iOS Realistic App ideas suggestion thread

[firewood]

In the non-developer forums, people who have no clue about the iPhone SDK or the art of software in general often suggest applications that are against SDK guidelines (downloaded game emulators, etc.), not supported by the public SDK APIs (enable wifi, video capture, etc.), not even supported by the hardware, or are still AI research topics.

This thread is for more experienced developers to suggest applications that they think are possible, legal, maybe interesting, useful or even marketable (but that they aren't going to pursue or market themselves because it's not in their business plan, not their specialty, not enough time, etc.), and would like to see made.

I would like to see an old-fashioned Morse code tutor (quizzes on alphabet groups, programmable WPM, etc.)

Also, for the board game of Go, an iPhone game with a computer opponent (I assume it's possible because there are some available for PalmOS and WinMob devices with slower CPUs and less memory). Even a weak opponent might be suitable for absolute beginners.

Since there is SDK supported read/write access to the contacts database, how about an app that can copy a note out of one contact and paste or append it to the note field in another contact?

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[fleeper]

spreadsheet

I need a spread sheet app that can do an accounts receivable type tracking. I teach a lot of gymnastics private lessons and it would be nice to have a paperless (and portable) way to keep track of all of my lessons.

It would need to contain their name, session length, amount charged, amount paid, date, and I don't know what else.

This could be something that anyone in a similar situation could use.

Fleeper

 

[Niiro13]

Also, for the board game of Go, an iPhone game with a computer opponent (I assume it's possible because there are some available for PalmOS and WinMob devices with slower CPUs and less memory). Even a weak opponent might be suitable for absolute beginners.

Since there is SDK supported read/write access to the contacts database, how about an app that can copy a note out of one contact and paste or append it to the note field in another contact?

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It better be possible. Otherwise It's pretty sad how I'm losing in Caissa Chess. Chess programs probably use the most CPU/RAM in terms of AI. Since Caissa is so powerful, I'm assuming a near unbeatable Go opponent is possible .

Hmm, that seems simple enough. Maybe too simple for it to be its own application, though. Probably would go along with one of the existing contacts application.

 

[firewood]

Chess programs probably use the most CPU/RAM in terms of AI. Since Caissa is so powerful, I'm assuming a near unbeatable Go opponent is possible .

Actually, Go AI (on a 19x19 board) is way way behind chess AI in terms of competing against humans. It's only just recently that the best Go programs could beat any human pro (and only when the program was given a handicap). A couple years ago they couldn't even beat 13-year-old amateur players.

But I remember a simple unix Go program that could easily beat me back when I was just learning the rules.

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[Niiro13]

Actually, Go AI (on a 19x19 board) is way way behind chess AI in terms of competing against humans. It's only just recently that the best Go programs could beat any human pro (and only when the program was given a handicap). A couple years ago they couldn't even beat 13-year-old amateur players.

But I remember a simple unix Go program that could easily beat me back when I was just learning the rules.

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Really? Could it be because of the popularity? I can only imagine that the reason for this would be because no one has taken up the interest to figure out algorithms. It wouldn't be nearly as complex as chess, considering every move would result in almost the same as every other move, which would be placing a piece. Albeit, the strategy comes from where you place your pieces, but you don't have restrictions, the pieces are all equal.

 

[ghayenga]

Really? Could it be because of the popularity? I can only imagine that the reason for this would be because no one has taken up the interest to figure out algorithms. It wouldn't be nearly as complex as chess, considering every move would result in almost the same as every other move, which would be placing a piece. Albeit, the strategy comes from where you place your pieces, but you don't have restrictions, the pieces are all equal.

And thus go does not lend itself to the brute force calculation approach that chess programs use.

Admittedly nowhere near the resources of chess programming have been committed to go. But all since all the pieces have the same value and most of the positions on the board have very similar values there isn't much that a computer can calculate. It's the relations between the stones on the board that matters. And computers are very bad at pattern recognition compared to humans.