Filed under: Software, Blogs, iPhone
iPhone app requests - this time with screenshots
Everyone and their mother has requests for iPhone apps - heck, I had eight of them. But not everyone goes the extra mile like Phillip Ryu has to create detailed screenshots of how their apps should look (Update: Phill contacted me to clear up that Josh Pyles created the screenshots in collaboration). In addition to the screenshots, most of Phill's requests in 5 iPhone Apps I'd Like To See From Apple are also unique from similar posts I've seen across the blogosphere - he's asking for things like an Archive.org/Ebook reader, the iTunes Store for iPhone (of course, but a nice mockup nonetheless), a sketching app (Skitch for iPhone anyone?), a VoIP app and iMovie for iPhone that could offer basic editing and sharing with .Mac, YouTube and Mail. It's an interesting list of requests with pretty pictures that do a great job of mocking up the apps with the iPhone's new UI paradigms in full force. No tiny menus or tool palettes here; just large buttons, lists with large text and toolbars lining the bottom of each app. Here's hoping that the signs pointing towards true iPhone app development arriving with Leopard in October are more than empty speculation.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
john russell said 1:21PM on 8-16-2007
Portland FTW!
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Hawkman said 2:14PM on 8-16-2007
iMovie. That's retarded. Not to mention entirely contrary to Apple's ideas: this is a complement to your computer, not a mobile computer.
I don't think any of these would be as useful as we might imagine; for instance, why use a VOIP app - only useful at a wifi hotspot, and relies on the person you want to talk to being signed in - when you can make a dirt-cheap phonecall from anywhere, to anyone? The eBook reader and sketcher are much better ideas, but again I'd predict a once-in-a-blue-moon usage pattern for 99% of users.
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Barkin said 2:16PM on 8-16-2007
This is clearly not the best place for this comment, but where else should it go?
I just want to give some reader feedback:
It seems clear to me that TUAW is quickly becoming TUiPW. It's all iPhone posts all the time. Does every new iPhone software idea need a post? Every made-for-iPhone webpage? Every time your freakin' iPhone rings do we need to hear about it?
I have an iPhone, and its great. But I used to read this blog for great news about the Mac universe as a whole. In the last couple of weeks, Apple has made some major product releases, yet I've seen no in-depth examinations of the new iWeb (which now handles snippets of HTML! Isn't that major?) or iMovie, few reports on the new iMacs, and virtually nothing on the new Minis. Instead, I gotta scroll through post after post about iPhone websites and stupid iPhone games.
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Ryan said 2:19PM on 8-16-2007
Amazing!
As for Barkin's comments, you obviously don't read this website. If you did you would notice that TUAW follows the Mac world and the most popular stuff in the Mac world. The most popular thing just happens to be the iPhone.
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Steve Grenier said 2:46PM on 8-16-2007
If you guys even bothered to actually look at the pics you would see that Phill Ryu didn't make any of them. Josh Pyles did. Might want to pay better attention before giving someone else credit for someone elses hard work.
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Macroy said 2:49PM on 8-16-2007
#3: lurk more, etc. etc.
iPhone-free TUAW feed: http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=hNQjSv4g3BGE8lINYEsBXw
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JH said 2:52PM on 8-16-2007
The apps need to be on-board. I'm tired of all these web-based AJAX "apps" that require a constant connection.
www.iphailure.com
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Micah Neumark said 2:52PM on 8-16-2007
I highly doubt that TUAW is shunning the Mac in favor of the iPhone. There are plenty of other places, such as Macworld, that are doing the in depth reports on iLife, but TUAW is reporting on the things other places don't report on. There is a lot of interesting stuff happening on the iPhone still due to homebrew, and I find it very interesting.
There are plenty of people content with the quantity of iPhone news.
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WickDC said 4:46PM on 8-16-2007
Two apps I'd love to see are a simple database (or of course more advanced eventually too) with encryption...to function as a "little black book" of usernames and passwords and such, but of course a flexible DB app has many many uses. FileMaker Mobile??
And then a comtext formatted text editor that could open/edit/save files via FTP, SFTP, SSH, or whatever. The ability to edit HTML/etc. directly would be great in an "emergency". BBEdit Mobile??
