What do you miss about your real "Smart Phone"

cjdaniel

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Wow, I love the look and feel about my iphone that i have had for two weeks but I must admit I miss several features on my Treos:

  • Keyboard
  • Any kind of a indication of an sms, voicemail, or mail waiting
  • Being able to attach pictures to mail, in mail application
  • Being able to send mms
  • having instant messaging active all the time
  • Being able to replace the battery when low
  • Ability to take and email videos
  • Having a descent Google Maps App
  • Having vibrating or sound reminders for mail, sms, voicemail
  • having imap idle instant email
  • Having a descent calendar app
  • having easy calendar sync with Google Calendar
  • having catagories in calendar
  • having categories in contacts
  • having memos and having categories in memos
  • Having 4 dedicated instant access buttons
  • having a descent speaker phone
  • having voice turn by turn gps
  • easy tethering of laptop
  • free ringtones that you can create
  • having the ability to choose and create alerts for mail ...
  • having a hard button for camera
  • Beaming
  • SD additional memory
  • having a mirror for camera
  • phone plan 1/2 the price of ATT with many more features

I think I fell into the hype.
 
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Jeremy

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Judging on your previous phones it's safe to say you are stuck in a certain groove there... While I will not sit here and address your whole list I will say that most of it you should have been well aware of before making the switch. Personally I would never even go back to a Treo. To me it's very OLD... I think you are just used to it's ways at this point. To each his own.
 

matro

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for me, I definitely miss:

- calendar week view
- calendar floating events (datebk for treo)
- copy cut paste
 

iLoveiPhones

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I use to have a Blackberry 8700c and I don't miss it at all. It seems ancient to me.
Eventually Apple will come out with these things, it does seem kind of slow for them. Especially because we've all been wanting cut and paste and they didn't put it in the current model. But I think Apple is doing this for a reason...

To keep us anticipated.
 

taylorh

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Just a comment of a few of your missing features
  • Any kind of a indication of an sms, voicemail, or mail waiting
    What do you mean by this? I get audible alerts for SMS, VM, and Mail. I also get numbers on my SMS, Phone, and Mail contacts with the number of alerts waiting.
    Do you mean a blinking light or repeating alert?
  • Being able to attach pictures to mail, in mail application
    I can send pictures from the camera roll and save them from mail attachments. But it does downsize them before sending them.
    But not from the email app. You've got a good point there.
  • Having a descent Google Maps App
    iPhone has a great Google maps app with location tracking. What exactly are you missing?
  • having easy calendar sync with Google Calendar
    You can do this wireless through nuevasync over the air. Real time push updates
  • having categories in calendar
    It syncs multiple exchange calendars and can be viewed separately or combined. I have a work, personal, and hockey schedule calendar that are all separate and when viewed together have different colored calendar entries.
  • having categories in contacts
    Same as calendar. Contact folders in exchange are treated as categories. View them separate or together. But no true categories.
  • having a descent speaker phone
    Speaker phone seems fine on iPhone
  • free ringtones that you can create
    You can with 3rd party software. You wan't links I have them.
  • phone plan 1/2 the price of ATT with many more features
    All smartphone and PDA data plans are the same price as iPhone 3G
    But if you're sly you can get away with media net by cheating AT&T

The other missing features you listed are all legit.

I personally miss very few of them, I guess that's why so far I'm content. We'll see how long that lasts. LOL. :D
 
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pchukwura

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I don't miss anything! That's because I still use my BlackBerry curve religiously. I love my iPhone, and my Curve, but there are things i prefer with both.

The curve is great, but didn't stop me from getting an iPhone... the iPhone is great but it won't stop me from getting a Bold.

I also develop for both devices so that kind of has some play in my decisions. lol
 

mszatny

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Yes, I miss much of that stuff from my Treo 750....but face it, the 3G is simply Gorgeous and Apple and 3rd parties will close many of these gaps in time.

MS
 

biker74

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I miss a week view in calendar, being able to add tentative, colours etc. Your own SMS alerts, you can do it with ringtones but not sms or calendar alerts. When putting a birthday in contacts and it adding itself to the calendar.

It would also be good to just drag your own sounds and drop them in a file that can be used for sounds.
 

RolloM

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>Wow, I love the look and feel about my iphone that i have had for two weeks but I must admit I miss several features on my Treos:

I'm a former Treo user, too, I've had my iPhone since last October, and I STILL almost fully agree with you for most points. Some comments...

* Keyboard

I could live with the virtual keyboard, if it were not so terribly buggy. There are at least five glitches in there I simply do not understand why Apple did not address them during the past 12 months. Above all, the keyboard is not replaceable by third-party programmes, so, if Apple does not do anything, we'll have to live with it. There have been two or three minor changes in the 2.0 (the dictionary was extended, for instance, and a crazy bug with special characters like $ or ) attached to word proposals is gone), but there are many problems left.

