# What Simple App Would You Like to Have **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 27, 2018, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-simple-app-would-you-like-to-have/814926 "2018-05-27T21:41:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-simple-app-would-you-like-to-have/814926/21 "2018-05-28T23:27:10Z")
> [@](#): > > Another thing that would be lovely is if it could turn on a specified internet radio station. That seems like such an obvious thing, but I can’t find an app which accomplishes it. You don’t need an app for that. Just create a bookmark to the radio station, then put a bookmark widget on one of your home screens. What I would like is an alarm clock that is location aware, and wakes me up one stop before my station on the subway or the bus. Okay, it probably wouldn’t work on an underground subway, but most of our “subways” are elevated and it should work just fine. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-simple-app-would-you-like-to-have/814926/22 "2018-05-28T23:56:12Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > I don’t know what an app is. Since you can access the internet, I’d like to make you aware of a wonderful website called “Google.” If you don’t know something, you can type your question into the little box, click the magnifying glass icon, and it will find answers for you. For example, you can type in “what is an app.” Here is a link for you: [https://www.google.com](https://www.google.com). Try it! ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-simple-app-would-you-like-to-have/814926/23 "2018-05-29T00:21:09Z")
I want a Plant ID app that actually works, and doesn’t rely on asking people what they think the plant is. This is, I am told, one of those “simple but not easy” things. There are lots of apps that claim to do it, but do it very very badly. I haven’t found one yet that can reliably, accurately, identify Dandelion and Plantain. No way I’m trusting them with Apiaceae family! ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-simple-app-would-you-like-to-have/814926/24 "2018-05-29T00:55:15Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Since you can access the internet, I’d like to make you aware of a wonderful website called “Google.” If you don’t know something, you can type your question into the little box, click the magnifying glass icon, and it will find answers for you. > > For example, you can type in “what is an app.” > > Here is a link for you: [https://www.google.com](https://www.google.com). Try it! That defeats the purpose of asking the question though. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-simple-app-would-you-like-to-have/814926/25 "2018-05-29T12:24:57Z")
I want an app that will silence the phone for an hour with a single tap. After the hour, it should return ring, vibrate, alerts etc. to their former settings. If it were me, I’d call it “Tapout”. The only feature should be that additional taps will increment the hours of silence, and a 1-sec hold will disable it. Am I the only one who forgets to turn the ringer back on after meetings? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-simple-app-would-you-like-to-have/814926/26 "2018-05-29T12:52:07Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > I want a Plant ID app that actually works, and doesn’t rely on asking people what they think the plant is. > > This is, I am told, one of those “simple but not easy” things. There are lots of apps that claim to do it, but do it very very badly. I haven’t found one yet that can reliably, accurately, identify Dandelion and Plantain. No way I’m trusting them with Apiaceae family! That reminds me of the suggestion I have for the OP. I want a general-purpose dichotomous key app, that can load key sets, as well as create them from scratch and save them - so people can use it to create plant or fungus ID guides, or diagnostic guides of any kind, etc. I’ve loved these things ever since I first saw the [‘Pangolins’](http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0015157) example program for my ZX Spectrum (this implementation is just a ‘20 questions’ type quiz, but it is extensible so if it guesses wrong, you can teach it. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-simple-app-would-you-like-to-have/814926/27 "2018-05-29T12:56:02Z")
An autocorrect on my PC that only fixes the words I have regular trouble with, such as mistyping “teh” instead of “the”. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-simple-app-would-you-like-to-have/814926/28 "2018-05-29T15:19:06Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > An autocorrect on my PC that only fixes the words I have regular trouble with, such as mistyping “teh” instead of “the”. The last time I tried to find some, there were several good programs for inserting whatever material you want when you enter a certain word-like shortcut. So, for example, I can make it so that typing just sig [with a space after] will automatically type out my fancy email signature, and typing letr [space] pastes a copy of my form letter for me to fill out. OK, that’s nice… but with such a program it’s quite easy to cause teh [space] to be interpreted as a shortcut for inserting the word “the”. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Space\_Vegetable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Space\_Vegetable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Space_Vegetable)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-simple-app-would-you-like-to-have/814926/29 "2018-05-29T15:21:39Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > What I would like is an alarm clock that is location aware, and wakes me up one stop before my station on the subway or the bus. The [Transit app](https://transitapp.com/) has a “Go” mode where it alerts you when your stop is coming up soon (or when it’s time to leave to catch your bus). It uses real-time bus location data when it can get it, otherwise published schedules. (I use the app frequently, but can’t vouch for the utility of that particular mode, which I don’t use.) ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-simple-app-would-you-like-to-have/814926/30 "2018-05-29T15:22:23Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > I want an app that will silence the phone for an hour with a single tap. After the hour, it should return ring, vibrate, alerts etc. to their former settings. If it were me, I’d call it “Tapout”. The only feature should be that additional taps will increment the hours of silence, and a 1-sec hold will disable it. > Am I the only one who forgets to turn the ringer back on after meetings? I’m not going to download it just to check, but I’m betting that the much-touted Tasker would easily do this. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-simple-app-would-you-like-to-have/814926/31 "2018-05-29T15:27:56Z")
