iPhone iOS4 Text Reflow No-Show

I am the owner of an iPhone 4. I bought the iPhone 3GS a year ago after waiting for several missing features that were not included on the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G. When I bought my 3GS, I noticed that the browser did not have "text reflow" like my previous phone's browser. Text Reflow is a formatting feature that re-wraps the words to fit the screen when you zoom in to make the text larger. With the iPhone, you have to scroll sideways to read after zooming in because there is no text reflow. Panning side to side in order to read articles can be a serious pain in the neck if you are depending on your smart phone for heavy reading. At any rate, when I upgraded to the iPhone 4 and the newer iOS4 operating system, I was very disappointed to see that text reflow had not been added.

What really prompted me to look further into this issue was the fact that I noticed all of the new Android smart phone devices with text reflow as a standard browser feature. The new Droid X available from Verizon and the new Evo 4G from Sprint both have the latest Android operating system which is equipped with text reflow, along with several other Android smart phones. I tested out both the Droid X and the Evo 4G, and was very impressed with the ease of reading that text reflow provides people like me who are visually challenged. I was able to zoom in and increase the text size as large as I wanted. This really eases reading and allows a user to "speed read" articles by just flicking the screen and allowing it to scroll in a vertical direction as opposed to horizontally and vertically. It is very conducive to heavy article reading.

What also has surprised me is that It has even become a selling point that the Android browser features text reflow while iOS4 does not. So I did a little bit of digging to find out why this was not included with Apple devices, and I was very surprised with the reactions and reasoning that I received from various loyal Apple drones.

The first "reason" that I heard was that text reflow destroys the orientation of pictures on a website. To me, this is a poor excuse. If a person wants text reflow for ease of reading, they are obviously not interested in the embedded pictures. The second reason that I was given was that the iPhone 4 has a retina display, and with such high resolution, you don't need to zoom in to read because the display is so clear. That reason is obviously more absurd than the first, because it does not matter one bit how clear the screen is if your eyes are not capable of reading microscopic text.

It would not be difficult at all, in my opinion, for the developers at Apple headquarters to update the Safari browser to allow for text reflowing. I called Apple iPhone technical support to ask if this was something being worked on in the future. The techs told me that they weren't even aware of how Android was boasting text reflow while iOS4 remains unable. They were very helpful and understanding of my inquiry, and even tried to find available applications that might have a browser with text reflow. They found nothing. The only advice they were able to leave me with was to email Steve Jobs (which I did).

The iPhone 4 is an amazing and technologically advanced device. I would love to say that the iPhone is more advanced than any other smart phone on the market, but I cannot. Text reflow is a feature that is fundamental to my smart phone use. Therefore, I would have to say that the Android handsets, at this moment in time, are superior (since this feature weighs heavy with what I need) to Apple's iOS4. I just hope that Apple raises the bar and doesn't sit idle while Android continues to add features like text reflow that are not available within the iOS4 platform.

I hope that Apple becomes more responsive to the wants and needs of its customers. Adding text reflow to my iPhone 4 would certainly make me one happy camper.