# Apps you really, really want, but don't exist! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 17, 2013, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apps-you-really-really-want-but-dont-exist/671480 "2013-10-17T13:55:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apps-you-really-really-want-but-dont-exist/671480/41 "2013-10-22T04:13:20Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > One that would automatically identify and label stars using the camera and time/position of the phone would be kinda nice. Sky Map does this. Made by some outfit called Mobius. Doesn’t use the camera though, so it sees through walls and floors and ceilings nicely. ---
**Author:** ![Blisters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Blisters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blisters)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apps-you-really-really-want-but-dont-exist/671480/42 "2013-10-22T06:23:38Z")
Oh I love this thread! Mine would take some user participation…I want an app, maybe geared toward runners…that would let you map a course based on where people ARE NOT using leafblowers. You could punch in you wanted to run three miles or whatever, and your starting point and it could tell you what streets to avoid because the gardener types are there on Wednesday afternoons. ---
**Author:** ![Sudden\_Kestrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apps-you-really-really-want-but-dont-exist/671480/43 "2013-10-22T10:00:54Z")
The UnBaby suggestions reminded me that I would love to have an app that would allow me to tap on a photo or phrase on any site and choose “Never show me this again.” From that point on, all mentions and images of that celebrity or topic or item would be eliminated from what I see of the sites I visit. I’d even accept a limited version of this that would let me eliminate particular items or classes of items from search results on shopping sites. This would make online shopping, especially for books, so much easier. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apps-you-really-really-want-but-dont-exist/671480/44 "2013-10-22T10:25:23Z")
> [@Translucent\_Daydream](#): > > She works at a very high end restaurant that is frequented by travelers from other countries which assume that 3 percent is a good tip, because she is making a wage on top of her tip. That is not the case. It costs her 10 percent of the total tab of the table to wait on the table, so she only makes money after the 10 percent. > > So she ends up paying to wait on every fourth table she is waiting on. Huh? She pays for the privilege of working, and then hopes she’ll make a profit? I’ve never heard of a waitress being an independent contractor. May I ask what country you live in? ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apps-you-really-really-want-but-dont-exist/671480/45 "2013-10-22T10:28:20Z")
I want an app that finds my cat, anywhere in the house. She’s already chipped, so I just need a sensitive chip-reader, maybe as part of the phone’s antenna. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apps-you-really-really-want-but-dont-exist/671480/46 "2013-10-22T16:31:41Z")
A pay-for, ad-free App from _The Weather Channel_. (Android) ---
**Author:** ![brendon\_small](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brendon_small/32/17101_2.png) [@brendon\_small](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brendon_small)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apps-you-really-really-want-but-dont-exist/671480/47 "2013-10-22T17:21:56Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I want a recipe app where I plug in the ingredients I have on hand and gives me a list of possible dishes I can create with those ingredients. I would love an app that would do the same thing with drinks. A decent bartender app, as it would be. I’ve seen many that have drink recipes, and a lot of websites sort by ingredient, but it isn’t exactly the same. Something like a scanner which could be used as new liquors were purchased, and other various bar supplies, and then the ingredients you have stored. Then, only recipes you can make are available. It would be even better if it offered variations. For example, “You have rye whiskey, but you could use bourbon here instead, because you have that too.” It would be a cocktail drinkers best friend. Brendon ---
**Author:** ![Translucent\_Daydream](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/translucent_daydream/32/16170_2.png) [@Translucent\_Daydream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Translucent_Daydream)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apps-you-really-really-want-but-dont-exist/671480/48 "2013-10-22T23:34:53Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > Huh? > She pays for the privilege of working, and then hopes she’ll make a profit? > I’ve never heard of a waitress being an independent contractor. > May I ask what country you live in? Well in Texas the way it works is you get paid 2.13 an hour if you are working a job that receives tips. When she waits on a table, she has to “tip out” ten percent of the total of the bill, part of those funds go to bus boys, bartenders, etc. The remaining amount is what she gets to keep. The 2.13 an hour gets completely withheld by the government for your taxes, so you get a paycheck for 0.00. The tip out isn’t a percentage of the _tips_ she receives, its of the total bill. When she lived in California and waited on tables there, she was making the state’s minimum wage as well as the tips she gathered, so she would also receive a paycheck that withheld her federal withholding, social security, etc., but also had wages on it. The laws are different everywhere, and so are the practices of paying waitstaff. My wife’s grand vision with the Tip Calculator App is that it will tell you how waitstaff is paid based on your GPS coordinates, and would give you examples of standard