Applet Ideas

After browsing around the normal haunts for updates, I've come across a few ideas. I can't claim all of these as my own, but they could be made into applications or applets attached to something else. Rather than get bogged down with implementations, I want to illustrate these ideas with usage scenarios:

• Your child goes to the pantry to get breakfast, only to find their favorite cereal is getting very low (or even, gasp, gone). They go to the nearest computer (preferably right there in the kitchen) and put "Mighty O's" on the grocery list. Later that day, Mom or Dad packing up to leave work and check their cell phone. Low and behold, there are things added to the grocery list. Might as well stop by on the way home and grab some stuff.

• Your car sat-nav knows your to-do list, which includes a reminder to get some aspirin and light bulbs. As you near your favorite Wallgreens, your sat-nav beeps and shows the reminder in time for you to decide if you have time to stop by and grab some stuff.

• You parked in the huge lot a the mall, and in your hurry, you completely forgot where. You pull out your cell phone, which talks to your car's sat-nav and the two of them tell you where to go. This one originally came from a "where's my stuff" feature, where you can attribute objects in a list with GPS coordinates. The problem with that is that you have to remember to push a button when you leave your car. Better to move that work to the portables. This could also be easily tied in to proximity features, like locking and unlocking your car when your cell phone leaves and re-enters the area.