The Apple iPhone's design: 10 cool features and curious choices

1. A touchscreen qwerty keypad does not look at all fun for texting or writing emails. I rely on feeling the bumps of the little keys when texting-- I slide my thumb over to the right key, and when I know it's there, I press. Not an option with a touchscreen. Plus it seems like there would be a lot more mispressed keys, like from your finger brushing against the screen. Could be wrong, will have to try it. At least the auto-spelling correction will help.

2. Visual voicemail is the greatest thing ever invented. The worst aspect of voicemail is having to listen to every message in order to find the one that interests you. This was especially bad when I had a Cingular phone, because I couldn't delete a voicemail message in the middle of playing-- I had to wait until the message was done. Like I said in my last post, in a few years visual voicemail will be the standard. And it's a godsend for call screeners like my girlfriend.

3. Why no iChat? Dressing SMS up as IM is not an appropriate substitute. IM is one of my most-used features on my Sidekick, and my last three phones before that all had IM capability. One commenter I read suggested it's because IM would rob Cingular of SMS revenue, but that explanation might have a hole in it. Does no Cingular phone have IM? I suspect also that it may have something to do with too many cooks already being in this kitchen, what with Cingular, Yahoo, and Google all helping out. Maybe there just wasn't room in the kitchen for AOL.

Seven more after the jump...

4. Gestures are going to be huge. Being able to scroll by just dragging your finger across the screen is the most natural interface yet. It makes scroll bars, scroll wheels, and track balls all seem idiotic. Not that those three will be going anywhere any time soon... But I bet the multi-touch touchscreen with gestures is going to find its way onto desktop machines before long. Moving windows around with a finger or poking icons in the dock may not be ergonomically correct, but it would be fun and easy.

5. What happened to .Mac? It's strange that the iPhone comes with Yahoo mail but no apparent integration with .Mac. Maybe they just haven't mentioned it yet, but I think that an iPhone that automatically and continually synced with your .Mac account would have been genius. Especially since onboard memory is so limited.

6. Rotating between portrait and landscape. According to the videos on the Apple site, when you turn the iPhone from an upright position to a sideways one, the image on the screen reorients itself automatically (perhaps not in all situations, but at least the photo viewer mode). That was a brilliant feature when I first saw it on digital cameras. But the little Apple fillip that makes it fun is the way the screen delays a bit, and then visibly rotates and expands to fit the new orientation. The screen doesn't just blink out and reappear sideways. Those little animations make the interface come alive. Like on Google Maps, when the little pins drop down from the top of the screen.

7. That screen is gonna get greasy. Not just finger grease. Face grease.

8. The home button. I see from those videos that the way to reset the iPhone to its standard screen is by pressing the microphone. The economy of this is brilliant. Why have a dedicated button when you can make an existing protuberance dual-purpose? But on the other hand, I'm torn. It's almost like they hid the home button, because there's nothing about it that makes you even realize it's a button. But I suppose anyone using this thing will take a minute to read up on how it works. 

9. I don't think I'll feel comfortable putting this in my pants pocket. That's where I carry my cell phones. I'm a dweeb but not so much of one that I'll hang a cell phone off my belt. And I don't carry a briefcase or a man-bag. While I hear tell that the iPhone feels solid, the ratio of its area to its thickness is such that I can easily imagine it flexing in my pocket as I walk, sit, do flying kicks, etc. And I can easily imagine that big touchscreen breaking when it does. Combine that with the high price, and maybe I should get used to the idea of hanging it off my belt. Or carrying it in a shoulder holster!

10. This phone, it vibrates? What with all the fancy features, there's been almost no discussion of more prosaic phone functions. For instance, does it have a vibrate mode? That seems like a ridiculous question even to me, but I can imagine that in their quest to pack so much into a small enclosure, they might have left out that little vibrating motor. Plus, vibrating seems so crass for such an elegant device, non? On the other hand, I can also imagine the iPhone featuring a replacement for vibrating that boggles the mind with its simplicity and coolness. Like, what if it silently radiated heat and cold in your pocket? That would be weird but awesome. Or maybe it telepathically alerts you to a call.

As my friend Al has on his iChat status: Is it June yet?

Comments

[Emily]

Thank God (A.K.A. Steve Jobs) for visual voicemail! In a few years I know I will be wondering how I ever lived without it.