USEFUL Apps Needed

[LiveForever]

I admit the thread title is sensationalistic but it's to generate discussion.

I'm typing this on my iphone so it prooves word processing is possible.

I tried zoho but for me it doesn't work so I'm still waiting for a working office suite.

I think these real apps will come but I hope they aren't too far away!

I'm just a little frustrated seeing all these (sorry if I offend these developers) useless apps like hold on etc.

 

[iNfowarrior]

I am sure that as the app store matures, we will see more complex apps offered such as some sort of office type suite.

That's a cute thought, but reality is a bit different. So much can be seen now in regard to Apple and their attitude toward customers. The whole of the App store is a perfect example.

We are all 100% aware of what the app store and 2.0 were billed as........

1. SDK
2. 3rd party apps
3. AVAILABLE

No, Apple has closed its iPhone platform off tremendously making that App Store a complete LIE compared to what it was SOLD to us as, as well as it a near useless feature.

I thought there would be an over abundance of useful apps. Every REAL developer out there creating iPhone versions of there apps with everything from real document text to photo, audio and video editing.

What we've gotten, honestly, though we've been distracted by, is abosolutely pathetic. How old are we? I mean seriously?

Super Monkey Ball and Texas Hold Em. Thats what we've been waiting for? I think its safe to say, NO.

Productivity is no good for iPhone users from Apple's standpoint, as it will cause worn iPhones, resulting in a much higher warranty replacement percentage throughout the first year.

Apple does not want us being productive on the iPhone (or on the Mac for that matter). If that is not clear to you as user, please pick up a stock iPhone and find one app that lends to productivity. Its not there.

Long before the App Store release, I talked about how the release of 2.0 and the sdk would basically eliminate Apple's ability to develop and keep up with iPhone software. The developers would be years ahead of them in weeks. I did NOT see how it could be any other way......................................................................

.................................of course at the time I had no idea that Apple intended to limit Apps to retarded brain distractors instead of useful tools. In fact, I couldn't even imagined something so terrible.

 

[Flhusky]

Apple does not want us being productive on the iPhone (or on the Mac for that matter). If that is not clear to you as user, please pick up a stock iPhone and find one app that lends to productivity. Its not there.

Stock iPhone apps that lend to productivity;
1) Calendar
2) Contacts
3) Safari
4) eMail
5) Clock* its a stretch but to know its 7am in Tokyo or 7pm can be useful when calling a business partner.
6) Notes* its a stretch but to jot something down while out on the prod. floor or at a customer site.
Guess I found more then 1...

Mac outta the box not lending it self to productivity?
iWork comes to mind(Demo, I think its there)
iCal, Contacts, eMail, Safari
An out of the box PC is the same way, there is no office suite in the base OS

What am I missing when it comes to productivity enhancements?

 

[CommanderData]

That's a cute thought, but reality is a bit different. So much can be seen now in regard to Apple and their attitude toward customers. The whole of the App store is a perfect example.

We are all 100% aware of what the app store and 2.0 were billed as........

1. SDK
2. 3rd party apps
3. AVAILABLE

No, Apple has closed its iPhone platform off tremendously making that App Store a complete LIE compared to what it was SOLD to us as, as well as it a near useless feature.

I thought there would be an over abundance of useful apps. Every REAL developer out there creating iPhone versions of there apps with everything from real document text to photo, audio and video editing.

What we've gotten, honestly, though we've been distracted by, is abosolutely pathetic. How old are we? I mean seriously?

Super Monkey Ball and Texas Hold Em. Thats what we've been waiting for? I think its safe to say, NO.

Productivity is no good for iPhone users from Apple's standpoint, as it will cause worn iPhones, resulting in a much higher warranty replacement percentage throughout the first year.

Apple does not want us being productive on the iPhone (or on the Mac for that matter). If that is not clear to you as user, please pick up a stock iPhone and find one app that lends to productivity. Its not there.

Long before the App Store release, I talked about how the release of 2.0 and the sdk would basically eliminate Apple's ability to develop and keep up with iPhone software. The developers would be years ahead of them in weeks. I did NOT see how it could be any other way......................................................................

.................................of course at the time I had no idea that Apple intended to limit Apps to retarded brain distractors instead of useful tools. In fact, I couldn't even imagined something so terrible.

Nice troll buddy. There were several hundred thousand downloads of the SDK. Out of them, there were 25,000 initial applicants to the $99 developer program to sell apps. Out of the 25K, 4,000 applicants were selected into the $99 dev program and allowed to make applications in time for the app store launch. In this first month, approximately 1,400 apps have been made available for sale in the app store (in the USA at least). Some of the developers have MULTIPLE apps available in the store (usually all low quality $0.99 apps, look at all the public domain single app e-books for example... spammed apps at their finest). There are A LOT of developers out there still working on better software to be sold this fall/winter/next year (myself included). Even just looking at the small group that made the first cut of 4,000 approximately 75% of them have not gotten an app finished/accepted to the store yet!

