How can I contact apple to suggest a new feature for the iPhone 4?

I’m pretty sure apple knows about this already given that sold 1.7 million of the things in a weekend mostly to people who already had the older one.

The feature works perfectly on the older iphones. Hopefully an update will sort out all the bugs very shortly.

Call Customer Service and ask how to lock the screen. If enough people ask for a feature that isn’t there, then it should get integrated into an update or the next release, especially if it was a feature on previous phones.

What they need to do is fix the proximity sensor, not require the user to do something fiddly and unnecessary!

And they are working on that. As far as I understand, the problem will be corrected in a software update.

Large companies do not, in general, take suggestions from customers. If you try contacting them, a team of lawyers will scrutinize your correspondence to make sure there’s nothing resembling a suggestion, so that it can’t make it’s way to any kind of decision maker. Because if they later come out with something resembling your suggestion, they don’t want you to have the ability to sue them, claiming they “stole your idea” or any such nonsense.

Basically the only way to suggest a feature enhancement to them is to get a job with them, and thereby release all rights and privileges to any ideas you have regarding the design of their products.

You can type it up in a letter, sign and seal it, place a stamp on it…. then I’d recommend lighting it on fire, holding a seance with the ashes, and possibly throwing them into the ocean in a dramatic fashion.

That would be about as effective as trying to actually send them a letter.

email sjobs@apple.com and tell him about it.

@Lightlyseared If you honestly thing Steve Jobs actually reads anything coming to that address, you’re phenomenally delusional.

I can’t believe people camp out for apple products.
To get ahold of Apple. I’ve always just called their tech support line. Try that.

@MrItty no but it’s cheaper than a stamp and less hassle than phoning customer services and the end result is the same

@Lightlyseared fair point

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/07/iphone-4-proximity-sensor-glitch-likely-software-related.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

@MrItty Not to say he doesn’t ignore a great deal of public emails, but actually, he does. He’s becoming quite famous for his often short, terse and to-the-point replies.

A WWDC attendee once emailed him after his laptop had been in for repair for several weeks, and with WWDC coming up, he was starting to face the prospect of not going or buying another laptop. He said in his email to Steve that “going to WWDC without a Mac is like going to war with a banana”.

Steve had his repair expedited and he had his machine back the next day.

The majority of his replies are simple statements of opinion though.

Here’s a clip from D8 where Steve is asked to explain why he’s been “emailing a lot lately”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYn2IZZnb3k#t=3m47s

Here’s the mentioned Valley Wag post: http://valleywag.gawker.com/5539717/steve-jobs-offers-world-freedom-from-porn

@richardhenry It tickles me to no end that anyone might think that someone as powerful/famous as Steve Jobs would actually have an email address as obvious as “jobs@apple.com” that he would actually use. People in his position have an army of secretaries to handle correspondence. Unless the man actually comes to you – in person – and speaks to you, you have absolutely no reason to believe that an email from “jobs@apple.com” was actually composed – or even seen – by Steve Jobs.

Do you think Barack Obama also reads any emails directed at president@whitehouse.gov?

Might he, on occasion when he’s bored, log into the jobs@apple.com account and send out a reply? Sure, why not. Is sending something to jobs@apple.com a guaranteed – or even good – way to get him to see it? Not a chance. Is jobs@apple.com the email address he actually uses for personal communication? Not a chance.

@MrItty “You’re holding it wrong. Steve” was the reply to one of the initial emails about the iPhone 4 antenna issue. Whatever, I’ll leave you to come to your own conclusion.

@richardhenry how does that contradict anything I said?

The question was how to contact Apple to submit a feature request/suggestion. The fact that Mr. Jobs might on occasion log into the jobs@apple.com account and send a one-line reply to a random email does not – in any way, shape, or form – mean that emailing jobs@apple.com is a reliable way to get a suggestion to Apple.

@MrItty Not exactly? You said “It tickles me to no end that anyone might think that [...] Steve Jobs would actually have an email address [...] that he would actually use.”

I agree that any suggestions sent would be ignored. It’s somewhat possible that you would actually get a reply telling you how much your suggestion sucks.

Let’s try not to get trapped in an infinite loop.

@richardhenry My apologies. I meant “actually use on a regular basis as his personal or professional primary address”.