OK, I admit it! I’ve become a little bit of an Apple fanboy but just an iFanboy, I’m still not a fan of OS X. Anyway, I have just got my iPhone 4. It’s pretty great, the screen is the most spectacular thing. It really has to be seen to be believed. The upgrade in processor and RAM takes the performance to a whole new level. My old 3G is extremely sluggish in comparison, even more so if you update to iOS4.

Once again Apple has delivered a top of class product, despite still having big issues. The antenna/death-grip problem has maybe been the biggest problem an Apple product has ever seen, it really is quite a big problem. I’ve tried the death grip myself and sure enough I could get the signal down to nothing within a few seconds. I haven’t came across a situation in actual use where it’s been a problem for me yet, but I’ve only had it a day.

I’m really enjoying iOS, it feels like it’s just a few small steps from perfection as the “lightweight” OS. Here’s what I’d do to if I was Steve Jobs, some of this is already rumoured, some of it is wishful thinking but if these things could get done I’d be there in an instant with my money.

First, the App Store has to have an unregulated section. Make it so users have to read and accept several screens of warnings about voiding warranties, but let developers have the freedom to create. Sure there will be nasty horrid apps, but also there will be gems that will grow to become the next big thing. At the moment they are being stamped out by the App Store police before they have the time to see the light of day (Yes, you could jailbreak but you shouldn’t have to IMO). Every app that gets submitted goes in to this category until Apple approve it, if they don’t it stays there unless there’s some serious harm it’s doing.

Second, it’s about time iTunes got a total overhaul. The major thing for me would be the pricing structure, tonight I got lost in iTunes for the iPad. I was watching lots of trailers, they looked and sounded fantastic but I still can’t bring myself to value digital downloads on a piece by piece basis. District 9 is my favourite film of recent years but £10 for a digital version? That I can only watch on my PC or iDevices? No sale. On the other hand I’m loving Spotify. £10 a month for all the music I want? I didn’t normally spend that much on music anyway but not only am I paying more than I used to for music, I’m consuming more new music. Spotify’s only problem is it’s music catalogue, it’s good but not nearly as large as iTunes.

So my plan for iTunes would be go monthly subscriptions: £10 per month for music, £10 per month for TV, £10 per month for Films, £10 for Books, £10 for Comics, all you can eat. Link it to your iTunes account not your iDevice. That way if I go round my friends house I can login and watch films I have paid to access on their iDevice. This way also stops the need for mass local storage. I only need space on my iDevice for the media I want offline, that’ll be my all time favourite music and a few recent albums, and a few films or programmes for when I’m travelling. This keeps devices smaller and cheaper. Lastly with iTunes I’d allow targeted ads for cheaper subscriptions, but also allow non-subsidised ad-free subscriptions.

Third, iOS has to spread to the TV. Watching films on your iPad is great, but bizarre when you are sitting about 10ft from your great big 1080p TV and sweet surround sound setup. Yes, I can see me watching a film on an iPhone or iPad on the plane or train or a situation where I know I’m going to be doing a lot of waiting. But not in my living room or bedroom.

I’d re-do AppleTV, make it a HDMI through device so it can overlay it’s interface on your existing TV. Add iOS to bring the world of apps to the big screen, it’d be great if I can just catch up on my tweets during an ad break or have a system to enhance programs with extra information. Imagine having an app for a series you can turn on while you watch the programme and it detects where in the programme you are. Then you can pause and see a little “making of…” bit for that scene? Again, this can be subsidised with targeted and/or interactive ads. A channel could display a special marking during their ident at the start and end of each break to let the system know when it can do ads in live broadcasts.

So, that’s it. Obviously there’s a few things to get ironed out, like how iOS would work on a non-touch based TV. If Apple made this happen, I’d get a new AppleTV for £200 and I’d get Music, TV, Film, Book and Comic subscriptions (£50 a month, up from the current £0) and seriously consider cutting down my Sky channels to just the sports.

Of course if Google or Microsoft or anyone else can delivery these services on devices with the quality of the iPad and iPhone 4 first, then they’d get my money instead.

Ashley.