Developers: Do you really read the ideas people type in the "New App idea" forum?

[endmp25]

I personally know nothing about programing and developing but I know I have many ideas in my head of what I would try to make if I knew how to make it... so rather than make it myself I type them continously in the new app idea forum... but it lingers in my mind if you guys or gals really look in there... so really.. my question is... do any of you really read that forum and comb out some great ideas?
Yes or no?

[twofivethreetwo]

I do go through and have read several and have thought about a few I might want to tackle real soon but at the moment I'm working on a few personal apps for the company I work for and the other developers I work with to use to access some of our internal ruby on rails apps.

[richard]

End-users can be a good source of inspiration for new apps, but a forum like the new app ideas can be difficult to comb thru. Theres too much noise in it, and a general lack of knowledge about the product the developers are targeting.

For example, the requests for a "kill switch" or "task manager". I'm sure people are requesting this because they are familiar with using it on other platforms. However on Android, at best it would do nothing, in most cases it would actually make things worse by taking away resources from the VM that runs the apps.

As a developer, I think there are much more efficient ways of getting new project ideas than by reading thru online forums. Personally I like to interact directly with "power-users" to get new ideas. The guy that has 3 or 4 different mobile devices and knows all the little hacks and tricks is worth more than an entire forum of "DUDE MAKE IT A RADAR DETECTOR".

However, I wouldn't discourage having a forum like that. While not always directly useful to a developer, it does help to get the general pulse of the community of end users.

[CJ Chitwood]

i agree with above. In computing you have some users who are excellent resaources because when an app fails they are good at troubleshooting the problem instead of just blurting "dude ur app sux0r$" into the comments page... and they are the best people to talk with regarding getting a failed app fixed. but at the same time, you will get more money from the masses who aren't tech-savvy enough to help troubleshoot. So it's a kind of a catch-22.

[GasBot]

Originally Posted by richard

The guy that has 3 or 4 different mobile devices and knows all the little hacks and tricks is worth more than an entire forum of "DUDE MAKE IT A RADAR DETECTOR".

hahahaha I remember that one. I was laughing hysterically when I saw that post.

[tiki]

Well here goes in case anyone is listening:

One app we desperately need- and could be fairly simple to implement is a browser bookmark organizer.

The built in bookmarks section is really bad- you can't even rearrange the order of the bookmarks.

We need something where you can have folders and also move the order of the bookmarks around.

[PixelHenge]

Originally Posted by richard

End-users can be a good source of inspiration for new apps, but a forum like the new app ideas can be difficult to comb thru. Theres too much noise in it, and a general lack of knowledge about the product the developers are targeting.

For example, the requests for a "kill switch" or "task manager". I'm sure people are requesting this because they are familiar with using it on other platforms. However on Android, at best it would do nothing, in most cases it would actually make things worse by taking away resources from the VM that runs the apps.

As a developer, I think there are much more efficient ways of getting new project ideas than by reading thru online forums. Personally I like to interact directly with "power-users" to get new ideas. The guy that has 3 or 4 different mobile devices and knows all the little hacks and tricks is worth more than an entire forum of "DUDE MAKE IT A RADAR DETECTOR".

However, I wouldn't discourage having a forum like that. While not always directly useful to a developer, it does help to get the general pulse of the community of end users.

I have a question for you richard..

As Ive read you stated this in several other threads. OK, i get that its Linux based and it doesn't run like other platforms and that the system itself is suppose to intelligently allocate resources... but well, if its so efficient on its own and thus no task manager is necessary. How come some of the larger games and apps wont run until i have rebooted the phone and the only thing showing in the task switcher app is "home"- if theres like 9 things showing in that program, most larger apps will crash with a process error. This indicates that there is not the system resources available to run the app, so rebooting the phone seems to be the only way to clear the other tasks enough to allow the program to load.

Im not trying to get into a debate, just ive notices that you have said this alot, and in practice i have found the opposite.

[KanedaSyndrome]

At the moment I don't consider myself a fully fledged developer, I am still learning some Java and am here solely on my own agenda of making a project I work on happen, but in the future I might be inclined to check out other people's ideas.

[mast3rpyr0]

grr just wrote a huge post and had to reboot the phone. anyway i read them. pm me some ideas and i may take a shot at some.

[PixelHenge]

mast3rpyr0!!

See my sig?? I know $100 aint much for development, but catch me around the end of Nov and i might have more. Ill even come do your laundry or clean your house!! anything!!