I am one of the initial 4,000 in the program, and I do not have an app available yet either. Making great software takes time. The SDK was available for a total of 4 months before the store opened. It was impossible to test across many phones until the ad-hoc distribution was available. This limited the store launch to a lot of simpler applications that could be completed and tested by a single person or small group of developers.

If you want some good productive apps try Teleport, WinAdmin, and pTerm. These are exactly the type of apps I dreamed of seeing in the app store, and can make the life of a SysAdmin or Consultant much easier!

 

[infowarfare]

<snip>

No, Apple has closed its iPhone platform off tremendously making that App Store a complete LIE compared to what it was SOLD to us as, as well as it a near useless feature.

<snip>

As the first and original infowarfare warrior, I say you are FULL OF IT!

This troll purposly created a user name similar to mine to hijack a thread I was on so to make it look like it was me that was responding. He's just a hater...

 

[jds4300]

About the App Store

It is painfully obvious that the folks at Apple have placed a STRANGLEHOLD on the developers creating apps for the so called App Store. Most striking, to me at least, is the lack of an app that can be used as a DOCUMENT VIEWER, something akin to the FABULOUS Documents to Go. For some reason, Almighty Steve Jobs has decided that iPhone users are NOT worthy of a GREAT documents viewer. Now of course, there are a few alternatives for document viewing (Filemark Maker, Google Docs, email) but these options are WEAK and ARE NOT App Store fare. I guess viewing Word and Pages documents while on the go isnt important to the business community, or at least the powers to be at Apple must so think. Instead, we are offered App Store fare such as Flashlight, CoinFilp, dozens of Tip Calcs, and Crapp Apps too numerous to list! I HAVE NEVER BEFORE WITNESSED SUCH A VAST ARRAY OF RUBBISH! I browse new app offerings DAILY and of the 1000+ Apps available, 98% are USELESS and IDIOTIC! The App Store should be rebranded the Crapp Store! Apple should be EMBARASSED, I sure as hell am. iPhone 3G is a SPECTACULAR phone with NO RIVALS, however, its lack of a REAL documents viewer, and the mere existence of so many PATHETIC App Store offerings is totally RIDICULOUS!

 

[dejo]

It is painfully obvious that the folks at Apple have placed a STRANGLEHOLD on the developers creating apps for the so called App Store. Most striking, to me at least, is the lack of an app that can be used as a DOCUMENT VIEWER, something akin to the FABULOUS Documents to Go. For some reason, Almighty Steve Jobs has decided that iPhone users are NOT worthy of a GREAT documents viewer. Now of course, there are a few alternatives for document viewing (Filemark Maker, Google Docs, email) but these options are WEAK and ARE NOT App Store fare. I guess viewing Word and Pages documents while on the go isnt important to the business community, or at least the powers to be at Apple must so think. Instead, we are offered App Store fare such as Flashlight, CoinFilp, dozens of Tip Calcs, and Crapp Apps too numerous to list! I HAVE NEVER BEFORE WITNESSED SUCH A VAST ARRAY OF RUBBISH! I browse new app offerings DAILY and of the 1000+ Apps available, 98% are USELESS and IDIOTIC! The App Store should be rebranded the Crapp Store! Apple should be EMBARASSED, I sure as hell am. iPhone 3G is a SPECTACULAR phone with NO RIVALS, however, its lack of a REAL documents viewer, and the mere existence of so many PATHETIC App Store offerings is totally RIDICULOUS!

What makes you so certain that a lack of a document viewer is Apple's fault and not the lack of a developer creating one? Do you know a developer that has build a document viewer but Apple has not approved it for the App Store yet? What about Olive Toast's "Files"?

 

[jds4300]

About a Documents Viewer for iPhone

Clearly it is not IMPOSSIBLE for an app to be created that would provide a native iPhone app to load documents (Pages, Doc, Excel) synced from within iTunes that could then be viewed on the iPhone. This feat is performed with music via playlists with ease! Why not do the same with documents? Am I asking something monumental here? The iPhone has been on the market for nearly 14 months! What is the problem here? Document viewing is ESSENTIAL to STUDENTS as well as BUSINESS users! Why is this GIGANTIC lapse being IGNORED and left in the hands of HACKS! I WANT A FRIGGIN DOCUMENTS VIEWER THAT IS NOT WEB BASED!

 

[dejo]

So, you're not gonna answer my questions?

P.S. All the CAPITALIZING doesn't make your RANTING any less WHINY.

 

[mdragoni1]

What do you mean by Document viewing? PDFs have Annotater. And for misc. documents (.doc, .pdf, etc) we have Files (previously mentioned) Caravan, FileMagnet which took me all about two minutes to find. There are also a host of task managers available and flash card apps (you mentioned students).

If your going to rant, make a valid point.

I'm going to ignore the post regarding Apple's conspiracy to make us unproductive through Macs and now the iPhone, its so asinine I've already wasted too much space discussing it.

mdragoni1

 

[kis]

to be fair: there are literally thousands of applications for the Palm and the Windows Mobile platforms - and there, too, only a handful are really useful. If you head over to handango etc. you'll quickly see that there are only a couple of bestsellers and the rest is crap.

