Are there many things forbidden by Apple on the iPhone?

Question

there are many things that look like they should be possible on the iPhone itself, but either they are forbidden by Apple, or they are not implemented (in the default apps), or I simply did not find them.

Here are some:

• Build a new playlist or edit/sort an existing playlist.
• Send or receive a file (or contact information, or an agenda item) by mail or Bluetooth.
• Download and save a music file into the library.
• Upload locally stored photo through a web site form (file selection controls are disabled in Safari)
• View source for web pages.
• Play streaming music while doing something else. You can sort of accomplish this with Safari, but you cannot use Safari while you're listening to the music.
• Use .vcf files (vCard, a file format for exchanging contact information.)

Did I miss them? Are there apps that have these features? Are there other 'missing' features?

Answer 1

I lot of the "missing" features are because when Apple started making apps, they wanted to have scaled-down versions of what you could do on a computer. This is clear if you look at the Human Interface Guidelines and the case study with iPhoto->Photos app. It is heavily rooted in the 80/20 principle - only 20% of our users are going to want things like Copy and Paste or Search Emails we aren't going to have that to start.

As we saw in 3.0 Apple introduced a lot of the "missing" features and I'm sure they'll do the same in 4.0. The thing isn't a phone, it's turning more and more into a computer in your pocket.

As for other missing features - some things are security concerns, some are in the interest of platform stability, some are due to there only being so many hours in a work day, some are related to the Human Interface story that Apple is trying to tell, some are to work with partners such as AT&T, and some are just business reasons.

Answer 2

You CAN make a new playlist, at least, I can on my iPod touch. when you go to playlists, there is always a playlist that's called 'on the go' which you can add, remove, and re-order songs from.

When you sync back to your PC, you can rename and edit the playlist.

Answer 3

IIRC there were some "undocumented" APIs that a large developer (google? AIM?) got into trouble for using...

Also they have a strict policy about "adult content" which has caused some developers trouble even when it was just data available via the web (and therefore available via safari on the phone.) IIRC, the eBay app ran into this and had to sensor seller IDs and product descriptions.

Answer 4

Google Voice. *cough*