mobileMinds

With all the buzz around Google and Palm releasing new devices and updates to their smartphone OS's I thought I would take this opportunity to encourage Apple to address a couple of the iPhone's short comings.

Facebook Integration

First, Apple needs to at least integrate Facebook contacts into the contacts application, allowing syncing of my Facebook contacts to my phone wirelessly like what Google and Palm already do with their smartphone OS's. I would also love to see additional enhancements such as txt's I receive from Facebook launching the Facebook app instead of launch the web browser. Calendar integration should also be addressed so I can see events I have stated I'm going to inline in my calendar app. This could be expanded to included location information that would launch Google Maps so I know exactly where we will be meeting our friends. The last piece Apple should address just to stay on par is to integrate the Photos app to allow viewing on my Facebook photo's without having to launch the Facebook app.

Twitter Integration

Again it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that added Twitter integration is an area that the iPhone needs to address. While some people may be happy with 3rd party app providing the interface into Twitter, I for one want to see at least Twitter usernames included in my contact records and with Twitter adding Geo-Location information to it's service having the ability to store and post all of this information directly within my messaging app could be a great addition. Again, the ability for the iPhone to handle txt messages from services like Twitter is an area Apple could differentiate the iPhone. 

Background Apps

After using Android and WebOS for the past few months, it's becoming clear there are many times it is useful to have apps running in the background. Grated it's not every app that needs to run in the background and the addition of push notifications has helped but does not completely meet all situations where I need to access data from several apps. Should Apple address how notifications are displayed and how I can review them after I unlock my phone would go along way to addressing this.

Clearly Apple's iPhone is still the market leader that every other smartphone is compared too. However if Apple doesn't address some of these shortcomings Google's Android or Palm's WebOS will become more attractive alternatives to the iPhone. This is not to say that Google and Palm don't have work to do on their end, which they both clearly do.