Can we make this a (-n even) better place by...
- helping developers find great NEW ideas? I don't know about you, but if i come here to see another paste-xx screenshot teleprompt fitness tracker ... i'm gonna cry. Crying is bad, hurts this wonderful place here. I expect devs to be careful with spreading ideas, some one else could make millions of bucks with, i understand and don't expect them to. But what about the rest of us coming here with app ideas - stuff that bugs us, where we wonder why nobody solved it, or solved it perfectly, no matter how niche or wacky? Would that be something? "newbie coder here, i wanted to try it, did first idea, yes it it is a receipt scanner" but why don't we encourage the "newbie here, saw this wacky little idea and gave it a go"? Does this speak to you? I prefer one trick ponies over the flood of all-the-same-minimum-changes-to-competitors-created-it-for-my-girlfriemd-she-loves-it. Am i alone? As i said, i understand devs not giving away ideas but here are more than enough, HQ MAC evangelists, optimizing their workflows. This is what i wanna see, if they need our help, we should be here! (and we know thy need our ideas... sorry guys) Upvote it as much as you can if you agree, let's get the attention of mods and change something here. Shall we? Your humble Oliver
Collected discussion
Let me start/lead with a good example: I have no idea why nobody tackles the homekit camera thing. Apple doesn't allow for homekit camera feeds in widgets, we know so much. But, boldly, why not build a chromeless, rounded corners app that is exactly the dimension of a large widget? If it looks the same, who cares? double click zoom pan on drag menu with camera switch always on top toggle extra large for two feeds etc.
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i‘m not DM anything mate :) its all there, take it or leave it, this is what i originally hoped with my post.
I don’t like AI apps. They feel like the same app built on the same AI, just wrapped in different candy paper.
i'm not entirely convinced you read my post mate? I'm trying to get a post running that we see more interesting apps, not more of the same...
You’re right, I partially misunderstood the point of the post. I was reacting more to the flood of similar AI products, while your main point was about encouraging originality and niche ideas instead of clones. That’s on me — I didn’t explain my point properly.
the one i keep waiting for is a clipboard manager that actually understands what you copied, like treating a file path differently than a url or a block of code instead of just dumping everything into a flat list
So you're telling me there's a chance to make it in the clipboard segment 🤑
YES IT SEEMS LIKE. i start being happy. this is what i most ideally was hoping for. cool beans
There's already an unofficial way this happens, the recurring "one little app you can't live without" threads. Those surface the wacky one-tricks better than launch posts do, because launches default to the standard format and the niche stuff loses to polish. Counter-take though: the flood of paste/screenshot/teleprompter clones isn't really a culture problem, it's a market signal. Every dev (me included) reads the sub looking for what's working, sees something hit top of week, and 50 of us go build one. The fix might be a recurring "wackiest idea you'd never actually ship" thread separate from the launch flow.
i hear you. then again devs talking to devs. we have users here that need a little idea. this could, if we support it, a more interesting feed?
I would love a pdf reader that also lets you highlight, bookmark, and annotate… that has a library first interface rather than just a list of recently opened files. I want to build my pdf library and have bookshelves as an interface.
Here's what I want: An AI app where I can drag in large PDFs, or a bunch of files in HTML, text and Markdown formats — and then I can open a window and ask it natural language questions and get a response. And here are the key details: It must run completely offline, ideally using Apple's AI frameworks for performance. It must provide specific citations to the place(s) where it found the information, ideally clickable to jump there. Basically, like what Google NotebookLM can do as search, but running locally. I've tried LM Studio, PDF Pals, PDF Search, CollateAI, and others I don't remember offhand. Basically, I try any application that claims to do this, and none of them have been any good. There was an application called Hyperlink that actually worked, but the developer was at a company that got acquired and shut down. All the others I've tried have been useless — generally hopelessly inaccurate, or take over a minute to perform a search even after indexing is done. I'd pay tens of dollars lifetime for an application like this that really worked, and as far as I can tell there's no competition right now. If I'm wrong, please point me at an application I've missed.
Have you tried asking Hooli? 😂
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If anyone finds any stupid little over-monetized apps/tools and wants an open source version for absolutely free, dm me! I’m genuinely grateful for the open-source community, but without some kind of monetary incentive, it’s hard to expect software to be maintained forever. At some point, there may simply not be enough motivation to keep going just “for the love of the game.” maybe the better goal is to build high-quality software and make a real commitment not to abandon it. And if you personally use and love the software you create, chances are you’ll be much less likely to ditch it. So monetize your damn apps, but make sure they're worth the price.