Apple's Killer Application

All the fuss about the changes coming to the iPhone's 3.0 operating system missed the real "killer application": the lack of voice commands. Yep, the world's smartest smartphone is utterly stupid when it comes to using voice commands, deadly dull, I might add.

The iPhone is the first phone that has nearly caused me to lose my life and I have been using mobile phones since 1972 when I had to connect through an operator and the transmitter weighed 20 lbs. and only fit in my trunk. There is simply no safe way to use this mobile phone when you are mobile in a car. The lack of buttons means that you have to look down at the screen even to pull up your favorite numbers for speed dialing! God help anyone near you if you have to search for a contact in your address book. Heck, my treasured old Palm Treo could do that easily and still keep me alive because I could at very least FEEL the buttons and still focus on the road.

Now Apple has proudly announced their great leap forward in phones with the new OS 3.0 and one of the first innovations mentioned is Cut & Paste, one of the simplest functions in a handheld computing device. Then, to add insult to injury, they utterly ignore the one glaring safety issue for mobile users: voice commands. Yes, I know you can buy applications that try and make this work or, and this is probably the point, pay AT&T another $5/month for their clumsy version of voice dialing. This is basic mobile phone safety, Apple, get it done and keep the customer base alive!

As much as I have loved the iPhone for nearly two years, I don't know if I want to continue gambling my life on it. What do you think?