What would constitute a revolutionary feature on a mobile phone?

[God Mode]

SOC embedded into your body with only a wireless display to look at information. If you're rich, you can have retina surgery to forgo the handheld display unit altogether.

 

[rumpleforeskin]

Holograms with haptic feedback...

I know, its not gonna happen in my lifetime but that would be revolutionary.

 

[compcons]

Universal blutooth connection to a standard car touchscreen interface. Allows you to get into your car and use "car friendly" features like NAV and voice while driving. Any car, Any phone.

Also, multiple phone numbers to receive and make calls from. I would love to be able to get rid of my work device and retain my psersonal and work numbers on one device such that I can toggle which I call from. For that matter, it would be nice to be able to maintain a pen of phones and when you pop in 1 or more SIM cards, they become your phone(s) while you have it.

EH

 

[tdawg]

Never again seeing, "this content is not available for your device".

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

THe iphone doesn't even have NFC, it's playing catchup to android. Android is where the revolution is. And don't tell me NFC is useless when you iFans probably don't even know what NFC tags are.

NFC is overrated. That's what it is.

First of all, it's not accepted everywhere.

Secondly, you need to pull out your phone, unlock it, unlock the app, pick the CC to use. One can do that with a wallet just as quickly.

Thirdly, you need to carry your wallet still because you're not going to go completely cashless or completely without an ATM card. Maybe if you KNEW you were just going to the drug store and that's the only stop, but it's not going to change how you go out with your friends for a day.

Fourth, you're going to have idiots standing in line using their phone til its time to check out. You expect everyone to have their NFC app opened, CC selected, ready to go the minute it's time for them? I bet you not. I wonder why there are stores that tell you not to use your phone in line, because you'll be unaware your surroundings and you're likely to hold up the line when it's your turn.

Fifth, all the proponents of NFC on this board cited Asia. Do you even know how Asia uses NFC? I've been to Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, South Korea, and Japan, which all use NFC. They use them in subway cards. How many people there swipe their credit cards at 7-11s? McDonalds? Practically NO ONE. You need cash to get around there. Your NFC on your Android phone is not going to work with a subway card. BTW, those subway cards are so popular they accept them at McDonalds and many other stores. But they function like debit cards essentially there, but obviously don't operate using the same protocol as a Visa debit. So once agian. Good luck on using your Galaxy Nexus in Taiwan to get on the subway.

Sixth, it's a gimmick feature. I wouldn't mind having it on my phone, but I used a Nexus S for a year. It doesn't even officially support Wallet, and when I tried to sideload it, I got some stupid carrier not allowed crap.

Maybe what I'm speaking out against is NFC in its current state, but given how it is right now, I don't think it shows itself as very promising in general.

 

[WelshBloke]

NFC is overrated. That's what it is.

First of all, it's not accepted everywhere.

Secondly, you need to pull out your phone, unlock it, unlock the app, pick the CC to use. One can do that with a wallet just as quickly.

Thirdly, you need to carry your wallet still because you're not going to go completely cashless or completely without an ATM card. Maybe if you KNEW you were just going to the drug store and that's the only stop, but it's not going to change how you go out with your friends for a day.

Fourth, you're going to have idiots standing in line using their phone til its time to check out. You expect everyone to have their NFC app opened, CC selected, ready to go the minute it's time for them? I bet you not. I wonder why there are stores that tell you not to use your phone in line, because you'll be unaware your surroundings and you're likely to hold up the line when it's your turn.

Fifth, all the proponents of NFC on this board cited Asia. Do you even know how Asia uses NFC? I've been to Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, South Korea, and Japan, which all use NFC. They use them in subway cards. How many people there swipe their credit cards at 7-11s? McDonalds? Practically NO ONE. You need cash to get around there. Your NFC on your Android phone is not going to work with a subway card. BTW, those subway cards are so popular they accept them at McDonalds and many other stores. But they function like debit cards essentially there, but obviously don't operate using the same protocol as a Visa debit. So once agian. Good luck on using your Galaxy Nexus in Taiwan to get on the subway.

Sixth, it's a gimmick feature. I wouldn't mind having it on my phone, but I used a Nexus S for a year. It doesn't even officially support Wallet, and when I tried to sideload it, I got some stupid carrier not allowed crap.

Maybe what I'm speaking out against is NFC in its current state, but given how it is right now, I don't think it shows itself as very promising in general.

While I don't think NFC is vital it is used for more than just payments.
You can set up a lot of location aware automation using it.

 

[ponyo]

Foldable phone with a screen you can fold or expand as needed. Samsung is working on bendable screen. I can see this possible in the future.

 

[hasu]

Mentioning the features here will make it non-patentable, correct?

