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#2: Plays by itself

SUN Microsystems, Adobe, and Apple engineers all work, eat, and play in the same neighborhood, but Apple won’t let your iPhone play with those guys. Java support is non-existent in the iPhone, which severely limits your available applications. We know that the processor on the iPhone supports Java natively, so it shouldn’t be a performance issue. In addition, it isn’t like Java is a brand new language. Apple just didn’t want you to have it.

Shockwave’s, now Adobe’s, Flash application has really enriched the broadband internet. The iPhone, unfortunately, can’t do Flash. There are some sites that run exclusively on Flash media, YouTube previously did.

Apple really wants web developers to design around the iPhone limitations, we’ve seen this with YouTube converting many of their videos to h.264. It really is hard for Apple to claim to give you the full internet experience without Flash media. Fancy Javascripting and dynamic HTML can only do so much. I will have to say concede that the 64 bit version of Internet Explorer on Vista doesn’t support flash either, but there you can at least run 32 bit IE.

#3: Recessed headphone jack

If you haven’t heard yet, the iPhone headphone jack is so recessed into the body that the only headsets that will fit are those from Apple. If you want to connect another set of headphones, you need to buy a very clunky headphone extender. This suggests that none of the beta testers or designers at Apple use any higher quality headphones than the stock earbuds…I honestly find it a little hard to believe, unless Apple is going to be getting into the headphone business as well. I’ve complained about all the proprietary connections on cell phones before, Samsung, Sony-Ericsson, Nokia, and Motorola all do this, but they aren’t sold as high end music players. Apple went with style over function on this one. Unfortunately, this problem can’t be patched with a software upgrade. It’s going to require surgery.

#4: No user-accessible File system

The iPhone’s email system handles attachments very well. It can display attached pictures inline, word documents and PDFs can be viewed, but it lacks the very important ability to save these files. We won’t even get into the iPhone’s inability to edit these files, but there needs to be a provision to save the files. If you get a PDF with directions for example, to see that PDF again, you need to go back into the email program. Apple needs to trust users with the ability to do file management without having to hack the iPhone.