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A Wish List for Apple

It’s a living document!
Last updated: 2024-03-22

Hardware

  • A compact Magic Keyboard with Touch ID with a silver frame and black keys
  • New game console-competitive Apple TV
  • A HomePod with a screen, perfect for the kitchen
  • A standalone Apple camera with vastly improved optical quality that integrates with iCloud Photos and the rest of their image pipeline
  • A pair of smart glasses a la Meta Ray-Bans that include hands-free photography and wireless speakers
  • AirPods (4th gen) that fit similarly to the second-generation models with tap-to-control, some noise cancellation magic, improved audio quality and more

Software

  • 🔜 A Siri that doesn’t suck.®
  • Let me use the full maps application on iPhone when navigating with CarPlay rather it being stuck on the text directions
  • Let me choose the destination quick options when searching for a stop in CarPlay
  • Option to sync CarPlay’s app home screen layout between cars
  • 🔜 Lock any app or folder of apps with passcode/FaceID
  • Pinned playlists in Music
  • PiP video for Apple News videos
  • ‘Quick Open’ in more apps (based on Files Go-To menu? CMD-Shift-G)
  • Smart rotation lock (based on face recognition?) that can be specified per app
  • 🔜 Health widgets with trends
  • 🔜 Shortcuts actions for TV app (and/or widget to search TV app)
  • System-wide highlighting (bonus points for allowing to hook into an API like Readwise)
  • Option to pull notification settings from other devices using iCloud upon app install
  • When adding shortcuts to folders, add them to the bottom so as not to disrupt widgets and other shortcuts that mirror the folder’s order
  • Clipboard manager support for iOS/iPadOS
  • SF symbols everywhere
  • 🔜 ‘Add to Control Center’ option for Shortcuts
  • Fix handed-off music playback via third-party apps and widgets
  • Dismiss Share Sheet after completing a shortcut (could be an action to be added in the shortcut)
  • Reorder spotlight results (Again. When did this go missing?)
  • Multiple conversations with the same person in Messages
  • Make the Now Playing app on Apple Watch launch to the currently playing audio regardless of device. I don’t need an empty Now Playing for audio on the Apple Watch if my nearby iPad or Apple TV is playing something.
  • Let me name Shortcuts Automations
  • Select arbitrary shortcuts for medium and large Shortcuts widgets rather than just the first few shortcuts in a folder
  • Make running shortcuts on the Apple Watch vastly faster, require fewer confirmations, and build out more actions that can change settings on the watch itself rather than changing a paired iPhone’s settings
  • Overhaul Notification Center in general, starting with syncing dismissed notification and usable button targets. It’s sucked since Big Sur.
  • 🔜 Bring on a Passwords/Credentials/Authentication app
  • Always-on system extensions to iOS/iPadOS to enable things like third-party clipboard managers, text expansion, and launcher apps
  • Music app overhaul that focuses on speed, Handoff support, and slicing and dicing my music library
  • A compelling fitness story for the Vision Pro
  • Gotta let me turn off the ‘Hide My Email’ feature; I never use it and it gets in the way
  • Capturing and sending photos in Messages has to be fast; it’s very slow right now
  • An Apple web search engine
  • Dynamic wallpapers in iOS like macOS
  • Map view while exercising in Watch Workout app
  • Map view in cycling workout view live activity thing on iPhone
  • An API for developers to implement hyper-realistic voices for easy text-to-speech use (gotta be close in this Age of AI, right?)
  • iOS-like custom app icons for macOS. Right now the custom icon is only visible when the app is running and reverts to its default in the Dock when quit.
  • Allow shortcuts to be tagged so that they can live in multiple smart folders. Oh, and add customizable smart folders.
  • Let shared Reminders lists be put into folders even if they don’t have the same shared settings. I want to consolidate all my wish lists from family members, but can’t because they’re all shared with different sets of people.
  • Better control over iOS clipboard access.
  • Pause a Maps route for brief stops without losing destination, shared ETAs, etc.

Services

  • In-person group workout support in Fitness+ (multiple Watch metrics on screen, both get credit)
  • Personal training plans, like a working up to a marathon, that adapt over time to your actual performance and workouts

Initiatives

  • Overhaul of Bug Bounty Program with promises of faster turnaround and better communication/transparency
  • Overhaul of Feedback/Radar system with promises of better communication/transparency (The Casey Liss request)
Granted in 2024
  • 👍 Solution for cloud gaming services in the App Store
  • 👍 Improvements to in-app purchases with third-party payment processing
  • 👍 An iPad Magic Keyboard with media/function keys and a bigger trackpad
Granted in 2023
  • 👍 Preview of AR/VR headset
  • 👍 Mac Pro gets a reveal
  • 👍 Downloadable Offline Maps
  • 👍 Extensions and Safari shortcuts actions available in Safari View Controller
  • 👍 Overhaul widgets on macOS. They suck being constrained to Notification Center
  • 👍 Allow alternate launch phrases for shortcuts for Siri (like synonyms for menu items)
  • 👍 Family-sharing support for passwords and passkeys
  • 👍 On-device transcription (offline) for watchOS
Granted in 2022
  • 👍 A better solution for status icons on the watch face. These are not so persistent now.
  • 👍 Multi-stop planning in maps.
  • 👍 Better Family Sharing for Photos.
  • 👍 Useful external monitor support in iPadOS.
Granted in 2021
  • 👍 Speak workout status over headphones on watchOS. Horray!
  • 👍 Shortcuts app for macOS.
  • 👍 A refinement, if not overhaul, of multitasking. (The iPad got new multitasking keyboard shortcuts, gestures, and flexibility, but it’s all built upon the previous foundation rather than reimagined.)
  • 👍 App Library and Widgets on the Home Screen of iPadOS.

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