My girlfriend is wonky and I mean that in the nicest way. I don’t mean that one of her arms is bigger than the other, or that her left eye is slightly disproportionate to the right one. I’m referring to the fact that every time I let her borrow my computer she leaves it in the most bizarre of states.
Being quite anal about my computer being straight and nice-looking (like all those pictures I see on Lifehacker), I’ve found myself in a situation where I have OCD-like symptoms about keeping the computer and keyboard straight, with my iPhone kept neatly on charge next to it, and Apple Remote neatly placed on the iMac’s stand (horizontal and perfectly aligned to the edge, of course). That’s not mentioning the software, where I have to keep my Safari window a certain distance from the menu bar and dock at all time, for example.
For some reason, though, my girlfriend has other ideas. I let her borrow my computer for the day and come back finding the keyboard at the weirdest of angles, iPhone cable hanging freely off the edge of the desk, and all my beautifully arranged application windows scattered carelessly over six “Spaces” (virtual desktops) with no regard for their position on the screen; I found my Mail.app window minimized on Space 4 once, positioned halfway off the edge of the screen – it opens by default on Space 2 and can’t be moved unless done so deliberately.
What have I done to deserve this? What did I do in my past life? Did I murder children? Was I the guy who murdered Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand, starting World War One? Was I the person at ITV who commissioned the new series of X Factor *shudder*?
I know I’m not the best boyfriend. I know that checking my iPhone behind your back when I hug you isn’t romantic. I know that reading Gizmodo can wait until you’ve gone home… But I’m a geek! You knew that the moment you took me on! As I’m someone who frequently refers to themselves as a ‘WebMaster‘, how can you not understand that the computer is my domain!? That the internet is my Empire!?
If I turned up at your house and started to move one of the windows, you’d be pretty annoyed, wouldn’t you? And I know full well that I don’t turn up at your house and repaper your walls with a pixellated picture of Hello Kitty that I found on Google Image Search. So why do you do it to my computer!? WHY!? For all us alpha-geeks out there, I send this message to women who make out lives a burden; stop messing up my computer! Gah! It’s time us nerds took back our space from the clutches of the females and ditch the benefits of a relationship for that of a tidy workspace. Together, we can unite!

Well it’s no news that the iPhone 4.0 is just around the corner. Here’s my wishlist:

Third Party Data Sync Over USB
At the moment, apps are forced to use wifi as a means of transfering data between desktop and mobile apps. This is well and good but it’s cumbersome. Not only is it time consuming but it’s also easy to forget to sync- especially for those of us who keep WiFi turned off to preserve the battery. While many apps are resorting to the cloud as a work around, it’s quite an expense on behalf of the developer and sometimes you don’t want your data available online. Instead, wouldn’t it be nice if you could plug your iPhone in and just have your 1Password database sync during the iTunes sync?
My proposed solution is for iTunes to request permission for apps to sync to the desktop. It would either ask for an application to sync with or a folder (for example, a drawing application like Layers could sync with a folder named “Mobile Drawings”). It would work like Push Notifications and be disabled by default, with apps asking permission first, except on the desktop side rather than on the device.

Remaining Balance
At the moment, it’s easy to go over your pre-paid minutes, SMS and MMS as the iPhone doesn’t indicate how much you’re spending (not in the UK, anyway). In this respect, it’s true to say that the iPhone can do everything except make phone calls. I’m not sure if this is always the case on a contract phone -this is my first contract phone- but my old Pay As You Go phone used to tell me how much balance I had left after a call. At the moment I’m using the great “Mobile Allowance” app to tell me how much I have left, but I still have to check it manually and unfortunately the changes aren’t instant due to the way it accesses the data.

Notification History
After Apple introduced Push Notifications as a method of using apps while they’re not open, we now need an area to read received notifications after they’re pushed out of the way by the next one. While the number of notifications received shows up as a badge on the app’s icon, this doesn’t actually tell you what the notification was and it’s up to the app to further notify you. In some cases it doesn’t if you don’t activate the notification immediately. Personally, I am a fan of “Prowl” and like the way it keeps track of all the notifications it receives (it’s not really much of an app, otherwise!) but I believe that Apple could easily add a “History” section to the Push Notification preferences.

Background apps
It’s been said since day one, but with the hardware capability of devices like the iPhone 3Gs it’s looking much more promising. I know, as a mere 3G owner, that I wouldn’t mind sacrificing this big addition to the platform in order for my device to run peachy – I don’t mind the current method that much – but it would shut up all the people who are asking for it and that would be more than brilliant. The only practical implement for background apps are things like online radios and tools like Pastebot, which would need to function in the background in order to make them more worthwhile. Other than those, there’s not much need for them as the screen is too small for you to do any multitasking. Maybe looking up walkthroughs for Rolando halfway through the game or something?

