What I want to see in iOS5

It’s been over 4 years since the original iPhone was announced and we have seen the device take huge leaps and bounds in terms of hardware, but the operating system hasn’t advanced itself quite as quickly. Many of the features and feel of the device are really beginning to show their age. Where Android used the iOS as a standard for much of their first release, I think it is time that Apple takes some of Android’s best features. I really hope at WWDC this June we see some big advances in the iOS. It needs some of my suggestions and more to keep up with the development speed of Android. That being said, Honeycomb also has a long way to go if it wants to even be close to the iPad experience, but that is a topic for another article. In no particular order here are the 8 things I’d like to see added in with iOS5.

Widgets
I have a nexus one and enjoy my widgets. I have some for RSS feeds, weather, mint.com, search bars, twitter, financial information, quick settings i need access too, etc. iOS5 needs some widget integration, and I see it opening up an entirely new market for sales. I hope Apple doesn’t ignore the revenue opportunity here, but I have feeling they just might.

Overhaul Notification Handling
One of the biggest knocks on iOS is the way it handles notifications. Sure this was fine when all that was coming in were texts and the occasional alarm or reminder. Now with the advent of push notifications, and every app using it like it’s going out of style it does not take long for it to be a huge annoyance. I turn almost all my push notifications off by default. I’d love to see an android style notification task bar that I can just drag down at my leisure and respond to whatever program is waiting for my response. This is one spot where Apple design is bottlenecking the user experience.

Multitasking makeover
Closer to how safari handles multiple pages. Give me options, i want ot be able to choose what apps stay in multitasking mode, which close every time i press the home button. I like the double click style bottom row launch, but I’d love to see some rework in this area and let the user have a preview of exactly what is running. I like how they handle safari pages, and I’d love to see something similar for multitasking in iOS.

File Management
We need some kind of file manager. Want to attach a document or photograph to that email you already have written? Nope, you can only attach files through the file itself, not through the email client. If apple really wants to push this is a true post-computer device, we really need to see some ability to manipulate files, open then from anywhere.

Air Syncing
Having a completely portable device still pretty much by default be tethered. While I’m at it, add a cloud music service. I hate having my collection all strewn about because I may have purchased an item on one computer, but not another. Setup a cloud for my app save games, my icon layouts and all my mp3s. I’d even pay extra for this service. I love the cloud, Apple come join me.

Air installation
Android’s market place lets me install applications to my device through a simple once-click web interface. I love this a lot. It makes getting apps on my device easy if someone links me to something without even having to pick up my phone. Apple, please release this now through iTunes.

Child Accounts
Apple has taken basically zero precautions to help parents control the spending on the device once it leaves their hands. As a parent I’d like to see either A) A “Child mode” similar to that of Airplane mode where purchases can’t happen without a special 4 digit code+ the account password that I can turn/off quickly or B) Let me setup a child account inside iTunes that will let me put credits in. That way my son can buy what he wants, but not have unlimited access to my credit card.

Animated backgrounds
This request is extremely trivial. But in the right spot animated backgrounds are fun and frivilous. If i judge how long it took apple to give us the ability to select custom backgrounds at all, I don’t see this one coming any time soon.

We’ll know more come this June at WWDC. I’m really hoping we’ll see at least one of these features announced come early summer.