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william Evans said 5:18AM on 8-17-2007
As a non iPhone owner, I too am bored of the iPhoning of this this usually broad apple blog, please stop reminding me of what I cant have
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Tchad said 9:07AM on 8-17-2007
I would like to see some good games for kids under four years old. I give my phone to the kids to play with all the time but I would love to be able to lock up the phone with a simple game that they could play.
Suggestions:
Speak and Spell
Nintendo WII Play
Nintendo Brain Academy
Aquarium
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Samuel said 1:52PM on 8-17-2007
Well its obvious:
Having an omnipresent app that constantly searches for GPS virtual message left by real people in real locations: so when visiting a castle and venturing into a turret that somebody has visited before and left a message I would see it.
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Stephane said 10:10AM on 8-18-2007
This is my first post, so please bear with me here.
I, like many others, love the iPhone and think there is great potential for the device. However, I am also troubled by the lack of native third party applications due to Apple’s locked system. I have seen numerous posts from iPhone users begging to have their favorite Mac widgets ported over to the iPhone. While I think that would be great, I don’t see Apple rushing to do this until they can somehow monetize these widgets. Well yesterday, as I checked out Amazon’s new iPhone-specific web portal, it dawned on me that Apple can create a huge revenue stream by getting into the ad business, while also giving us all the other widgets we love so much.
Imagine the following:
You plug your iPhone into your computer one day and discover a new tab called myMall. Under this tab is a listing of popular retailers, whose online stores you’d like to have synced to your iPhone. Think ‘bookmarked,’ but much better because when you next turn on your iPhone you find a button on the home page called myMall. Clicking it leads to a page similar to the home page, but each new button is a native widget for the retailers you’ve chosen to sync with iTunes. Now, the appeal here is the absolute ease and pleasure in maneuvering these widgets to carry out purchases.
Imagine now that you have chosen to sync the Barnes & Noble widget with your iPhone. Then, one day, you’re sitting on the bus and see someone reading a book you have been meaning to read yourself, but kept on forgetting. Well, instead of making yet another mental note, what if you could do the following:
1. Click on your B&N widget.
2. Type in your search into a VERY simple and elegant page.
3. Have all of your results come up in the Cover Flow format, with only product pictures showing. (let’s face it, Cover Flow is great, but wasted on the iPod).
4. Scroll back and forth through the result and click on a cover to make it flip and reveal product details (synopsis, ratings, review, other formats, etc.)
5. Quickly add items to your shopping cart.
6. Pay for your items using one of the credit cards saved on your iTunes (this is already done with songs so it can’t be that difficult to build on), or enter new credit card information.
7. Have your item(s) shipped to an address that is saved in your iTunes account, or enter a new shipping address.
8. Enter a pin number of sorts to confirm my order and finalize the transaction.
I realize the process listed above ‘appears’ long, but anyone can see that the actual use of this ‘widget’ would be as fluid and simple as the google maps interface that is currently present on the iPhone. Further, with something like this generating revenue for Apple they should have a greater incentive to provide the non-retail-oriented widgets (like AIM, To Do Lists, lyrics search) that we all been clamoring for.
That is the idea, and I would love some feedback from any and all on its feasibility and:
1. How it can be refined.
2. The ideal pricing structure between Apple and the participating retailers.
3. Security issues regarding the storage of private financial data on iTunes, and any holes I'm not thinking of right now.
4. How Apple’s relationship with Google can be utilized here.
5. The potential reaction from ad giants such as Google.
6. Possible legal ramifications.
7. A list of stores that would work well as iPhone widgets. Personally, I would love to have the following store widgets on my iPhone: Barnes & Nobel, eBay, JetBlue, 1800Flowers, Nike, Best Buy, Cirtcuit City, Walmart, Apple Store, Game Stop, Puma, Pottery Barn, Ikea, Amazon, Ticketmaster, Yankees (team specific widgets?), Fandango, Moviefone, Gap (simple retailers, but no giants like Macy’s?), Expedia, Hotels.com, Sephora.
8. Oh yeah, good idea or bad idea?
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