Finder / Global Data
One big problem I have with the iPhone at the moment is that there is no central data storage system. I can’t create documents on my phone and then use them in other apps; I have to do complex things with the cloud. While this sandboxing is all well and good, it does make things a little bit cumbersome – why do I have to register to random websites to do things I can do through a service I’m already signed up for? Instead of having to start using Google Docs, why can’t I just have Dropbox host my files? Unfortunately, with the way the app ecosystem works, this is a big problem. As of this moment, I currently don’t have a proper word processor on my iPhone (despite being available in the app store). I have note taking apps, of course, but sometimes I just want to make a few changes to my coursework when I have no access to a computer and am unable to do so. These note taking apps don’t save files – they just save text, let alone open things like “.doc” files. That’s not really of much use. So I’d like to see this happen (plus I’d like the Finder icon to appear on the iPhone – that would be superb). I agree with Daring Fireball’s John Gruber about the lack of a user-available filesystem being used on the iPhone being a good thing for usability, but I do think the sand-boxing of data between apps is no the best thing (even if Apple has to limit it to certain file types being available!).

Spotlight for 3rd parties
While I don’t use Spotlight on my Mac much (I use Quicksilver, which is like Spotlight on steroids), I could end up using it on my iPhone. The only problem is that it only throws up things I can find easily by going to the respective app, which is probably quicker and easier than going to spotlight and typing. Instead, Apple could make Spotlight more useful and allow third party developers to use the function. For example, I would love to be able to find Evernote notes in a search like that, or , I don’t know, To-Dos in “Things”. In fact, looking through my apps I can name almost name one thing I’d like Spotlight to reveal for each of them (even in some of Apple’s own apps, like Maps, where it’s bookmarks could be displayed). The Wordpress app could show drafts, FTP To Go could show me my servers, Amazon UK could show me my Wishlist, Ebay my bids, and so on. While people may think it would never happen in a lot of those apps because it doesn’t happen on the Mac, well, iPhone developers would do it because they can claim their app integrates with the features of iPhone OS 4.0. The App Store is a much more competitive playing field than Mac desktop development – plus there’s no major competitor (Windows) on the iPhone platform, meaning companies can spend time doing stuff like this on the iPhone.

Bluetooth File Exchange with normal devices (not just iDevices)

Sometimes I take an amazing picture and want to to share it with friends. Sometimes it’s the other way around. I know for a fact that most of my friends are useless and that most the pictures they take on the cell phone will never make it’s way off the device, but sometimes I want the pictures for the memories. One example, recently, is that I went to see Muse with my good friend -whom most of you know- Jimmi. Unfortunately, his computer doesn’t have much disk space (so little he couldn’t even find room for my new album) and he was unable to put the pictures from the concert on his computer in order to transfer them to me. If my phone had Bluetooth file exchange capabilities with his phone, I could have just transferred them over from his and all would have been good. As it did not, I am still yet to see the pictures. Now, I know, I could take pictures with my own phone’s camera (and I did!) but it lacks a lot of things that made it suitable for what it was doing (no flash, no manual focus, etc.). Jimmi’s phone, despite being only a “dumbphone”, did have these features and thus we opted to use his phone to take pictures of ourselves there. Now I’m just left broken hearted.

Quick Alarms

I don’t know about you guys, but sometimes I need to remind myself of something happening shortly. At work, I’m often told I’ll have to do this or that in ten or fifteen minutes and it’s quite easy to forget. Unfortunately, at the moment, the only way you can set alarms is by setting them up through the alarm app, where you have to scroll through each number to set a time. In fact, it takes up so much time that it’s just not worth doing for anything other than for alarms to wake you up. Even then the alarm is permanently added to your list, which isn’t very useful in the long run. I’d like to see a way to quickly add an alarm for 5 minutes, 10 minutes or 15 minutes. It would just be useful. (Picture: Fantastic Mac application “Tiny Alarm”)

Assign colour to contacts
At the moment SMS is confusing and it’s easy to sent the wrong message to the wrong person because each conversation looks the same. Colour coding would help to stop that and would make the app much more usable. From the address book, Apple could add a field that asks for a colour to represent the person, which would then become the colour of their chat bubble in Messages (and iChat on the Mac, if they desire to add such further integration). In addition, third parties would be able to access this data in order to do the same thing automatically for other apps, such as an IM app like Beejive.

