I am your iPhone application development slave

cornbb

I've decided I should add iPod/iPhone app development to my portfolio of programming skills. I need a project to cut my teeth on. Has anyone got any killer ideas? Not intending to make any money or anything, just wondering if anyone has any interesting ideas for an app that they'd like to materialise

Dman001

This would probably violate Apple's App Store T&C's, but I would love to be able to text using the keyboard horizontally. I see that there is an App out (Firemail) that allows you to write a message using the horizontal keyboard and it forwards the message to the Mail App (this only works for E-mail, not Texting). So maybe an App like that, that works for text messaging?

cornbb

Dman001 wrote: »

This would probably violate Apple's App Store T&C's, but I would love to be able to text using the keyboard horizontally. I see that there is an App out (Firemail) that allows you to write a message using the horizontal keyboard and it forwards the message to the Mail App (this only works for E-mail, not Texting). So maybe an App like that, that works for text messaging?

I should probably have mentioned that I don't own an iPhone, only an iPod touch so this project may not be suitable as I don't have an SMS application to work with... but the suggestion is hugely appreciated

I use an app called EirText, it allows you to send your free monthly texts from O2 or whoever using your iPhone. I've just checked it there, it doesn't use a horizontal keyboard but maybe you could get in touch with the developer and ask whether it could be a feature in a future version?

It also has the distinct advantage of costing nothing to send a text

http://www.vinnycoyne.com/lackofconcept/?page_id=78

Borneo Fnctn

Maybe a database of fast food places with phone numbers, opening hours etc.

Dman001

cornbb wrote: »

I should probably have mentioned that I don't own an iPhone, only an iPod touch so this project may not be suitable as I don't have an SMS application to work with... but the suggestion is hugely appreciated

I use an app called EirText, it allows you to send your free monthly texts from O2 or whoever using your iPhone. I've just checked it there, it doesn't use a horizontal keyboard but maybe you could get in touch with the developer and ask whether it could be a feature in a future version?

It also has the distinct advantage of costing nothing to send a text

http://www.vinnycoyne.com/lackofconcept/?page_id=78

I don't have an iPhone either, but I do have the Touch. But I am planning on getting an iPhone and I would of liked to see that feature on it. I actually have that App on my Touch and I never really thought about using it as a main texting solution. And I've just seen that the paid version has a landscape texting feature. Happy days:) Cheers.

tenandtracer

Dman001 wrote: »

but I would love to be able to text using the keyboard horizontally.

irealsms - been using it a couple of weeks

johnk123

How about a boards.ie app. One that you could log in, quickly navigate to all your "currently active" threads... i dunno.... just thinking aloud really. I have to say that navigating the site in safari is a bit awkward.

ozt9vdujny3srf

have you tried m.boards.ie?

Cianos

I have been wanting to build an app for a site that I am working on. The app would depend on the sites data obviously, but the site isn't ready as of yet and won't be for a while. The app will really kick ass once realised, so if you're still interested maybe in a few months let me know and I can keep in touch.

synacron trion

cornbb wrote: »

I use an app called EirText, it allows you to send your free monthly texts from O2 or whoever using your iPhone. I've just checked it there, it doesn't use a horizontal keyboard but maybe you could get in touch with the developer and ask whether it could be a feature in a future version?

The Pro version of Eirtext has landscape texting.

swingking

Create an app for all the free wifi hotspots in Ireland. That would be really useful

coolcon

I'd love an app (web app even) that let me check the schedules for rte 1,2, tv3 and tg4 on my iPod touch. There was one for the uk channels but i think it's gone dead. Very handy when I can't find the telly guide and I'd imagine it wouldn't be too hard to write .

thecommander

swingking wrote: »

Create an app for all the free wifi hotspots in Ireland. That would be really useful

+1
Based on GPS location.

atgate

coolcon wrote: »

I'd love an app (web app even) that let me check the schedules for rte 1,2, tv3 and tg4 on my iPod touch. There was one for the uk channels but i think it's gone dead. Very handy when I can't find the telly guide and I'd imagine it wouldn't be too hard to write .

TV Plus (and if you have sky+ you can make record requests also).

What I'd love is a simple app that loaded up the Met.ie radar animation. It's great for seeing if rain is coming in the next hour or so (for Sports matches etc.). The image is on the following page: http://www.met.ie/latest/rainfall_radar.asp?ani=y

I have it set up as a bookmark from the home screen but a tiny little ap to just deliver the animation would be great.

cornbb

Thanks to everyone who has chipped in, some great ideas there and I will be sure to give them serious consideration.

The thing about the following ideas is that there are already several well-established websites that provide these services, and in some instances they provide mobile versions already (e.g. mobile.entertainment.ie). However the idea of partnering with one of them is very tempting, it could be an interesting exercise.

