Three Wishes for the iPhone 7

There's no doubt that the iPhone is one of the most popular consumer devices ever made, but to some extent it may be a victim of its own success. We now have all the screen sizes we need, from 4 inches to 5.5 inches, and all of them have pixels so small that adding more won't make the image any sharper to the human eye. The processors are fast enough for any application you might want to run, and the cellular, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth radios deliver enough connectivity options and bandwidth. All iPhone models have fingerprint recognition and Apple Pay capability, and battery capacity is good enough for most people to get through their entire day without concern.

So what new features can Apple put into the next iteration of the iPhone to keep the platform fresh and compel current users to upgrade? Certainly another bump in processor speed or memory capacity isn't going to be very interesting, although it is probably inevitable. If I could ask for three enhancements, these are what they would be.

Wish #1: WiGig

Apple should add a new radio capability to the iPhone 7 called WiGig. Also known as 802.11ad, this technology uses the 60 GHz frequency band to transmit data at up to 7Gb/s. It won't replace your LTE or Wi-Fi connection, because these high frequency signals can't pass through walls, but it will provide several valuable capabilities.

The most immediately useful of these is the ability to watch movies streamed right from your phone to your TV in full fidelity with no messy cables or adapters. Imagine, taking your iPhone into the family room, opening up the Netflix app, and playing a 4K movie to your big screen TV without juggling remote controls. Then imagine going over to a friend's house and watching that same movie on his TV. You can try this today with AirPlay over Wi-Fi, but the video may be choppy and 4K resolution is not supported so it's 1080P at best. This might be the set top box killer we've all been waiting for.

It will also allow video games to display on the TV while using the iPhone as a controller. As an option, a Bluetooth game controller can be coupled to the iPhone to allow a more conventional game console experience where the iPhone replaces the console completely.

WiGig can allow the iPhone to drive a tablet display when you need more screen real estate; for example, while reading a magazine or book. The user can interact with the tablet while their iPhone is sitting on their desk or nestled in their pocket. Apple could create a 'dumbed down' version of the iPad for this, or just add this capability into new iPads.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it will allow the iPhone to be used with a high-resolution desktop monitor. When coupled with a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, this could allow your iPhone to be your only computer. Apps could be extended to support a mouse, just as they have been extended to support a pencil on the iPad Pro. You would never have to sync your iPhone with your PC because all of the data would stay on the iPhone. Imagine traveling without a laptop computer, just using available WiGig terminals in hotels, offices, and other workspaces when you need a more traditional PC interface.

Wish #2: Visual Unlock

While the fingerprint reader has been a useful addition to the iPhone, I think we all have experienced the frustration of it not working from time to time, as well as the awkwardness of using it when your hands are full, dirty, covered in gloves, or just not conveniently positioned.

Apple should use the front-facing camera to enable the iPhone to be unlocked visually, by examining your facial features and getting enough of a sample with small movements and eye blinks to know that it's not being fed a static image.

Wish #3: Remove the Connectors

It's time to eliminate the anachronism of electrical sockets. The iPhone's Lightning connector and the 3.5mm audio jack should be removed, because there's just no need for them anymore.

Getting rid of these metal sockets will allow more freedom in physical design and, with minor changes to cover the volume, mute, sleep, and home buttons, allow the phone to survive serious encounters with water and dirt. Imagine not worrying about taking your iPhone to the beach or pool. Imagine being able to clean your phone by sticking it under running water.

The audio jack is made redundant by Bluetooth. I'm sure this will make some audiophiles choke, but for the vast majority of people Bluetooth is a better option because it is free of cables and provides comparable audio quality at the range of a normal headphone cable.

The Lightning connector can be eliminated by adding inductive charging to the iPhone; just lay the phone on top of a charger to top up the battery. Besides charging, the only other reason for Lightning is fast data transfer, but WiGig has that covered.

I'm sure this suggestion will elicit gasps from those who believe that this will upset users with legacy Lightning devices, but it's easy to imagine a WiGig to Lightning/USB adapter that can keep them out of the scrap heap.