But anyway - Apple's creep-the-carriers-up-the-arse policy that doesn't allow the applications users want to be developed, really doesn't help. Why put a GPS chip in the phone if you're not allowed to use it correctly? Why include bluetooth when you're not allowed to tether? Not allowing to run apps in the background - come one!!!!

Apple used to produce products that enabled users to work the way they chose. Now they produce products that make the users work the way Apple wants them to. I really don't know how Jobs can sleep at night.

 

[megfilmworks]

To all the Trolls posing as newbs and the general whiners:

 

[iNfowarrior]

Stock iPhone apps that lend to productivity;
1) Calendar
2) Contacts
3) Safari
4) eMail
5) Clock* its a stretch but to know its 7am in Tokyo or 7pm can be useful when calling a business partner.
6) Notes* its a stretch but to jot something down while out on the prod. floor or at a customer site.
Guess I found more then 1...

Mac outta the box not lending it self to productivity?
iWork comes to mind(Demo, I think its there)
iCal, Contacts, eMail, Safari
An out of the box PC is the same way, there is no office suite in the base OS

What am I missing when it comes to productivity enhancements?

Those are not productivity apps. They are toys. Your calendar?! Please, don't embarrass yourself. Unless you are using Apple's $99 a year service, the Calendar is completely useless. With it, it is, at the very least, up to date and accurate. But aside from VIEWING in the app, which only gives you the ability to remember your own schedule, its useless.

What can the calendar app DO? What function can it process? Nothing.

Nor can any of the other apps. Except maybe Beatmaker, that is ONE productivity tool. The VNC clients out there, when they start working over the cell network and working well, they may also be productivity tools, but still not quite unless you can easily manipulate apps and start processes going on your pc or mac.

It is not any surprise to me that folks on Macrumors would mistake surfing the web, viewing their appointments and writing notes as PRODUCTIVE. Not surprising in the least. The age old, "I've managed to keep up with my own life, therefor I am productive."

 

[iNfowarrior]

Nice troll buddy. There were several hundred thousand downloads of the SDK. Out of them, there were 25,000 initial applicants to the $99 developer program to sell apps. Out of the 25K, 4,000 applicants were selected into the $99 dev program and allowed to make applications in time for the app store launch. In this first month, approximately 1,400 apps have been made available for sale in the app store (in the USA at least). Some of the developers have MULTIPLE apps available in the store (usually all low quality $0.99 apps, look at all the public domain single app e-books for example... spammed apps at their finest). There are A LOT of developers out there still working on better software to be sold this fall/winter/next year (myself included). Even just looking at the small group that made the first cut of 4,000 approximately 75% of them have not gotten an app finished/accepted to the store yet!

I am one of the initial 4,000 in the program, and I do not have an app available yet either. Making great software takes time. The SDK was available for a total of 4 months before the store opened. It was impossible to test across many phones until the ad-hoc distribution was available. This limited the store launch to a lot of simpler applications that could be completed and tested by a single person or small group of developers.

If you want some good productive apps try Teleport, WinAdmin, and pTerm. These are exactly the type of apps I dreamed of seeing in the app store, and can make the life of a SysAdmin or Consultant much easier!

Great response thank you for taking the time to intelligently present the flip side.

You make great points about the time it takes to develop great software There may also be a bit of hesitation on the part of developers to put time in effort into apps that may or may not sell well. Many developers are probably trying very hard to analyze the app store sales from the available perspective.
-----
But, it is no secret that Apple has chosen not to include productivity within its built in software, and despite how many developers there are to come in the future, there are A LOT of apps already available.....and less than 1% are in any way useful.

I know some people get up and arms about this because they enjoy SMB or Cubes or Crash Bandicoot. Thats fine. It just means you are spending time ( a LOT of time in some cases) distracting yourself rather than accomplishing something.

Want a productivity tip that involves the iPhone and the iTunes store? Try iTunes U or some of the great How To audiobooks that are available. Instead of sitting around (which is the only time you'd be using any of the games or apps), you could be learning any of thousands of new skills, or languages.

That's one example and its not for everyone, but there could be so much more.

 

[ScottNWDW]

The iPhone app platform is relatively new. It takes time to get stuff on it. Windows Mobile, Palm or Blackberry apps were not created in a day either. Those platforms have been around for years.

WebIS, is coming in the fall with Pocket Informant, which they already have on Windows Mobile and from my experience is a fantastic PIM app.

Splash Data has brought some great productivity apps to the iPhone in the form of Splash Money, Splash ID and Splash Shopper. Keep track of your finances, your ID's and Passwords and sespite it's name Splash Shopper is a great app for keeping lists of just about anything you want. It's not just for shopping lists. I personally have used all three apps over on both the Palm and Windows Mobile Platforms.

When I first got my BlackackII, those three Splash programs were finally available on the Windows Mobile Platform and their availability along with the coming of Pocket Informant were MAJOR influences that helped me decide to finally get an iPhone.

Would I like to see more productivity programs on the iPhone, yes I would, but I also realize that the iPhone platform is in it's infancy, the others have been around for 10 or more years, the apps will come, it will just take a little time.