Keep the ideas coming

jackpalance wrote: »

Maybe a database of fast food places with phone numbers, opening hours etc.

swingking wrote: »

Create an app for all the free wifi hotspots in Ireland. That would be really useful

coolcon wrote: »

I'd love an app (web app even) that let me check the schedules for rte 1,2, tv3 and tg4 on my iPod touch. There was one for the uk channels but i think it's gone dead. Very handy when I can't find the telly guide and I'd imagine it wouldn't be too hard to write .

tenandtracer

Train and/or bus times, with quick scrolling menus for origin and destination.

big_moe

tenandtracer wrote: »

Train and/or bus times, with quick scrolling menus for origin and destination.

i would love this. i was trying for ages to try and make one of these when i downloaded the SDK but i havent got enough talent to work out how its done

i was in san francisco for the summer and used this webapp all the time for the local Muni (equivalent of Dublin Bus)

http://www.munitime.com/

and then for most other public transport services they had apps (or webapps) like the Caltrain.

http://icaltrain.com/blog/

Dublin bus should get something like this!

Or even a Bebo app like Facebook & myspace apps cos the Bebo mobile site is god awful.

nitromaster

big_moe wrote: »

Or even a Bebo app like Facebook & myspace apps cos the Bebo mobile site is god awful.

+1
Was just about to post that when i saw this topic.


Or maybe some sort of app to order food/stuff in Irish restaurants/shops or something. Many places such as Apache pizza have online ordering. Tie multiple sites together with a nice front-end and location based viewing.

preilly79

How bout an app that uses the built in GPS to determine location, then find the cheapest fuel within a user-definable radius?

There's an irish website with petrol station prices (can't remember the url); perhaps the data can be parsed easily or the owner might give you access to the database?

randombar

How about building an app for my site www.ratemypub.ie??

luckat

I'd love an app that would allow you to record phone calls. Used to do this on my Nokia if I was in a hurry doing an interview, and it was v useful. There is one for the iPhone, but only if it's jailbroken.

Thanks for the information that Eirtext Pro can text horizontally - I didn't realise this! (The one thing I don't like about Eirtext Pro is that it doesn't use the phone's predictive dictionary.)

Another app that would be useful would be one that could place shops, shopping centres, industrial estates/ business estates, etc on the map. That would mean that if you were using, say, OmniFocus, and wanted to buy an HDMI cable, it would tell you when you were near Peats or All Cables if you'd set the context right. (You'd probably need to talk to OmniFocus's developers to find out how this works in the US, where it'll bring up, say, Target stores.)

Edit: Bus timetables, hah! You creature of faith!

faceman

An app with a nice interface and navigation tools for boards.ie would be cool. m.boards.ie is grand but with the iphone's technology, an app could be put to better use.

frobisher

cornbb wrote: »

I've decided I should add iPod/iPhone app development to my portfolio of programming skills. I need a project to cut my teeth on. Has anyone got any killer ideas? Not intending to make any money or anything, just wondering if anyone has any interesting ideas for an app that they'd like to materialise

I'd love a multi-track verion of a single I'm releasing in May complete with mini studio!

nialler

tenandtracer wrote: »

Train and/or bus times, with quick scrolling menus for origin and destination.

This is a good idea but you could add value to it by using location services to direct you to the nearest bus stop/train station adding reminders when the bus/train is due.

johnk123

faceman wrote: »

An app with a nice interface and navigation tools for boards.ie would be cool. m.boards.ie is grand but with the iphone's technology, an app could be put to better use.

I agree! This is what i was coming at previously. The boards mobile site is plain and boring i think. Thats why i find myself using the full version in safari. Now a nice clean app that would allow you to "bookmark" all your currently active threads, and have another section that would display the front page threads. I'd say it would be hard to make though.

Love2love

swingking wrote: »

Create an app for all the free wifi hotspots in Ireland. That would be really useful

There is one already. Wi-Fi finder app. It tells you where the nearest to you is using GPS but you can also check a city and find free only wi-fi.

cash22

There are crossword applications already but I'd love an application that downloads the crosswords from the Irish newspapers (Times/Independent). Like the existing crossword apps, it would be good to be able to download and not have to be connected to the internet to complete them as I too have an itouch

synacron trion

luckat wrote: »

Thanks for the information that Eirtext Pro can text horizontally - I didn't realise this! (The one thing I don't like about Eirtext Pro is that it doesn't use the phone's predictive dictionary.)

