Mark Smitka

6 More Things the Next iPhone Needs

I ran 3.0 beta 5 briefly on my iPhone, and was happy to see cut/copy/paste, landscape mode SMS and e-mail, etc, but there are a few software and hardware changes that Apple needs to bring to the iPhone. Whether or not they'll be present in the new iPhone device/3.0, I'm not sure.  I am sure that they're long overdue:

1. An external notification light. Maybe the Home button can pulse/glow, or maybe they can add a simple LED somewhere else on the phone, but seriously, people need to be able to look at their iPhone across the room, and know if they've missed a call, SMS, or e-mail message. Making users grab the phone, press a button, and slide to unlock to look for badge notifications is just absurd.
2. Home screen or menu-bar notifications.  Both have been available via jailbreak for a long time. Once I do unlock the phone, I want to see a summary of what I missed (and appointments, to-do tasks) right there.
3. A user configurable dictionary, where I can add unique words, spellings, and custom words.  If I type "What's new" a lot, being able to have it auto-spelled from "wn", would save time and keystrokes.
4. A MicroSD card slot.  What's the big deal with this? It disrupts the seamless/artistic/smooth design of the device?  Give me a break. That's easily offset by the convenience (and cost savings) of making one phone variant, and allowing users the ability to upgrade memory as they see fit.
5. Give me the flexibility to change all UI sounds. Who can really hear that e-mail notification sound, unless you're sitting in a library with the phone in your top shirt pocket?  I can change ringtones, why not the other sounds.
6. Let me add a background image to the phone - not just the lock screen wallpaper. Is the OS so fragile that a simple wallpaper is going to crash it? Come on Apple.  This is an absolute no-brainer.

Give me what's already known to be coming in 3.0, and what's on that list, and I'm pretty sure the iPhone would be a second-to-none device.

KFC Montgomeryville PA: Terrible Service

I went to KFC today (the Montgomeryville PA, KFC/A&W Combo store), hoping to get a 3 piece grilled chicken meal. The fact that the "This store is cleaned and maintained by _______" sign was about to fall off the wall, should have been my first clue that I was in for a bad experience:

1. The wait time for a line of just a few people, was far too long.  I probably spent 5-10 minutes in line before my order was taken.
2. Once my order was taken (that part of the process wasn't too bad), I stood and waited at least another 5 minutes, while a seemingly nice, but very confused order picker fumbled over the order filling process for the people in front of me.
3. When it came time to fill my order (not when I ordered, of course), I was then told that there wasn't any more grilled chicken, and that it would take approximately 6 minutes.  Not wanting to spend 6 "KFC minutes" (probably 15 real minutes) standing there, I asked for regular recipe chicken instead.
4. I ordered corn on the cob as one of my sides, but of course that wouldn't be up front with the rest of the sides. The order picker vanished to the "back room", and returned with what I later found to be a room temperature ear of corn.  Yeah, it was cooked (to the point of being mush-on-a-cob), but it was lukewarm at best.

So, here's a few tips for the KFC/A&W/Yum restaurant folks:

• This is supposed to be fast food, but the process is only as fast as the slowest person in the process. Hire people that can look at your food products, recognize them, and fill and order in a timely manner. An awful lot of people are unemployed, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding good people.
• Find a way to manage your inventory of food products, so that guests aren't surprised to find that what they ordered will be delayed.
• Don't ever have someone go into the "back room" for food. It just looks tacky.
• Do whatever it takes to get your guests in and out of line, with what they came in for, in a reasonable amount of time.

I think it'll be a long time before I visit a KFC restaurant again.