In detail:
- does not "learn" words at all in many occasions (the system when words are learned or not, seems completely obscure to me)
-does not learn different upper/lowercase writing (if the dictionary is wrong, ist stays wrong),
- does not learn Umlauts correctly (I use the German version...),
- does not learn two-letter words at all,
- makes complete garbage proposals often (why can't they just use words in the dictionary and learned words? It is very unlikely that an algorithm will find out a word that exists in German if it is not in these dictionaries!!!)
- quite often characters cannot be typed, only the adjacent keys.

All in all, I must admit, the Treo keyboard was way better than the current iPhone keyboard. If these bugs would finally be gone, I'd probably have to change my mind, as it would then be easy just to type straigt on and correct a wrong proposal every now and then. Now you have to correct all the times, and this goes on my nerves.

I gave Apple this feedback five months ago over the official feedback page. I consider those bugs very serious because you need the keyboard very often and they really hinder you from typing quickly. And what do they do? They decide such idiocies as parental control software are more important than a flawless keyboard software. This. Is. Insane. Sorry.

* Any kind of a indication of an sms, voicemail, or mail waiting

There are those red dots containing numers that I consider a quite good solution. On the jailbroken 1.1.4 phone you had an app named Taskbar Notifier which gave you additional hints on the top of the screen next to the battery symbol which could be useful when the app symbols were not visible.

Don't hesitate to jailbreak your phone, it is an easy thing to do, and you can restore it to factory defaults so Apple do not see it was jailbroken and will still replace it under warranty if necessary. There are tons of good stuff out there, for instance asvibra 2 vom sendowski.de which improves vibra length/pattern for incoming mail/sms and calendar alarms and saved my life...

* Being able to attach pictures to mail, in mail application

Is this not possible? Ok, probably you have to go the picture, then mail way. You're right. A missing feature.

* Being able to send mms

Full ack. Don't use them often, but sometimes you'd like to use them or receive one. Advantage to email (commonly Apple fanboys hold, mail is a replacement) is the instantaneous communication. Most people check their mail only a few times a day, the mobile phone is checked more often. We're not talking about iPhone users here, but about the 98% of others, btw, just to prevent the flame war...

Again, if you jailbreak your phone, with SwirlyMMS there is a solution that works quite well and has become very usable with the last version change (currently only for 1.1.4 software, though, so not with 3G phone, but be assured they will come up with a 2.0 compatible version). This will probably never show up in the AppStore, as Apple prevents doing programmers from providing us with the really good stuff that goes in the depths of the phone.

* having instant messaging active all the time

This would probably take too much battery power (using Fring, the Skype replacement app, does the same...)

* Being able to replace the battery when low

Full ack (but remember the Treo 600 which didnt have this either). I think they will not sell the iPhone as a business device because of the lack of an exchangeable battery. If you make many calls, it's empty at four p.m. and you can't do anything against it except attachint it to a charger.

* Ability to take and email videos

There was a software called "Video Recorder" for jailbroken 1.1.4 phones wich did exactly this. I am sure we will see it soon for the 2.0 phone, probably even on the Appstore.

* Having a descent Google Maps App

What could be improved? Ok, what about local public transportation info and so on?

* Having vibrating or sound reminders for mail, sms, voicemail

Full ack. I miss them badly. Please also with vibra only!!

* having imap idle instant email

This would be against Apple's strategy of vertical integration or exclusive deals... They could not claim push was a unique feature of Yahoo (and earn money from Yahoo for the exclusive deal - ok, as Yahoo is free I could live with it if it would AT LEAST work releably!!) and/or me.com any more (why should I pay for a feature that has been working for free on every simple Sonyericsson device for years...???). Stevie is a PIG to restrict iPhone software only for strategic reasons.

* Having a descent calendar app

DateBk was way better, you're right. I do hope Appstore developers will take an example there. But: Replacing the calendar will be a bigger piece of work than just adding the 100th "flashlight" application. Go on, do something!! I miss the condensed day view, above all, and floating events!

* having easy calendar sync with Google Calendar

There is software out there doing this. But actually I'd prefere an easy sync with my desktop computer (proximity sync: as soon as I get near it should do an automatic sync over WiFi. I wish I'd not have to mess around with cables any more in the year 2008).

* having catagories in calendar

You could use the different calendars feature as a workaround, I guess. (I'd never understand why different calendars would make sense, the only effect I can see is that you overlook appointments because you had the wrong calendar view active).

* having categories in contacts

You can add groups. Would that help?

* having memos and having categories in memos

Memos are there, but they cannot be synced nor encrypted (ok, the latter problem has been solved by about a dozen Appstore apps now...).

* Having 4 dedicated instant access buttons

Virtual buttons? Would probably take too much room. At least they could pay attention to some operations with a click count which is too high... The Treo stays unbeaten.

* having a descent speaker phone

Isn't the 3G phone already much better than the 2G? Ok, still a bit weak. The 2G you couldn't use at all. Also music and above all ringtones were ridiculously low.

