Nov 06

The iPhone OS 2.2 is taking shape at a good rhythm. The user interface is being refined and development of new features keeps going on steady. While I'm sure most of us can only think "copy and paste! copy and paste! copy and paste!" and increased speed and reliability, there are a few new things that we would definitely like to have as soon as possible:

Walking directions
Having just arrived to New York, I would definitely use this feature more than anything else. This would make Maps a lot more useful for all pedestrians, who can make a better use of the iPhone hardware than drivers.

Public transport information
Another great feature specially for big cities. I wish they could invest more on this, like connecting to status servers of public transport networks. That would actually make it perfect for commuters.

Street View
This will allow you to see any location in Google Maps that has Street Views, which is useful to get familiar with unknown places and for those people who are map-reading impaired.

Share location
If you are in the Maps application, you can share a location by just clicking a button, which will send an email with the URL to see the address in Maps. It's not actual real-time location sharing (and very low tech) but since we don't have any kind of copy and paste, it's better than nothing. Other than actually talking on the phone, that is.

Line-In sound access for developers
Apparently, the new OS update allows developers to have access to the sound part of the iPhone hardware. This opens the door for better microphones or high quality voice recognition.

Over-the-air podcast updates
This one will make TV and radio lovers happy, as many programs would be available from anywhere rather than having to connect to your computer every time you want to synchronize to get the lastest updates.