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Apple have borrowed one or two ideas from the jailbreaking community in the past – the app icon rearranging functionality comes to mind, I’m sure there are others. I think many of the new features we’ll see in iPhone OS 4.0 will be based on functionality added by the community.

Don’t have time to fully explore these ideas in a blog post this morning, but here’s a breakdown of my ideas/wishlist. In order of probability.

• Background processes
  • Not much of a hit to battery or CPU performance with simple apps like twitter or IM clients. Apple could tweak the OS to handle background processes even better.
  • All new smartphones have this ability. iPhone needs it to stay competitive.
• Themes
  • New source of revenue
  • Could be what the paint splotches on the invite are alluding to
  • Only reason not to do it would be inconsistent UI. But, with themes officially supported Apple could apply their stringent review process.
• Lockscreen
  • The lockscreen functionality is really cool.
  • Current jailbroken functionality doesn’t seem fully baked. I think Apple could make major improvements.
  • A dashboard widget type interface would seem to make sense.

// end stream of consciousness.

1. All alerts – incoming text messages, app push notifications, low-battery – are modal dialogs. If I receive an alert while I’m on a call, I have to dismiss it before I can access the phone controls, including ending the call. I’m sure this has led to a couple situations where the caller has heard snippets of my private conversation before I was able to end the call.
2. Apple doesn’t seem to care about SMS. a) The iChat-style message grouping stinks. Sometimes I’d like to know exactly when I sent a text message, to see if I’m running late or whatever. This is impossible when the messages app doesn’t give me a timestamp. b) API access is limited. I just downloaded the amazing Dragon Diction voice recognition app [US App Store only]. It allows you to send text directly to the mail app, but to send an SMS you have to copy & paste. L A M E.

One year after Rogers nearly botched their Canadian iPhone launch with ridiculous data plans and extra fees, it looks like Rogers might have learned their lesson.

According to Rogers PR, they will support MMS and tethering with the intention of making the service availble with the June 19th launch. That means these features will not work with current pre-release installs of 3.0. Rogers would neither confirm nor deny whether MMS/tethering would require a more expensive pricing plan.

Also, Rogers will be bringing back their limited time 6GB@$30/mo plan. So if you’re finding yourself using most of your 3G data, you’ll have a chance to upgrade.

I haven’t see a whole lot of information around the intertubes about what it’s actually like to deploy an iPhone App. Sure there are stories every other week about Apple’s ridiculously inconsistent censorship, and talk of developers not being paid. But there is not a lot of information about the actual process of getting App into the iTunes Store.

I’m going to go through a couple of different steps in the process and talk about some of the unexpected problems. I must say though, I was not very impressed. Nothing about the process is very “Apple-like.”

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I’ve just released my first iPhone app – iPlayPhone – it’s a toy phone for toddlers. I built it for my 1yr old son who’s always running off with my phone. It’s simplictic but super fun. All the buttons play goofy sounds. The onShake sound totally baffles my son, he’s like “woah, i shake it and is makes sounds…weird.”

Here’s the iTunes link: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=308425921