About the Good Turn iPhone App

The Good Turn iPhone application is a simple yet hi-tech replacement for the age-old good turn coin carried by many scouts to remind them to "Do a good turn daily." It is quick and easy to use; just swipe or double-tap to flip the coin on the screen each day when your good turn has been done. The application shows you have done your good turn for the day, and records the date, time, and location for later reference.

To encourage you to do your good turn each day, the history feature keeps track of your good turns. Each turn can later be recalled. With Location Services (GPS) capable devices your location can also be recorded and displayed on a map and shared with others.

Your good turns can be sent to the Good Turn Website where anyone on the Internet can see that a good turn has been done, including the date, time, and location. You can also see these good turns directly from the application on your phone, overlaid on an interactive world map.

About the Good Turn Website

The Good Turn Website tracks good turns done around the world using the Good Turn iPhone application. Good turns are sent in from the phone, via the web, and recorded for everyone to see. You can share the link and encourage others to start doing good turns.

The website was designed primarily to allow the Good Turn application to share good turns with each other. There is no way to post good turns directly from the website, without the iPhone application at this time.

About Why This App exists?

The application was written to solve a simple need; I have an iPhone and recently re-discovered at the local scout shop the Good Turn coins. I bought a few to give to scouts who have done recognizable good turns in my local Troop and one for myself.

The unfortunate part of this is, my phone sits in my left pocket, where the coin should start each day. This puts the coin within scratching distance from my precious phone. You might think, "Well, just get your good turn done early each day and you won't have that problem." Good idea, I'll start working on it immediately.

What's a code-monkey to do? There was no "App for that." Well fast-forward a few weeks and here we are. This app is a facsimile of the age old, no-batteries needed, simple to use, coin with two sides.

This app simply allows me, and possibly you, the ability to keep track of having done a good turn each day without scratching your phone. For fun, there's a few extras, like keeping track of where you were when you did your good turn, and seeing where other people are doing good turns through this website.

I think it's kind of neat. Your results may vary.

It's free, but buy stuff!

We have a small Boy Scout troop and Cub Scout pack in my hometown. Any profits I make from in-app purchases, after Apple, after taxes, after paying for parts to make the application and website better, will be shared with these two scout organizations.

Feel free to contact us and donate directly if you are not interested in the extra bling an in-application purchase will get you. Unfortunately the Troop and Pack don't have anything set up on their website yet to do this automatically.

Parts and Props

The Good Turn application and the Good Turn Website were built using other people's stuff. Specifically, the following components were used:

Thank you to each of these companies and individuals for doing their good turn and making their work available to others.

Who did this?

Just me, Stephen Houser.