Top 10 smartphone features we'd like to see

This summer will be remembered for more than just the blistering temperatures most of the northern hemisphere seems to be suffering at the moment. It's also been a summer of smartphones, and Apple and others have dominated the headlines.

Next week the Top 10 will be all about the cream of the current crop, but Shaun was in a speculative mood this morning and, when he suggested this topic, bells went off and we were arguing the toss in an instant.

A lot of things didn't make the cut. I'd have liked to include multiple, co-operating operating systems but this was dubbed too geeky. What can I say? The IT Crowd is back on TV and I'm cultivating my inner Roy.

So here we have it: our Top 10 thoughts on the future of smartphones, with a couple of less-than-serious Honourable Mentions. As ever, your comments are welcome if you think we've missed a trick.

Honourable Mention: Nasty anti-theft systems
Shaun Nichols: We can't all get a police raid when our phones go missing, but there are some rather creative ways vendors could protect phones, or at least make the lives of phone thieves a bit more miserable.

Apple's MobileMe has some interesting recovery features, such as location and remote wipe. But they should go further and offer features such as the ability not only to phone home, but to phone the local police.

My anti-theft method of choice would be a handset with the ability to deliver an electric shock, but I can't see that getting past the regulators. So instead I'd settle for the ability to play songs or sound files at top volume. After all, who's going to want a stolen phone on a non-stop loop of Slim Whitman?

Iain Thomson: I’m much more old fashioned than Shaun. I favour a metal spike in the headset that can be pre-set to pop out when the thief answers. There's something about having a phone stolen that turns even the most hardened liberal into a Visigoth.

We're getting there in terms of mobile theft systems. We can already lock down and wipe smartphones that are stolen, and it' going to take a major shift in law if some of the more outlandish systems Shaun and I discussed are to be implemented. Then again, I think a research station in South Africa, home of the flame-throwing car, might be an idea.

The fact is that phones get stolen or lost a lot, and we need to find some way of stopping this happening. Someone's going to find out a method and get very, very rich when they do.

Honourable mention: Wetware
Iain Thomson: OK, this isn't remotely on the horizon yet but the idea of a phone physically embedded in your body does have some merit.

Think of the advantages. You'd never lose the damn thing, it's one less thing to carry, instant access to your contacts and calendar and you'd be able to go out to dinner and not have half the tedious bores in the group whack down their phones and start talking about how good they are.

Maybe I've been reading too much science fiction but I'd be very happy to have a phone implanted, once there's been some pretty extensive testing of the system. Sure, there could be problems, but the convenience factor alone makes this something to strive for.

Shaun Nichols: Oh man, if you think iPhone fans are bad wait until it comes in implant form. And what happens when you need to replace the battery?

I'm not sure I'd want an entire phone implanted (particularly not with the substances currently in use) but I could see semi-permanent procedures, such as placing wireless sound buds within the ear canal, catching on with users.

There's all sorts of potential for things to go wrong, however, and I think you will have to see huge advances not only in miniaturisation but in non-toxic material use and clean energy, before we can even talk about the possibility of smartphone wetware.

10. Game console linking
Shaun Nichols: This is one of those things that is cool in theory, but not practical from a business standpoint at the moment. The ability to share media files, synchronise stored information and transfer games through a gaming console would be a cool feature for users and developers, who could take advantage of the system to bundle mobile games with their console versions.

Of course to do that, the phone developers would have to give up some of the control and income they get through their software marketplaces, and the console vendors aren't going to be too willing to open up to the mobile platforms that they see as competition for gamers' attentions.

In other words, Sony, Apple, Microsoft and Google won't be setting aside their egos long enough to do this any time soon.

Iain Thomson: I'm still not 100 per cent sold on the smartphone as a serious gaming platform, and you can bet the accounts department of any workplace won't see this as an advantage.

There are some serious hurdles to be overcome if people are going to happily play advanced games on a smartphone. Sure, it's fine for simple stuff like soduku and poker, but I've tried playing Grand Theft Auto on a mobile and it's about as much fun as a 10-hour technical support call.

I'm with you to a point on synchronising data but, from a corporate perspective, I would suggest that changing hearts and minds will take longer than the technical ability to do what you suggest.

9. Privacy
Iain Thomson: Smartphones may be a great convenience, but safeguards are needed to ensure that they don't become the tools of Big Brother.

Triangulation by cell tower, and now GPS and Wi-Fi, have made the mobile phone a near-perfect locator device. Add software like email and IM, and you've got a little mechanical tyrant that can tell where you are at any time, and require you to do some work. It'll be like having a pointy-haired boss in your pocket.

We're now getting to the stage where companies are offering constant monitoring of employees via a smartphone. While this may make sense to certain accounting minds, the average employee will baulk at the thought, and I suspect those companies that try too hard to monitor staff will lose the best of them.

