I enjoyed your ideas and sketched! Here are my two cents on what you’ve suggested…
Lockscreen: I like what they’ve added as far as notifications in iOS 5, but the overall design could use a little refresh. It’s definitely looking a little long in the tooth.
Gestures: I’ve grown really accustomed to gestures on my iPad and rarely use the home button these days. I’d like to see some implimentation of gestures on the iPhone, but I recognize the issues present with a smaller screen. I don’t think they’ll do anything here until they’ve got it right. An overhaul of the “Home Button” area as a capacitive gesture area would probably work great and sounds like the most likely solution. I hate moving parts!
Multitasking: Why the hell doesn’t multitasking work in landscape mode anyway? It could stay on the bottom (portrait mode) of the screen and just rotate the icons and text at the least. What the hell kind of oversight is that? I’ll LOL if they add this little addition and use it a a full bullet point in the Keynote.
Notification Center: I love the idea of quick replies without switching to the Messages App! This would be great for banner notifications also! Swipe left to dismiss, tap to launch the App, or swipe right for a quick reply without leaving your current App.
I’m no huge fan of the linen texture, but I don’t much mind it either. I do however really like the idea of blurring the home screen. This seems like an elegant design direction and could assist with the illusion of depth in the UI.
Widgets are a great idea and could be really useful if opened up to developers. I’m sure Apple is / has considering this and has a strict set of design rules and regulations to keep things from getting crazy!
Airdrop: Uhh… YEAH! Airdrop would be a great feature and use of NFC and Bluetooth 4.0!
Maps: Great choice for an updated icon! I love the minimalism. Give us some turn by turn navigation with the new Apple Maps too.
Siri: I expect Siri to come out of Beta, be able to launch Apps, and perhaps bring the voice recognition from the cloud to the device like Google has recently done.
Every year I tell myself that I’m getting bored with iOS, but they always add most of the features I’ve been wanting or needing.
I was VERY disappointed by the lack of a hardware refresh on the iPhone 4S though. I’m itching to see what Apple has up its sleeve for the next design!!