Are you sure? It's correcting misspellings for me. I just tested it by typing 'poat' and it changed it to 'post' and 'teet' to 'feet'. I'm using Eirtext Pro version 2.0

luckat

synacron trion wrote: »

Are you sure? It's correcting misspellings for me. I just tested it by typing 'poat' and it changed it to 'post' and 'teet' to 'feet'. I'm using Eirtext Pro version 2.0

Not sure - bought it a couple of weeks ago, but my phone had an encounter with the pavement and it's in the mender's right now.

synacron trion

luckat wrote: »

Not sure - bought it a couple of weeks ago, but my phone had an encounter with the pavement and it's in the mender's right now.

Ouch! I don't see any mention of predictive dictionary being included in the recent release of Eirtext Pro on iTunes. I only bought the app in the last 2 weeks so I don't know what it was like pre version 2.0. But it is there, or at least, it appears to be for me.

pvt.joker

Cianos wrote: »

I have been wanting to build an app for a site that I am working on. The app would depend on the sites data obviously, but the site isn't ready as of yet and won't be for a while. The app will really kick ass once realised, so if you're still interested maybe in a few months let me know and I can keep in touch.

could you BE any more vague ?

TheVan

tenandtracer wrote: »

Train and/or bus times, with quick scrolling menus for origin and destination.

I swear I would pay good money for this. Especially if it had a function where you could "save" past searches for those of us with an iPod Touch but who don't necessarily have wi-fi wherever it goes.


Note that I never ever pay for apps...but this one I would pay money for!

asdasd

Train and/or bus times, with quick scrolling menus for origin and destination. !

That would depend on the companies giving the information away for free, or at all. And, as far as I know, Bus Eireann doesnt do this. I looked into it ( and I have Mac programming experience so it transfers easily enough). Ireland + iPhone is too small a market anyway.

OP, go for a quirky app that can sell anywhere.

asdasd

I'd love an app that would allow you to record phone calls. Used to do this on my Nokia if I was in a hurry doing an interview, and it was v useful. There is one for the iPhone, but only if it's jailbroken.

You can defintely record audio on the iPhone, from the "input" device ( which is generally the inbuilt mike) but I am sure that that is only going to record one side of the conversation.

bcmf

How about an app that lets you type a sms like a standard phone?

QuadLeo

cornbb wrote: »

I've decided I should add iPod/iPhone app development to my portfolio of programming skills. I need a project to cut my teeth on. Has anyone got any killer ideas? Not intending to make any money or anything, just wondering if anyone has any interesting ideas for an app that they'd like to materialise

Hey, How about an iPod/iPhone version of the little program that's doing the rounds that can return the WEP key for an eircom wifi router that shows it's SSID. The program already runs on windows, mac and linux. Don't know the legalities if it, but it really would come in handy.

i would give anything for an application that let me control my itouch music from safari..

so it can be hooked up to music system and i can change songs from laptop. i tried looking but couldn't find one that did it?

bcmf

bcmf wrote: »

How about an app that lets you type a sms like a standard phone?

ya, nd with different settings that just happened to be the same as various phone manufacturers predictive text

vinnycoyne

synacron trion wrote: »

Ouch! I don't see any mention of predictive dictionary being included in the recent release of Eirtext Pro on iTunes. I only bought the app in the last 2 weeks so I don't know what it was like pre version 2.0. But it is there, or at least, it appears to be for me.

Just in case this is still up in the air, EirText & EirText Pro both use the built-in predictive dictionaries by default.

cornbb

Thanks for all the suggestions, I'm glad I've gotten such a good response. A number of them aren't really do-able for various reasons e.g.:

- Can't pull crosswords from the Irish Times as Flash technology isn't available for the iPhone. Implementing my own interactive crossword grid is a bigger challenge then what I'm after
- A WEP key sniffer might not go down well with the gatekeepers of the App Store, who are notorious for blocking the sale of things they don't like for various reasons
- Some ideas would be better served by a browser-based mobile version of existing websites, rather than a dedicated app. E.g. I'm a windsurfer and I would like an app that would provide information on current/forecasted wind that is tailored for windsurfers. However several sites already provide mobile versions that do this very well in a mobile browser so a dedicated app would be a bit pointless

I like the idea of grabbing weather data from met.ie and displaying it on one page, that could be very handy and definitely possible. Bus/train timetables might also be do-able (even if its just a matter of pulling PDFs from the CIE website). Controlling iPod music playback from a different machine might be do-able, although a quick check hasn't revealed whether the iPod/iPhone has an API that would allow this.

I'll look into some of these ideas a bit more.

fitz

jackpalance wrote: »

Maybe a database of fast food places with phone numbers, opening hours etc.