tips and what the waitstaff would actually get to keep. So if you had good service, you could make sure that it is represented with your tip. If I was in Wisconsin I wouldn’t know what a standard tip was, and it would be too awkward to ask your waitstaff what would be appropriate. I think the app would be a good idea. Many times waitstaff here are completely independent contractors, and only get paid in a small percentage of sales and tips. My brother used to own a beer store, and it had six drive bays where you could buy from your car. The “beer girls” that worked the store would walk up to you in your car, check your ID, and get whatever you wanted and brought it back to you, sort of like Sonic, a drive in. They were independent contractors, all licensed properly through the state of Texas, that got paid 5% of the profit from what was sold, and they also received tips from the customers for “running their beer” and whatnot. Percentage of profit sounded good, but retail alcohol sales is largely a volume type of business, and the profit per unit was pretty small, so the pay of the day would be twenty or thirty dollars, but they would make a few hundred a shift in tips. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apps-you-really-really-want-but-dont-exist/671480/49 "2013-10-23T00:52:04Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > How would it distinguish between actual babies and, say, dolls? Or paintings of babies? Or children’s-book illustrations? Unless, of course, you want to target using that broad a brush… Yeah, all of those seem like acceptable collateral damage to me. I’d like an app that tells me when the bathroom where I work is vacant, so I can (if need be) take a fetid, splattering dump without fear that one of my co-workers is sitting alongside me. I’ve been there about five years now and I’ve taken great pains to conceal the fact that I’m a recreational defecator. Image to maintain, you know. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apps-you-really-really-want-but-dont-exist/671480/50 "2013-10-23T02:11:20Z")
> [@orderfire](#): > > I was just discussing this with my brother. I want (to invent) an app that converts any song into a classic salsa rhythm, a’la El Gran Combo, with requisite accompanying brass and congas etc. Can you imagine how AWESOME Three Dog Night’s “Just an Old Fashioned Love Song” would be as a salsa number? Or the Smith’s “Everyday is Like Sunday”? I’d call it the Salsafier! > First follow-up app would be a Countrifier (to turn any song into a Country song). Possibilities are endless… > > Somebody please make this come true. I don’t know enough about constructing music to say how much of your idea this is, but I found an app that _listens to music and then prints out the sheet music._ Possibly after that, you can rearrange the music to suit? ---
**Author:** ![willthekittensurvive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/91b2a8/32.png) [@willthekittensurvive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/willthekittensurvive)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apps-you-really-really-want-but-dont-exist/671480/51 "2013-10-23T07:04:03Z")
I want a app that converts all phone converstations to txt files, It does not have to be perfect. can someone make it for me? ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apps-you-really-really-want-but-dont-exist/671480/52 "2013-10-23T18:25:12Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > I want an app that lets me view and edit Excel spreadsheets. It has to be local to the iDevice, not like CloudOn that makes changes to the file on a server and suffers performance problems. \*Sheet-to-Go \*does that on my BlackBerry. It also has _Word-to-Go_ and _Slideshow-to-Go_ for documents and powerpoints. I dunno if it’s on other platforms. [I’m stuck on BB only because my employer supplies the leash and their long-term contract with RIM hasn’t expired yet. Having my 'druthers, I’d avoid a cell-phone altogether.] An option I got no response to on the [CrackBerry.com](http://CrackBerry.com) site was that a music player should include a sort-by-date sequencing for the tracks in a collection. I tend to like to listen to a particular artist album-by-album and, while the Windows Media Players have always been able to organize and play albums in order from beginning to end in the published sequence using sort-by-date, I’ve never seen a phone-based music player with that option. Maybe it exists now, but I stopped watching for a response after 2 years. –G! ---
**Author:** ![MrSquishy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9e5f3/32.png) [@MrSquishy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrSquishy)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apps-you-really-really-want-but-dont-exist/671480/53 "2013-10-23T19:02:52Z")
> [@JM\_Hanes](#): > > I just want a “Find” function to use in my house. Well, I think there’s quite a few solutions similar to [Tile](http://www.thetileapp.com/). The only problem is you have to know before you lose it what you’re going to be looking for! Or, I guess you could spend a fortune slapping tags on everything you own… > [@Sigmagirl](#): > > We have a great many CDs in a large custom cabinet, and last night I was looking for a specific CD and wishing I could “Control F” the CD cabinet. > > If CDs have information in them that lets iTunes read the titles and songs from them, why can’t I point my iPod or iPad at the CD cabinet, dial up the CD and have it beep or something when I’m getting warmer? I can’t tell if you’re joking… ---
