What I want from Macworld this year

Macworld is right around the corner and I thought I'd throw my two wishlist items out there, so that if they're actually delivered I can be that much happier than the next guy because I wrote my wishlist down. (Ah, the lessons of Santa.) Both wishes are iPhone-related, and both would make it a much better writing device. (2009 resolutions: stop carrying pens around, make significant progress in killing what remains of my penmanship, and quit fantasizing about that new Curve 8900.)

First, landscape mode in email. I have big thumbs (all the better for hitchhiking!), and I find it much easier to type in landscape mode. I recently picked up the WriteRoom app for note taking, but that's five bucks I shouldn't have had to spend, as much as I enjoy supporting ISVs who ship elegant software that takes advantage of a weakness in their host.

Second, a haptic feedback option. There have been rumors on the internets for about a year now that Apple is partnering with a provider of haptic tech, but we've seen nothing yet. The touchscreen Blackerry tried to do this, but failed -- in the few minutes I spent with the device it just didn't feel right. (Then again, I've grown accustomed to the iPhone.) When I'm doing email I usually turn on the typing sound...but based on the occasional lag in the audible "click" from the speaker I'm not sure if the thing's fast enough to do a micro- vibrate-on-type right. If it worked, my gut is that it would help make typing on glass for more than a few sentences muuuuch more enjoyable.

It's 2009, the year of modest expectations. I'm not asking for a solid state sub $500 netbook, or a 7" iPod Touch or even a ship date for Snow Leopard. All I want is for the iPhone to be as great a device for content creation as it is for content consumption. A boy can dream, right?

Comments

[John LoGioco]

agreed on the content creation limits on the iphone - my add here would be a keyboard that I could fold up like a piece of paper - that I could unroll, type normally and at speed and be happy. (or happier:)

[David]

How about the faster processor from the new Touch? It actually makes multitasking (when you jailbreak) a very pleasant affair.

Everybody in Japan wishes they'd add a simple infrared port, because people trade numbers and addresses by mating their cell phones here. iPhones are cool, but they're also socially crippling.

[Michael Sippey]

There are some interesting apps that are starting to use Bonjour over Wifi for things like that, but it means that you have to be on the same network. I seriously doubt they'll add an infrared port... Idea: app that displays a 2d bar code on the display, and also uses the camera to take pictures of those 2d barcodes displayed by other devices, as a way of exchanging vCard info.

Didn't know the new Touch had a faster processor! Interesting...

[David]

Touch 2G processor: http://tr.im/2s8s

They do some neat things with cellphones here. You can use bluetooth for group chat with anybody within 10 or 20 feet or you (either friends or just random train strangers), and Softbank just rolled out a combination battery pack/ digital TV tuner for the iPhone (the TV functionality is built into all the other phones).

I think the barcode thing actually already works here. Cell-phone barcodes are set up with reference squares on the corners, so cellphones can recognize and process them no matter whether they're on a thirty-foot billboard or a flier right in front of you. They can also recognize English and Japanese text pretty well. Once you've got a 1+ megapixel camera that can focus decently, the software side (so I understand) isn't that hard.

I'm not sure if the data in the barcodes would hold a full vCard, though- I think it might just have room for one line/URL. As far as cards go, I can toss mine via infrared, bluetooth, or mail. For iPhones, I guess a Bonjour exchange would be nice, but the same-network requirement does kind of suck. I think we need a universal bluetooth protocol for tossing this stuff around.