Things I Wish the iPhone Did (or what I haven’t figured out how to do)

There are a few things I wish the iPhone would do. They’re mostly minor, and it’s possible I just haven’t figured out how to do them. They are:

• When the iPhone is connected to iTunes, sync the calendar every time I add a new event. I don’t want to go through the whole backup/sync routine every time, but I do want to keep the calendar in sync when I’m connected. Windows Mobile / ActiveSync did this. Hm…
• Search contacts when using the keypad in the phone. The lack of this functionality is pretty shocking, as it has been on phones — even old crappy ones — since one could store contacts on the phone. There is a contacts icon in the Phone app and it’s fine if you’re in the right group and you don’t mind scrolling. But you can’t search. Very, very silly.
• Speed dial. Speaking of things every other phone in the world has. OK, so it does have Favorites, which is a reasonable substitute. But Apple is asking a lot to move away from the keypad as navigation tool. The reason it has worked for so long is that — uh — it works.
• Sync tasks from iCal. Are you kidding? How can you leave a core piece of the calendar app out of the iPhone.
• Copy/paste. This doesn’t get me as worked up as some people, but it is a bit of a pain sometimes. Frankly it’s not even about the copy, it’s about deleting large blocks of text en masse. (I make a lot of typing mistakes.)

I have workarounds for some of these.

• Phone keypad navigation and speed dial: SmartDial. Lets you do both. It’s a $.99 app and worth every penny.
• Tasks. Sadly, the workaround is to not use them on the iPhone. I have enough other to-do options that I’ll live. But when they add it, I’ll be a happy girl.
• Copy/paste. Lots of free apps in App Store that work your memory muscles. That way you have a better chance of remembering what you wanted to copy/paste.

Given everything I love about the iPhone, these are relatively minor annoyances. But still.