VOTE NOW! Reader's Choice: Biggest iPhone FAIL

[Rene Ritchie]

Voting on TiPb's Reader's Choice Awards starts now! Help TiPb award the best of the best in each category, and we'll reveal YOUR favorites on Oscar night!

Vote now!

 

[jamesus]

Went with copy and paste. Although, Clippy is working out nicely for me and I might have to try hClipboard now...

 

[sting7k]

Wow this one is tough to decide, so many let-downs in iPhone land this year.

This may come as a shock to some but I really do not care about copy/paste on the iPhone, I never used it one time on any other smart phone I owned.

Do not have any interest in stereo bluetooth profiles, but data transfers would be nice. Backups were not as bad for me as I heard others experience backups hours long. Do not care about MMS, only addition to SMS I would like is landscape mode, please!

So, after having the push notifications promised for Sept. and then never happening is pretty big fail.

But, having no form of background processes for 3rd parties kind of ties into that same thing. There have to be some apps that can do this, maybe Apple could build in some kind of task manager or something to allow you to choose which apps you want to let run in the background and which you don't to keep things smooth.

 

[Jeremy]

Lack of push for all 3rd party apps. Apple teased us with it and did not come thru.

 

[ScottUrman]

No turn by turn for me. Still waiting on the rumored tom tom effort.

 

[hotrod#AC]

While Copy and paste seems so "part of every other computing platform".....I can probably count with just two hands the times I've really wanted/need copy/paste functionality.

For me, turn by turn would awesome, but it wouldn't work great until background processes were allowed to run. Even when I use RunKeeper to monitor my jogging distance and time, it still has to be open and running in the foreground to keep track of me. Booooo.

Push notification is a big dissappointment since it was promised back in September....and we haven't heard crap about it since last summer. But again if we could have background processes then push notifications would not be needed as much.

And I've said it before, I miss Sprite Backup that I used on my PPC...I wish there was someway to 'image' and iPhone and quickly restore that image for when I hose things up too far. I used to use it as a safety net. Before starting some weird registry editing project or testing out some new beta software I would back it up with Sprite Backup...then if things went bad, I could just restore the image and I would be right back where I was 15 min ago running smooth and enjoying life. I wish there was some sort of Sprite Backup for the iPhone.

 

[jambo175]

Cut and Paste is crucial!

To use the phone as a serious business tool, cut and paste has to be added. I have dozens of times a day when information is sent via email that should be copied directly in to my calendar, meeting information, webex details and so on. Come on Apple, get it together already.

 

[jasonact]

Why isn't the lack of video recording on this list? That is the biggest problem that I have with the phone. And the one App I DESPERATELY want more than any other.

 

[jamesus]

Why isn't the lack of video recording on this list? That is the biggest problem that I have with the phone. And the one App I DESPERATELY want more than any other.

There's an app called Cycorder that does this.

 

[ihateallex]

I have to choose just one??

 

[jamesus]

I have to choose just one??

This isn't Chicago politics. "Vote early and vote often" does not apply here!

 

[avatar test]

I am shocked that a media centric device with bluetooth doesn't offer bluetooth stereo. Is this a software limitation or a hardware limitation?

This type of functionality was easily added to old palm and WM devices via a driver and software hack. Maybe there is hope for a hack to add A2DP to the iphone.

 

[jamesus]

I am shocked that a media centric device with bluetooth doesn't offer bluetooth stereo. Is this a software limitation or a hardware limitation?

This type of functionality was easily added to old palm and WM devices via a driver and software hack. Maybe there is hope for a hack to add A2DP to the iphone.

Seeing as there is a jailbreak program that allows bluetooth file transfer (jailbroken iPhones only of course), it is most likely a "feature" Apple turned off.

 

[technosexual]

Still no copy and paste. Le sigh.

 

[ijerk]

Wow, some say I complain too much, but here goes, no Macromedia flash, no video recoding, can't record phone calls (I wish I could record phone calls for work, so I wouldn't have to write into stickies while on speakerphone), $2 for ringtones (thank you Audiko), no insurance, no A2DP...however, way better than anything else on the market.

 

[gludington]

Voted for lack of background processes, because that is what I really want, though I agree with Ash, in that the push notification service was the biggest failure, because they promised it, failed to deliver, and have been silent on it ever since.

 

[Microcosmos]

I could definitely use a little copy/paste action over here. I even find myself trying to do it occasionally, an old habit from my Treo days. It sure would come in handy! But for now, I will console myself with some cute emoji.  There, I feel better already! 

D'oh! [edit] These things only work on the phone itself??? Well poo.

 

[AuntyBurgie]

Just beginning to see all the shortcomings....

Number one gripe is not being able simply to forward a message. Soooo irritating.

Two is the awful bossiness of iTunes. I want more control over what, how and when I sync. Heaven help you if you don't want the same contacts on your phone and on your PC, and goodness isn't it difficult to get them the same. I can't find a way to replace all contacts on iPhone with contacts on my PC because that option doesn't appear in iTunes - ever. Why do all the manuals and discussion forums tell you you can do certain things in iTunes that you can't - (at least not after days of researching and trying) via certain menus that apparently don't actually exist. It's driving me crazy.

Three, why do all my photos rotate so that when they come back onto my phone they are all sideways!! How dumb is that. I don't want a sideways picture of my son when I'm ringing him. Am I missing something very simple?

I could go on. It's certainly not nearly as easy as I'd been led to believe. iTunes and the iPhone manual have an aura of 'Newspeak' about them - simple because the nformation is just plain not there.

 

[Grumps]

I'll go for limited basic cellphone functionality.

 

[Leanna Lofte]

Number one gripe is not being able simply to forward a message. Soooo irritating.

Two is the awful bossiness of iTunes. I want more control over what, how and when I sync. Heaven help you if you don't want the same contacts on your phone and on your PC, and goodness isn't it difficult to get them the same. I can't find a way to replace all contacts on iPhone with contacts on my PC because that option doesn't appear in iTunes - ever. Why do all the manuals and discussion forums tell you you can do certain things in iTunes that you can't - (at least not after days of researching and trying) via certain menus that apparently don't actually exist. It's driving me crazy.

Three, why do all my photos rotate so that when they come back onto my phone they are all sideways!! How dumb is that. I don't want a sideways picture of my son when I'm ringing him. Am I missing something very simple?

I could go on. It's certainly not nearly as easy as I'd been led to believe. iTunes and the iPhone manual have an aura of 'Newspeak' about them - simple because the nformation is just plain not there.

1. I never forward messages, but I do find it strange that it's not possible.

2. What are you talking about? Example?
I believe if you create contact groups, you can select specific groups in iTunes to sync with.
Even before my MobileMe days I did not find it difficult to keep my contacts the same on computer and iPhone... it's rather simple...

3. I've never had this issue. My guess is that your computer automatically flips photos for viewing (I know iPhoto does this) even if the actual file is sideways. I would double check your files.