sells as part of its camera connection kit always seemed like an inelegant solution. (Its boxy white plastic lines look cheap next to the iPad’s aluminum shell.) Personally, I’d prefer to be able to beam photos from my DSLR to the iPad wirelessly, but a feature like that is even less likely to appear than an integrated reader.

A USB Port

I’m putting this here not because I genuinely want it, you understand, but because, apparently, everyone else does. Seriously, I’ve never wanted to connect anything to the iPad via USB. Nothing. Ever. I can see maybe wanting to plug a camera in directly instead of using its SD card, since it saves steps, but that’s about it. Feel free to illuminate me further on why a USB port on the iPad is a good idea in the comments.

Cameras and FaceTime

I’m not a fan of shaky-cam video calling, but I am a fan of devices that offer a complete audio/visual experience. FaceTime on iPhone 4 is stunning but a little gimmicky – on iPad it would be usable enough to make me want every chat to be a Facetime chat. More importantly, it would be like living in Star Trek, which would be cool.

iLife for iOS

Making iWork touch-friendly was an incredible achievement, and the quality and functionality of Pages, Numbers and Keynote on iPad just gets better and better with each update. Imagine, then, how toe-curlingly-awesome iLife could be on the iPad! Editing and sharing photos with a few swipes and finger-taps would be child’s play, while iMovie and Garage Band feel like they’ve been designed for touch since day one.

Thinner, Lighter, Stronger

I did promise I’d get to this one, and, if I’m really honest, I think this one is the most crucial upgrade Apple can make to iPad. Don’t get me wrong; the iPad is gorgeous. The iPad is practical. But the iPad is also heavy. If you don’t have a stand or empty lap available, cradling the thing in one arm soon starts to feel like hard work. I don’t doubt that Apple explored plastic versions of iPad (and perhaps, in keeping with the evolution of the iPhone, a plastic-bodied iPad is on the way) and I don’t deny that the current aluminum chassis provides for exceptional strength and rigidity. But so, too, could carbon fibre composite, without the arm-strain.

Side-Mounted Dock Connector

Speaks for itself, this one. A side-mounted dock connector won’t just make it possible to dock, sync and charge iPad in landscape orientation, but will also increase the range of design possibilities for third-party products. The problem, of course, is that it would mean yet another cavity in the otherwise unbroken lines of the device. I’m not sure Mr Jobs would tolerate that.

3G Radio As Standard

Since the second-generation iPhone, every iPhone has featured a 3G radio. That makes sense for a phone, but it also makes sense for a portable computer that relies heavily on cloud-based data to get things done. We don’t live in a Wi-Fi everywhere world (yet), so including a 3G chip as a standard feature of every model of iPad seems perfectly reasonable. Oh, and, I’d very much like it to be free 3G, too. Surely AT&T won’t have a problem with that, will they?

User Profiles

This is something that would never make sense on a device as small and personal as a cell phone. But despite what some people might say, the iPad is far more than an overgrown cell phone. I don’t know about you, but I can’t afford to buy an iPad for every member of my family. Until I can, password protected user profiles would make iPad sharing far less stressful; I wouldn’t have to worry about my five-year old godson accidentally mucking-up my calendar entries, or deleting emails… while my partner could play games without wiping out my top-scores. I’m sure Apple would prefer we all just buy an iPad each, but that’s not likely to happen any day soon, unless prices come way, way down.

So there you have a few humble suggestions for iPad 2. I honestly struggled to find areas needing improvement, and consider that an indicator of the attention to detail Apple paid the first time around. I’d love to know what you think needs to improve, but as you leave your suggestions in the comments, here’s a challenge to bear in mind; avoid suggesting changes to the iOS software unless they’re game-changers for the iPad alone.

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10 Things on the iPhone 5 Wish List

Liam Cassidy — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:00:59 +0000

We’ve come an awfully long way since the first iPhone was released in 2007. The last three and a half years have seen dramatic improvements in both the hardware and software of Apple’s smartphone. So what more could you ask for? A lot, it turns out.

Well, I have a few modest suggestions. And in the spirit of the holiday season, I’m offering this wish list (along with the one I already compiled for iOS 5) to Santa in the hope that he can put in a good word with Steve Jobs. You never know; it might work.

