Ask HN:applications you would love to see in cell phones
10 comments
I really want an interface designed with usability in mind. Things like:
* No common task should require more than 3-4 keypresses you can easily remember. Arrow keys count. Corollary: navigate the menus with the number keys; shortcuts, ...
* Incremental search to look up contacts with (like emacs C-s)
* Operate without looking. In particular, there should be a way to get to "home" from an arbitrary state, options have a "return to default" key, all important menus stay the same, anything common/important can also be done by keyboard.
* Typing speed. With slow input, calendar functions etc are nearly useless. Unfortunately, the fastest solution, qwertz keyboards, still sell at a premium. Perhaps there is a way to optionally emulate a chorded keyboard on standard 12-key hardware? It should have some form of visual feedback enabled by default, like Apple's keyboard overview.
* Reliable Sync. Even with 348 contacts, 1000s of appointments, international characters. The point is reliably correct - everything I have had so far has messed up eventually.
* Todo list and calendar 2 taps/clicks away, such as for a shopping list
Besides, I'd like some gimmicks:
* Adjust lighting / color hue / contrast on images, cut them down to an image section. Cut videos to save space and improve art.
* Easy file sync, regardless of file format
* Track location over time and tag photos. Even if there is no GPS hardware, cell towers broadcast their ID (or location), and modern phones have an acceleration sensor.
* A 3-touch way to keep track of my money / time.
* Office to go
* Flashlight mode. Display lighting is usually bright enough to find the key hole, stuff I have dropped,...
I admit you asked about computationally intense applications, but this is what bothers me most about my gadgets.
* No common task should require more than 3-4 keypresses you can easily remember. Arrow keys count. Corollary: navigate the menus with the number keys; shortcuts, ...
* Incremental search to look up contacts with (like emacs C-s)
* Operate without looking. In particular, there should be a way to get to "home" from an arbitrary state, options have a "return to default" key, all important menus stay the same, anything common/important can also be done by keyboard.
* Typing speed. With slow input, calendar functions etc are nearly useless. Unfortunately, the fastest solution, qwertz keyboards, still sell at a premium. Perhaps there is a way to optionally emulate a chorded keyboard on standard 12-key hardware? It should have some form of visual feedback enabled by default, like Apple's keyboard overview.
* Reliable Sync. Even with 348 contacts, 1000s of appointments, international characters. The point is reliably correct - everything I have had so far has messed up eventually.
* Todo list and calendar 2 taps/clicks away, such as for a shopping list
Besides, I'd like some gimmicks:
* Adjust lighting / color hue / contrast on images, cut them down to an image section. Cut videos to save space and improve art.
* Easy file sync, regardless of file format
* Track location over time and tag photos. Even if there is no GPS hardware, cell towers broadcast their ID (or location), and modern phones have an acceleration sensor.
* A 3-touch way to keep track of my money / time.
* Office to go
* Flashlight mode. Display lighting is usually bright enough to find the key hole, stuff I have dropped,...
I admit you asked about computationally intense applications, but this is what bothers me most about my gadgets.
I'd like some decent Augmented Reality apps/games, proper AR rather than the barcode based stuff. Something that could recognise an environment and overlay cool stuff. A decent camera, GPS, compass and good processing power are all required. Figure between G1 and iPhone 3 we might be getting there.
what specifically in augmented reality?
Check out some of the demos on the http://www.tinmith.net site, or http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/Projects/. I love the demo where a group of people draw on a virtual map and the person on campus sees the draw arrows to guide them.
Thanks for the link,pretty cool stuff.
It doesn't really require a huge amount of computing power, but I always thought that a dating / matching application that ran in the background on a phone would be pretty cool.
It would probably work best in places with good public transportation, or other reasons for people to be in relatively close proximity to each other. Then when a good match was within X distance, you'd get a notification saying a match was nearby; and if you both had a minute you could meet RIGHT NOW.
It would probably work best in places with good public transportation, or other reasons for people to be in relatively close proximity to each other. Then when a good match was within X distance, you'd get a notification saying a match was nearby; and if you both had a minute you could meet RIGHT NOW.
funny I actually saw a mock app on Tv (Bones). Hate or Date I think it was called and did just that. Very cool idea.
Another TV inspired phone app (Fringe) could listen to a phone dialing numbers and turn around and call the number for you, based on the tones of the numbers in the phone number. Cool.
Another TV inspired phone app (Fringe) could listen to a phone dialing numbers and turn around and call the number for you, based on the tones of the numbers in the phone number. Cool.
1. Universal translator *
2. Scale
3. way to measure calories
4. Always listening so I can ask it questions and have it google them for me and read out the answers. All without taking it out of my pocket.
* Honestly I'd be happy with a good enough approach here. Just recognize whatever words it can (even 10% or less) and show the google translate translations scrolling down my screen. If I can just discern the subject of a conversation once in a while, I'm still way better off than understanding nothing.
* Honestly I'd be happy with a good enough approach here. Just recognize whatever words it can (even 10% or less) and show the google translate translations scrolling down my screen. If I can just discern the subject of a conversation once in a while, I'm still way better off than understanding nothing.
When Flash gets there, I want a flash blocker to be ready.
I'd really like a complex and easy to use "personal assistant", with voice recording/voice recognition in addition to typing. Something where I can press at most two-three keys and record "milk" to the shopping list or "Mail X about the problem Y" to the TODO list.
What about an audio 'twitter'.. I can leave short voice messages for people, or for a group.
twaudio? tweaker? ugh.. I had naming things after popular web sites.
twaudio? tweaker? ugh.. I had naming things after popular web sites.
Analytics of Phone usage. Graphs showing time and money spent on the phone.
t-mobile provides an app for that. Its in the G1 Android Market
Free calls
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My objective is to build an application which uses the gpus processing power as in parallel computing,eg. joining large images together on a cellphone itself.