Christmas Lists

imageThere’s a tradition in our family (well, my wife’s family but it’s now “our” family) that people write a list of items they’d like to receive as Christmas / birthday presents. Then other people pick from the list. Going “off-list” is generally frowned upon (strongly by some). As a convenience mechanism, it’s great. As an “eliminate the magic” mechanism, it’s also great. I’m not a huge fan.

However, we are where we are and I saw Marc blog about a Mando Group app today that fits the model just about perfectly – a Christmas Present Planner. That link also has a great write-up from Gary about his experience of building and publishing the application.

Honestly, I could be convinced to spend £0.79 on it – and for me that’s a major purchasing decision that would usually require days of cogitation and multiple cost-benefit analyses.

If you have the Zune client installed, you can go straight to the app in the Marketplace.

Of course there’s a huge demand for festive applications like this – I can see a few on the Marketplace but surely there’s scope for some others:

  • Where is Santa? (uses location and data connection)
  • Santa’s Little Helper
  • 101 Festive Folk Tunes (uses data connection and media library)
  • My Stocking (makes use of private data)
  • Secret Santa (unable to disclose the features this uses)
  • Christmas Day TV Planner (makes use of old rope)
  • Christmas Recipes (more old rope)
  • Jamie’s Perfect Christmas Dinner (I dare not comment for fear of litigation)
  • You’re Roasted
  • Pull my Cracker

 

Go on – what are you waiting for?