Shaun Nichols: I'm not especially optimistic on this one. Current PC security standards such as SSL and encryption formats help, but are far from perfect and still get compromised from time to time.

Mobile handsets transmit more personally identifiable data than just about any other platform, and they do so across multiple carriers and platforms. Worse yet, those carriers and developers for the most part can't stand each other and refuse to co-operate on the level needed to put together a solid security standard.

Simply put, if you can't stay secure on a desktop PC in your office, it's going to be a real challenge to lock down all your information on your mobile phone.

8. Biometric authentication
Shaun Nichols: Numerical codes can be pretty good security, particularly when you add protections such as limits on number of attempts. Unfortunately, users don't always take advantage of those protections or use them wisely. People still choose simple codes such as 1234 or 7777 that can be guessed by even total strangers.

One way around this would be to use biometrics. If the user is required to give a thumbprint or retinal scan, getting into the phone becomes much harder, if not impossible. The technology is already used in netbooks, and most smartphones now use touchscreens and cameras. So what exactly is the hold up?

Yes, some users will still turn off the protections for convenience, and the software or hardware could well have vulnerabilities that allow someone to circumvent the protections, but for those who use biometric protections the phones will be that much more secure.

Aside from that, it's just so cool. I would feel like 007 every time I got a retinal scan from my phone.

Iain Thomson: Biometrics and smartphones is such a natural fit that I wonder why it hasn't come sooner. Fingerprint recognition would be a natural fit, although it may need a reconfiguring of the operating system to provide power at start-up, but it would be a great way to secure the handset.

Retinal scans might sound like a good idea, but the cameras on most phones wouldn't be powerful enough, and the technology really isn't there yet. If you're a bit hung over you could get locked out of calls.

Voice recognition systems show promise, but not yet. Mobiles are usually used in noisy environments outside, and it's hardly secure to use a pass phrase in public.

7. Cloud updates
Iain Thomson: Devices may come and go but, barring an electro-magnetic pulse, the cloud is forever. So why aren't more smartphones able to sync to the cloud?

It would seems a logical thing to do, and we're seeing some limited moves in the area, but it's not enough. The linking of the cellular and cloud networks is essential for the long-term success of the smartphone platform.

Coming generations will look at our attempts to keep data synchronised with wonderment. Having to manually transfer vast amounts of data in different formats is a huge task fraught with complications. What we need is a single data standard that lets mobile devices synchronise with servers to ensure that mistakes aren't made.

Shaun Nichols: Apple comes close to this with iDisk, and I'm sure that more than a few developers are working on a similar system for Android and other platforms, but at this point there really should be a cloud backup service.

A system that can allow the user to log-in and back up their stored files would be nice, but what would be ideal is a system that takes all of the phone's content, everything from song files to contacts to installed applications, and creates and uploads a disk image, thus creating a full backup and allowing a phone's data to be completely restored on a new handset should it get lost or damaged.

I can see a couple of hurdles for such a system, however. It would have to run over Wi-Fi, which would limit the ability to regularly back up the handset. There's also the volume of traffic.

ISPs are already starting to place limits on monthly data loads. I don't think they would be thrilled with the idea of everyone uploading backup information on their phones 25-30 times a month.

6. Translation
Shaun Nichols: Translation for mobile phones isn't new. A quick scan of the App Store or Android Market will produce more than a handful of translation offerings, but there's so much more that could be done.

One of the really interesting features is camera integration. Google is currently working on it with Goggles, but the idea of taking a photo with your phone or shooting a video and getting a translation on the fly would be very cool.

Another interesting area would be videoconferencing. A translation feature could be very useful for video chat services such as FaceTime.

Iain Thomson: Fast, accurate, real-time translation is still a way off, in my opinion, but it's certainly something to aim for. This is of particular personal relevance because I'm British, and we have the worst record in Europe when it comes to learning foreign languages.

Getting real-time translation would alleviate a lot of the bad feeling engendered on the continent by red-faced Englishmen who think that shouting in English is in some way going to make it easier to translate.

However, that kind of application takes huge amounts of RAM and the kind of processor power we currently see in the latest PCs. It's coming, that much is certain, but don't hold your breath.

5. Multiple SIM slots
Iain Thomson: This has been a bugbear of mine for quite some time. I can choose my operating system when I boot up, so why not my SIM card?

The answer is simple: economics. Mobile phone companies are increasingly relying on popular phones to tie people into long-term contracts. They subsidise the handsets and you pay the price.

As someone who used to spend a quarter of the year on the roadwarrior circuit (a piffling amount compared to some I've met) a multi-SIM phone would have saved my employers a significant amount of money. But they are not available; one might think there's some collusion going on.

Shaun Nichols: This is something that Nokia is working on, but the firm is limiting it to its phones for developing areas where multiple users are often sharing a single handset.

As Iain noted, this would be a great deal for travellers, particularly those who frequently go between two or three locations. V3.co.uk, for example, could keep SIM cards in the US and UK offices for travelling reporters.

