Open Thread Update: Readers Share their “Dream Apps”

Last time we asked for your “Dream Apps,” and while some apps remain dreams (for the moment, anyway), one wish easily came true. Reader CC asked about a Senior Planet podcast.  We already have one!

It’s called “Aging Rewired” and you can access it here. Check us out and you’ll hear interviews with interesting folks – like when I interview our Sex and Relationships columnist, Joan Price. Please visit our Youtube Channel for tutorials as well.

Another popular wish, easily granted:

Reader CBC longs for some help with timetables  and reminders for updating passports, drivers licenses, medical appointments, renewing memberships and more and Reader Jeff has the answer:

I use my Google calendar for virtually all of these things. Every morning I get a reminder: “Did you take your meds?” At 9:00 Thursday evenings I get: “Are the garbage cans out?” For my doctor appointment this morning, I got reminders 3 days, 2 hours, and 1/2 hour before I had to leave. I just got a reminder that tomorrow would have been my mother’s Birthday. I’ll be getting reminders of upcoming events, webinars, appointments, and TV shows I don’t want to miss. If I lose my phone, I am screwed!

Staying on top of Entertainment

One reader wanted an app to know when a movie would be available for streaming.  Readers Howard, Margy and Mary have the answer,

The website Justwatch.com lets you look up any film. past or present, and has a button that says “Notify me when I can watch it for free.” I have never used this function but they always tell you if it is streaming anywhere, so it may be useful. If anyone has tried them, please report.

-Howard

Nancy H. has an idea for a cool apps for gardeners!

I would love an app that could coordinate my schedule with the weather so I could get my chores done as well as the yard work and gardening done. It always seems like the days that I spend doing laundry the weather is beautiful outside and the days I have free for gardening it rains or snows or is too cold.

And Reader Natalie wants a comprehensive food app.

I would love an app that could identify, & keep up with, the contents of my fridge, freezer, cupboard contents, & pantry items & list what I’m short on, give me menus & recipes… & make the grocery list! Best prices in my area & suggesting the best place to get most of it at the best prices.

Next step – an app that does the cooking!

Other Dream Apps

Several readers longed for an app to solve some challenges that really ought to have a solution out there somewhere.  Reader Anthony longs for a better way to block spam calls, Sandy W. misses iTunes, Reader Andrea longs for cost-effective wifi for digital nomads, Reader Pamela wants a better app to deliver news curated for her, delivered daily and Readers Dave and Tiff long for an app that would preselect menu items at restaurants that fit their food choices (“so I don’t have to try to read a menu in a dark corner or on my phone”).

YOUR TURN: 

If any readers have suggestions for these Dream apps, please share in the comments!

 

ORIGINAL POST:

Well, Skype is on the way out.

The rate of apps and services going extinct and the apps coming up to replace them is almost Darwinian.  Sadly, though, in all the app development and churn, there are still apps I’ve long wanted and have yet to see. I call them my ‘dream apps.”

One dream app I long for would duplicate a program in my Palm Pilot (remember those?). I could customize an exercise routine down to specific weights, reps and sessions, day by day. I took the Palm Pilot with me at the gym – ticking off those little boxes with the stencil kept me motivated to work out, hit my marks and to add more reps and weights. I haven’t found anything to replace it – and I’m open to suggestions.

I also miss the Daytimer software, which kept me on track with appointments, schedules and goals.  I still keep a tower running XP for this program, but somehow it won’t print the Daytimer pages anymore – it refuses to talk to my printer.  If anyone knows how to reactivate it and get it to print on my HP5200 please put a note in the Comments!

Wish List

Besides the apps of days gone by, there are apps that don’t yet exist (as far as I know) and that should!

-An app that could hunt out and download drivers for vintage software and hardware that are no longer supported. 

-An app that could collect reviews as well as menus and locations for restaurants that deliver food and store in the same place.

-An app that could tell me the noise level of bars and restaurants in my neighborhood before I go there.

-An app that could notify me when a film is available on Netflix or other streaming services because I’m not into going to a movie theater anymore.

YOUR TURN

How about you? what apps would you like to see, or to be revived? Let us know in the comments!

 

Virge Randall is Senior Planet’s Managing Editor. She is also a freelance culture reporter who seeks out hidden gems and unsung (or undersung) treasures for Straus Newspapers; her blog “Don’t Get Me Started” puts a quirky new spin on Old School New York City. Send  Open Thread suggestions to editor@seniorplanet.org.