 

[pandemonium]

Don't worry, Apple will patent it anyways.

 

[PeeluckyDuckee]

I was hoping the iPhone 5 would be a world phone, for me to even remotely consider switching back. But the 4" screen, without any additional width, makes it odd for me to use. By making it taller but not wider means Apple is covering their bases, playing it safe, and accommodating to the lowest common denominator of consumers (those with smaller hands). By going the way Apple has, then can reap the benefit of saying they've enlarged their display, while still be able attract users of all hand sizes.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I was hoping the iPhone 5 would be a world phone, for me to even remotely consider switching back. But the 4" screen, without any additional width, makes it odd for me to use. By making it taller but not wider means Apple is covering their bases, playing it safe, and accommodating to the lowest common denominator of consumers (those with smaller hands). By going the way Apple has, then can reap the benefit of saying they've enlarged their display, while still be able attract users of all hand sizes.

They're pretty close. Considering how fragmented the frequencies are, I think they got pretty close. Supposedly the CDMA one is the most compatible (but not with AT&T LTE). Given Verizon's track history of not unlocking crap, I'm not sure if you can buy an unlocked one and use it on any network.

 

[BassBomb]

1080p screen

insane battery life

amazing call quality

killer camera

etc

also features that arent in mainstream that can be brought into mainstream (LTE is nice, but not revolutionary)

 

[pandemonium]

I don't understand the need for the PPI race. How close are you people holding your phones to your faces?! Anything beyond 300PPI seems completely wasted to me.

 

[Zaap]

While I don't think NFC is vital it is used for more than just payments.
You can set up a lot of location aware automation using it.

Yeah, I've been reading of a lot of creative uses on xda I can't wait to emulate. Like a simple NFC tag task-launcher for my car dock, or anywhere else I want to have phone settings-by-location.

 

[BassBomb]

I don't understand the need for the PPI race. How close are you people holding your phones to your faces?! Anything beyond 300PPI seems completely wasted to me.

To be honest, depending on the size of the screen we may be reaching the bounds for our eyes... however it would constitute revolutionary to have an insane amount of pixels or ppi on a phone no?

I'd say a better revolutionary feature would be a display with killer contrast or back lighting that you see on today's monitors

Bulletproof smooth UI's with good battery life too

 

[Belegost]

To be honest, depending on the size of the screen we may be reaching the bounds for our eyes... however it would constitute revolutionary to have an insane amount of pixels or ppi on a phone no?

I'd say a better revolutionary feature would be a display with killer contrast or back lighting that you see on today's monitors

Bulletproof smooth UI's with good battery life too

Honestly, no. Shoving more pixels into an inch is not revolutionary, unless it comes with some sort of ocular implant to give me magnification so I can see the pixels, otherwise it's just a lot of engineering that won't actually be seen.

Revolutionary - something along the lines of color e-ink or mirasol - but with better lighting for dark environments, 60Hz refresh rate and really saturated colors. I want something that looks like a good OLED in the dark, and a color photograph in the sunlight.

More Revolutionary - lifestyle awareness, my phone knows where I am, and knows my schedule, so if I have a meeting on my calendar, and I'm in the office, it should automatically muffle alerts.

Along with this, when someone calls and I'm busy a message should be played informing them, if they feel their call is important enough they should be able to request the call go through, otherwise go to voicemail. Or even just the ability to flag a message as critical so that the alerts are more insistent.

Along with this would be a hierarchical contact list, with different levels of ability for contacts to send override - for instance my wife should always be able to get through to me, and always be able to send critical message priority. However that friend going through a divorce who feels like I want to hear about everything his ex is doing 3 times a day would not be able to at all.

Overall it seems like my phone should be able to act almost like a secretary for me, and help organize communications to fit my work and personal life.

 

[pandemonium]

Intuitive AI, as it were, is incredibly difficult to program, because there's going to be a million if scenarios that will not be accounted for. And it only takes a few if scenarios to completely ruin a typical customer's experience with a gadget, as most people are impatient with things not working as ideally envisioned.

 

[Fx1]

Reports are alredy coming in abou the iphone 5 back cover edges wearing off and looking like shiny crap. haha

Epic fail Apple. Didnt you know that the Macbook Pros have had this problem for years? So you went and put a black coating on Silver aluminium on the edges of the part that always hits the table. Sounds like they didnt use anodising because that would have held up.


Definitely off-topic and possibly trolling
Please keep it on topic - which is new cell phone device features.

Moderator PM

 

[WelshBloke]

Reports are alredy coming in abou the iphone 5 back cover edges wearing off and looking like shiny crap. ha ha...

Shens or link.