Wrapping Up

It's time for some serious innovation in the iPhone family, and at this point that means Apple needs some extreme focus on key features that will really make these devices better and more useful for the majority of their customer base.

Distracted Driving: Let's Slay the Monster We Created

Almost every day we see it: Someone in one of the cars around you moving down the road at high speed with their attention focused on their smartphone instead of the traffic around them. It's a global phenomenon, and there's no sign of it decreasing in frequency despite all the laws against it. According to distraction.gov, the official US government website for distracted driving, 3,179 people were killed and 431,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers in the USA during 2014. The World Health Organization predicts that by 2030, road traffic injuries will be the fifth leading cause of death globally, surpassing AIDS, diabetes, violence, and all forms of cancer. Yet with all that carnage, the site goes on to say: "The best way to end distracted driving is to educate all Americans about the danger it poses."

As a technologist, this is appalling to me. This problem exists because of the smartphone and mobile network technology we have created, and has grown because of the improvements we have made to that technology specifically so that all of us can be connected at all times, everywhere. Yet our best solution is to try to convince people that they shouldn't do the very thing that the technology was designed to enable!

I can't accept that, and I think we need to devise and implement technological solutions for this technological problem. Certainly people can and will continue to eat, drink, groom themselves, and engage in other distracting activities while driving, but I think we all agree that very few of these have the same distractive capacity as messages and other notifications that are actively pushed to your device at random times during the day causing it to flash, shake, and make all kinds of noises to get your attention.

The solution seems obvious: Simply stop the driver's phone from creating or allowing distractions while the vehicle is moving. Unfortunately, a logical examination of that approach leads to another set of problems that are not easily addressed:

• How do you know that the user is driving and not just a passenger in a car, bus, or train?
• What applications are allowed? Should the driver be able to have a voice conversation over Bluetooth? Should they be able to have a voice interaction with Siri, Alexa, or Cortana? What about Google Maps? Pandora radio? How do you allow some interactions and prevent others?
• How do you disable the driver's phone yet allow the passengers' phones to continue normal operation? People have multiple cars, multiple devices, and people also rent and share cars, so this is not straightforward.
• How do you deal with people who actively try to bypass or override the control mechanisms?

This used to be a problem related solely to text messaging, and perhaps could have been addressed through controlling SMS delivery in the mobile operator networks, but now it's about mobile applications over the Internet. Since you cannot disable Internet service without making the device completely useless, the solution must lie with the device manufacturers and the automobile manufacturers. I don't know what the answer is, but I believe it will involve a few specific technological components. 

First, every mobile device must be able to transition into a Driver Mode that limits its capabilities. For example, screen input may be disabled and only voice interaction permitted. Applications will have to be qualified to operate in this mode, and if not they will be disabled by the device operating system.

Second, every automobile must be able to provide information to the device that would allow it to engage and disengage Driver Mode at appropriate times, such as when the car is put into or taken out of a drive gear, or when the car is in motion or stopped.

The automobile could also assist or take over engagement with the driver in more intelligent ways, perhaps via technologies such as Apple's CarPlay or Google's Android Auto. It's certainly better to present visual information on the car's dashboard or infotainment display than require the driver to look at their phone's screen, and it's also better to present audio information over the car's speakers than those on the phone. In today's world where every smartphone can use Bluetooth and screen sharing, this should not be a big leap.

Finally, there will have to be some solution for dealing with multiple devices in the car. One approach may be to have each device's location precisely analyzed to determine which one is nearest the driver's position. Another may be for the car to detect all devices and force one to be placed into Driver Mode with the notion that passengers would object to having their phone disabled by the driver.

There are a few technical solutions available now, such as CellControl, but these are mainly for teen drivers and require parents to install and configure hardware in the car and applications on their child's phone. Most adults would never voluntarily install this kind of control, and could choose to opt out of it whenever they wanted. 

I think this problem is serious enough that phone and car manufacturers should get together and agree to a solution that works, and ensure that the technology is standardized, documented, and freely licensed. A subset of drivers will try to circumvent the solution, but the majority of drivers will probably appreciate the improved interaction and integration between their phones and cars and never look back.

If you have any thoughts on this important problem, please share them!