Talk summary: So you have an app idea?, by Dave Addey

Here's a summary of a good talk I listened to last week by Dave Addey entitled "So you have an app idea?". It's the first talk I've heard in a long time which was worthy of note-taking. You'll find in the list below some points the speaker mentions for determining the potential of an app idea.

1. Universal appeal: Is it niche, i.e. relevant only to a particular interest group and therefore not going to make much money?
2. International appeal: Is it as relevant in China as it is in the UK?
3. Lasting appeal: Will it still be relevant a year(+) from now for users to install and use?
4. Ongoing use: Is it a use once or twice and throw away app or will it be used over a lengthy, potentially indefinite time-frame?
5. Personal interest: Does it scratch my own itch? Do I want or need this myself?
6. The hook: Is it something that has not been done before? Does it give people a reason to write about it, to be excited about it, and to show it off to their friends?
7. Dead time principle: Can it be dived into and out of for short spells, i.e. whenever the user has a moment free to use it?

A video recording of the talk used to be up on Be Square here but it looks like that's been taken down since. Good news though: I managed to find an audio recording of the talk on Sound Cloud here.

Muslim traveller phone app ideas

Seemed to have a brainstorm moment with some friends last Saturday when stopping for a rest in the forest during our day walk in the countryside. Came up with ideas for two phone apps that could come handy for Muslim travellers, as follows: (1) "Am I Musaafir": Enter your starting co-ordinates (from where you set off on your journey) and then wherever you are, hit the button and it tells you if you are a 'musaafir' ('traveller' according to the technical, legalistic meaning of the word) or not. Options for the different madhaa'ib (schools of thought) would be available. (2) "Let's do Jama'at": If you are driving along the motorway and are stopping at the next service station for prayer, geotag it and anyone following the same route or at the impending service station can pull over for a(n increased) Jama'at (congregation). Like a virtual adhaan of sorts. Not sure if anything like this exists already? But still very far from being able to produce something like this. Only just started going through an Android development guide book!