> [@Space\_Vegetable](#): > > The [Transit app](https://transitapp.com/) has a “Go” mode where it alerts you when your stop is coming up soon (or when it’s time to leave to catch your bus). It uses real-time bus location data when it can get it, otherwise published schedules. (I use the app frequently, but can’t vouch for the utility of that particular mode, which I don’t use.) Thanks; I do use that app, but never noticed that feature. I’ll check it out. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-simple-app-would-you-like-to-have/814926/32 "2018-05-30T03:28:18Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > I want an app that will silence the phone for an hour with a single tap. After the hour, it should return ring, vibrate, alerts etc. to their former settings. If it were me, I’d call it “Tapout”. The only feature should be that additional taps will increment the hours of silence, and a 1-sec hold will disable it. > Am I the only one who forgets to turn the ringer back on after meetings? Slightly more work, but not much, is android app Silent Mode+ When I turn the volume of my phone off, it pops up a window that lets me pick when I want it to return to my default volume, either by time (1PM) or by length of time (45 minutes) You can white list numbers and black list other apps (so muting them won’t trigger SM+). If you want to buy the upgraded version, you can schedule mute times (like for a weekly Monday morning meeting.) ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-simple-app-would-you-like-to-have/814926/33 "2018-05-30T15:42:36Z")
I’d like a sound recording app that has a looping mode similar to a dashcam, but audio-only. I’d like to specify how long the time window it records and/or a max memory size it’s allowed to use on my SD-card and then set it to continuously record an audio loop, erasing the oldest segments as needed to make room for the latest within the limit. And of course, once after-the-fact when I realize my recorder has bagged something important I want it to have a quick way to make that recording permanent, just like a dashcam. I live in a one-party recording state, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-simple-app-would-you-like-to-have/814926/34 "2018-05-30T15:46:53Z")
> [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#): > > I would think that many companies have spent many billions of dollars trying to find as many answers as possible to your question. Yes. They need a “random niche need” app suggestion generator. I can guarantee you all significant needs have been covered already. ---
**Author:** ![molten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ec9cab/32.png) [@molten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/molten)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-simple-app-would-you-like-to-have/814926/35 "2018-05-31T20:46:38Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > I want an alarm app that can wake me with a song or chapter from a CD or a downloaded book. I finally found one that comes close, but it can only start from the beginning of a file; it can’t go to the place where I left off and start there when it wakes me. > > So the goal would be to tell it “Play this song” and then “start the book here.” > > Another thing that would be lovely is if it could turn on a specified internet radio station. That seems like such an obvious thing, but I can’t find an app which accomplishes it. > > And if anybody makes these, I want 5% of the income. LOL! This is simple to make (at least for a book or audio file), and I would do it if only I knew there was a demand for it. ---
**Author:** ![molten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ec9cab/32.png) [@molten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/molten)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-simple-app-would-you-like-to-have/814926/36 "2018-05-31T20:48:34Z")
> [@Ponderoid](#): > > I’d like a sound recording app that has a looping mode similar to a dashcam, but audio-only. I’d like to specify how long the time window it records and/or a max memory size it’s allowed to use on my SD-card and then set it to continuously record an audio loop, erasing the oldest segments as needed to make room for the latest within the limit. And of course, once after-the-fact when I realize my recorder has bagged something important I want it to have a quick way to make that recording permanent, just like a dashcam. > > I live in a one-party recording state, by the way. Also simple to make, but who are the user base that find this useful? I have a 128GB sd card, so I can record for 100s of hours non stop no problem. And that is with a cheap old phone. ---
**Author:** ![molten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ec9cab/32.png) [@molten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/molten)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-simple-app-would-you-like-to-have/814926/37 "2018-05-31T20:50:15Z")
By the way, there is no need to buy Tasker, what many of you are looking for and more is available in the free IFTTT app. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-simple-app-would-you-like-to-have/814926/38 "2018-05-31T21:02:24Z")
A simple gas and mileage app. Keep up with my fill ups, automatically compute my mileage. I’d enter the miles on speedometer, gallons, cost. App should date stamp. Track miles driven each day. Can GPS do it accurately without any manual entry? Nothing fancy. Just an easy to read App. So I could get a monthly report. I drove 340 miles this month. Filled up twice, cost $62 Then, end of the year. Give me the total miles, and cost. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-simple-app-would-you-like-to-have/814926.md?page=1)