iPhone single inbox?

Dear Cupertino,

I love my iPhone. I love my Mail, I love my MobileMe (yes, I said that). However, I have 3 different email accounts on my iPhone that I have to check consistently. So here's my request. Please make a single Inbox. One Inbox for all accounts, just like in Mail.app so I can read and respond to all email all at once without having to constantly switch between email accounts on the iPhone.

You know, this is a short one, but a good one, and I'd like to see it just to save some time. That's be great.

Thanks!

Slavian + Joel Esler

That consumer-level Mac tower...

Dear Cupertino,

I don't like the Mac Pro. I know it's part of your clever marketing strategy to convince people to buy the Mac Pro when the iMac just doesn't cut the mustard, but really - the price is a little too steep. How about a headless Mac, not dissimilar to the Mac Mini, except make it like a Mac Pro Mini type setup - let us upgrade components on our consumer-level Mac tower.

This new consumer-level Mac tower - it'll be like a Mac Pro, but for the average consumer - for those that think the Mac Pro is the epitome of overkill for those that just want to fiddle around with the internals of their Mac, while keeping the stability and security of OSX - Mac users don't want to hack around just to get OSX to work on an illegitimate OSX box!

Dear Cupertino, we just want a consumer-level Mac tower with user-serviceable parts! Give us easy access to the CPU, RAM, HDDs, PCIe cards, and we'll be all set!

Why Apple haven't bothered to make one of these in the past has just been a complete mystery to me - surely they understand that computer users see the need to upgrade every couple of months if they want to stay at the forefront, and always have the "latest and greatest" technology around.

Heck, I'd even accept Apple-supplied hardware upgrade kits (which would essentially dictate what hardware I am, and am not, allowed to put into my machine - which would be fine by me as long as the hardware range was wide and varied) for this consumer-level Mac tower!

We'll even give you the base spec list - and from there, [Jonathan] Ive can think up an awesome design to go with it - completing the Apple package we all know and love.

Just don't name it the xMac - nothing else could be more stupid except maybe Mac Pro Mini... or Mini Mac Pro...

Thanks,
Benny Ling.

Original image credit: On a Mac

iChat Media

Dear Cupertino,

I love iChat, I really, really do.

I love how I can easily constantly stay in touch with my friends and family through audio, video, and text chat.

I love how I can easily share my screen with a friend on the other side of the globe who's having an issues with their Mac - that way, I can show them what they should see when they click on what button, or vice versa - they can show me what they see when they click on some button.

I especially love how I can give a friend a Keynote presentation through iChat Theatre - that way, my friend can tell me how to improve on my public speaking skills.

However, one of the features I'd love to be added to iChat is the Media tab. The Media tab would be my one-stop-shop for everything that I could interact with, say, photos that I wanted to send to a friend, or a picture that I'd like to set as my display picture.

From the Media tab, I'd have instantaneous access to everything I've ever sent to anyone, anything I've ever received (much like the file transfers list now), but also the options to send a new file, or share a new movie trailer.

The Media tab seems like another no-brainer - one of those features that should have been there in the first place, but isn't.

Thanks,
Dan Katz.

iPod Visualizer

Dear Cupertino,

I wish the iPod had a visualizer. If iTunes has it, and most other media players on the market have it, I see no reason why the iPod doesn't have it.

Even if it were something that we could look at and go 'ooh' and 'aah' while we're playing our music, even something as simple as constantly changing album art (ala the iTunes Artwork screen saver in Mac OS X) would suffice.

Thanks,
Dear Cupertino Reader.

Editorial note: I think I know why Apple hasn't added a visualizer to the iPod's growing list of features... Battery life is the main concern here. If you take a look at your CPU usage when you've got the iTunes visualizer turned on, you'll see that it does take up a decent amount of CPU time - something that impacts on how much battery life you have. Of course, in a portable device such as the iPod and even the iPhone, battery life is paramount - so features that unnecessarily eat CPU are cut out. I'm sure if you somehow manage to take a look inside the iPod OS, you'll see code that is as efficient as possible - all to save those magical clock cycles.

AppleTV Improvements

Dear Cupertino,

A software upgrade for the AppleTV wasn't enough - now we want a hardware refresh!

In the next revision of the AppleTV, I'd like to see:

1. An integrated OLED screen - so you can watch movies on the go, or just as a secondary screen showing diagnostics, statistics, and so on.
2. An integrated cable card - so we don't have to have other devices to plug into our TV, and then frantically switch between them when a show we like is airing - which brings me to my next point.
3. An SSD PVR/DVR - for the AppleTV to truly become a home entertainment system, it's got to have the capabilities of one. Streaming and playing local media just doesn't cut the mustard anymore. I want to be able to record TV for watching at a later time.
4. Integrated Blu-Ray/DVD player. Let's face it - HD-DVD is dead, and so Apple should be leading the crowd with support for Blu-Ray playback.
5. A full version of Safari for us couch-surfers. Want to look up a review of that movie that's just about to air? Jump on IMDB. Want to see what your website looks like your 50" plasma? Safari.
6. If we're going to be couch surfers, we need the controls to be able to be so. Include a bluetooth keyboard, and an iPod Nano-style remote, and we'll be laughing - or crying, depending on the movie...

Thanks,
Dear Cupertino Reader

(This post was submitted by a reader)

A New member of the team

Today Chandler and I added a new member to the Dear Cupertino Team.  Benny Ling!

Benny runs a blog over at www.freshbytes.com.au, so make sure you check out his posts over there.

Thanks Benny and Welcome!

Apple Anti-virus

Dear Cupertino,

With the increased marketshare comes increased risk, and even though nothing is proven to be "in the wild" yet, it doesn't mean it won't be someday soon. You guessed it: I want integrated, or at least Apple-supplied Anti-Virus either with the OS, or via AppleCare. (Really, everyone should be buying AppleCare anyway, so I see this as a natural fit.)

I think this would be great for a few reasons, but principal among would be that viruses exploit issues with OS, which, in my opinion, makes it the OS vendor's problem. If Apple released integrated anti-virus (and especially if they did it really well) it would send a message to other OS vendors that there is a responsible way to handle the weaknesses of their own products. It would also say to their customers, "We know, a lot of you bought Macs because you didn't want to worry about Viruses, and we're going to keep it that way."

Now, I know that people are going to complain that it'll be undercutting the newly burgeoning Mac Security industry, but here's how I see it:
Every time I use a windows PC I am disgusted by how completely their security software dominates the user experience, constantly asking if something is allowed to do something else, throwing up little alerts and flags, telling them they're at risk, or interrupting what you're doing to do scans, download updates, or tell you that your anti-virus subscription is running out. It's poorly integrated, clumsy, and I would estimate that a HUGE number of users don't even read the warnings, instead simply clicking whatever makes the message go away.

So why would Apple, a company who obviously spends a ton of time and money designing and improving the user experience, encourage some other company, to whom "user experience design" probably extends no further than making cute icons for their buttons, fuck it all up?

If anyone can do it right, it's Apple. They're already indexing our files on a regular basis with Spotlight, and cataloging changes with Time Machine, so it would seem simple to compare those files to a list of known threats, eliminate the offenders, and simultaneously remove them from Time Machine backups and restore any files and settings that got screwed up by the offender.

That's my wish: Dear Cupertino, please give us Apple Anti-Virus and shut those whiny Windows-Users up for good.

Thanks!

Jon Sandruck