Of course, telcos and handset vendors are only interested in things that make sense so far as they also make money. These companies aren't going to give up money just to make their customers happy, after all.

4. Standards war resolution
Shaun Nichols: This is an issue that should soon be solving itself, though maybe not in a very good way.

There is a war being waged over just what system will be replacing the current 3G wireless broadband standard. One camp wants to use the WiMax format, while another is looking to the Long Term Evolution (LTE) system.

WiMax is seeing its first deployments in a handful of US cities. Meanwhile, trials of LTE networks are underway in Europe.

You can see where this could go. Europe could go with LTE while carriers in the US could opt for WiMax. Handset makers and users alike are not going to like that possibility.

Iain Thomson: Shaun knows only too well to avoid using the term 4G lightly, as it's one of my bugbears. Until the standard is agreed, any claims to be 4G anything are just marketing.

As Shaun pints out, we've seen this before. When Europe got together to form the GSM standard it kick-started the explosion in mobile telecoms while America went for the 'win by market share' and got left behind. That little conflict left millions of useless phones and wasted billions in costs.

Now the industry seems doomed to repeat its errors, although the case is less clear cut. LTE is the majority of the market, while WiMax is already commercially available in a handful of US cities and has Intel ploughing billions of investment into the platform.

I suspect LTE has the advantage, but there's going to be another wasteful war that could so easily have been avoided.

3. GPS mapping/traffic
Iain Thomson: GPS on mobiles has been a great benefit, but it does need real-time information.

With smartphones we carry real-time movement sensors and that information can be used with a minimum of data load. On my visit to the UK last week we were assailed by the car radio with requests to phone in traffic reports. How much easier it would be to simply look at how fast people are going by their mobile signals.

Google and others are building the start of what could be such a system, but the current prototypes need much refining.

Identifying trouble spots and routing round them is all well and good but, if everyone's phone is telling them to do that, you've got an even bigger traffic jam waiting to happen, so smart monitoring using a centralised database is a must. We're a long way from that, but it's coming.

Shaun Nichols: This is another item on our list that might not be too far off. Google is more or less setting it up with Android Maps.

To really work, however, this needs to be a major operation that involves multiple vendors and platforms. Someone would need to collect data not only from local traffic-monitoring services (like the ones radio stations use) but from sat-nav devices and multiple smartphones.

I don't know whether that's the sort of system that a platform developer like Google or Apple could provide. It might have to be a specialised company devoted entirely to providing that service. If it were established, however, such a service could be highly lucrative.

2. VoIP and cellular switching
Shaun Nichols: Anyone who has had to deal with poor reception issues can get behind this one. In just about every city you'll find areas where, despite having a Wi-Fi or wireless broadband connection, you just can't seem to get any bars to make a call.

VoIP services are emerging on mobile phones, but telcos have fought them tooth and nail, despite advice from just about everyone else on the planet to accept the services.

Our ideal implementation would be a VoIP service owned or supported by the carrier which would allow the user to make calls over Wi-Fi or wireless broadband when the handset is experiencing poor reception. At the very least, the handset could allow the option to redial over VoIP when a call is dropped.

This is, of course, a great idea that would be useful to customers and, as such, is not likely to happen any time soon.

Iain Thomson: Oh Shaun, so cynical. It's not a good idea that won't be happening soon, it's capitalism. It'll come, but you'll have to pay for it twice.

The telecoms industry still seems to be scared of VoIP, having seen previous established business models go up in smoke thanks to disruptive technology. They are not about to let that happen to them, but such an approach is doomed to failure.

VoIP and mobiles are meant for each other. Sooner or later a profitable way will be found to let users do what is patently needed and make this one come true.

1. Decent battery life
Iain Thomson: Battery life is the curse of mobile computing. It's the reason I always carry a pencil and paper in my bag, because without power a computer is just a very expensive door-stop.

The fact is that smartphones need processing power to be smart. That takes a toll on battery life and most people want a phone that doesn't require a power cable every day.

Every business traveller has experienced that sinking feeling when a power cord has been left at home, and I yearn for phones like the early Nokias that gave days of battery life.

Power and performance are inverse squares, but mobile phone manufacturers could do a lot to mitigate these effects with factory default settings. Go for low power use and explain to users what a permanent subscription to Twitter would mean in power terms. Choice will be key here.

Shaun Nichols: It used to be that battery life was a minor inconvenience for design and a nagging issue for users. As the other components have developed and grown in power, the battery has become a major design obstacle that is keeping some very cool features out of a lot of handsets.

We've already seen this on the iPhone, where Apple has had to drop support for Flash in large part because the handset's battery couldn't serve up the power it demanded from the processor and other components.

This is only going to get worse when we transition to the next wireless broadband format. Battery capacity needs to take a major step forward soon or we could see innovation stall across the industry.