Wouldn’t it be great if you could tour New York’s Museum of Natural History from 3,000 miles away, or use your phone to help you remember things? How about a program that reminds you to move your car to avoid a parking ticket? Well, there could be an app for that!
Those were some of the ideas floated by Mission District smartphone users this week as the Apple World Wide Developers Conference met downtown at the Moscone Center.
While tech-savvy Mission consumers say they are thrilled with the convenience of their mobile apps, many would like to see improvements in longstanding apps and new ones that are more specific in function.
Nearly everyone uses Google Maps, for example, but nowadays it’s not quite up to snuff. Mission consumers want Google to give free voice direction, like the $59 app called Navigon.
On her way to the bank, Dana Jarry made a pit stop at Haus Coffee to pick up an espresso drink and surf the Internet. A native New Yorker, Jarry misses certain cultural aspects of her hometown, especially the famous museums she used to frequent on rainy days. Sometimes feeling homesick, Jarry wishes there was an app that would allow her to step into the Guggenheim, the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Natural History.
“It seems everyday new apps are coming out, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we started seeing something like this soon,” she said.
Pamela C. wants help with parking tickets. Her dream: An app that could warn her when it’s time to move her car on street-cleaning day. No matter that it would cost the city more than $100 million a year in lost ticket revenue.
Trouble remembering things?
Kai Mitsushio, who works for the online insurance company Esurance, wants an app to help with that. “I would like to write something and be reminded later on,” he said. Try TeuxDeaux?
Mitsushio likes the New York Times newsreader, but he would like to see a similar app that organizes the news from all news organizations in a user-friendly format. Instapaper?
At least some of the apps that consumers suggest are already out there in one form or another, but finding them is not easy, and many cost money. The price point for the app users surveyed varied widely, with some willing to pay up to $2 while others would only use free ones.
Paralegal and wine connoisseur Erica Smith would like to see an app that could identify wines by sampling them. “That sounds pretty useful to me,” she said.
According to eMarketer, an estimated 73.3 million Americans own smartphones, or about 31 percent of mobile users. Many are turning to their phones to help them shop.
Of the countless mobile phone applications that exist to fuel tech-infused lives, Google Maps and Yelp devices continue to remain the most useful, according to those interviewed in the Mission.
But not everyone is caught up in app fever.
Standing outside L’s Café on 24th Street, Mo Morgan, a tall Englishman with a heavy accent, was enjoying a cup of tea with his buddy. Morgan, 31, said that he hasn’t developed a special bond with his apps and only uses those the iPhone comes with. Others are “a waste of time and sometimes money.”
His friend Tom Coats, who is visiting from London, blamed such disinterest on Morgan’s personality. “I tell you, he’s a very boring man.”
Unlike Morgan, Coats, a seasonal rugby player and contractor, is a well-informed individual. He travels around England with his team and has to occupy himself on the long bus rides to games.
He uses Reeder for updates on the latest news from around the world, orders takeout through Grubhub and uses Things, a personal task management application, to manage his hectic schedule. But the gaming app Project Frog, where players breed frogs to earn money and points, is his ultimate thrill.
“It’s a kick-ass game. I mean, it contains frogs!”
Contrary to the notion that radio is dead, NPR and Pandora are also very popular apps. Coffee drinker Vijay T. said he listens to NPR all the time and that having the app on his phone is helpful. Smith listens to Pandora because it’s “a great tool for entertainment.”
Social media apps Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare, and gaming apps, continue to rule among the high school and college crowd.
Dressed in his dental uniform, Jose Martinez, 21, who juggles school at City College and a part-time job as an assistant at a dental office, walked into Haus after taking a break from his studies.
When time permits, Martinez comes to the coffee shop to stream music on his iTouch, and can be found playing his favorite gaming apps, like Angry Bird, Table Hockey and Pocket Frogs, while waiting for a bus or for his turkey sandwich to arrive. “It’s a nice distraction to pass the time,” he said. “Apps are fun. When I don’t have anything to do I’ll usually play games.
Alice, a 21-year-old student, says she uses Facebook and gaming applications almost religiously. Emoji, Scoops and Tiny Wings are all on her iPhone. “I am always playing a game on my iPhone. Also, it’s amazing that my phone can store this much and is so accessible to many different applications.”
Forgive the self-promotion, but me and a couple other guys have built an iPhone app specifically for the Mission. It’s called “Blockboard”, and it’s free. Last month, Mission Loc@l wrote about what we’re up to:
http://missionlocal.org/2011/05/building-a-better-neighborhood-the-iphone-edition/
We’d love to hear what people think. Just search the App Store for “blockboard” to get the free app!