gdgt

NOTIFICATIONS. At this point, that's all I care about. One could argue that if they're that annoying, turn them off. But there's something really nice and compelling about getting these push notifications and seeing a log of stuff that happened while you weren't paying attention to your phone.

I'd add that they should have some sort of improved lock screen. There's a lot of wasted real estate there (especially on the iPad) that could show me some important information.

Turn-by-turn nav would be nice.

I'm not sold on voice integration. As good as Google is at it, do people use it *that* much? I'm usually either in an office, or a noisy, public area (buses, streets, cafes) where doing some sort of voice search or command would be really awkward.

The top feature I've been asking for for years now hasn't gotten as much attention as the stuff that's horribly broken or way, way behind the competition (like notifications, OTA syncing and updates, etc.). What I'd really love to see Apple do in iOS 5 is built-in, developer independent app trials.

Apple's in-app purchasing system is an elegant solution for unlocking content (or potentially features), but it's not ideal for for going from trial to full version, namely because the concept centers around adding something additional to the app, not around trials (or trial periods).

That is to say, if you're a developer who wants to let users try out your app and you want to make sure that app gives the best possible impression, you probably don't want have some crappy "lite" version that's a weak, limited experience. In this case -- which I think is quite common -- the in-app purchasing system is of no use to you. (Marco from Instapaper had a really good post about why he dislikes lite apps and discontinued Instapaper Free: www.marco.org­/2011­/04­/28­/removed­-instapaper­-free )

If Apple mandated that all paid apps will now have free, built-in 24 hour (or ideally something more like one week) trials, it would actually solve a LOT of issues, and not only those of end-users (who research has shown are often hesitant to buy an app without being able to try it out first). Apple wins because it encourages purchasing and lets them dump a ton of cruft from the App Store, which can be a highly confusing experience when apps have multiple versions.

And developers would no longer have to maintain, version, and release multiple versions of their app; no longer worry that their free app was sapping revenue from their paid apps; no longer have to deal with shoehorning feature releases into the in-app purchasing model; and perhaps most importantly, be able to focus all their efforts on a single, awesome (money-making) app experience that users can confidently try on before buying.

The best part is all the pieces are already there. Apple already keeps track of, DRMs, and authorizes all apps sold in the App Store. It's literally a switch they can build in and flip in iOS that would shut off apps after their trial periods have expired. Honestly, I think built-in, mandated app trials have the potential be nearly as revolutionary for paid software as the existence of the App Store.