* having voice turn by turn gps

Will come to the Appstore probably soon from TomTom. Again: They made an exclusive deal for obviously strategic reasons. Remember Stevie the PIG. (First clear Result: TomTom didn't make it in time, second probable Result: The software will be overpriced - my guess: 150 Bucks or more). Problem again: Weak battery.

* easy tethering of laptop

What do you mean by this? Ok, as said before, a proximity sync function would be desperately needed here...

* free ringtones that you can create

Was free in Jailbroken phone. But why would I need such a gimmick? Better insist on the missing productivity features...

* having the ability to choose and create alerts for mail ...

Not that important for me.

* having a hard button for camera

On the side, yeah. Would be such an easy thing to do.

* Beaming

Do you really believe Stevie the PIG would accept to circumvent possible profits for Apple themselves or their exclusive telco partners when using their dataplans?? Why do you think is Bluetooth crippled the way it is...?

* SD additional memory

8 Gigs are ok for me. But this would be a small enhancement easy to achieve.

* having a mirror for camera

Use the "Apple" as a replacement...

* phone plan 1/2 the price of ATT with many more features

Buy a phone over ebay, unlock it, and there you are (ok, unlock is not yet possible, I'm still waiting...). Economists call this arbitration, and it's generally considered good for the market.

>I think I fell into the hype.

Welcome ;-)

Regards

R.
 
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Jeremy

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I don't understand what people are complaining about. I just posted this in another thread and it applies to this one as well...

A lot of people just don't understand when you are a early adopter you better be ready for bugs and other issues. If you are not willing to accept them, sit on the sidelines and wait. Anyone who has ever owned a brand new smartphone whether it was a Palm or WM device knows there will be issues when it is first released.
 
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E Pow

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I love my iphone. I have had it for 2 1/2 weeks now and dont hate my decision of leaving my Blackberry Curve. I knew when I switched that I would miss MMS and battery life but to be honest it doenst bother me. I send pics thru email now. As far as the battery life goes, i keep a car charger in my vehicle. It only takes 2 seconds to plug it in the lighter so I'm not really unconvinced. I love my iphone 3g and haven't touch my Blackberry curve since the day i got my 3g. I totally happy. I would suggest to anyone that any time you make a switch or plan on making a switch to do your research, that way when you buy it you already know what the pros and cons are instead of spending your money and then finidng out.
 

jessedholm

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I couldn't live with just an iphone! I have a Black Jack ll for all those other reasons listed in the first post!!! I'm looking forward to push ims so I can use the blackjack a little less. Slingplayer and a functioning tethering app for use with my pc might convince me to leave the blackjack at home. Oh and an external keyboard!!! Please apple! I'll pay whatever!
 

kilsey

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Coming from a Treo 700p, I'm not looking back. Not even a little bit. (Even with having used a 650, and 600 before that)

My typing is now more or less the same as on the Treo, possibly even faster with the auto-correct. And while Bad Ash is right that we're getting some early adopter bugs, I'm still very happy with the 6-hour wait on launch day and the price. I'd do it again in a second.
 

Duvi

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Just a comment of a few of your missing features
  • Any kind of a indication of an sms, voicemail, or mail waiting
    What do you mean by this? I get audible alerts for SMS, VM, and Mail. I also get numbers on my SMS, Phone, and Mail contacts with the number of alerts waiting.
    Do you mean a blinking light or repeating alert?
  • Being able to attach pictures to mail, in mail application
    I can send pictures from the camera roll and save them from mail attachments. But it does downsize them before sending them.
    But not from the email app. You've got a good point there.
  • Having a descent Google Maps App
    iPhone has a great Google maps app with location tracking. What exactly are you missing?
  • having easy calendar sync with Google Calendar
    You can do this wireless through nuevasync over the air. Real time push updates
  • having categories in calendar
    It syncs multiple exchange calendars and can be viewed separately or combined. I have a work, personal, and hockey schedule calendar that are all separate and when viewed together have different colored calendar entries.
  • having categories in contacts
    Same as calendar. Contact folders in exchange are treated as categories. View them separate or together. But no true categories.
  • having a descent speaker phone
    Speaker phone seems fine on iPhone
  • free ringtones that you can create
    You can with 3rd party software. You wan't links I have them.
  • phone plan 1/2 the price of ATT with many more features
    All smartphone and PDA data plans are the same price as iPhone 3G
    But if you're sly you can get away with media net by cheating AT&T

The other missing features you listed are all legit.

I personally miss very few of them, I guess that's why so far I'm content. We'll see how long that lasts. LOL. :D

I was going to skip over the responses and thought that I bet someone would have addressed certain items on the list... Great job, I totally agree.
 

MrP

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I miss my Blackberry a little- but as the 3rd party apps for iPhone begi. To get better I'm sure that will change
 

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