Advanced Capacitive Touchscreen

This is something I forget about in the summer months, but now that snow is falling, I resent having to take my gloves off to use my iPhone. (Have you ever tried answering your iPhone with the tip of your nose? Far from dignified…) Certain exotic gloves are available that make it possible to use a capacitive touchscreen while keeping one’s digits warm, but they’re often expensive or gimmicky. It might sound too good to be true, but a report last month on Patently Apple suggested just such a technology might be on its way.

Thinner, Lighter, Stronger

Forget glass. Yeah, it looks great but I don’t care if it is made from the same stuff used in helicopter windscreens. Can liquid metal provide us with a super thin, super-strong chassis? Failing that, I don’t mind a carbon fibre composite (which is likely a better material than metal anyway, since it won’t interfere with the iPhone’s many radios.)

Capacitive Charging

This one’s a long shot. The trouble with capacitive charging is that it’s molasses-slow and expensive to implement. But there’s still something alluring about the concept of simply resting my phone on a minimal Apple-branded surface and watching it get charged. A liquid-metal body (see above) would, by the way, make this much easier to implement.

More Sensors! More!

Adding temperature, pressure, humidity and EMF sensors might sound insane, but imagine the apps that would appear to exploit such tech! Incidentally, with a metal chassis, a future iPhone might feasibly contain a heart-rate sensor of the kind commonly found in treadmills and workout equipment. A heart rate monitor in Nike+ would be a great addition to that service… as would a pedometer. Bottom line here – the more sensors we can get in the iPhone, the more versatile it will become.

Impossibly Long-Lived Battery

This is a tough one. See, it’s hard to ask for all these new sensors and next-generation capacitive touch screens and still say I want a longer-lasting, high-performance battery. But still, I’m asking for it anyway. This is a wish list after all. And even if delivering a “miracle battery” means breaking the very laws of physics, well, I’m sure Apple can do it.

Automatic Owner Recognition

If you use your iPhone for every little thing, you probably use the passcode lock to keep your personal data safe. For the curious, the current four digit passcode software lock offers 1,048,576 possible combinations. That’s probably good-enough for most people already accustomed to having to memorize PINs for their credit and debit cards, but I’d like to see this taken much further. A combination of facial recognition, bioelectrical impedance analysis and voice print identification could make an iPhone far more secure than it is today. It would certainly help sell to government customers after the WikiLeaks fiasco.

Multicore Processors

The just-released Infinity Blade is an impressive achievement on the iPhones 3GS and 4, given that they use single-core processors. Imagine what might be possible with dual or quad-core processors in a future device.

Touch Sensitive Bezel

There’s a (sort of) joke shared amongst the Apple faithful that if Steve Jobs could do-away with the iPhone’s single button, he would. Well, he can. In fact, should. The Home button’s functionality could be replaced with capacitive gesture input built into the iPhone’s bottom-bezel which could remain large, but nowhere near as large as it must be to accommodate the hardware button. What’s more, gestures could be added (or edited) at any time to allow for even more functionality, like instant access to the device’s camera.

High Definition Sound

Forget that tinny, crackling mono voice that you hear when you use the iPhone as an actual phone. HD voice calls are amazing and, a bit like HD TV, must be experienced to be believed. This isn’t entirely an iPhone-only thing though – carriers must provide support for wideband audio (as it is more properly known), and precious few have shown much interest in doing so. In the UK, for instance, only one carrier has launched HD voice support, and that was just a few months ago. Good luck convincing AT&T that it should be a priority.

So there you have it: my ten wishes for the iPhone 5. The list surely goes on. I’d love to know what you most want in next year’s inevitable hardware update; share your ideas in the comments below.

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The Apple Tablet: What It Needs to Be Useful for Web Working

Darrell Etherington — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:00:12 +0000

I’m excited about the much-hyped Apple tablet, which is expected to be unveiled next week. I would be excited if Apple was releasing a new device that only provided me with a painful electric shock every hour on the hour, frankly. That said, once I get past my natural inclination towards what Cupertino does, I’m a little skeptical about how much I’ll actually be able to use the device I will most certainly buy.

I’m particularly skeptical that I’ll find it useful for work. No doubt I’ll find ample reason to use it for amusement and idle time-killing. The possibility of a larger-scale version of iPhone’s Peggle alone adds up to countless wasted hours. But will I also use it to enhance my productivity? I suppose we’ll find out next week, but before we do, here’s what I’d need for the Tablet to be useful in my work.

Connectivity

I’d like, if I had my druthers, 3G connectivity and Wi-Fi. It’s not something I think we’re very likely to see, though. There will be Wi-Fi, to be sure, but 3G or an always-on connection like the Kindle 2 has is probably just a pipe dream.