So that’s my iPhone OS 4.0 wish list. While it doesn’t cover every possible thing that I could want in the next iPhone (if I let my imagination run away from me, I would ask for things like tablet support, etc.) it’s a compilation of a couple of things I believe could make the iPhone better. What would you like to see?

Citing remarks from TUAW, Gizmodo, and AppleInsider, it seems apparent that the new iTunes LP format is only for the big publishers, not us indie folks. Colour me pessimistic, but I was aware of this from the moment they announced the format. With my new album coming out soon, the first question I asked myself was “How can I get a piece of this?”, just to be answered with “Don’t be stupid. There is no way that will happen.” There is just no way that it was going to be available for folks like me, and others.

If Apple was going to open this technology up for Indie developers they would have announced it on the day. They would have released a specification list and a large amount of documentation, just like for iPhone web apps, Safari web apps and iPhone native apps. In all honesty, the mere fact that there is no way for Indie artists to release their own music on the iTunes store through Apple itself (I use 3rd party service TuneCore) is enough to warrant the assumption that iTunes LP was limited to artists with labels who are willing to bend Apple’s arms backwards to let them have a sweet piece of their pie – the ones who actually fuel the iTunes store… not us crappy indie bands. We’re indie for a reason (read: no-one cares about us).

So what can we do? Well, maybe we’ll find a way to fool iTunes into accepting our homebrew LPs. Maybe we’ll just suffice with having our music on there. Maybe we’ll create substitutes online by hosting our own imitations, for example –  it could be easily done… But what we won’t be doing is creating iTunes LPs, and I’m sure most of us are perfectly happy with that – we don’t get upset because our CDs aren’t distributed internationally in high street retail outlets. I’m sure we can live.

Update: I’ve partially cracked this issue. iTunes LPs work just like Mac applications and are just bundles. Importing an .itlp file (a folder renamed with the extension) into iTunes will create your iTunes LP just like the ones from the iTunes Store. No word on monetizing it, but you can still have an LP – as long as you get all the components right (like metadata files, XML files, etc.) It doesn’t help that I don’t actually own an iTunes LP at the moment, but I’m sure that opening one up and copying and pasting bits and pieces will be a breeze; they’re literally just web files. Here’s a shot of my iTunes LP where I just copied and pasted the index page for my site as a default html file:

Good news iPhone and iPod Touch owners! For those of you who want to view the site on your iDevice, I have created a mobile version that’s suitable for your fingers! No longer do you have to zoom in to click that fiddly little link, or jump through five different pages just to watch an episode of Clayground that doesn’t load properly anyway, since there’s no Flash support.

The site lets you watch the Clayground videos, read this blog in a friendly format, listen to T.I.T.S, and buy An Unnecessary Biography from the iTunes app (Ok, no-one cares about that, but I’m grasping at straws here). Hopefully it’ll land a place on a couple of your home screens…?

But fear not, those of you without iPhones, as you do not have to miss out to. Those of you without iPhones but with Safari or Chrome can view two special versions of both the blog and T.I.T.S section using your browsers! Just go to blaktornado.com/webkit/tits/ for T.I.T.S or blaktornado.com/webkit/blog/ for the Blog and watch the magic happen!

And if you have neither of those, well, uh…

If it doesn’t sync, I don’t want it. That’s my motto. If it doesn’t communicate with the cloud (any cloud, I don’t mind!) then I don’t want it. What’s the point in inputting all this data into a random app when a simple accidental delete could wipe it all away so easily? I understand how it’s impossible for every app developer to utilize the cloud, and that not every app needs it (games, for example, are an exception), but if I have untapped internet at my fingertips, I want to make the most of it by having a backup – even if it’s just backing up to my iMac.

Password managers, for example, fit into this category. I use 1Password on my iMac and thankfully there is an iPhone version too. But all other password managers would be useless to me since all my data is stored in this one app which I use all the time. I’d have to re-input my data into every new app I decide to install. And what happens if I don’t like it? I have to do it all over again with another app. Time is of the essence.

Another thing is that my phone is literally just that; a phone. I could lose it or break it or who knows what! If that’s the only place I have my data, it could be trouble. Lots of it. It’s why I don’t really like relying on USB Flash drives as a source of data holding – they’re too easy to lose. So that’s why I choose to avoid any app that doesn’t sync in some way or another. iPhone and iPod Touch owners, am I alone in this?