What if Apple allowed developers to create mini applications to interact with the iPhone OS in the form of a plugin? I am not thinking about larger application plugins that would eat-up the phone’s battery life, but simple plugins that enhance the user experience. Plugins that would allow applications live in a separate sandbox from other apps, but one that they could read and write to. I have come-up with two scenarios that I think would work remarkably on the iPhone, and keep up with Apple’s restrictions on the OS.

My first scenario… When I open my favorite application, ToDo, I wish it were able to remind me of what I had to do that day. The developers say that the feature is coming in the form of a Push Notification, but a major problem arises when I do not have a connection to the internet. You may rebuttal by saying, “The iPhone is always connected to the internet, so I do not see what you are crying about.” Alas, this is not true my friends. When I travel, which I should add is quite often, my iPhone automatically turns off the 3G antenna so I do not get any data charges overseas. This is when I have the most use for the Push Notification System.

If there was a small plugin-system, applications could be written to solve my major issue. Here’s how it gets solved… A plugin could be written, so that developers can add data to the plugin right before the user quits it. During a normal cycle, the iPhone could automatically tell the plugin to activate, allowing multiple notifications from the one plugin, essentially eliminating the problem caused by entire programs running in the background. The key here is the fact that more than one developer uses this plugin (Eg. ToDo does not have its own plugin). This is most likely never going to happen, however take a look at my other idea!

My second (favorite) scenario… In this scenario I am still using ToDo. When I quit, it still writes data to the plugin HOWEVER the plugin is not automatically accessed by the iPhone, it is accessed by the user. I have always thought about being able to drag the status bar on the iPhone (where the Time and Carrier info are located) down to turn on/off WiFi, Bluetooth, Airplane Mode, etc. What if Apple used my fantasy UI for plugins to live? Users would be able to access plugins quickly and effortlessly. I could find out what I have to do that day, without launching an entire application, and I save what precious battery I have on my iPhone.

My thinking comes from both the Push Notification Service and the Menu Bar on Mac OS X. What do you think? Would you like this kind of functionality on the iPhone? Do you think Apple would go for it? Leave your remarks in the comments!