Processor speed and screen size definitely seem like they are the deciding factors these days. Another top 10 list posted today: The idea of writting down the most frustrating things was one of the first things I wanted to do when starting this site. The main concept of this site is based around solutions for individuals who are frustrated with their cellphones. As a technologist with over a decade of experience developing and using technology, I've always been fascinated by it. Oddly though, I'm much more interested in the techonology itself, rather than the application of it. Over the years of doing software development, I've used many different programming languages, databases, and frameworks. But sadly, rarely have I ever actually be interested in the application being developed. Most of this probably stems from the fact that the clients I've worked for have quite boring business cases. But I think the opposite is true with mobile devices. While I have dabbled in a bit of development, and am generally just interested in the industry, but in reality I'm much more interested in the practical use of mobile devices. This is probably because I am (sadly) all too dependant on my cellphone. A lot of times I envy friends and colleagues who, still to this day, have never owned a cellphone. The rest of the time I find myself cursing at my phone. I think it's a natural progression in which the things you depend on the most are also the things that annoy you the most. New PhonesThus, to release a bit of my frustration, I give you my first Top 10 List: Top 5 Frustrations with Smartphones 10. Reboots Smartphones today are very close cousins to our old friend the PC. With that relationship comes the inevitable crashes. It's an unfortunate side effect of having all that functionality. Oddly enough, the crashing isn't actually on my list. The reboot after the crash is what bothers me. Smartphone predecessors used a small firmware footprint, and thus the longest you had to wait was only a few seconds...and even that wait was mostly for the connection to the network to startup. But with smartphones, that has changed. Now we wait minutes (1 minute 22 seconds for Android 1.5 on the LG GW620). I've heard of Palm users waiting over 3 minutes on some networks. IPhone users are over a minute as well. Maybe I'm just being picky? In any event, something has to be #10. 9. QWERTY Keyboards I don't know what it is, by I was a big fan of the T9 technology with number pads. I could probably type messages faster on my old Razor than I could on my current phone. QWERTY Keyboards have terribly small buttons, and my fat fingers don't really help the situation at all. Plus just dialing a number with a row of numbers rather than a number pad is really annoying. Which brings us to a good segway to #8....... 8. Speed Dial Gone are the day when you can simply flip open your phone, hold down the number 4, and immediately get the wife on the phone. Some smartphones might have this, but from Blackberry to Apple to Android, this seems to be extinct. It was actually the first thing I tried to solve on my Android. Thankfully, there is at least 1 solution that I found...that is the AnyKey app for the android. 7. Voicemail Is it me, or are text messages a million times easier to send and receive than leaving someone a voicemail? I know that blackberry has the voice message, and many networks having voice/picture messaging data services. I hope these will eventually make voicemail extinct, cause having to call, wait, dial password, wait, listen frustrates me. 6. Contact Importing This is an area that really needs better standards. When getting a new phone, importing contacts can be a task and a half. We have contacts stored on old phones, SIM, work e-mail, personal e-mail. Google accounts has actually done a pretty good job of it. Although, it was very frustrating when it imported all my contacts from SIM, as well as Email, and thus I had all my contacts showing up twice. Luckily you're able to merge them easily on the PC (then resync). 5. Pocket Dialing Ok, I'll admit it. I'm a pocket dialer. I don't like the concept of screen locks or passwords. I want to be able to pick my phone up out of my pocket and just start using it (provided that it isn't already trying to make a call). The flip-phone was made for me. Sadly, I think those days are done. I guess I'll have to get used to a screen lock eventually. 4. Social Networking and Messaging Standards This is more of a problem as an industry as a whole. The way that people interact is very diverse in the protocol in which people message eachother. Statuses can be updated on twitter, myspace, and facebook. Messages sent through phones, computers, and even in person! But there needs to be a way to inform another person universaly. SMS has long passed it's planned lifespan, yet still seems to be the only universal mobile messaging system. Everything else seems to be proprietary, and thus only available on certain devices. BBM is a wonderful service, and it, along with it's email integration has really made it a gold standard (Go Canada Go!). Only if us Android users could get in on those conversations....sigh! 3. Browser Compatibility An ongoing issue with all things on the web. Browser support is one of the hardest things to deal with as web developer. And now, our lives have gotten so much easier with Safari usage increasing due to the iPhone, Chrome gaining ground, and of course IE still sticking around. Right now is the worst time for web developers, as we haven't seen this type of market share parity in the history of web browsing. With more and more browsing happening on mobile devices, this is only going to get worse. Javascript is extremely problematic on most phones, and AJAX remains very difficult. Flash is a disaster (thanks for that Apple, enjoy your useless iPad), so Flex is out of the question. 2. Touchscreens This is a touchy subject for many (pun not intended). I think that touchscreen are a great theory, but in reality, they are poorly implemented. Accuracy is the main concern of mine, as every individual has a different finger. But I've also seen some very poorly implemented app interfaces as well. It's the main area of development that you'll see from both manufacturers and software developers over the next few years. So with that, lets hope that they implement standards that will work across all devices. 1. Battery Life Kind of an easy #1 I think. It really isn't anyones fault. I'm sure that a ton of R&D is going in to battery life. But it's a fact of life: we want small light handheld devices, we want bright screens, videos, music, speaker-phones, Blutooth, WiFi, etc. The list goes on and on. As we get these, we end up using the devices much more during the day. It's only logical that we wouldn't be able to hold a charge for days on end. This will come with time though...we just have to be patient. In conclusion, most of this is just a rant. Some or most of these problems are easily solved by buying this device or that device. It's just my opinion over this so called "Smartphone 1.0" world of ours. As we move through the "1.5" devices available now, into the "Smartphone 2.0" devices, I hope that things become much more user friendly. http://www.newphoneinfo.com/index.php/news/article/5