Comments on: 5 iPhone Accessories We’re Still Waiting For

By: Jeniffer smith

Jeniffer smith — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 06:25:34 +0000

Wow!iPhone are really proving themself as unique developers!!!dog training tools and detachable keyboard is most amazing feature thou i’ll b awaited for all these apps.Regardless of high-tech advancement the gadgets are cheaper and easily accessible.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:31:23 +0000

Someone’s working on it: http://www.squareconnect.com/

By: FelipeDeezNuts

FelipeDeezNuts — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:02:18 +0000

That you, Steve Jobs? Are you really unaware of Apple’s supremely fucked up approval process? The author even alludes to it in the opening paragraph, albeit in a half-assed manner.

By: Phoghat

Phoghat — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:59:56 +0000

Now, if you had a cat controller that worked, THAT would be amazing

By: jkahan

jkahan — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:09:44 +0000

I would be happy if Apple would just enable the keyboard profile in bluetooth…..

By: Zahid Lilani

Zahid Lilani — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:00:00 +0000

Maybe I am the only one who thinks that I can live with whatever iPhone has right now, it is a phone and I would like it to stay that way.

By: B

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:29:43 +0000

I’d love to see a zigbee radio built-in or as a dongle. Then your iPhone becomes the control panel for your home automation stuff (and some high-end a/v gear).

By: mlstotts

mlstotts — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:54:08 +0000

I’d like to see a case/screen protector that doubles as a clamshell with keypad so I can flip and dial a number old school style. Also keep an eye on phonehalo.com — very cool bluetooth enabled iPhone accessory coming soon.

By: Phil

Phil — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:44:34 +0000

I’m an iPhone developer and also applied for the hardware program, which involved a somewhat lengthy list of questions.

That was months ago and never heard anything back.

So, the dearth of add-ons doesn’t surprise me. Either somebody at Apple is asleep at the job or the arrogance level is so high that they approve a tiny handful of companies and don’t feel they have to even respond to the others.

By: Keith Forsythe

Keith Forsythe — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:57:37 +0000

Taxi Magic on the iPhone enables users to book and electronically pay for taxis. You simply register your credit card through the app, then text in your payment amount at the end of the ride. The driver gets notification to their computer in seconds and you get an electronic receipt emailed to you.

By: Pat Cappy

Pat Cappy — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:43:37 +0000

I’m more interested in function (though I thought you were too! “If you have a way, please let me know, it will be most helpful”)…

I don’t consider keying in appointments on my iphone practical in any case so I think Google Calendar is a perfectly valid solution. You seem to have more of a fundamentalist interest, but to each his own I suppose…

But most of all, frankly, bugger off you ungrateful sod…

By: Bharat Vasan

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:33:09 +0000

http://www.viper.com/SmartStart/

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:25:43 +0000

I think it’d be cool if there was a connector that allowed you to connect to the ECU control port of your car. Then people could make apps that let you check “engine light” error codes, and aftermarket vendors could release software to let you tune your ECU to support the parts you purchase from them… superchargers, cold air intakes etc. It’d be cheaper than all the different stand-alone devices on the market to do this job.

By: rjnerd

rjnerd — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:10:48 +0000

I call kludge – I want to use the built in calendar directly, not have to interact with some outside application… Its a simple thing for a calendar app to do, as shown by all the other calendars that provide it. They have done both a major and a minor release of the software, and one of the hardware since I got hold of my phone, they don’t have an excuse for leaving it out.

The whole point of gadgets like the iphone is convenience. Carry and interact with a single object, and a single UI, etc. A calendar is one of the core apps for digital assistants, it should be as feature inclusive as it can be.

Anyhow, thanks for confirming that the calendar lacks this as a native feature. Brian, can you say how you manage. (and using google’s calendar isn’t a valid answer)

By: Ken Maskrey

Ken Maskrey — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:06:17 +0000

We expect to have our PoS terminal/ credit-card reader commercially available in January 2010.It is actually working with live transactions right now. You can see it on the following site: http://www.pos4iphone.com/ezpos.html .
The video is a little bit rough, but you can get the idea. It works with CARD-PRESENT accounts on Authorize.Net, but not limited to any particular merchant. The price listed may be a bit high…the actual range is $149 to $199.

By: Pat Cappy

Pat Cappy — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:33:40 +0000

This can be accomplished with Google Calendar (which has the “first Tuesday of month”, etc., option and by syncing your Google calendar account as an exchange account (http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=138740&topic=14252) the appointments will appear. I find Google Sync extremely useful and generally add appointments with Google rather than the iphone.

By: Dimka

Dimka — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:07:48 +0000

they could have a home and/or portable console, preferably bluetooth.
It could act as a netbook with larger screen, larger physical keyboard and touchpad, card reader, front facing camera, good speakers, extra ports etc. Portable version can have extra battery.
I have seen a prototype of something similar, but it was not as good and it was vaporware.

By: Dw

Dw — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:12:58 +0000

You’re going to ask for an external THUMB keyboard??huh? The only major thing this device is lacking is the ability to plug in one of those foldable full siz keyboards from the PDA days. That would truly make it usable and is what most people I know are holding out for. FULL SIZE.

Also an external midi controller.

By: Atheer Al-Mandwee

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:47:48 +0000

my favourite out of these is the control pad thingy

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:44:35 +0000

Apple needs to allow bluetooth accessories for credit card processing like the printer/reader combo for the blackberry. This saves businesses almost 1/3 on debit cards because their customers can sign the sales draft. I had to keep my BB Bold because it would have cost me more to key in all those transactions.

http://www.mymerchantdirect.com/products/Blackberry-Credit-Card-Application-With-Printer-%26-Card-Reader.html

By: shinyhat

shinyhat — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:10:33 +0000

Agree. :D

By: rjnerd

rjnerd — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:27:20 +0000

How? Its easy to do the 5th of every month, and to do every tuesday or even every other tuesday, but I (and others including various FAQ’s) haven’t seen a way to do first tuesday of the month. (no you can’t do “every 4th tuesday, as some months have 5). If you have a way, please let me know, it will be most helpful.

By: murph

murph — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:18:14 +0000

i’m down with a SNES or Genesis to iPhone cable converter. silly looking, but the increase in controls would be SO worth it. NHL 94 on my iPhone? WIN!

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:11:12 +0000

How about a camera attachment that connects to the docking port and swivels. That way it could be used as a front facing camera for video chatting and also bring a long overdue camera to the iPod Touch? Even if it was only possible to enable on jailbroken phones/pods it could still sell well.

By: Barrett

Barrett — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:10:44 +0000

The Universal Remote may happen sooner rather than later on the iPhone without any extra accessories needed. Wi-Fi Direct was just announced and they say it can work with existing devices with just a firmware upgrade. Assuming your TV, Stereo, computer, DVD, etc come with a Wi-Fi chip, you could use your iPhone as a remote control via this new peer-to-peer Wi-Fi standard. I would imagine this technology will become pretty big in the next few years.

http://www.wi-fi.org/news_articles.php?f=media_news&news_id=909