In the little "think tank" that just happens to be my office, my business partner Matt and I were discussing ideas, features, functions that we wish existed. Here's a list of some of the ideas we've come up with:
- Soft-menu Cable/Satellite TV: The idea behind this somewhat already exists. Matt was previously a DirectTV subscriber and is now (like me) a Comcast Digital cable subscriber. He was sharing how with DirectTV, he could completely customize a favorites list for individual users in the house, setup restrictions on content/viewing time/channel, and rearrange the channels to something more meaningful to him and his family, i.e. why is "Channel 13" on channel 12? So, here's the idea:
- Why can't I completely rearrange and manage my channel line-up to my own personal preferences? Not only do I have to pay for channels I have no intention of watching. I know, I know I can tag channels as my "Favorites" w/ Comcast, but if I say I don't want to see QVC on my line-up I can't completely erase it from my channel list and TV Guide grid.
- Also, I want to regroup my channels together. This is similar to how they've already got most of the premium movie, HD, and music channels together. But I want to group all my sports together, all news, all music, all local, all educational, all kids channels together.
- GPS Reminder Cellphone: Now normally I'm not a big proponent of a cellphone being much more than just a device that lets you receive calls from people and make them. I know, unique idea. We had the idea though of having a function in a cell phone that would activate an alert or reminder based on your geographic location. Having the reminder based on a time, may not be contextually relevant, it's more about being reminded based on location. For example:
- The next time on the southside of town, remind me to go by my brother's house to pick-up my power drill I let him borrow.
- Or, maybe I'm on the southside of town and running errands and I want to remind myself that when I get home I need to look-up the information for my insurance and call my doctor back with my policy number.
- Proximity Alerts on Cellphone: This is similar to the gps tracking based reminders; however, here's a better example. Right now I've got my parent's roadside assistance card for when I helped them with their car when it broke down. I've got the card buried in my wallet and never "think" about it. What if, the next time I was with my parents, the phones talked to each other (maybe through RFID) and the reminder popped up: "Give the AAA card back to mom"
- Cellular Contact Information Exchange: When's the last time someone asked you for your phone number and then programmed it into their phone? When's the last time you asked your wife for so-and-so's home phone number, which she then looks up and dictates off to you, which you then manually retype the person's name and phone numbers into your phone. Just like the old PDA function of "beaming", why can't I beam my own or someone else's phone number to another phone that's in proximity to me?
What's everyone else think? Do you like these ideas. I think these are brilliant! Now THAT'S and "Easy Button".
Ryan C says
You can send numbers like that through Bluetooth…
The rest is coming I'm sure…
Ryan C says
You can send numbers like that through Bluetooth…
The rest is coming I’m sure…
crisco says
yeah, definitely coming. especially the gps stuff. Look what they're doing with GPS now: (from common sense) https://www.commonsenseblog.org/archives/2006/06/p…
crisco says
yeah, definitely coming. especially the gps stuff. Look what they’re doing with GPS now: (from common sense) https://www.commonsenseblog.org/archives/2006/06/parent_can_use.php