Check out ratemyarea.com

cornbb

A quick follow-up on this, I'm going to implement the Met Eireann/weather radar display idea (assuming I won't be violating Met.ie's T&Cs - just waiting on a reply from Met.ie to confirm this). Watch this space

asdasd

sure, why not. The iPhone cant have enough weather apps.

gary82

I'm going to implement the Met Eireann/weather radar display idea

Can't users just bookmark that image in Safari?

Also is it possible to program an app for the likes of Bebo without Bebo's permission and make money off it??

- If so, could be an interesting project as I've some time off coming up...

cornbb

cornbb wrote: »

Controlling iPod music playback from a different machine might be do-able, although a quick check hasn't revealed whether the iPod/iPhone has an API that would allow this.

you'd be my hero if it worked :P


i love that i can control laptop from itouch but would have so much more use for it the other way around...

cornbb

gary82 wrote: »

Can't users just bookmark that image in Safari?

The page can be bookmarket but not the image (it uses a dynamic URL).

I realise that the usefulness of this app would be limited, given that there's loads of weather apps out there already and met.ie already have a mobile version of the site, but I'm only looking for something quick and easy to practice with. The idea would be that it would tell you whether rain is forecasted at a glance (a single click/touch). Something like this: http://www.goingtorain.com/ only in the form of an animated weather map.

Also is it possible to program an app for the likes of Bebo without Bebo's permission and make money off it??

- If so, could be an interesting project as I've some time off coming up...

You mean something that would become integrated into Bebo? Hmm I'm not sure if its possible to develop a "Bebo app" in the same way you could make a Facebook app, even if you could it probably couldn't run as an iPhone app.

challengemaster

Ideas...right...

Something that allows you to run more than 1 app at a time.... Now that'd be damn handy. I know its available through jailbreaking but...

How about something as gaeilge? We are after all, Irish... Couldn't hurt a bit to have something AVAILABLE in Irish.. Just considering it's seachtain na gaeilge...

Something for Irish radio stations? There's loads of apps available for radio stations in general... Except Irish ones...

Cinema listings / IMAC app (possibility for linkage to google maps/earth) / IMDB app / something along those lines

Icanhaz app - RSS feed to icanhascheezburger fetching todays lolcats?

just a few thoughts that came to mind...not even sure if some already exist

gary82

The page can be bookmarket but not the image (it uses a dynamic URL).

Ahh so I see. My wrong. That'd be an interesting little project so, wouldn't take long but good one to get started on. Might try do a web-app type thing on that actually.

You mean something that would become integrated into Bebo? Hmm I'm not sure if its possible to develop a "Bebo app" in the same way you could make a Facebook app, even if you could it probably couldn't run as an iPhone app.

I mean an App like the Facebook app for the iPhone.

Or to put it in more general terms - Can you make an app that uses information from a website without getting their permission first? Or is the publically available material free to work with....

cornbb

gary82 wrote: »

I mean an App like the Facebook app for the iPhone.

Or to put it in more general terms - Can you make an app that uses information from a website without getting their permission first? Or is the publically available material free to work with....

Ah, I get you now. I'm really not sure to be honest. I imagine they would reserve all rights pertaining to the content of the website so it might not be possible to get away with re-publishing their content in a separate app - their policy is laid out here: http://www.bebo.com/TermsOfUse2.jsp but frankly its all a bit too legal and dense for me to bother dealing with.

Met.ie on the other hand state that "The information on this site is free for use by the public and if displayed it should be attributed to Met Éireann. It is not to be passed on for commercial gain." which is far more digestible and straightforward.

Spud83

cornbb wrote: »

Ah, I get you now. I'm really not sure to be honest. I imagine they would reserve all rights pertaining to the content of the website so it might not be possible to get away with re-publishing their content in a separate app - their policy is laid out here: http://www.bebo.com/TermsOfUse2.jsp but frankly its all a bit too legal and dense for me to bother dealing with.

Met.ie on the other hand state that "The information on this site is free for use by the public and if displayed it should be attributed to Met Éireann. It is not to be passed on for commercial gain." which is far more digestible and straightforward.

Well Bebo's will always be more complicated due to the fact it is peoples "personal" information they are dealing with. If you want to do this I would suggest contacting them about it.

Met.ie are dealing with their data. Thats why its not as complicated. So you could do an app using their information, credit all the information to them, and then not charge for it.

440Hz

alanmurphy83 wrote: »

Well Bebo's will always be more complicated due to the fact it is peoples "personal" information they are dealing with. If you want to do this I would suggest contacting them about it.

Personally, I wouldn't go down the route of Bebo with all the legal boxes to tick. Let Bebo sort out their down development. I am sure they are perfectly capable of creating an app if they want to. I doubt they would outsource it to a random developer given the sensitive nature of the material involved.