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A list of smartphones' missing features
What needs to be added to make mobiles better
Tue Jul 13 2010, 11:46
ANYONE IN THE MARKET for a new mobile phone has a bevy to choose from with the latest raft of launches. Of course, there's the headline grabbing Iphone 4, but we've also had the first Bada phone from Samsung, more Android delights from HTC and for old-skool fans, some new Palms.
But while handset manufacturers have all thrown their weight behind now-common features like touchscreens and app markets, there are still a few areas that can be improved. The V3 crew have put together their top 10 list of smartphone features they'd like to see. We'd add cheaper SIM-free handset costs to the list, along with phones that don't self-combust. µ
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The linked article says that standards are needed because 3G is fragmented and the same may happen for 4G, because europe is implementing LTE and the USA likely won't.
I'd like to mention that everything I've read indicates AT&T and Verizon are BOTH implementing LTE and both networks will be fully deployed in 3 years, with partial coverage from both by the end of next year. They are currently considered 3.9G rather than 4G.
I'd like a blackberry that doesn't crash all the @#$@# time, get itself into states where the web browser stops working every day or so (requiring a battery pull), and that doesn't take 5 freaking minutes to start.
Also, not having a single point of failure for data would be brilliant.
Blackberry 9000: Awesome screen, fantastic keyboard, ...terrible execution.
Well, we've had some degree of speech operation for a while (especially voice dialling). I'd like a better speech-to-text entry solution, though.
As for the article, biometrics have been tried - the Toshiba Portege G900 from a few years back has a fingerprint reader on the back. I never used it, because it would have meant sliding out the phone's keyboard whenever I wanted to make a phone call. There have been PDAs with finger scanners for a while, though. I'm not sure I like the idea of having my thumb cut off in an accident and not being able to call for help...
There have been multi-sim handsets and multi-sim battery modules for existing handsets for years. Orange also used to offer the ability to run two independent contracts on the same phone (and SIM). They're a bit of a specialist item, though, so you probably shouldn't expect them in your latest consumer phone - they're probably more trouble than they're worth to your average manufacturer.
I'm waiting for something bigger than 852x480 from an Android phone (I hold phones close because of eye issues, so I want more pixels). I'd *like* to see integrated microprojectors (Samsung Beam, where are you?), (switchable) 3D screens, preferably with Pixel Qi's transflective technology, and projected laser keyboards (Celluon - where are your Android drivers? - although *any* bluetooth HID driver for Android would be nice). Oh, and a decent amount of on-device storage in addition to a microSD slot - flash costs so little these days I'm amazed everything doesn't come with more.
Although kudos to Google for trying to make their phones more programmable to the end user. I've been arguing for years that Nokia should stop fiddling with the interface and just provide enough scripting to let the users who are HCI geeks roll their own; now smartphones are actually getting reasonably smart, Nokia are suffering.
Voice commands... Smartphones have increased in their capabilities so much, offering so much potential and so many apps that it seems the ultimate interface, for the next 30 or so years, would be voice.
"Phone, make a route from my current location to Starbucks off La Brea."
"Phone, did I miss any calls from Joe Johnson?"
"Phone, open Firefox to The Inquirer. Omit all articles by Nick Farrell."
I'm tired of smartphones. I want an intelligent phone.