My buddy Jim shared a Business Insider article on features Apple needs to steal from Android for the next iPhone which I wrote up a long reply to, thought ya’ll might be interested in it here. Hopefully it doesn’t come off as blatant fanboyism, as it’s not meant to be:
Agree on some, disagree on others. Everything can use some tweaking though.
1 - Multitasking - I think they should use the WebOS multitasking “card” paradigm personally, or use the multitasking gestures they have on the iPad already (4 finger swipe left/right, 4 finger pinch to get back to home, etc). Having a dedicated “multitasking” button isn’t the right solution IMHO, or at least it’s very un-apple-y.
Read on for the other 10 points…
2 - Search web as well - You sort of can already, just by using one extra tap. I think this could be very bad if you are searching for something common like bob smith, but if presented the right way yea, go for it. I rarely use spotlight to search anything other than apps or contacts though, else I’ll just go into the browser and search. My vote is yes, do it if it doesn’t override the local data.
3 - Update apps automatically - Again could go either way. I like knowing what the new features are and having the control to update or not (sometimes you don’t want a new version for eg). Have an option to auto-update maybe, but I’d keep using it as is (if for nothing more than control issues and OCD about knowing what the new features are).
4 - Widgets - No. This has been an argument since the beginning of Android (similar IMHO to the “iphone needs a hardware keyboard or it’s dead” argument).
5 - Use new google maps app - Yup, agreed 100%, it looks awesome on android. Unless they use that sexy C3 maps thing of course (though I doubt they can make it look as good overall compared to google maps).
6 - Notifications - Meh, I find it fine, think they look nicer than Android. Not that they couldn’t use some tweaking of course.
7 - Better integration - Yup, the ‘contracts’ system in Android is great, would love to see that in iOS.
8 - Shortcuts - Meh. I think there are apps you can use to do similar things already, but it’s not something I need / want. I think swipe to get to your home/widget/whatever screen and clicking on a person is about the same as clicking on the phone icon and then clicking on an entry in the favorites.
9 - Control panel for BT/Wifi/etc - There are various jailbreak tweaks to do this already. To flame some baits, iOS has better battery management than Android so you don’t have to do the ‘turn stuff on/off’ dance to save battery life all the time (ie: turn off gps/3g, turn on wifi when you get to the office, turn on BT/3g and turn off wifi when you leave), so iPhone users (at least that I see) don’t tend to need these sort of quick shortcuts to turn on and off radios and system functions. It’s not (again, my own experience) so common that the extra 2 clicks in the settings menu are a pain. Personally I’d rather see Apple keep making battery life better so you don’t have to worry about turning things on and off so often vs cluttering up the UI with extra buttons and toggles.
10 - Pano mode / shutter lag - I think the lag in the 4S is pretty damn small, and in the 4 isn’t too bad (not having a latest and greatest Android phone I have no comparison for speed). Would love a pano mode though, though I have an app called DMD that does this, and it’d have to be the quality of the AutoStitch App (slow, but uses the ptgui engine). As a photographer though anything that makes the iPhone camera better
11 - Voice dictation - Yup, would be nice, and I believe that Siri has been hacked onto 3GS and 4 via jailbreak. It’ll be on all new phones going forward I’m sure of course. Apple hasn’t added it officially onto later phones no doubt a combination of a) preferring to sell new phones and b) performance issues on older phones.