Application Development: 10 Apps We Would Improve with iOS 4 and iPhone 4

10 Apps We Would Improve with iOS 4 and iPhone 4

by P. J. Connolly

COMPANY: Nuance Communications
APP: Dragon Dictation
WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED:

Currently, Dragon saves to a text file, copies to a clipboard or launches e-mail. Multitasking could allow it to paste directly into an open document in Apple's Pages or another word processor.

COMPANY: Lab48
APP: vTie Premium
WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED:

Diagrams for knotting a necktie are helpful; to go to the next level, vTie could use the iPhone 4's video camera to walk one through the process.

COMPANY: Cisco Systems
APP: Cisco WebEx Meeting Center
WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED:

The ability to show the presenter may be a double-edged sword, but it would be nice to have the option.

COMPANY: Obapp.com
APP: MuniApp
WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED:

Being able to use an application while waiting for the bus is a way to put wasted time to good use; multitasking would allow transit-focused apps like MuniApp to update predictions without missing a beat.

COMPANY: Aji
APP: TouchTerm Pro SSH
WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED:

Running an SSH client on your mobile device is helpful, but being able to run a process in the background and do something useful while waiting for it to complete would be priceless.

COMPANY: Readdle
APP: Scanner Pro
WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED:

Scanning documents is nice, but performing OCR on a document is better.

COMPANY: Automattic
APP: WordPress
WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED:

New video support functions in iOS 4 could make it possible to create on-the-fly video blog updates.

COMPANY: Shape Services
APP: Business Card Reader
WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED:

The only thing worse than having a pocket full of other people's business cards is trying to put faces to those names; tools like this are crying out for the ability to take a snapshot to go with the card.

COMPANY: Ilium Software
APP: eWallet
WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED:

Password management apps could benefit from the additional level of security that facial recognition provides, to authenticate the user before revealing stored passwords.

COMPANY: Izatt International
APP: MileBug
WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED:

Mileage-logging programs could benefit from the built-in GPS functions of the iPhone 4; older models could append a screenshot of the odometer to document beginning and end points of a journey.