iPhone Improvements Wish List

I don't know about you, but I reckon the iPhone really is the best thing sliced bread. But it's not without fault and still can be improved. Since purchasing mine at the end of August, I've been compiling a list of things I've noticed that could be improved. Most are minor, but one or two should be high priority down at number one Infinite Loop. Oh and some are more Mac related, but because they impact on the iPhone, I've included them too.

So here's my rather long list of refinements:

• Double click menu bar of an app to get to the home page of an app. Eg double tap the Mail's menu bar when in an inbox would take you back to your list of accounts.
• In Safari, needs either a quick way to get to the top of the page, or a shortcut to a enter URL
• A popup in any app of recent apps (eg most recent 5 apps), to quickly switch back to a previously used app.
• App store wish list. Okay, so this isn't exactly the iPhone, but it's quite related. How many apps have I forgotten about buying because I didn't want to at the time, but would have liked to put them on a wish list?
• iCal to dos. Say no more, I'm sure we'd all like to see iCal's to dos on the iPhone.
  
• Flat back for easier typing on a surface. Yes the curved back of the 3G is sexier, but you can't put the iPhone down to type (as it wobbles around) - which sometimes would be useful.
  
• Font size options in lists. many lists, such as email accoutns, use quite a large font. If we could make it smaller, then more items would be visible on the screen.
  
• Fast scroll for large docs like the legal one. You ever tried to read the legal doc under the About page in Settings? Takes forever to scroll through it. Documents need a scroll bar that you can tap to quickly jump to a section of a document - be  it a long email, web page, or that legal blurb.
  
• The carriers wouldn't like it, but an optional prompt before using cellular data would be nice for those of us on low data plans. Fortunately my carrier has enabled the option in settings for changing the APN of the cellular data network, which means I can disable cellular that way, but it is more cumbersome. I gather though, most providers have disabled that option.
  
• Automatically open keyboard when accessing search in App Store on iPhone
• Undo!! I lost a whole email when backspace got stuck on.
  
• Quick access brightness control. This is probably in my top three desired features. I don't find the auto brightness works well, and am changing the brightness manually a couple of times a day. So a quick link or mini app would be very appreciated. Maybe some clever programmer could write one.
  
• Rotate lock. Sometimes you just don't want the screen to rotate. I lie in bed reading webpages. If I lie on my side, the webpage rotates to landscape (I prefer portrait most of the time). It'd be nice if there was an option to tap to lock the orientation. I know some apps I've seen have that feature. (Maybe a two-finger tap?)
  
• Custom message tones. Why can I have custom ringtones but not custom message tones? The message tones that come with the iPhone are all too quiet and easily get drowned out by background noise. The only half-decent one is the Horn. Otherwise, Palle please provide loud message tones.
  
• Default home page in safari.
• Looping when flicking through main menu pages. I have  the full nine pages in use. It'd be nice if I could flick from page nine straight back to page one.
  
• Notes sync to computer files. I can email notes, but I'd prefer if they synced to files on my Mac.
• App categorization and grouping on iPhone menu. With nine pages, you need some way of more easly sorting your apps.
  
• Sort bookmarks. Currently there's no way of sorting Safari's bookmarks. Alpha sort would be appreciated.
  
• WiFi sync. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to sync your iPhone over WiFi instead of having to plug it in? Please, Apple?
  
• Internet access through USB. Wouldn't it be good if you could piggy back your Mac or PC's network via USB for those times when you're on a computer network that doesn't have wireless?
  
• Independent volume for sounds and ringtones. The volume controller (despite what it appears to indicate) affects all sounds. So, for instance, you can't turn down application sounds and turn up ringtones. It'd be nice if these could be independently adjusted.
  
• Don't disappear messages from lock screen. Why don't the messages stay on the screen after I unlock the phone?! From there I could click them and it'd take me to the appropriate app.
  
• Data preservation when installing updates. As some developers mention, there has been problems with some app updates wiping data. Apple needs to fix that one pronto.
  
• Choose iPhoto Lib to sync. Argh! This is a Mac problem but affects the iPhone. For some reason, Apple apps, such as iTunes sync, don't let you choose which iPhoto library to use. Instead they always use the last one you opened. If you forget to change back to the one you have synced to your iPhone, you will get an error (I go error -50) when syncing. Even better would be if you could sync multiple libraries. Now that would be cool.
  
• Show wallpaper while syncing or charging. The battery image is a total waste of screen. I don't need to see a giant battery to know it's charging.
  
• The data usage report goes stupid after using GPS. Anyone else had this problem? It'll give you a coronary the first time you see that that quick use of GPS supposedly chewed 60MB in a couple of minutes. Fortunately it's just plain wrong.
  
• Autostart Internet sharing on Mac. Okay, another Mac one, but one that affects iPhone users. If you're not using your Mac's wifi (becaue you're on wired), you can redirect it to share your internet with your iPhone. However, you have to turn internet sharing back on every time you restart your Mac. Ok, so we don't restart our Macs all that often, but that makes it more annoying because you then are more likely to forget to turn internet sharing back on. (it's under Sharing in System Preferences)
  
• Date in status bar.
  
• Anytime restore, not only on wipe. Why is it we have to go through an entire wipe of the iPhone just to restore?
  
• Selective partial restore. Following on from the previous one, how about being able to select the applications you want to restore data for. It's something you'll rarely need, but one of those things that would be nice when you do need it.
  
• App settings in the actual app, not Settings. This one baffles me. Why do so many applications, including Apple's own, have their options under the the Settings page? This is akin to having to access System Preferences on your Mac to change application settings.
  
• List addresses by company too. I'd be tempted to put this as my number one wish. In Contact lists, for some contacts I want to see the company name listed, not the person. So maybe a toggle per contact of whether to show company or person.
  
• Select and delete. I'd like that swipey magnifying glassy thingy to have the option of selecting text which I could then delete as a block. And it could be used for the copy&paste that many folks want. Though I've found very little need for copy&paste but on the two or three times I did notice its absence, it would have been time saving.
• Improve auto-correction. Because of the way auto-correction works, and mind you it does work very well, you find yourself not having to look at what you're typing, instead focusing on the keyboard, which (well for me) lets you type much faster. However, then you discover all the words that the autocorrect wrongly corrected. I know there's probably going to be a toggle in the next update to turn off auto-correction, but that will be even worse for the likes of me, because I know the auto-correct is also saving my butt on many words that do need correcting. Maybe if it just beeped whenever it auto-corrected so then I'd know to look.
• Multimemedia message (MMS) viewing. Ok. I know why Apple don't let you send MMS, but surely it could let you view ones you receive.
  
• Safari hang prevention. Ok, this is really is my number one. Some pages kill Safari so bad you have to force a reboot (hold Home and Power for 10 seconds). Surely though Apple could identify elements more likely to hang a page (eg Flash) and then filter those out when displaying the page. It wouldn't prevent all hangs but would hopefully help a bit.

So that's my list. I'm sure I'll find some more to add. But I'm really keen to know what refinements you guys would like to see.