If that does turn out to be the case, then there’s one thing I will definitely require of an Apple tablet to get work done on the go: tethering. iPhone tethering is the single most useful thing, workwise, that Apple has done for me to date. If a tablet doesn’t have 3G, but allows me to tether my 3GS, which does, everything will be perfect.

Bluetooth is a must, and I doubt very much that it won’t make its way in. The key will be what Bluetooth profiles are supported. A2DP and hopefully file transfer protocols will be included, but the big question is whether or not Apple will get over its love affair with on-screen keyboards and include input device profiles, too. The ability to use a keyboard with the device would go a long way to making it more productive.

Better Browsing

Mobile Safari is a very capable browser, but there’s much more you can do once you start increasing the screen size of your device. With a 10-inch screen, which is what most of the rumors are saying the Apple tablet will sport, things like proper tabbed browsing become a much more reasonable proposition.

Beyond tabbed browsing, a version of Safari running on a larger, more powerful device can also take other cues from its desktop cousin. How about support for extensions? That would go a long way toward making this tablet a better alternative for when you can’t get to a computer.

Finally, my blue sky request would be that the tablet platform would support alternative browsers. Some Firefox or Chrome action would be just what the doctor ordered, but don’t hold your breath.

More Juice

If the iPhone is setting the standard, then it stands to reason that a bigger more powerful device with a better display will have much shorter battery life. Hopefully that isn’t the case. But how to judge? The iPhone has terrific battery life for a computer, but its awful if you’re thinking in terms of mobile phones.

Ideally, the tablet maintains the battery life the 3GS has, not scaled down proportionally as its size increase. That would mean true all-day use, pretty much, which would be a real boon to productivity on the road. Hopefully the slim battery tech Apple uses in its MacBook Pros can be refined and put to even better use in the new tablet.

Everything Else

These are the things I’ll need to truly incorporate an Apple tablet into my workflow in a meaningful and permanent way. They aren’t the only things, of course, but they are the less-obvious features that are not sure to be included. Great app support will also be a big factor, but that’s something Apple clearly doesn’t need help with, whether the tablet uses OS X or a modified iPhone OS.

What are you looking forward to from next week’s Apple announcement? Do you think it’ll have an effect on how you work?

Related GigaOM Pro Research: Rumored Apple Tablet: Opportunities Too Big to Ignore

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Finally Truphone for Blackberry Is Ready

Om Malik — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:52:26 +0000

Truphone, the service that allows you to make cheap long distance phone calls using VoIP technology on a mobile phone, is now available to users of BlackBerry devices as a beta offering. This product is called Truphone Anywhere for Blackberry.

London-based Truphone’s service, which typically uses Wi-Fi connections for VoIP calls, has so far been available on the Symbian OS-based Nokia devices and Apple’s iPhone. The service doesn’t support Windows Mobile for now.

I downloaded early versions of the software on two WiFi-enabled BlackBerry devices — the 8801 and T-Mobile Curve — and it worked fine on both the devices. It was fairly easy to download the Truphone software using Blackberry’s built-in browser, and I installed it without many problems. Upon installation, it asked me if my device had Wi-Fi or not. (In case of non WiFi-enabled devices, Truphone behaves like any other callback service. )

As part of the sign-up process, I tried to use my existing Truphone account, but I ran into trouble, since it was tied to my Nokia device. So rather than jumping through hoops, I opted for a new account. The lack of seamless switching between devices and accounts is Truphone’s Achilles heel, in my opinion. When I tried the service on iPhone I had to sign up fora new account, as well. I think, as a company, Truphone needs to make an effort to reduce the number of steps between the download and setting up the service.

If you get past the minor setup hurdles, Truphone works as advertised. I am not sure what it says about the cell phone networks, but Truphone calls sounded clearer. The tight integration of the service with my Blackberry address book makes it dead simple to use, especially when making those international long distance calls. The service is smart enough to route your calls to whatever network is cheaper – GSM or Truphone’s service. This is what makes the BlackBerry version better than the Truphone version for the iPhone, which is not as intuitive.

For Truphone, the BlackBerry client could be the final push the company needs to become a major player in the U.S., where RIM’s devices are more popular than in Europe where Nokia is the market leader. Now, if it could figure local numbers that folks here in the U.S. could actually remember, it might become almost invaluable.

P.S.: 100 GigaOM Readers can get the early beta version of Truphone for BlackBerry by visiting this web site.

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