I’ve just been reading through an iPhone Alley post on a set of new Apple patent applications, including one that deals with re-arranging a home screen, and covers the organization of widgets on the iPhone and iPod touch. It got me thinking on how I might like to be able to change the iPhone home screen.
It’s all well and good to have the wiggly icons and the ability to swap round where those icons live on multiple home screens and the dock, but I think many of us would like to be able to customize the home screens even further. Just as a real quick for instance, it would be very nice to be able to decide to display certain apps in an Opened state, and opened to a particular place, on a home screen. So you could have your Calendar opened to a Day or Week view, for instance, or a To-do list app opened to all overdue or due today tasks. Then throw in an ability to adjust the size of the opened application windows and give us some cool new widgets to play with, and we could really go to town.
I think that blending an ability to choose to keep some apps open at particular places, and size their windows, and some new widgets, combined with the iPhone’s multiple home screens, could leave us with a very slick way to organize applications and information sources, much like Spaces on the Mac. You could setup a Calendar & Tasks home screen, a Weather & News screen, a Frequently Used Apps screen with app icons displayed normally just as they are now, and so on.
Anyway, that’s my quick little idea on how we could do more with the iPhone’s home screens. How about you all – what ways would you like to be able to organize, change, and arrange the home screens?
Tags: iPhone home screen, widgets, Apple patent applications, re-arrange iPhone home screen
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I’d love to see a search bar across the top of the home screen so I can search for a song or contact directly from there.
I’d also love to set the background of the homescreen, but who doesn’t?
Naresh – Search Bar = Yes, yes, yes. That is a must. As for custo backgrounds, I really hope we will see Summerboard make it across to the App Store …
The search function (Spotlight) would be key…
I’d also love if the top menu bar (that shows signal strength & time) also displayed the # of unread email messages. I hate having to unlock the phone to see if new messages arrived.
Customizing the screen in such a manner is similar to what you can do on the Windows Mobile platform but I would LOVE to see that feature on the Iphone. Matter of fact I would get rid of my Windows phone and beg, borrow or STEAL an Iphone
I hope Apple is listening!
Wow, I'd forgotten about this post (and concept) – wonder if we'll ever see it on 'stock' iPhones.
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