Posted on by Why Not

iPhone Features Request: Profile Manager

Request “Profile Manager” feature for the iPhone:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/

The iPhone is an amazing device with amazing user interface, but it still needs a lot of improvements. There are some of the more popular feature requests such as “cut and paste,” and synch-able “to do list.” According to recent interview with Greg Jowsiak, “cut and paste” is considered a low priority.

In this first installment of “iPhone Features Request” (a.k.a. Let’s Nag Apple for Some Features), one nice feature to have is “Profile Manager.”

What is this “Profile Manager?”

It is a shortcut on the iPhone home screen to switch (customizable) profile settings. For example:

  • In Car
    Turn Wi-Fi off
    Turn Bluetooth on
    Turn 3G on
    Turn GPS on (if it can be turned on and off – another feature request)
  • At Home
    Turn Wi-Fi on
    Turn 3G off
    Turn Bluetooth off
    Turn GPS off
  • In Meeting
    Turn Bluetooth off
    Turn GPS off
    Turn 3G off

To turn the 3G network on/off, it takes a few steps: Settings > General > Network > “Enable 3G ON/OFF”

To turn the Bluetooth on/off, it takes the followings: Settings > General > Network > “Bluetooth ON/OFF”

With “Profile Manager”, it would take minimum amount of steps to change the settings.

21 Replies to “iPhone Features Request: Profile Manager”

  2. Profile Manager–Please! I just got my phone today and I’m really surprised that it doesn’t have a profile manager. When I go to bed, I want to hear phone calls and calendar alarms, but nothing else. Otherwise, I love the thing.

  4. Pingback: Treo to iPhone — Profiles

  6. Add in the ability to change call forwarding settings:
    – Calls forward to desk line while in the office.
    – Calls forward to home phone while at home.

    Custom Layouts – there are so may apps now. But some seem more useful in different cases. A Home profile screen may have my TiVo remote, Remote Play, etc. Work profile screen has calendar, notes, etc. We can kind of do that now with the various pages, but what happens when you have an app that should be on several profiles…..

  7. how about it Apple? These are great ideas I would expect to find in your software already. Well – took you 3 released to get Cut and Paste – maybe 3 more to get Profiles.

  8. I loved being able to create custom profiles on my Blackberry Pearl and have been disapointed that the iPhone doesn’t have the ability to do the same – at least it doesn’t seem to be able to.

    Come on Apple (or developers)… get with the program. This feature would easily fetch a few dollars from my wallet.

  9. As a 2 year Blackberry user I am very disappointed with the lack of profiles on the iPhone. You can’t feel it vibrate and there are no settings that I have found to change the number of times it vibrates. It is a nice toy but not a tool like the Blackberry. I have had it for 8 days now and am on a 30 day trial basis. If I can’t get some help with this it is definitely going back.

  10. I agree with Joe. I love Apple products and have always used them and stood behind them. But somewhere along the way I became a Blackberry user and find it to be an indispensable tool for running business.

    I even tried [twice] to get used to using an iPhone, and both times I ended up selling the iPhone on craigslist. It simply didn’t have the features that I’d come to depend on from my Blackberry.

    First was the email support. I found the single inbox on my Blackberry much more convenient to use than having to navigate back and forth through different inboxes on the iPhone. Push email was another issue that I won’t go into, but for me, Gmail push is a necessity and it never worked right for me on the iPhone.

    I also require different ringer profiles as mentioned above. I’ve created all sort of profiles on my Blackberry 8900 and use them constantly. When my server goes down in the middle of the night, the “Phone Only” profile is set up to allow just those messages to come through and with a different tone that I’ll recognize instantly as bad news. Profiles are very useful.

    I also need that blinking LED on my Blackberry to tell me that I got a message, even if I missed the tone or vibration when it first came in. It’s amazing to me that Apple didn’t build in such a tiny, but so very useful indicator into the iPhone 3g or 3gs versions.

    Sure my Blackberry lacks the super simple sync and integration with my Macbook Pro, but there are programs to accomplish that for me. Sure it lacks the polished multimedia features, full Web browsing, and bazillions of iApps, but for me the phone is a tool and currently, the iPhone still doesn’t cut it for my needs.

    @Joe, I bet you’ll be taking it back in the next 5 days! And you’ll have to wait a bit longer until Apple releases the features we need, or they allow 3rd party developers to access the core OS properly and develop true apps that can fill the void between toy and tool.

  11. Just bought the iPhone. Very happy with it so far, but I can’t believe this feature doesn’t exist at all. It really shouldn’t be that hard to do, and it would make things soooo much better. Apple, please do it or allow app developers to do it

  12. agree with postings, one would expect that something basic like profiles as well as software that changes the profile according schedule / key words etc would exist for the iphone, yet this is not the case….
    fd

  13. Im working on a version, there are several at this point, but Im very picky and no one has made one I liked, so I thought I’d learn the iPhone SDK and create my version!

    http://wrightscs.wordpress.com

    I need beta testers, so visit one of the above listed pages and contact me so I can get this thing released!

  14. I would also like to add a profile. I work in the basement of an old Air Force building. We don’t get much signal down here. I’d like a mode that turns pretty much everything off except the Edge network. While I’m in this building, I don’t need Wi-Fi or 3G, but I would like to stop charging by battery every other day.

  15. i had been a Nokia user for many years. am now at a junction on deciding on another Nokia (E72) or the iPhone3GS.

    however, being so used to the user friendly features and function in a Nokia phone i am surprise that that iPhone3GS which position itself as a smart phone is merely a toy and not really a smart phone with PDA features and function.

    customised profile is supposed to be a basic feature in a basic phone. yet iPhone3GS does not have it. am totally disappointed. that has be the shop stopped. after playing and checking out the iPhone at a local telco store for an hour trying to familiarize myself with the O/S. yet i find myself walking out without making the purchase.

    for now i will stay with my current Nokia E51, a trusted smart phone.

  17. It’s been a year. Has anything been developed for a phone profile without jailbreaking the iphone?

  18. (-.
    i’ts just like a voice mailbox ON the phone ( like sony use to publish once only after the cell compagny said HHhhoooo noooo !)

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