**Author:** ![orderfire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orderfire/32/10908_2.png) [@orderfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orderfire)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apps-you-really-really-want-but-dont-exist/671480/54 "2013-10-23T20:51:13Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > I don’t know enough about constructing music to say how much of your idea this is, but I found an app that _listens to music and then prints out the sheet music._ Possibly after that, you can rearrange the music to suit? Now that is pretty damn cool, and I suppose real musicians would really love that app! Sadly, I am but a simple listener with a ridiculous penchant for music played in a totally different genre/style (Barry Manilow goes Reggae!). Maybe I could get the “Who’s Line is it Anyway?” musicians to give me a private show? Paging Wayne Brady! ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apps-you-really-really-want-but-dont-exist/671480/55 "2013-10-23T21:55:42Z")
> [@Translucent\_Daydream](#): > > Well in Texas the way it works is you get paid 2.13 an hour if you are working a job that receives tips. When she waits on a table, she has to “tip out” ten percent of the total of the bill, part of those funds go to bus boys, bartenders, etc. The remaining amount is what she gets to keep. The 2.13 an hour gets completely withheld by the government for your taxes, so you get a paycheck for 0.00. The tip out isn’t a percentage of the _tips_ she receives, its of the total bill. Off topic, but that is NOT how it works in Texas and if that is how your wife is getting paid, then her employer is violating Texas labor laws and your wife has the makings of a lawsuit. [This page](http://www.twc.state.tx.us/ui/lablaw/texas-minimum-wage-law.html)is the Texas minimum wage law in simple language. [Here is](http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/LA/htm/LA.62.htm) the actual law. An employer may use tips in figuring the wage, but the total must come to $7.25 per hour (or greater). If tips fall below that mark, then the employer must make up the difference. ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apps-you-really-really-want-but-dont-exist/671480/56 "2013-10-23T21:57:17Z")
As far as an app I’d like to see, I’d like something that allows me to take attendance. I am a school band director and my classes can be very large. I take attendance by going to a website on my iPhone and marking each student. I would rather be able to take a picture of the class and have the app figure out who is here and who is missing. ---
**Author:** ![2gigch1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2gigch1/32/3313_2.png) [@2gigch1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2gigch1)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apps-you-really-really-want-but-dont-exist/671480/57 "2013-10-23T22:28:48Z")
I would like an app that takes my position (per GPS) and draws a straight line to a broadcast tower and a deteremined height and identifies if the topography rises in the way. The use is for television microwave truck transmitters sending a signal back to the tower (or other receivers). The signal is very directional and a big hill between me & the tower will stop the signal. Being able to determine the likelihood of a successful shot would be nice when deciding if to bring a microwave or satellite truck to a location. As it stands now we tend to look how close a stream or river is on the map, then use that to guess if the area is too low to send a signal. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apps-you-really-really-want-but-dont-exist/671480/58 "2013-10-24T03:08:31Z")
> [@Grestarian](#): > > \*Sheet-to-Go \*does that on my BlackBerry. It also has _Word-to-Go_ and _Slideshow-to-Go_ for documents and powerpoints. I dunno if it’s on other platforms. Thanks. I tried one called Spreadsheet To Go this morning. I don’t know if it is the same as yours or just a similar name but it wasn’t functional enough for me. The real problem is that I’d like an App that does some basic flight navigation calculations such as point of no return, equal time point, fuel confidence calculations, basic flight planning and fuel required calculations. There are some apps available for these but they are either too amateur, geared towards flight simmers and/or private pilots, cost a lot of money, or don’t take the data in the format I have available. I can make simple spreadsheets that do what I want but the spreadsheet apps are all a bit clunky. I dabbled in learning programming so I could make my own app but it was ultimately too much work for the expected result. I think Numbers might be the way to go. I discovered a few things about it this morning that have given me ideas on how to make it more usable for my purposes. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apps-you-really-really-want-but-dont-exist/671480/59 "2013-10-24T05:48:15Z")
> [@Sudden\_Kestrel](#): > > I want an app that would allow me to temporarily mute nearby people. This was inspired by the many times I found myself trying to mute the dogs with the TV remote. 😃 Have done this before with my bird. I’m so glad I’m not the only one. I want an app that will allow you to refuse calls to any number you input. Yeah, I know there are some apps like youmail that kind of help with unwanted calls, and Verizon allows you to block up to 5 numbers for free. I want an app that will allow and unlimited amount of blocks to numbers so that your phone will refuse to accept calls from any number on your list. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apps-you-really-really-want-but-dont-exist/671480/60 "2013-10-24T05:51:09Z")
> [@Charredcasm](#): > > I want a recipe app where I plug in the ingredients I have on hand and gives me a list of possible dishes I can create with those ingredients. > **[MyFridgeFood - Home](https://myfridgefood.com/)** > > Easy recipes using ingredients you already have in the kitchen. Not an app itself, but you can zip list to your phone IIRC. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apps-you-really-really-want-but-dont-exist/671480.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apps-you-really-really-want-but-dont-exist/671480.md?page=4)