1) Make it bigger. I know this seems odd, but it's true, I'd like my phone a little bigger. The reason for that is, when I'm watching a movie or a tv show or something on it, the screen is just a little too small. It's a good size now, but if we made it big enough for five icons across and six icons down, that would make me happier. It'd still be small enough to comfortably fit in my pocket, but it'd be a little bigger so I could enjoy the video capabilities of it more.
2) Make it thicker. Weird, right? I don't want it much thicker, but just enough to add a decent camera lens on the back. The camera is actually pretty decent as it is, but if you upgraded it from its current 3 megapixel to a 5-10 megapixel camera with an optical zoom lens and a flash I would just love you forever. If you could somehow turn it into a SLR, that'd be even better. Then I could ditch my Canon altogether (which I love dearly, mind you), and just carry around a bag of awesome lenses that attach directly to my iPhone. I realize this is just a pipe dream and will never-ever happen, but it'd be my dream.
3) FOR THE LOVE OF GOD ALLOW INTERNET TETHERING! I bought my 3GS a year ago because they advertised it as allowing internet tethering. I should've read the fine print because I didn't realize it would say "Not available in the US" after that feature in the very bottom of the screen in a light-gray color on the white background. REALLY pissed me off when I read that--after having bought the damn phone. Now mind you, I was able to jailbreak it, unlock it, and then add the tethering functionality, but FRAK that's annoying! Furthermore, because it was a 3rd party hack, I found it to be glitchy and unreliable. Eventually my iPhone crashed and I had to restore it to the new 3.1.3 factory defaults that are currently un-jailbreakable. So I'm left without my tethering functionality--AGAIN! On top of this, I'd really like to be able to make my iPhone into a mobile wifi hotspot like the Palm Pre advertises. The reason Palm Pre's hotspot is retarded is because they require you to pay a higher monthly service if you plan to activate that software on your phone! How stupid! I'm paying for "unlimited data" plan, but they limit the unlimited use! How scamy! Anyway, so that's what I'd like--tethering that works with usb, bluetooth, and/or wifi routing. Should be easy enough software to make, now JUST FRAKING DO IT!
4) A bigger hard-drive. Yes, my 32gb is awesome--four times bigger than anything else offered by any other phones. But that space is eaten up in a hurry when you put on a bunch of movies, tv shows and music. I have 20,000 songs on my hard drive--I can't even fit half of those on my iPhone--and that's without any videos! I would love it to have something along the line of 1tb data storage, but I realize that's pushing it, so I'd settle for 120gb.
5) A faster processor and more memory. Something along the lines of a 1ghz processor and 1ghz memory would be nice. I'm always up for making the machine faster.
6) SD card port. I could probably deal with having a smaller internal data storage if they'd allow me an expansion slot.
7) Native GPS turn by turn directions. I realize that you can buy a garmin app or something like that, but to have something that's integrated into the already awesome google maps would be nice.
8) UNLOCK! Damn it's annoying that you shell out all this dough on a piece of equipment--and then you're regulated with how you can use it! If I want to pull it apart and use it as a paperweight I should be allowed to! Furthermore, if I want to pick apart your programming and customize it for my own personal use, I should be able to do that too! I realize you have this deal with AT&T, but to be able to tell me what carrier I can use my expensive phone on really pisses me off. I guess I'd be okay with it if it were unlockable after the service contract period. I get that you are selling a $600 device for $200 because it comes with a 2-year contract--so after those 2 years, you should let me put it on whoever's plan I want! Furthermore, the hardware is only designed to work on 850/1900/2100Mhz bandwiths, whereas t-mobile's 3g uses 1700/2100Mhz. So the iPhone is capable on AT&T as well as in Europe, but it will only work on t-mobile's edge, and it won't work on the CDMA networks at all. I'd really like it if they had built it as a quad-band 850/1700/1900/2100Mhz with CDMA capabilities and an unlock after the contract is up so I could pick my carrier. Of course, that's never going to happen.
9) Multitasking would be nice. I realize why the iPhone doesn't natively support this--running background apps will eat the battery and processor speed. But as the owner of the phone, I should really have the right to decide if I want to trade-off battery life for running multiple apps--not you. If you're so concerned about it, have a switch in the settings that disables backgrounding and have it factory-set to off. Then, only people that really want it will find it and enable backgrounding--thus limiting the number of people that will complain about battery life due to multitasking.
9) A detachable batter would be nice...I suppose. Personally, I've never had any problems with my battery crapping out on me, but I've heard of people who have.
10) One of the things I like about the Palm Pre is that they integrate a multi-touch touchscreen with a physical keyboard. I even like the placement. I would like a physical keyboard simply because I would like to be able to type or text without having to have my eyes plastered to the phone. On all my older phones I could always write a text by feel alone--so I could do it while driving, watching tv, whatever. I can't do that now because I can't feel my way around the virtual keyboard. Which is really annoying. If iPhone would add a qwerty keyboard that slids out of the bottom just like the pre's I'd really like that.
11) I have trouble taking self portraits on my iPhone. I can do it, but sometimes it's hard--part of the problem is that there's no screen or mirror on the back that helps me determine placement. The other problem is that the button to take a picture is not a physical button. So I have to hold the camera a little awkwardly to be able to tap the screen in the right place to take a self-portrait. So I'd like a physical button (or the ability to program one of the already-existent physical buttons) for taking pictures. A mirror or small screen that shows what I'm photographing would be nice. I'd also like a smaller, maybe lower-quality webcam on the front for video chat. I think that would be swell.
12) The last thing I can think of that I'd like is a better headset. The earbuds that come with the iPhone are actually pretty nice--I especially like the control function they have on them. But I've never been a huge fan of ear-buds. I prefer those headphones that clip around the ear. I'm seriously considering cutting and splicing my current earbuds to keep the functionality of the remote and adding the more comfortable headphones.
13) Oh! One other thing, I would like to have stereo bluetooth technology with the capability of listening to music over my stereo-bluetooth. I forgot about this originally because I think the iPhone might've already fixed this in one of their software updates. I don't have a stereo bluetooth, so I've never really checked to see. But when the time comes that I do get a stereo bluetooth, I'd like it to be functional with my iPhone.
Oh, and would it be too much to ask for it to be waterproof so I could take it with me and use it as an underwater camera when snorkeling?
As you can see from my quick photoshop hackjob above, my ideal iphone is a little bigger, has a webcam just above the ear-piece, and has a physical button for the camera on the bottom left side of the phone (kinda hard to see in this picture). I didn't render a keyboard, or my preferred camera on the back or anything--because I'm not really any good at photoshop, but this gives you a general idea.
If I had ever become an electrical engineer like I intended to, a modified iPhone would've been one of the first things I'd have made.
Andrew...check out the Nexus One. It might solve most of your problems with the iPhone. Except the QWERTY keyboard.
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