Among the features is a new voicemail setting that will allow users to disable, the custom voicemail greeting, and AT&T voice mail introduction to save people time who need to leave messages. It seems like just ringing and then dumping into voice mail could confuse callers.

Another new feature is an alert that would tell AT&T users when they are exceeding their monthly amount of anytime minutes. Neither of those features sounds like anything particularly useful to lots of users. Perhaps AT&T should concentrate on enhancing their network to support the features we already have.

Two new patent applications from Apple have surfaced that have to do with new features for the iPhone. The first app is called “Auto messaging to currently connected caller”. This covers something like writing an SMS message to a person at the same time you are sending an email or another file.

The second patent application is called “Speakerphone control for Mobile device”. It has to do with using sensors to automatically turn the speakerphone on when you set it down or turn the speakerphone off when you put it to your ear.

[via UnwiredView]