- A stopwatch.
- A telephone dialer using the built-in sound capabilities. In my experience, there's no way to get the built-in dialer to do this.
- An addition to the Forms calculator which would figure out the value of medical ratios which are computed from the values of other tests. I have a list of these calculations for anyone interested.
- A grocery list/recipe book program which would suggest meals based on what has been purchased. When a meal is fixed, the ingredients would automatically be deleted from the "pantry" database. This might not be practical, but hey...I'm brainstorming here.
- A database of short movie reviews so your Zoomer could recommend a movie to rent. This could be updated periodically via America Online and has service surcharge potential.
- A universal remote control using the infrared transmitter. I've been told this is technically feasable.
- A program which would download stock info from AOL & track various stocks you're interested in.
Some "standard" games I'd like to see (long before I see the nth version of Black Jack):
- That tic-tac-toe-esque game that you drop pieces into a series of stacks...I forget what it's called, but it's more challenging than plain tic-tac-toe.
- Another good game would be chess. There are probably many good compact chess engines in C which could be adapted to the Zoomer. Maybe you could have a "chess-by-e-mail" program which would automatically store past moves, suggest moves, prepare an e-mail message for your opponent with your net move & download your opponent's move from AOL & reflect it on the board.
- The African game of pitts & stones (variously called "Mancala", "Awari", "Ouri").
- Ma Jong (or any of its variants)
- Battleship. The infrared transmitter could be used for multiple Zoomer play.
- A trivia game...or better yet...something like "Pictionary" which would be played by a group of people on the Zoomer -- this idea's even environmentally correct, since it eliminates paper waste.
In the way of hardware add-ons I wouldn't mind seeing a clip-on light so that you could use the Zoomer in the dark.
Also, some kind of James Bondian anti-theft device would be neat if future modules' prices go up in proportion to functionality.
Along the same lines, an electronic lock which would be opened by typing a code into the Zoomer and beaming it at the door/safe, etc would be neat in an environment where everyone had a Zoomer anyway.
--SteveSubj: Another App'n Idea