iPhone 3.0 feature predictions: TUAW report card
As is our wont, we predicated today's iPhone press event with our own predictions and wishes for what would be released. Let's look back and see how we did.
Copy and paste
As the event wore on, and everything but copy and paste was being announced, I started to worry. "Someday," I thought, "This event will be known as The Great Copy And Paste Debacle." The attending geek corps were about to slip into Angry Mob Mode, replacing their laptops with torches and pitchforks, when Scott Forstall gave them what they wanted. Crisis averted.
How did TUAW score? Quite well. Mike Rose, Cory, Steve and Aron all called for copy and paste.
Push
Remember Apple's promise of push notification for developers? We nearly forgot, too. It was finally announced today, and Aron was the only TUAW blogger to call it. Incidentally, we shudder to think of how fart apps will make use of push notification.
Landscape keyboard in Mail
Once again, Aron comes through and calls for a landscape keyboard in Mail. I would have done the same, but I've found that my muscle memory has acclimated itself to the portrait keyboard, and I now make more mistakes when it's in landscape mode.
Notes sync
While Aron was the only TUAW blogger to wish for notes synchronization, he wasn't really alone. Fortunately, he got his wish. Score: we're at 4 out of 4.
Lock screen changes
This would have been a good one. Both Aron and I have wished for a customizable lock screen. Instead of the time and date, I might like to see the weather, number of waiting emails, calendar appointments for the day and so on. Apple let us down.
Tethering
We've been hearing rumors about this for quite a whilenow. Steve, Cory and Mike Rose all called for it this time around, and their wishes were granted. Thanks, Apple! Score: 4 out of 6.
Wireless keyboard
While we saw a slew of cool accessories today (I'm not even a doctor and I want the blood pressure cuff), there was no official keyboard from Apple. While hackers have paired a Bluetooth keyboard to a jailbroken phone, blogger Steve saw his wish for the real deal fall flat. Sorry, Steve.
Springboard changes
This could use some work. Not because it's bad, but because five screens of apps quickly become disorganized and cluttered. Plus, jumping from a collection of games to a collection of utilities is a real swipe-tastic pain in the butt.
There's a concept video floating around that demonstrates how this could work via iTunes. It's neat, but I'd rather see something on the iPhone itself. Similar to how Dash Board enhances the experience on a Newton. Mike Rose, Cory, Aron and I all called for this change. It's due.
Enhanced search
Cory and Mike Rose both asked for greater search capabilities, and Apple delivered. The other features we were after, namely greater call reliability, MMS and calendar enhancement, received one vote each. The enhanced calendar and MMS (for 3G owners at least) are coming for sure; we'll have to wait and see about greater call reliability.
As for the final tally, we went 7 out of 12, or 58%. Not too shabby. What did you miss?
