Christmas wish list to Santa in Cupertino
Our most common link is we all cherish more battery life, we all had our screens cracked at least once and we all need more network-independent apps.
It’s Christmas, lots of iPhone will be sold, actually very likely this is the moment in time when most iPhones will be sold, ever. And this might as well be a tipping point, as some are saying. Regardless of what Wall Street analysts say, next year Apple will pass the significant milestone: 1 billion iPhones sold from launch. Apple has made iPhone increasingly good, providing its customers reasons to buy and re-buy it over the years. What makes iPhones increasingly good?
The more I look at my phone or the ones around me, the more it is evident that we reached a point where thinner & lighter iPhones, with additional camera megapixels, is not what we really need. At least for me.
Here’s my Christmas wish list to Apple:
- Extended battery life
- Shock & waterproof
- Working with no service
Extended battery life
The red-low-battery sign is increasingly becoming one of the most scaring symbols, especially if you are travelling and it’s not even noon. Yeah, one day or less is not enough battery life, we know that. If this stands, why do we keep on getting more megapixels and thinner, lighters phones? Lets focus on battery life instead. I’m monitoring my addiction to my iPhone using a simple app called Moment:
“Moment only counts your screen time. If your screen is off, Moment won’t count.”
What Moment has been telling me in the last week, is that I have used my phone on average 4h a day and unblocked it about 50 times per day. I am usually awake for 16 hours, which means I am grabbing my phone roughly every 20 mins. You might argue I need to see a good shrink and you might be right. After all, short battery life is preventing me from losing it totally, but working in an internet company, commuting & travelling intensely are really forcing me to rely on my iPhone aka my cheap personal assistant. I feel an external battery just isn’t the right thing, not even when it’s coming from Sir Jonathan Ive, whom I deeply respect and admire.
Shock & waterproof
Cracked iPhone screen. It happened to me, it happened to you or someone you know and we all know how that makes us fell. We know the moment the iPhone slips off our hands or somehow falls to the ground that it’s not a good thing. We can’t avoid this to happen, its our human condition and gravity doesn’t help either. But we can surely expect more robust devices. A cracked iPhone screen might A) get repaired by Apple, which is usually pretty expensive if you have a new iPhone; B) get repaired by an unofficial third party, which is not necessarily cheaper and will probably make you lose your guarantee; C) stay as it is until we buy a new phone. In any event, it just sucks and I would be ready to lose a bit of weight & thickness in exchange for a more solid iPhone, capable of resisting normal, occasional accidents.
Aside from shocks, I want my expensive iPhone to be waterproof too. I’m pushing it, I know.
Long gone are the days when we mostly used the “traditional” phone features. Today is about chatting, instagramming, tracking runs, moving around with Uber, checking our boarding passes with Apple’s Wallet, not to mention shopping and paying. All of that is increasingly depending on our iPhone. In short, we bring it with ourselves nearly everywhere and nearly everywhere we use it, nearly. I don’t need it for scuba diving (only because I don’t scuba dive). I’d like to avoid leaving my iPhone on the beach while going for a swim or worrying about the water while running in heavy rain. Moreover, it is more frequent than you think for iPhones to be forgotten in trousers we put in the washing machine or accidentally drop in the sink, in the bathtub shower or even in the toilette (it happened to 2 people I know). Again, the addition of 4 megapixels to iPhone 6s camera hasn’t changed my life. Worrying less about my expensive, beloved and super delicate iPhone it might contribute instead, as a lot of things I do in life depend upon it.
Working with no service
Last but not least, the frustrating moment when you have no service, due to no wifi or no/slow network. It sucks, it makes our awesome iPhone significantly less useful. It happens and we deal with it. We need to be realistic about it, eventually every corner of the world will be covered with high-speed and free internet. Until then, more apps and internet-depending services should take advantage of local storage and capabilities in absence of connection. Sometimes we want to work offline to avoid distractions, focus and get things done. Sometime we just find ourselves with the need to complete an action regardless of the service (like it still happens in most cities while you walk down into the subway). At the time I was drafting this post, I was flying from Paris to Munich and Medium’s app itself is an example of this (see screenshot). I was unable to save the draft due to lack of service. Offline drafting (meaning save to local if no service and sync with server as soon as back online) could be a quick win. Not just for Medium. There are so many apps that could be used to some extent while offline, after all the average storage capacity & computational power is expanding with every new iPhone and I am sure there are smart way to work around a temporary lack of internet connection without losing your work or completing some simple actions. Apple is not the service provider of all the apps I use , but they surely influence their huge developer network.
Dear Santa in Cupertino,
As said at the beginning, this is as simple wish list of basic needs would make my iPhone better. I am sure these are obvious factors you and your elves are looking to improve. I’ve been a good Apple-boy, spending a lot money on your products and actively promoting Apple with family, friends & coworkers. So, please, please, please don’t ho-ho-ho me and fix these three basic things:
- Extended battery life
- Shock & waterproof
- Working with no service
Thank you and Merry Christmas!
