Mail Call.
March 29th, 2008
With all of this talk about iPhone’s 2.0 release this summer, I must say that I’m quite excited about what the future holds for all of present and future Jesusphone owners out there. Tapping into the creative minds of larger companies along with independent software developers on a level playing field is going to produce some truly compelling applications for the iPhone, that’s for sure. However, while we all drool over what possibilities exist come ‘late June’, I have a bone to pick with the current version of Apple’s Mail application for the iPhone. I hope that by the time version 2.0 ships, they spend some time shoring up the issues making it’s mail client quite sub par.
One of the main issues that I have is pretty minor, but very annoying. There is not one ‘mailbox to rule them all’. In other words, there should be a default inbox that collects mail from all of the accounts that you have on your phone, and display them intermingled with one another. This behavior is no different from the desktop version of their mail application, and I personally feel that if this sort of behavior would work well anywhere, it’d be on the iPhone. It should not take 3 or 4 taps to get from one accounts’ inbox to another.
To fix this problem, Apple could add a toolbar at the bottom of the mail interface. Imagine a ‘toolbar’ at the bottom, similar to the one you see in the iPod application. It could be totally customizable to allow users to make the application work the way they need it to, just as the iPod application does. I simply dragged a few mail.app icons into this mockup, so don’t judge it on it’s artistic merits too terribly much, but I think the point is still made. A quick way to have a general inbox that shows all of your mail from all of your accounts would be super helpful. Additionally, there could be links to a main accounts page, your notes, to-do items, and even links to specific folders on IMAP servers if you like.
If Apple does not want to approach their problem this way, they could at least add a preference into mail that allows you to choose what happens when you tap the mail icon. For example, it could either it can go to the last viewed email (the current, and default behavior), or you can go to the main accounts screen. This way, users with multiple accounts can at least access any account relatively quickly.
Fingers crossed for a massive update this summer.
Technorati Tags:
applications, macintosh, iPhone, software
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March 29th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
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