Apple iPad 2 feature wishlist

The iPad is a near-perfect device, but everything could use improvement. Apple has had great success with the iPad, but they need to keep improving. Android and the rest of the tablet-world is gunning for them. The threat of competition is what has kept Apple on it’s toes in the past. They’ve done a pretty good job so-far, and they shouldn’t let up now.

iPad screen.
Retina display for the iPad. I was skeptical after seeing ‘retina display’ being a new feature on the iPhone. I was  surprised how much better things looked on it when after actually getting the phone, and especially once apps started optimizing for it.

Higher dpi for Touch screen.
I’d like to be able to use a pen for notes and artistic endeavors. The iPad is designed to be used with your finger. Because the resolution is geared toward a fat-finger, you can’t really get great fine-control even with using one of those iPad pens. I’d like the resolution you can get similar to that of using a Wacom input devices. Then an iPad2 could truly replace the need to carry around notepads, help us take better handwritten notes, and help our kids create that next digital painting.

A 7” option.
A 7” iPad2 option that would cover the area between the current iPad and an iPod Touch. The iPad is great, but it always needs to be carried in some sort of bag. A 7” device is right at the edge of being able to sneak into a front-pants pocket or small-purse, along with the functionality of a larger screen than your Iphone. Steve Jobs seems to hate this option. But he usually states that he hates things until Apple comes around with the ultimate solution to that niche.

Memory and Expandability.
Although memory is less of a factor now that many things are streamed, there are times that we aren’t tethered to the internet. These are the times having those extra gigabytes of memory really shine... We all want more memory on our devices for cheaper prices.  Also adding options for external SD cards and USB support would add flexibility and options to the iPad2.

Cameras.
Front and  rear cameras have been added to iPod touches, there’s no doubt that they will be added to the iPad 2.

Native flash support.
Sure, there’s the new Skyfire App, but why leave it to an app to take care of?  Apple itself could support flash natively without all the hocus-pocus involved in getting flash to iOS devices.

Bring back the Lock switch. This isn’t really an iPad  problem, but the 4.2 iOS update to the iPad changed what the physical lock-switch on the side of the device does. It was made into a mute-slider like it is on the iPhone and Touch. There isn’t much functionality for this on the iPad. You now have to go into the multi-tasking interface to deactivate it. It’s just a couple extra swipes, but it can be very annoying when you’re trying to slide it over while the oriention of the screen keeps flipping on you. Hopefully with the iPad2 with iOS update, this could become a screen-orientation lock switch again.

User profiles.
iPads are being shared much of the time between family members. Having a system for separate user-profiles would be a great upgrade. We would have finer control over what our children could do on our iPads. There would also be less fights about different family-members moving icons around and such.

Even more battery life!
Battery life is pretty good on the iPad, but more is always better. Another battery option is that they could stay at the same level of performance and shave more weight off of it. Imagine if they could get a device with the iPad’s level of performance as thin and as light as a Kindle!

Apple should continue to make the iPad2 so good that it becomes the ultimate device to have. Apple does a decent job of giving consumers what they want, but I hope Steve Jobs finds something surprise us with when the iPad2 announcement comes out.  I can’t wait to see what they have in store.