Our iHopes for the New iPhone: Multitasking, Flash and More

Dear Steve Jobs: We're not saying our iPhones aren't awesome -- we're just saying there's some room to grow.

Apple announced Monday that it will give a sneak peek of the new generation of its iPhone software this week, when it's expected to preview what future models of the device will look like and what upgrades the company will install.

Here's what's on our wish list for the iPhone revamp:

Multitasking

iPhone's bread and butter is the "there's an app for that" strategy that has allowed users to do everything from find Waldo to pay their bills. The next step for iPhone? Allow us to complete two tasks at once. Whether it's listening to Pandora Radio while reading our e-mail or watching a YouTube video while checking the weather, iPhone users want to juggle.

Vertical swiping

The initial home screen layout is fine with us -- but scrolling through apps could be made more efficient if vertical swiping were enabled. Some iPhone users have hundreds of applications, and moving those apps around or looking for a particular app can be cumbersome with exclusively horizontal swiping. It's more intuitive to scroll up and down to look at your options rather than switch screens entirely on the horizontal model. And while we're on the subject of the home screen...

Organizational folders

Finding the Bank of America application among our 97 different versions of Tap Tap Revenge isn't always easy, a challenge that could be helped in part with the addition of home screen folders or, at least, better organization. Folders, for instance, for 'Games," "Music," "Food" and "Finance" apps could make organizing the iPhone a lot easier than dragging and dropping applications into order.

Better battery life

Blackberry users' favorite anti-iPhone rant, minus the AT&T "no service" gripe, is that the battery life for the Apple phone isn't great. We wholeheartedly agree. Using the phone for anything beyond basic text-messaging or calling functions zaps the iPhone's battery -- and our guess is that most iPhone users didn't pick up the $499 phone just to make a call or two.

Flash

The iPhone's browsing ability, in our opinion, is unmatched by any other smartphone on the market. The iPhone's biggest Web problem? Current iPhones aren't Flash-enabled. Thousands of sites and pieces of content aren't available without the program, a frustration for iPhone users accustomed to 24/7 Internet capability. We know there's a bit of an Adobe/Apple war, and we'd love a truce. We just want our Flash.

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