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> Examples: The buzzer for restaurants, why can't it have a screen to display menu, or let your preorder?

those things are dropped, lost, chewed on by children for 8 hours a day, etc. they've got to be as cheap as possible. also who'd stare at the shitty little screen that's nothing but ads, when they could stare at ads on their expensive slightly larger screen that they carry around all day?

if you want really a menu, the host will be thrilled to hand you one. there's a box of them under their station.

> At a restaurant, why can't I see the most ordered 5 items and have to go through pages of menu?

because then they'll have fewer opportunities to upsell you on more expensive dishes, and alcohol.

> Similar idea for supermarkets: why not have a giant screen at the entrance showing most bought products, interesting product pairings and other data that may be useful?

who cares what's most bought at the grocery store? knowing that my store sells ramen by a truckload doesn't get me buying anything the store wants to actually sell.

> ad hoc voice-based social networks based on proximity

Congratulations on reinventing the CB radio.

> "Why can’t I manage waste pickup from an app? What might a re-invented garbage truck look like?"

Taiwan does this the other way round: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/09/taiwan-garbage-tru...

In this case, it's a municipal service that people don't fundamentally want to pay for and it's hard to make "premium". So you'd have to sell to municipalities on cost.

> The buzzer for restaurants, why can't it have a screen to display menu, or let your preorder?

The JD Wetherspoon "order at table" app basically lets you do this.

> Congratulations on reinventing the CB radio.

But with a mute button for the person who ruins it all.

Creates potential for a location based content creator to capture the attention of a large group of people every day at 5pm.

"Gooooooood evening drivers stuck in traffic! This is Shelly broadcasting from the condos at the I95 and Sunset. Have I got some great things to share with you today..."

> Why can’t I manage waste pickup from an app?

Spoken like someone who never lived in an apartment complex?

Sure, if you have a house and the garbage truck comes along, you might influence this, although I don't see what's there to manage. I don't see garbage pickup as highly inefficient. I see this where I live, in the city you have paper and organics extra, cans and glass if you're a good citizen and very maybe plastic - whereas on the countryside your town might mandate you separate into 6 bins. But if you have a house you probably have the space for 6 separate bins, I surely don't.

Well, a lot of major cities in Asia have already solved this by either changing how they handle the public garbage pickup requirements (e.g., Korea has special bags for regular trash and organic trash you need to purchase, else the garbage collectors won't take it), and also doing more frequent/regular pickups and having you sort your trash in order for it to be accepted. In my short time in Korea, just knowing you have a direct cost on the trash by means of the bags changes how you shop and produce garbage.

I don't think this is something you need an app for. Maybe the city can use it to manage notifications, but they could do this just as easily through free SMS or through a unified public announcement system/site. It doesn't seem like something looking for disruption, except for those who want to needlessly introduce a middle-man into garbage collection.

I also hope they have severe penalties for dumping trash near the nearest river or bush. Because this is what I still see happening in my country, especially on the countryside.

The buzzer for restaurants, why can't it have a screen to display menu, or let your preorder?

Burguerlich in Hamburg has screens embedded in the tables (which come up and down) from which you can order, seems close enough: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187331-d73509...

People have screens in their pockets these days. Can't we use those?

You could order before you even arrive at the restaurant. The restaurant can track and spam you in return. A company building the app for the restaurants can collect heaps of sellable data. Why hasn't anybody done that yet?

They have. A quick search reveals QikServe, GloriaFood, and others.

> ad hoc voice-based social networks based on proximity

At the risk of being whooshed (the other points do seem sincere and "real"), do you mean... conversation? Like, you know, encountering another person in meat space and speaking to them?

Yes, but scope could be larger: If you like chatting with someone you can add them to your contacts.

Another take on this would be voice-based reddit, e.g. voice chat rooms organized around topics, similar to subreddits. Everybody takes turns to talk with voice activated microphone on their phone while commuting.

Maybe car commuters are different but I take the train everyday and the car is packed with people in very close proximity but none of them ever seem interested in talking to strangers.

I don't want to be a buzz kill, but how does this differ than HAM radio? Frequently it is people just talking on a specific frequency. They organize their own chat rooms and stuff. Some of these groups have members from all over the world. Or are you suggesting this be done without licensing? Because that's a legal problem, not a technical one.

I don't believe one can build lasting relationships like that. A lot of communication is non-verbal.

True. A lot of my closest friendships came about from me just being in their repeated general proximity for a long-enough period of time.

Screens to order at restaurants is one of the shittiest ideas ever. Got handed an iPad with a menu on it recently at a restaurant in LA. Took me about 5x longer to get an overview of what they have than a normal paper menu.

Sometimes, paper > screen.

Maybe the app was just bad. Why did it take so long? Even just showing it as an ebook should take about the same time to peruse.

Giving drivers the ability to actually talk to each other, instead of just making gestures (of mutual loneliness and longing, of course). What could go wrong?

> why can't I see the most ordered 5 items

There are restaurants where the whole menu is one page.

> Similar idea for supermarkets: why not have a giant screen at the entrance showing most bought products

If you want that just enter a small shop, it will have the most popular items (typically in a choice of one) :)

I like your idea for social silo-busters. You may find my side project interesting: https://peapods.com