Today I decided to jot down 10 random app ideas for smartphones, mostly iPhone, that have been bouncing around inside my head. Many of these may very well already exist, but here is my list all the same:
Smartphone eye exam app with voice prompts and voice recognition. Just a quick app to test one's eyesight. This would have to be designed for specific models, to compensate for difference in screen sizes.
Egg age app that tells you how old eggs are based on the date stamp on the side of the box. The stamp represents the number of days from the beginning of the year. I have a workflow for it, but a dedicated app would be nice too.
Typy, the typing app for iOS. One of the most annoying aspects about FB and Youtube on iOS is that when leaving a comment, you can not rotate the phone sideways. Sure, for a short comment it's ok, but when you are leaving a long diatribe, you need the room and larger keyboard. Make a simple app that gives a nice typing environment and one button to place all of the content in the clipboard. The workflow is simple, just open the app, say what you want to say, hit the copy button, and paste into FB or another app.
App for real estate agents that allows them to make a quick photo sphere inside a room with a special stand, and post a compilation of such on a quick house website. Apps like this exist for just making photo spheres, but making one that targets specifically real estate agents would be nice. Work to have tight integration with local MLS.
App that creates a floor plan of a house for you by asking you questions about the house and taking in measurements. The app would ask you to measure the outside, then all of the interior rooms, then ask you some more information, and then it would create professional looking floor plan.
Podcasting app that allows the author to show images during the podcast. Yes, I realize that the whole point of a podcast is to be Audio only, but sometimes it's cool to show different pictures during a podcast. The format could be a normal podcast XML file with a list of images and time codes when those images should be shown saved in the description. It would be good for advertising as well, since during the advertisement the logo or product of the company could be shown.
Payment processing app that uses QR codes to authorize the payment. This would be a good feature for someone like PayPal, which surprisingly has not pushed into the retail market. Customer scans a QR code with their cellphone. The QR code has payment ID for the merchant and the amount requested encoded. If the cellphone has good internet connection, customer can simply hit approve, and the payment is pushed through. If the connection is pour, the phone will encode with customers private key a token and display it as a QR code on the screen, that token will have customers ID and an encrypted payment talken. This way avery payment transaction is a push, rather than a pull transaction.
Foley artist app that allows you to add sounds to your own movies. Basically an app with a large sound library that allows you to create a custom layout with a bunch of sounds on the screen. You can activate them by tapping on the various sounds. This would be best of iPad. The app creates a soundtrack that you can encode into the movie clip, or export as a separate sound file.
QR Code based clapperboard for movie production that shows a QR code on the screen, plays a sound with an encoded numerical identifier, and then does a sound sync animation, like a flash with a beep, to help sync the sound. Each shot is identified with a unique numerical code, and the person using the app can attach attributes like name, location, actors, etc, to each shot. In post, a companion computer app is used to automatically detect QR codes and coded beeps in all the raw sound and video files and automatically sort them into folders and name them properly, based on the attributes previously assigned to each shot. The director can also make notes about each shot during shooting in the app, and those notes would be automatically added as text files to each shot folder during post.
Product manual augmented reality app that allows manufacturers to create an AR walkthrough of their product. Say you get a new vacuum cleaner, you scan the code on the side of the cleaner, the code opens the app, you point the camera of your phone at the vacuum cleaner, and the app on the screen adds annotations to all the buttons and knobs on the vacuum cleaner.