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Since you asked, Gruber, here are my Android "killer apps"

perpetualstudent.net

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Re: Since you asked, Gruber, here are my Android "killer apps"

#2
* A redesign of touch-based text input.

* A music player with a unique interface.

* control Youtube on your computer from across the room

* A fork of the stock Android home screen

* Automatically do anything in response to anything.

* The best todo list.

* Get notifications for Gmail labels

* Get notifications for Craigslist search terms

* Easily track packages

This list would appear to prove Gruber's (subtextual) point. Most of these don't seem interesting enough to break into "Featured", "Top Free", or "Top 25" (for utilities) on the app store.

Re: Since you asked, Gruber, here are my Android "killer apps"

#4
post #2

* A redesign of touch-based text input. * A music player with a unique interface. * control Youtube on your computer from across the room * A fork of the stock Android home screen * Automatically do anything in response to anything. * The best todo list. * Get notifications for Gmail labels * Get notifications for Craigslist search terms * Easily track packages This list would appear to prove Gruber's (subtextual) po…

> Most of these don't seem interesting enough to break into "Featured", "Top Free", or "Top 25" (for utilities) on the app store.

Why not? These are high-quality, well-designed apps based on excellent ideas.

Re: Since you asked, Gruber, here are my Android "killer apps"

#5
iPhone is - by far - the platform with the most interesting apps. Here's a few things that impressed me:

* I have this small "survival tips" paper book written by an ex-SAS guy. Now there's an app for that.

* Revolution studios have published their Broken Sword games for iDevices, with UI and audio improvements.

* There are paper magazines that ONLY discuss iPhone apps.

Re: Since you asked, Gruber, here are my Android "killer apps"

#6
post #4
post #2

* A redesign of touch-based text input. * A music player with a unique interface. * control Youtube on your computer from across the room * A fork of the stock Android home screen * Automatically do anything in response to anything. * The best todo list. * Get notifications for Gmail labels * Get notifications for Craigslist search terms * Easily track packages This list would appear to prove Gruber's (subtextual) po…

> Most of these don't seem interesting enough to break into "Featured", "Top Free", or "Top 25" (for utilities) on the app store. Why not? These are high-quality, well-designed apps based on excellent ideas.

Yeah, you might be right. I don't know. My gut is, no. But, for what it's worth, here's the current app store lists:

Featured, New:

* Apple Remote - control iTunes & such from phone.

* Path - the social network.

* Airbnb - the iPhone interface to the rental service.

* ComicStrip CS - a comic strip creation app.

* Edmunds - car ratings.

* Pushpin - grocery coupons on your phone (incidentally: what a great idea! Wish I'd thought of this.)

Featured, Hot:

* Pageonce Bills - track your bills (Comcast, etc) on your phone.

* Cinch - an A/V microblogging app.

* Steinway Metronome - a metronome.

* MotionX GPS Drive - turn-by-turn GPS

* Instagram - the very famous photo sharing app

Top, Paid

* TuneIn Radio - AM/FM from 40,000 stations

* Food Network In The Kitchen - iPhone FoodTV recipes

* Perfect Photo - photo touchup

* Color Splash - another photo manipulation app

Top, Free

* Google Voice

* Doodle Buddy Premium - a drawing app

* Facebook

* The Find - price comparisons

(Top free is just dominated by games).

Utilities, Top Paid

* Perfect Photo

* Skyfire - Flash video browser

* Barcode Scanner

* Alarm Clock Pro

* Splashtop Remote Desktop

* Flashlight

* Battery Management (BTW, the closest thing I see here to one of those maintenance apps that seems to top the Android list)

* Craigslist Pro (our version of that Craigslist notification app)

* 5-0 Pro - Police scanner

This is today's snapshot. These are not the killer iPhone apps (with the possible exception of Instagram). This is just the noise you'd have to beat with one of those Android apps to have a shot at being an iPhone killer app.

Re: Since you asked, Gruber, here are my Android "killer apps"

#7
This is becoming a religious war like vi/emacs spectrum/c64 , i think that everyone should use the phone that needs or wants. Find the apps you like or need and choose the phone stop talking about it like if it's a matter of life. I think we all know Gruber has embraced the Cupertino church , that's his choice. If you don't like it don't read him, at least when his talking about how good are Apple products and how wise is the word from the prophet Jobs. If someone finds a good app is good to read about it, but to make it a song about how good is a platform i think is childish.

Re: Since you asked, Gruber, here are my Android "killer apps"

#8
post #4
post #2

* A redesign of touch-based text input. * A music player with a unique interface. * control Youtube on your computer from across the room * A fork of the stock Android home screen * Automatically do anything in response to anything. * The best todo list. * Get notifications for Gmail labels * Get notifications for Craigslist search terms * Easily track packages This list would appear to prove Gruber's (subtextual) po…

> Most of these don't seem interesting enough to break into "Featured", "Top Free", or "Top 25" (for utilities) on the app store. Why not? These are high-quality, well-designed apps based on excellent ideas.

> Why not?

Because so many of them are centered around meta tasks (input, controls, notifications). Appealing to nerds, sure, but the power of the App Store is how it provides compelling app experiences for everyone.

Re: Since you asked, Gruber, here are my Android "killer apps"

#10
In response to Gruber's criteria, a much more objective comparison from end-user perspective would be to compare android only apps to iOS only apps, without further restrictions (eg., Who the vendor is or whether app is invalid for comparison, because one platform policy wont allow it.)

As a user/buyer, I am only interested in what I can or cannot do with a product, while comparing it with a competing product. Everything else is just details

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