A patent filed by Apple hints to the possibility of individual preferences/settings for applications directly from the home screen instead of the current messy system of having to open up the app to change prefs or having to browse through the settings app menus to access preferences. The current system is a bit of a mess and I personally do not like app prefs being in the settings app at all.

"The user interface has a plurality of application icons. In response to a first gesture, the GUI changes the appearances of the application icons whose corresponding applications have user-adjustable settings," the filing explains. "In response to a second gesture on a selected application icon whose appearance is changed, the GUI displays user-adjustable settings of an application that corresponds to the selected application icon. In response to one or more additional gestures, the GUI changes one or more user-adjustable settings of the application that corresponds to the selected application icon."

http://www.modmyi.com/forums/iphone-...e-patents.html