The Perfect iPhone App

Well, it will not be perfect, because there is not enough time to fully develop the app in the time frame of the course, especially getting off to the slow start that I have had. So how about a solid iPhone App. A solid app is quite possible, learn the fundamentals, piece together the code, work on the interface, tweak it a little and voila, a solid app that is useful to me and hopefully a few others.

So let’s start with inspiration – what would make a good application… I listed some of my needs through the course of a day. I drive multiple vehicles, work a full time job and am self employed, so tracking business mileage is a concern. I still use the old pen and Adams brand Vehicle Mileage Logs. An app that is with me each time I fuel, drive, park that is easily downloaded to Quickbooks/Turbotax instead of transferring my chicken scratches to an Excel table would be helpful… but if I would spend a few dollars there are already several available with pretty high reviews.

Next thought, I am at TTUHSC and helping someone track a PO and its myriad of payments over the last year, I refer them to the Weblink Document Imaging server, they download exactly what they need to resolve the question. An interface to hit those millions of images would be relatively easy to coordinate with the existing API calls … but then there is the secondary level of security to get past, the good old eRaider log in. Okay, I already have shim worked out that we can bypass that security, always logging in using my username and password regardless of what computer I am starting from, just by using a special access… but I don’t think audit services would be too thrilled with that kind of backdoor access being used by even one or two people, much less the many that might try out this application… I check the active connections and there are currently 323 people logged into TTUHSC document Imaging, only 24 of them from desktop connections, and the remaining 299 from the web service. Of those, how many would actually want to work while walking down the hallway to their next stop… okay there may only be about 10 people who would really appreciate this application, but it would still be a good one to work up at a later time. Information Technology tells me that an iPhone compatible eRaider protocol is just a few months away from reality. Until then I will continue to use the iPhone Remote Desktop and hit that way.

Thought number three – hopefully all the Mac Users (PC version also recently released) out there are familiar with a great application from Objective Development called Little Snitch, the reverse firewall program. This monitors exactly what information is being broadcast from your computer. A firewall regulates what comes in, this regulates what goes out. Much more information is being sent than most people realize – so wouldn’t a Little Snitch for the iPhone be a great idea? I could see whether any of these apps had initiated tracking features, who was watching my Safari searches, whether any of the networks I attached to were logging data, etc. I started talking to one of my employees, who has already coded several iPhone apps and asked about feasibility of such a program. He offered to write it for me, anticipated several months with cooperation from Objective Development and at least a year without cooperation (working on it sporadically). If it would take him that long, the possibility of me completing the task is minuscule.

Back to the drawing board – I’m talking with my son at lunch last Saturday and I mention this project. How about something to accompany what Rich Rice was talking about in working with dissertations; tracking reading lists, due dates, project milestones, things like that? What would be a logical ancillary application for pedagogy of some sort in the general field of English? The sage advice of the youngster echoed through the nearly empty upstairs dining room at Spanky’s, “Think simpler, think student apps.” Makes sense, how specific do I want to be?

Parts of speech identifier, sample sentence, highlight each word, select part of speech from dropdown menu… can’t be too tough. Eventually expand so that they can copy/paste in their own more complex sentences, how do you tell if they selected the correct element? What kind of matrix would be required to do that… h’mmm still doable, but how interesting would that be? Gears spinning a little faster, thinking within a more doable scope. I’m no longer planning on being featured app on Lifehack, just something that a teacher would say, ‘This might help’ to a student. What about just a simple algebraic grade calculator? I have x assignments at even weight, already completed four of them, what’s my average? Let’s change the weighting… include due dates and nice descriptions and maybe room for relevant notes regarding each assignment. This could be a good application. Started doing a little research – did not want to look at what was already out there because I assume it already exists, but until I work out some of my basic elements, I don’t want to be influenced by somebody else’s product.

More later … but at least I think I have a project that I can build by myself! I may sound like a third grader – but I know some of my limitations. Bigger and better things will come in the future, but for now I just need to get one app under my belt, figure out how things work, become registered and devote enough time to this project to complete it to my expectations.