Concept: Santa's iPad

MarcD

Full time elf
Joined
Sep 7, 2012
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338
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Heathwood Qld
I'll apologise in advance if this is too long-winded. The other day I was contemplating ways to further enhance the interactive experience of our sleigh. It dawned on me that the one thing almost every aircraft cockpit has these days is an iPad. Surely Santa's sleigh would have one too.

That got me to thinking about what would Santa use an iPad for in his sleigh and I started work on building something. I build database applications for a living, so it wasn't difficult. This is not strictly an 'App', more like a database application running on an iPad which looks and works like an app (without any of the hassle of getting it past Apple and them taking a cut).

I started the process of coming up with ideas to incorporate. Part of the reason for this post is to seek ideas from others about features. Here's a screenshot of the first draft of the menu:

Screenshot.jpg

Here's a summary of what the buttons do:
The Check Name button allows the user to type in a name and it will come back with a screen telling them whether they're on the naughty or nice list (they're always on the nice list). The plan was to add some random non-gender-specific statements in there as well (eg You've been really well behaved all year).

The four buttons below that open web browsers (within the app) which show BoM Radar, Live Air traffic, a live satellite image of Australia and a Google Map (you can manually enter any address).

The bottom three buttons on the right play short (royalty free) audio clips as labelled.

The Pre-Flight button will allow kids to check off various things Santa would check before flying (Reindeer Fed, Reindeer Harnessed, Rodolph's nose polished, Toy sack loaded etc.). Once everything is ticked off, it would then tell them to prepare for takeoff.

The Take a Photo button is a little more complicated. The idea is that you take a photo of a kid or a family. You then choose a border from a collection of pre-installed graphics. You will have already added your own message in the settings. In our case it would be Merry Christmas from Paperbark Christmas Lights. The person will then enter their e-mail address. The app will produce a PDF of the bordered image and e-mail it directly from the app to the person.

The plan is to not store the data on the iPad, rather just overwrite each one. I'm open to suggestions on this.

Other features I though of but haven't progressed further include: A picture of Santa's route, a video clip of a radar screen, a video clip of Santa's workshop (workshop Cam), a toy sack monitor (graphical view of the level) and finally, but most difficult, a funny video of Mrs Claus and Santa giving an inflight safety video (Oxygen masks are only used for blocking reindeer farts etc.).

I will make it fairly customisable. You can change the URL's for the websites (not everyone will want to see the Brisbane 128k radar loop). The button labels can be changed as well and you can alter which sounds are included and their names. The plan is to build this, test it and then sell it. Probably for a one-off fee of around $20.

So, give me some feedback and suggestions for additional features as well as whether you'd be interested in a copy (no commitment).
 

hyper82mustang

I LIVE AND DIE FOR THOSE I LOVE
Joined
Sep 11, 2015
Messages
4
Location
moncton new brunswick
I saw someplace that a child could use a smartphone or tablet and communicate with a data base running on my show computer that when via wireless web could send his name and it would come across a matrix or Xmas tree, so the child would see his/her name in lights saying merry Xmas I would love to find that app. It would add a completely new reason for people to come visit and support local food banks with a none parish able food product
 

DavidJ247

Full time elf
Joined
Dec 2, 2015
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201
Location
Narre Warren
Hi Marc, I know this thread dates back a while but this project stuck in my mind as I thought this was a really cool concept and I'm interested to know if you've gone any further with it? Did you manage to get this up and running this past Christmas and if so what was the reaction from visitors? I bet the kids would of loved it!


One question, would this run on Android or only Apple? Just a thinking of the potential wear and tear on the device and the cost, there a plenty of cheap android tablets around but ipads can be pretty costly.
 
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