4G LTE -- Repeat, 4G LTE!

Now that Apple is sharing a bed with Verizon Wireless and Big Red just so happens to be in the process of rolling out a fairly substantial 4G LTE network across the country, wouldn’t it be a great time to introduce the iPad 2, now with 4G data access? We think it is, despite the widespread belief that 4G LTE won’t come to the iPhone until 2012 at least -- but nobody said anything about the iPad, right?

Give Us Gestures or Give Us Death

Apple has been teasing some new four- and five-finger gestures with the iOS 4.3 beta on the current iPad, yet they’ve notified developers that this feature won’t be coming to that particular release. Say what?! Apple, how dare you tease us in this way! Surely you knew those gestures would leak out almost immediately, and now we’ll have to wait until what, iOS 5 comes out to use them? That’s just cruel, and we demand that you stop and give us those gestures today. Or, you know, in the next few weeks.

Better Storage

We’ve been rocking a 64GB iPad 3G since it was first available, and rarely have we hit the ceiling on that storage space. But more is always better, so we figure 128GB may not be out of the question for the high-end iPad 2 model -- and we’ll dream big and hope for even 256GB, just because we can.

You Need to Go on a Diet

The original iPad is hardly a porker, but where tech is concerned, thin is in. Could Apple possibly make the iPad 2 even slimmer than its predecessor, all while packing in more technology and awesomeness? That’s what the rumors are saying, and as history has proven, Apple rarely goes for bigger when smaller will do just fine. Even if the iPad 2 winds up pretty close to the original size-wise, we figure it will drop some weight anyway, just to appease the whiners who keep comparing it to their feather-light Kindle.

Subscription Billing

Apple may play coy about its plans to allow subscription billing for magazines, newspapers and other periodicals, but make no mistake: Sooner or later, they’ll have to implement it if that kind of digital media will ever truly be a success on the iPad. All evidence seems to point to something rolling out for News Corp.’s The Daily launch any day now, but most likely this will be something that Apple rolls out for everyone in order for periodicals to really take flight on the tablet.

A5 + More Memory = Power

Anyone else notice that last November’s iOS 4.2 update made the iPad a bit less responsive than it was under iOS 3.2? It’s certainly not the kind of sluggishness that iPhone 3G users experienced after updating to iOS 4, but occasionally the iPad feels like it’s hitting the ceiling on the capabilities of its 256MB of RAM and the A4 processor that seemed so zippy just a year ago. As great as Apple’s iOS multitasking may be, the original iPad will likely seem quaint when compared to the next model, which is widely expected to introduce an updated, even faster A5 processor and at least twice as much RAM -- if not more. To that we say: Yes, please.

A Little Brother (or Sister)

Apple continues to throw cold water on the idea of a smaller version of the iPad, particularly a seven-inch form factor which COO Tim Cook recently called “bizarre” while explaining why the company won’t go that route. For most of us, the iPad form factor is just right -- not too big and not too small. But there will always be folks who want something sized between the iPad and the iPhone/iPod touch, so we’ll still list a smaller version in our demands. Just don’t go messing with the size of the current iPad, m’kay?

Extra (Side) Dock Connector

This one is a long shot, seeing how two dock connectors would probably ugly up the iPad 2 more than CEO Steve Jobs would be willing to allow. That said, those of you who make frequent use of the iPad Keyboard Dock would probably welcome the option to type on a horizontal display, which is a lot more like typing on a real computer. Apple can’t simply switch the dock connector to the side instead of the bottom, so they’ll have to be creative to solve this dilemma -- or reinvent the laws of physics, maybe.

Social Networking

There are plenty of great third-party apps on the iPad to interact with Twitter or Facebook (including Twitter’s own official version, which also runs on the iPhone and iPod touch), but one thing missing is more connectivity with those social networking giants from Apple’s own apps. iLife ’09 added deeper integration with Facebook on the desktop, so we’d expect to see the same thing introduced in a forthcoming iOS update -- but it’s even more critical for the iPad, considering that Facebook appears to be incapable of seeing the need for a dedicated app for the tablet.

We Want Our Orientation Lock Back!

iOS 4.2 gave far more than it took away, but the orientation lock switch becoming a mute switch on the iPad has raised the hackles of more than a few users. We understand why Cupertino thought that was a good idea (unity across its mobile products, for one), but let’s face it -- it stinks. That software orientation lock takes too many clicks and swipes to get to, so Apple, we’d like our hardware orientation lock back, please. The good news it, it appears you’ll have a choice with the forthcoming iOS 4.3 -- despite Steve Jobs’ insistence to the contrary. However, we’re keeping this one on our list of demands since the update has yet to be released to the public. That’s right, Apple -- you’re on notice here.

One-Tap Kid Mode

Kids just love the iPad, but the fun comes to a screeching halt when the credit card bill arrives and you discover your kid has been busy racking up in-app purchases or worse yet, buying new apps, music or videos you’d otherwise never dream of purchasing. Sure, there are some pretty good parental controls in place to prevent such things from happening, but what would be even better is a “Child Mode” setting, which allows you to determine ahead of time which apps your kid will have access to when you hand the iPad to them, locking out the others and preventing Junior from e-mailing your boss with gibberish from your account -- or worse.

Family Mode

Better yet, why not take the idea of User Accounts from Mac OS X and apply them to the iPad? Many families are lucky to own just one iPad (and who can afford one for every family member?), yet you don’t want to deprive loved ones from using yours simply because you have it set up the way you like it. Something like a “Family Mode” would allow you to set up a user for each family member, determine which apps they have available and keep everyone’s e-mail accounts private, all just by doing a quick fast switch login when the spouse or kids get their own time with your iPad.

Dual Booting

Before you go thinking that we’ve lost our minds, hear us out! Enterprising hackers have already found a clever way to get Android running on both the original iPhone as well as the iPhone 3G, and they claim that someday soon we might even see it running on the iPad as well -- although it will require a jailbreak. Apple already makes the de facto standard tablet, so why not allow the iPad to dual boot into another operating system, no hacking required? We can only image the look on Google executives’ faces (not to mention their hardware partners) when they hear that every iPad is also capable of running Android…

Our Prices Are Insane!

For many of us, even the low-end, Wi-Fi only iPad with 16GB of storage is a bargain at $499. However, in the real world, that price of entry is often considered to be too steep for many, especially in today’s questionable economy. Apple will most likely slash prices for the iPad 2 by upwards of $100 whenever the sequel is officially announced, although with a barrage of cheaper Android tablets making the rounds, we’re not sure that’s going to be quite good enough. However, once the iPad 2 is introduced, the cost of the original iPad will likely get reduced even further, hopefully enough to get those penny-pinching would-be buyers off the sidelines and into the game with the rest of us.

Now that we’ve fired off our own wish list, it’s time for MacLife.com readers to sound off with their own in the comments! What would you like to see from the next iPad?

Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter

(Images courtesy of PocketLint, LockerGnome.net, NewsMild.com, Associated Press, Readdle, Engadget, FacebookForBusiness.org and Shanzhaiben.com)