>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.