Courtesy of JorgenSmith

Time for a rant.

Seriously folks, I’m about to do it. I’m toying with the idea of ditching my iPhone for an Android handset.

iOS is starting to look extremely antiquated. A grid of icons? How very Palm Pilot circa 1999.

The notifications system is a joke. Multitasking is half-baked. Accessing basic system settings is restricted from app developers and cumbersome at best for end users. I seriously worry that Apple is ending up in the same place they were with the PC market: break out with an world-changing product then fall behind.

The only innovative thing about iPhone 4 was the retina display. And don’t talk to me about FaceTime – it’s a gimmick backed by overly dramatic advertising.

iOS 4 was a minor bump in functionality (congratulations, you can now change the background on your homescreen) but nothing even close to “Holy cow that’s awesome. They’re totally pushing the envelope here.”

I hate to say it, but Apple needs to spend a little less time making sure you can’t see pixels on your icons and a little more time looking at functionality.

Function over Form

Today I came across an Android application called Tasker (you can read a review here). For $6 it will do pretty much anything you want to your phone. What do I mean by that?

Using a series of “if, then” processes, you can get your phone to behave however you want, whenever you want, wherever you want.

“When I go to the movie theater, dim the screen by 50%, turn off WiFi, Bluetooth and 3G. Silence the ringer, put the phone on vibrate and only ring/notify me if the call or text it comes from the babysitter’s number.”

Or…

“If I place my phone face down on a surface while at work, forward my calls and stop checking for email.”

Or…

“I want my alarm clock to go off at 7:00 AM, play X song, turn on WiFi and stop call forwarding. Turn on text message notifications, check all email and social networking accounts. Open my to-do list then tell me ‘David, you’re  a handsome rock star but you need to get out of bed.’ Only do this on weekdays for the month of August.”

Kind of like this:

It’s basically Tony Stark’s bedroom window. But on your phone. And without the blond skank.

For $6.

And it’s only available on Android phones.

This is the kind of killer app I keep looking for Apple to come up with – or at least enable others to come up with.