Neato Smartphone Ideas

As I write this, Apple is holding their keynote for their developer conference, and I've got a window open as I work watching the major announcements. Two smartphone ideas struck me as being particularly clever, and worthy of a quick blog.

First, notifications that are tied to a location. Whenever I go somewhere and I'm supposed to call home when I leave, I always forget, and get in trouble as a result. Now I can create a reminder that will sense my location, and ping me to do something when my location changes. I'll be in the car for less than a minute before my phone beeps at me and reminds me to call home now.

Second is a camera button that's on the lock screen, and allows taking a picture without having to unlock the phone and find the camera app. It's always been a frustration, wanting to take a picture and having to wait 30 seconds to go through all the steps. This feature lets a picture be taken immediately without having to unlock the screen. You can't view previous pictures or do anything else, so there's no loss of security; but for those times when a fast picture is a must, you're covered.

Neat thinking, simple but obvious, and really cool.