iPhone To Do List (v1)

just to keep up with my growing list of things i would like to see fixed on the iphone, i will now start maintaining a list, collecting mostly things that i have blogged about in greater detail already. this list will be updated regularly, and if you think you have something to contribute, please let me know! thanks! (and btw, i really like the iphone, but i also think it has so much potential that it makes sense to try to improve it.)

bugs (things that really should not be issues on a $600 device):

1. fix the character handling of the sms app, which now mangles non-ascii characters and sometimes discards complete messages.
2. let me enter non-ascii characters on the iphone, so that i can actually enter the text i want to enter in apps such as sms, email, and contacts.
3. fix the inability of the sms app to recognize concatenated sms messages, which are now displayed as separate messages.
4. fix the sms app to display a character count when composing sms messages, so that users actually know how much they will be charged for a message.
5. fix the broken syncing of podcasts so that deleted podcasts on the iphone are also deleted in itunes when syncing.
6. fix the spam-friendly email app which currently cannot be configured to not download images when viewing emails.
7. fix the broken caching of safari which not only seems not to cache anything, but even discard web pages when switching between tabs (or whatever they are called).
8. add a search feature to contacts. and to notes. in fact, to everything.
9. add an alphabetical index (like the one in contacts) to the list of mailboxes when using imap in the email app.

features (things that would improve the iphone as it is today):

1. let me control my iphone. please. the number of configuration options is incredibly small. i don't talk about colors and backgrounds. i talk about functionality. retrying to establish a defunct edge connection, for example.
   
2. liberate me from itunes. let me upload files. let me upload documents. itunes may be useful as a music store and ipod companion, but it certainly is no good as a general syncing software.
3. support sms: uris so that users can simply click on them and then compose an sms message.
4. unified messaging which would make the sms app go away and integrate sms and email messaging into one app.
5. add geolocation to the iphone, so that any web site can start providing location-based services. but please let the user control it. in the next hardware revision, add a gps receiver.

and please please please, don't put flash on it. let me enjoy this flash-free zone. it is bad enough that there is a youtube app.

[[ January 22, 2008: there now is a static page for the iPhone To Do List, please visit that page for the latest version. ]]