Planet of the Apps: A Hand-held Revolution
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We've all seen them. People riding the bus, standing in line at the post office or just walking down the street, all of them oblivious to the world around them as they fidget with their iPhones and their Androids. And they're not just checking e-mail any more. They could be doing almost anything, from invoicing a client to editing Christmas videos to learning verb tenses in Mandarin Chinese.
This is all possible thanks to the multitude of applications --- or "apps" --- now available for handheld devices. The first iPhone only had 11 apps pre-installed when it debuted in 2007, but what a difference a couple of years makes. The amount of available apps on the market now numbers in the thousands, with no sign of slowing down.
How much do you know about apps? Take the following quiz and find out.
Posted 8 Jan 2010
What does the iPhone application "I Am Rich" do?
- "I Am Rich" consolidates high-interest credit card debt
- "I Am Rich" does nothing
- "I Am Rich" finds online gambling websites
- "I Am Rich" offers celebrity news updates
Just as "Seinfeld" was a show about nothing, "I Am Rich" was an application that did nothing. When the app was launched, the screen displayed a single button. When the user pressed it, an affirmation would be displayed on-screen that said "I am rich, I deserv it, I am good, healthy & successful." The misspelling of "deserve" was intentional, as was the asking price of $999.99. "I Am Rich" was removed from the App Store the very next day after its release, with a grand total of eight people who actually bought it, one of whom did so by accident.
Which handheld device is able to run more than one app at a time?
- BlackBerry
- G1 Android
- iPhone
- None of the above
The G1 Android can run multiple applications at once, unlike the BlackBerry and the iPhone. So if you want to see a 3D map of the Grand Canyon while sending an instant message to the babysitter and checking the precipitation in Seoul, then the Android is for you. Otherwise, you will have to use each application individually, a grueling task that can consume as much as thirty seconds.
What was the one billionth application downloaded from Apple's App Store?
- Bump
- Fring
- Sudoku
- Trapster
On April 23, 2009, the one billionth application was downloaded from the App Store. The app was a game called Bump, which was downloaded by 13-year-old Connor Mulcahey of Weston, Connecticut, who won a MacBook, an iPod and a $10,000 iTunes gift certificate. Let's hope he didn't spend the whole thing on Lady GaGa songs.
How many applications had been downloaded from the iPhone App Store as of January 2010?
- 3 million
- 30 million
- 300 million
- 3 billion
In January 2010, Apple announced that more than 3 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store in the space of 18 months. Sales have steadily accelerated since it opened in July 2008, but the last one billion sales took place in the space of three months, wildly outpacing even the most optimistic expectations. According to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, "this is like nothing we've ever seen before."
What is the name of the procedure that allows users to install apps to the iPhone that Apple hasn't approved?
- Jailbreaking
- Panhandling
- Spare-changing
- Unhalfbricking
The operating system used by the iPhone is only designed to run applications approved by Apple. However, the naughty developer can get around this by replacing the phone's firmware with an altered version that will run unauthorized apps, otherwise known as "jailbreaking" the device. Users who do this risk becoming the victims of worms and viruses, to say nothing of provoking the wrath of Apple's army of copyright lawyers.
The e-book application Eucalyptus was rejected from the iPhone for carrying what book?
- Lady Chatterley's Lover
- Lolita
- The Kama Sutra
- The Satanic Verses
Eucalyptus is an e-book application that offers titles from the Project Gutenberg library, which hosts books that have fallen out of copyright. One such book is the Kama Sutra, which Apple believed would cause users to take offense, leading them to ban the application. It was a strange decision, considering that the book was available for download through other applications that could already be found on the iPhone. Perhaps realizing this, Apple lifted the ban and Eucalyptus appeared on iPhones in May 2009.
What does the application known as Shazam do?
- Shazam acts as a database of movie reviews
- Shazam acts as a carpenter's level
- Shazam locates public libraries based on zip codes
- Shazam identifies songs based on brief excerpts
Shazam address an extremely frustrating experience that we've all had at one time or another: You hear a song on the radio that you like and that's familiar to you, but you can't identify it. Shazam allows you to point your phone at the source of the unknown tune, send a snippet of the music to a database, and return a text message moments later with the song title, the artist and a link to purchase the track. The number of arguments that this application will settle is beyond estimation.
In May 2009, what rock band had their app blocked by Apple due to "objectionable content" in one of their songs?
- AC/DC
- Green Day
- Marilyn Manson
- Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails' iPhone app, NIN:Access, was blocked by Apple one month after its April 2009 launch. According to iPhone's Developer Program, a song featured in one of the band's podcasts had salty lyrics, violating company rules. Trent Reznor, the band's frontman, characterized the decision as "goofy and out-of-touch," noting that this same song was available for download in Apple's iTunes store, that the NIN:Access' forum allowed unlimited swearing on the part of its users, and that the iPhone's Safari browser, also an Apple product, provides users with access to all the profanity they could possibly want.
What Gmail application was rejected by Apple for being too similar to the iPhone's built-in Mail application?
- MailMan
- MailModel
- MailPlane
- MailWrangler
Most iPhone apps are created by independent developers, but offering an application that duplicates functionality is the surest path to a rejection letter. Developer Angelo DiNardi found this out when he submitted MailWrangler, an application that would have allowed users to check multiple Gmail accounts at once. Apple felt that displaying e-mail conversation threads in context was too similar to the way Mail functioned, and ran the risk of causing an outbreak of "user confusion."
What celebrity's likeness appeared on iPhones affected by the device's first worm?
- Rick Astley
- Rick James
- Rick Springfield
- Slick Rick
In November 2009, several users in Australia awoke to find that their iPhone wallpaper had been replaced with a picture of 1980's pop singer Rick Astley and the ominous tidings that "ikee is never going to give you up." In other words, the users had been "Rickrolled." A hacker from Sydney named "ike_x" had written the worm and bragged about it on a discussion forum, leading to his quick discovery. But rather than receive cruel punishment at the hands of the Australian justice system, he ended up getting a job offer from an application development company.
Your score:
- Smartphone
Your cutting edge apps make you sleek, convenient and versatile.
Check for latest showtimes - Cell phone
You don't have a lot of apps, but it's good to have you around when the car gets a flat.
Check for latest showtimes - Rotary phone
The only apps you have are a long cord and a hand-cranked generator.
Check for latest showtimes
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes
