Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff Works dot com. This podcast
Speaker 1: is brought to you by Verizon Hub, the home phone
Speaker 1: reinvented exclusively from Verizon Wireless. Hi, everybody, welcome to Tech Stuff.
Speaker 1: My name is Chris Pollette. I'm an editor and how
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot Com. And as usual, I have sitting
Speaker 1: here right next to me senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Shalom Pillett, Well,
Speaker 1: shalom me youtuo. How are you today? I'm doing all right? Yea.
Speaker 1: So we were, I don't know, going to talk about
Speaker 1: some applications. Yeah, it's mobile applications. Yeah, they're hard to
Speaker 1: pin down, but because they're mobile, in case you guys
Speaker 1: didn't get that, because they're mobile. So yeah, we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about mobile phone applications and mobile device applications. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's the that's the new, big, big thing, right, I mean, well,
Speaker 1: mainly because smartphones have hit the consumer market. And now
Speaker 1: that they have and everyone's starting to pick up these
Speaker 1: phones that can do lots of cool stuff, They're like,
Speaker 1: where's all the cool stuff I can do, and so
Speaker 1: we've got all these developers creating really interesting applications. So
Speaker 1: we wanted to talk a little bit about the different
Speaker 1: Apple app stores that are out there, and um, you
Speaker 1: know what kind of sets them apart, and maybe talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about a couple of applications that we use, because,
Speaker 1: as many of our listeners have probably already figured out,
Speaker 1: Chris is worships at the altar of Apple and um
Speaker 1: and I have sold my soul to Google, so we
Speaker 1: can we can talk about the various apps we use
Speaker 1: on our our our mobile devices. Well, um, what do
Speaker 1: you want to start with? I think do you want
Speaker 1: to start with the actual apps themselves? If we do,
Speaker 1: I gotta turn my phone on. Okay, well let's you know,
Speaker 1: I feel like we should probably start by pointing out
Speaker 1: that this is all sort of Apple's fault, for good
Speaker 1: or bad, because, um, you know, when the iPhone was released,
Speaker 1: it was locked down. Ha ha that's a big surprise
Speaker 1: coming from Apple. Okay, so yeah, exactly. Um. But with
Speaker 1: the with the release of the second generation iPhone known
Speaker 1: as the three G iPhone, to confuse everyone the network
Speaker 1: and not the phone. Um, they also opened it up
Speaker 1: to developers and um, yes, it is still very difficult
Speaker 1: for me not to quote Steve Bomber and say developers
Speaker 1: fifteen times in a row. UM, so you're making great progress.
Speaker 1: I know, thank you, except I mentioned it, so I didn't.
Speaker 1: So yeah, Apple, Apple sort of unleashed the genie from
Speaker 1: the bottle in this case because UM, I don't. I
Speaker 1: think everybody else was watching UM and I think that
Speaker 1: what's happened since then has proved that. But at the
Speaker 1: time we are recording this, UM, Apple is rapidly approaching
Speaker 1: one billion app downloads from the app store mine buggling, Well,
Speaker 1: a lot of them are free, so I think probably. So.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, you sit there and you think
Speaker 1: about you're like, okay, well that that means that you know,
Speaker 1: there there's a very wide user base out there already. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: In fact, I would go so far to say in
Speaker 1: the consumer market that the iPhone dominates the smartphone uh platform. Well,
Speaker 1: it was bound to happen because number one, they were
Speaker 1: the first UM and it's open not just to the
Speaker 1: iPhone but to the iPod touch UM that and everybody
Speaker 1: else was sort of hanging back and watching to see
Speaker 1: whether they'd fall flat on their faces and that was
Speaker 1: a smart strategy. You had some smartphones out there already,
Speaker 1: like you had you had a Nokia phone that was
Speaker 1: a smartphone. You had several Nokia phones actually, and then
Speaker 1: you also had the Blackberries out there, but those were
Speaker 1: mainly used by enterprise individuals, so we're talking about like
Speaker 1: high powered executives. And the Samsung and l G phones
Speaker 1: that have followed have been closed systems for the most part.
Speaker 1: You know, Symbion which is also well, you know, Nokia
Speaker 1: related at this point, so it's you know, it's very
Speaker 1: very limited as far as what you could do with
Speaker 1: it to the stuff that was on there. But app
Speaker 1: was the first one to really open it up and go, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: what can you throw on here? Right? And and so
Speaker 1: they created this, um, this kind of realm for developers
Speaker 1: to work in. And uh, at first, when we first
Speaker 1: heard about the application market, um, the applic app store,
Speaker 1: actually the iTunes app store, it sounded amazing. I mean,
Speaker 1: you had this idea about all these developers creating innovative
Speaker 1: applications that would turn your phone into all sorts of
Speaker 1: really useful devices. You could consolidate tons of electronic devices
Speaker 1: into one device, which gets to my favorite word, convergence.
Speaker 1: But the applications would create, you know, would turn your
Speaker 1: smartphone into a cool device, into a freaking cool device
Speaker 1: because it could suddenly do tons of things that you know,
Speaker 1: you didn't even imagine when you first bought it. Um
Speaker 1: As time passed that the glimmer kind of wore off
Speaker 1: a little bit, not a whole lot, because and iPhone
Speaker 1: has gotta a pretty devout fan base. But on the
Speaker 1: developers side, there were some there were some hiccups along
Speaker 1: the way. UM. One would be that Apple demanded that
Speaker 1: it UH review and approve all apps that would go
Speaker 1: into the App Store. So you said Apple, not Nintendo, right,
Speaker 1: because I was thinking of I hope so um, I
Speaker 1: have a habit of saying the wrong name at times.
Speaker 1: You never know I'm teasing. Nintendo has a similar policy
Speaker 1: that they are very careful about the stuff that they
Speaker 1: released for their play. Of course, Nintendo came to came
Speaker 1: about right after the great uh home video game crash
Speaker 1: of the eighties, so it made sense. Nintendo was like, Hey,
Speaker 1: we're not gonna let all these lousy applications or in
Speaker 1: their case, lousy games screw up our cool system. We're
Speaker 1: gonna put a tight control on this, make sure the
Speaker 1: games are top notch, and that way we will sell
Speaker 1: lots and lots of product. Apple pretty much the same way.
Speaker 1: Of course, you know, Steve Jobs has the the the
Speaker 1: famous uh kind of philosophy that it has to meet
Speaker 1: his standards or else it does not go. Yep, and uh,
Speaker 1: actually I made the joke about Nintendo, but really there
Speaker 1: there there is another similarity because one of the biggest,
Speaker 1: biggest sections of the app store for the iPhone and
Speaker 1: the iPod touches games, and they turned Apple turned well
Speaker 1: they didn't really, but they sort of did turned it
Speaker 1: into a gaming platform simply by making it available for
Speaker 1: developers to write games for. And the accelerometers inside the
Speaker 1: devices make it possible to uh sort of operate the
Speaker 1: games like you would a Wei remote for the Nintendo
Speaker 1: because you can move. Uh. You know, their their physics
Speaker 1: games that involve moving the iPhone or iPod touch around,
Speaker 1: and there are other applications too that involve shaking the device.
Speaker 1: Jonathan likes to suggest that Apple um did that on
Speaker 1: purpose so that you would drop it and have to
Speaker 1: go buy a new one. Yeah. For instance, Natalie Dell
Speaker 1: Countie them the Reporter for c net. I think she's
Speaker 1: on her sixth iPhone because she's dropped it so many times.
Speaker 1: Oh a gun, no kidding, I'm not joking, And I
Speaker 1: think her current one has a crack in it and
Speaker 1: the in the screen. It still works, but it's it's damage.
Speaker 1: But okay. So that that's basically how we got to
Speaker 1: this point. Apple had a runaway success with the app
Speaker 1: store UM. And you know, they're all kinds of games
Speaker 1: and other applications, even even enterprise applications, which made sense
Speaker 1: for other people to duplicate. Uh, in which case you
Speaker 1: know other people are starting to get into the act. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so let's look at some of the other choices Apple made.
Speaker 1: So they said they had to approve all applications. Well,
Speaker 1: how do you get an application into the app store
Speaker 1: in the first place. That's a good question. You have
Speaker 1: to apply, right, and part of the application process is
Speaker 1: a there's a developer fee you have to pay to
Speaker 1: be to have your applications considered, which is ars per
Speaker 1: year with Apple UM. So you have have to pay
Speaker 1: this developer fee. Then you go and you develop your application,
Speaker 1: you test it out and you make sure it works
Speaker 1: on the platform, and then you send it to Apple
Speaker 1: and say, hey, does this pass muster. Apple then reviews
Speaker 1: the application and then sometime at some point gives either
Speaker 1: the y or the nay about whether it goes in
Speaker 1: the App Store, And if it goes in the app Store,
Speaker 1: you're golden. If it doesn't go in the app Store,
Speaker 1: you got to go back to to you know, you
Speaker 1: have to go back to design and fix it and
Speaker 1: fix whatever the problems are in order to get it
Speaker 1: in the app Store. Because the problem here is that
Speaker 1: you cannot with a regular iPhone or iPod Touch, you
Speaker 1: cannot download any application that is not in the App Store.
Speaker 1: It has to be in the app Store for you
Speaker 1: to be able to download it unless you jail break it.
Speaker 1: Unless there are a whole other problems so that we
Speaker 1: we could go into, but you know, it's not really
Speaker 1: necessary for this conversation. Yeah. The only exception that sort
Speaker 1: of falls in the acts. Maybe you have an excellent
Speaker 1: application and you submitted it, but Apple finds that you've
Speaker 1: duplicated functionality of one of Apple's applications, in which case
Speaker 1: they will tell you to take a hike, even if
Speaker 1: that application that you duplicated hasn't even hit the App Store.
Speaker 1: Yet yea, because that was the whole podcast thing, right, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: they there was an organization that created a podcast application
Speaker 1: and at the time, you couldn't download podcasts directly to
Speaker 1: your iPhone or I. You had to sink it, you
Speaker 1: had to think it with your computer. And uh, Apple
Speaker 1: said no, you couldn't do it, and they eventually relented.
Speaker 1: The developer went back made some modifications. Plus Apple had
Speaker 1: already added the functionality to its own devices. So there
Speaker 1: there's been sort of an accord if you will, in
Speaker 1: that regard. But um, yeah, if you if you're a
Speaker 1: little too close to the mark and he won't let
Speaker 1: you in. And just to go back to a little
Speaker 1: bit of the financials. If if it's an application that
Speaker 1: you are charging money for, so it's not a free application,
Speaker 1: you're actually charging for this, um, the developer gets to
Speaker 1: keep seventy of that of that cost of that you know,
Speaker 1: of that purchase, the thirty other goes to Apple. Um
Speaker 1: here's where another sticky situation comes up, because Apple has
Speaker 1: agreed that at least in principle, that if you need
Speaker 1: to return an application, if an application for some reason
Speaker 1: is not working properly, and you have to have a
Speaker 1: really good reason. Apparently they don't do it for just anything.
Speaker 1: But if you return an application, the developer is the
Speaker 1: one responsible for returning of that application cost. Apple keeps
Speaker 1: that thirty percent that they got the initial purchase. So
Speaker 1: in theory, if you really hated a developer, you could
Speaker 1: buy a whole bunch of the applications, return them all,
Speaker 1: and then slowly bankrupt them at a time, assuming, of course,
Speaker 1: that you could prove that there was something. Actually, it
Speaker 1: would be tricky, it would not be easy to do.
Speaker 1: I'm just pointing out a flaw in the system. It's
Speaker 1: not necessarily one that you could actually exploit well. But
Speaker 1: but the seventy thirty uh division that kind of set
Speaker 1: a standard to Yeah, it did. You'll see that in
Speaker 1: other app stores as well, and I think we should
Speaker 1: we should start talking about them. Uh. You know, you
Speaker 1: are very familiar with the Android marketplace. Yes, yes, I
Speaker 1: use it all the time, Google Android Marketplace. If you
Speaker 1: have an HTCG one, then you have also probably taken
Speaker 1: a look at the Google Android Marketplace. If you don't
Speaker 1: have an HTCG one, you can still look at it.
Speaker 1: It's not you know, nearly as enticing. If you don't
Speaker 1: have anything that running Android, but you can look at it,
Speaker 1: um and uh yeah. Google, when they were pushing the
Speaker 1: Android operating system, one of the big things they were
Speaker 1: pointing out was that they also were going to support
Speaker 1: a big community of developers, and so the developers were
Speaker 1: kind of getting excited about this. Google had a competition
Speaker 1: where they they picked I think it was fifty developers
Speaker 1: who came up with really cool applications that would be
Speaker 1: available close to launch for the hd CG one and
Speaker 1: it would really show off androids capabilities. Um, you can
Speaker 1: find a lot of the applications that uh, well, not
Speaker 1: a lot, but you can find several applications that are
Speaker 1: available on the iPhone also in Google Android. And then
Speaker 1: there are plenty that you can't find on Google Android
Speaker 1: that you can on iPhone. There are a few that
Speaker 1: are Google specific to that you're not going to find
Speaker 1: anywhere else. Um. Google charges twenty five dollars per year
Speaker 1: for developers to submit applications to the marketplace, and they
Speaker 1: do not require you to go through some sort of
Speaker 1: weird check system before it goes live in the marketplace.
Speaker 1: All right, So if you want, if you know that,
Speaker 1: if you're deciding do I develop an application for iPhone
Speaker 1: where I may or may not be able to get
Speaker 1: it into the store, or Google where I can definitely
Speaker 1: get in the store. But the customer base is smaller.
Speaker 1: I mean, there are not as many Android phone owners
Speaker 1: as there are iPhone owners, so your audience is going
Speaker 1: to be smaller. There are a lot of things you
Speaker 1: have to consider before you can see there and just say, oh, well,
Speaker 1: I want the freedom that Google gives me, so I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go to Google. Well, you're not gonna get as
Speaker 1: many people looking at your app, so you have to
Speaker 1: balance it all out, you know. Um they're the iPhone
Speaker 1: and the HTC G one are sort of seen as
Speaker 1: consumer devices, but of course there are business applications for
Speaker 1: them which might make some other people start to sweat,
Speaker 1: like BlackBerry, for example, because they have a huge enterprise market. Unless,
Speaker 1: of course, people start going, hey, those phones are cooler,
Speaker 1: I want one of those. Look at all the cool
Speaker 1: business stuff that I could do and fun consumer stuff.
Speaker 1: I could have one phone for both. So now you've
Speaker 1: got the BlackBerry app world. So Blackberries gotten into the
Speaker 1: app game two, and it's also tried to entice developers
Speaker 1: to come in and create applications for the BlackBerry platform,
Speaker 1: the RIM platform. Yeah, you know, I I took a
Speaker 1: look at some of the most popular applications right now.
Speaker 1: Of course I don't actually have a BlackBerry, but you
Speaker 1: can find out information about it on the website, and
Speaker 1: there are they are going exactly that route. I think.
Speaker 1: I think, to use your favorite word, convergence, I think
Speaker 1: enterprise and consumer stuff is going to converge on people's phones,
Speaker 1: regardless of who gives you the phone. Right, So if
Speaker 1: you look at the iPhone and the Android, you're gonna
Speaker 1: see a lot more quote unquote toys and then fewer applications,
Speaker 1: and then Blackberries the other way around, you're gonna see
Speaker 1: more tools and fewer toys. Well, you know, I thought that,
Speaker 1: and there are things and they're like, well no, but
Speaker 1: I mean you see things like Salesforce and the HRS
Speaker 1: Hotel Organizer, and you know world Mate Live, which is
Speaker 1: a business travel um helping enabling program. But there were
Speaker 1: other things too. The among the most popular are chat
Speaker 1: programs like aim and I c q uh, MySpace, Pandora.
Speaker 1: Pandora is huge. I was gonna get away my favorite app. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean they have it for BlackBerry and the iPhone.
Speaker 1: I know stuff rubbing it in. It's only a matter
Speaker 1: of time. But the thing is, um, you know, well,
Speaker 1: I was gonna get in my favorite apps, but you know, Facebook,
Speaker 1: these are things that I would not have expected necessarily
Speaker 1: to see among the most popular BlackBerry apps, but there
Speaker 1: they are. But if you're looking for the if you go, hey,
Speaker 1: I have a Windows Mobile device, I want to go
Speaker 1: to the app store, you can't, at least not until
Speaker 1: Windows Mobile six point five comes out, which is when
Speaker 1: it released. And while we're talking about that, we can
Speaker 1: also mention Symbian and Palm because they are also coming
Speaker 1: out with app stores now. Symbion is a little more
Speaker 1: complicated because it's on several different carriers, so that's gonna
Speaker 1: be all sorts of mess But Nakia is going to
Speaker 1: have its own or Nokia if you prefer um, it's
Speaker 1: gonna have its own little app store. The OVI Store
Speaker 1: is that what it's called. It's officially opening in May
Speaker 1: and it's available for S forty and S sixty based phones.
Speaker 1: So by the time this podcast comes out, it may
Speaker 1: actually be open. It's it's not at the time of recording. However,
Speaker 1: there is a website for it, and you can learn
Speaker 1: a lot more about what they're gonna do. It's gonna
Speaker 1: have a lot of location based stuff cool, and Palm
Speaker 1: has the Palm Developer Network, which is still in the
Speaker 1: early stages. Right now, they don't have any as far
Speaker 1: as I could tell, I didn't see any information about
Speaker 1: how much it would cost to UH to assent to
Speaker 1: apply to have your application in Palm's store, because right
Speaker 1: now it's all on the development stage where they're kind
Speaker 1: of testing things out. So um, right now it looks
Speaker 1: like it's free. But again, this is before any device
Speaker 1: can run any of these applications. Because the Palm Pre
Speaker 1: they still Palm at the time of this recording, has
Speaker 1: not announced when the pre will go on sale. We
Speaker 1: expect that announcement any day now. Yes, actually that's true.
Speaker 1: It's it's We could have even announced it while we
Speaker 1: were in a meeting earlier today. We have not been
Speaker 1: able to check the news since since that meeting, So uh,
Speaker 1: I feel like you know that That's the thing is,
Speaker 1: there are not many app stores that are completely open
Speaker 1: and ready for business, but there are tons that have
Speaker 1: announced it, and I bet there are more coming, and
Speaker 1: they all have to play catch up with Apple, and
Speaker 1: I don't think it's going to take them long because
Speaker 1: the developers who are working on these things, like, for example,
Speaker 1: their Facebook applications for all of the major platforms that
Speaker 1: are available now, you can bet that it's not going
Speaker 1: to take them long to catch up. And we might
Speaker 1: we might start seeing lines get drawn in the sand,
Speaker 1: and we may even see some developers decide they want
Speaker 1: to develop exclusively for one platform over the others. And
Speaker 1: then you may see really large developer developers say well,
Speaker 1: we have to develop all of them because we have
Speaker 1: to hit our all of our customer base. It'll be interesting.
Speaker 1: I'll be curious to see if this actually affects the
Speaker 1: UM you know, which which phone comes out on top,
Speaker 1: or if it'll just remain a very competitive field. I
Speaker 1: hope it stays competitive, because that ends up being the
Speaker 1: best for the consumer. UM Now, I guess we can
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about our favorite apps. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean we've we've talked about some cool apps in the past,
Speaker 1: But do you want to do you want to do
Speaker 1: some Android apps? Yeah? Well, and one a lot of
Speaker 1: them are are apps that are also available on other
Speaker 1: systems like UM. I of Shazam, which is also available
Speaker 1: on the iPhone and BlackBerry. UH. And that's an application
Speaker 1: where that recognizes music. If you hear music playing, you
Speaker 1: can you can activate Shazam. It'll analyze the music and
Speaker 1: compare it against a database and come up with suggestions
Speaker 1: for what that song might be. And most of the
Speaker 1: time it's pretty accurate. That's one of mine. You want
Speaker 1: to flip switch off or you just want me to
Speaker 1: go through all of them really quickly. Well, I was
Speaker 1: going to throw out Pandora, of course, not not sure.
Speaker 1: Not to pick on you, that's true. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: the last FM app is pretty good too. UM. And
Speaker 1: I've tried. I've tried several of the streaming audio apps.
Speaker 1: And if I had an iPhone instead of an iPod Touch,
Speaker 1: it would be extremely useful because then I could stay
Speaker 1: on my cellular network and keep going and listening to
Speaker 1: music as I move from place to place. As it is,
Speaker 1: it's just sort of useful when I'm at a network
Speaker 1: where I'm not moving. UM. But it's fantastic because you
Speaker 1: get the power of Internet radio UM over your cell phone,
Speaker 1: which a lot of people think will be the death
Speaker 1: knell for satellite radio. UM. But it's very very nice,
Speaker 1: and like I said, the other ones are the other
Speaker 1: ones are really good too. I like last FM on
Speaker 1: there too. I've got twit droid, which is a Twitter
Speaker 1: client for the Android platform, which is pretty cool. They
Speaker 1: keep adding functionality to that, so I'm I'm very satisfied
Speaker 1: with that. Does tend to uh occasionally require a force close,
Speaker 1: but it tends to boot right back up as soon
Speaker 1: as you do that, so there are some stability issues,
Speaker 1: but otherwise I'm quite pleased with it. I've got let's
Speaker 1: see the weather channel on here. I'm actually going through
Speaker 1: it right now. I've got the weather channel app on here,
Speaker 1: which is pretty handy. I've got unless you're trying to
Speaker 1: look up whether the dry tortugas, which is always wrong. UM.
Speaker 1: I've got the a compass program, a tip calculator, stop watch, uh,
Speaker 1: some voice recording software, snap Photo, which is great. It
Speaker 1: has some stability software in it so that your photos
Speaker 1: come out a little more sharp than they would otherwise. UM.
Speaker 1: There's some cool stuff. And also the nice thing about
Speaker 1: snap photo it also has some uh some cool functionality
Speaker 1: and lets you share photos through various applications like Twitter
Speaker 1: or Facebook. Um. Just you know, you just push a
Speaker 1: button and it sends it to your profile, which is
Speaker 1: also really neat UM. For for Twitter on my iPod,
Speaker 1: I use twitter Ific from the the icon Factory, which
Speaker 1: is fantastic. UM. I also like air sharing which is
Speaker 1: UH and wireless file sharing clients. So if I want
Speaker 1: to UH send a document or take a document home,
Speaker 1: I don't have to carry a flash drive with me
Speaker 1: or save it online or carrying my computer with me.
Speaker 1: I could actually upload it to my my iPod and
Speaker 1: take it home with me and then download it. Basically,
Speaker 1: it you allow. It allows you to add your iPhone
Speaker 1: or iPod to your network UM and do it that way.
Speaker 1: Stanza is an e book reader which is really nice
Speaker 1: UM and it even allows you to down download thousands
Speaker 1: of free public domain titles from places like Project Gutenberg
Speaker 1: and UH and other places UH. Plus you can you
Speaker 1: can buy titles if you want to as well. And
Speaker 1: UH Boxy, which is fairly new to me, but UM
Speaker 1: I had had trouble using Boxy on my iMac at
Speaker 1: home because I had real difficulty getting the UH the
Speaker 1: remote to work with it because it's just not functional
Speaker 1: enough to to have, you know, to help me use Boxing. Well,
Speaker 1: this actually works as a remote. It sinks wirelessly with
Speaker 1: the iMac and let's me you know, use it as
Speaker 1: basically a giant keypad. UM. So now I can really
Speaker 1: use Boxing on my iMac and I'm really starting to
Speaker 1: get into it. So, uh, it's very nice. You they're
Speaker 1: Apple even as a remote for iTunes that you can
Speaker 1: sync up with your your Macintosh and basically will let
Speaker 1: you you know, it has the code for that that
Speaker 1: computer and then you can go, you know, from place
Speaker 1: to place and you know, play it from across the
Speaker 1: room or even not in the same room using your
Speaker 1: wireless connection. Very nice stuff. And I mean they're they're
Speaker 1: thousands for applications. Yeah. The only other application I wanted
Speaker 1: to mention really quickly. Very recently, I wrote an article
Speaker 1: UM which was called a five Green Mobile apps, And
Speaker 1: so I was looking at different mobile applications that would
Speaker 1: promote a green lifestyle. And I was trying to make
Speaker 1: sure I didn't, you know, favor one platform over all others.
Speaker 1: So I was trying to find, you know, examples from
Speaker 1: all the different platforms, and I kind of hit a
Speaker 1: brick wall with BlackBerry. I thought that I found something
Speaker 1: cool when I saw an application named green Finder, and
Speaker 1: it turned out that it's an application that tells you
Speaker 1: where the nearest golf course is. Yeah, so, uh yeah,
Speaker 1: BlackBerry is not going to shake that executive elite you know,
Speaker 1: exclusive sort of uh image anytime soon. I think. I
Speaker 1: guess if you asked them, they would be okay with that. Probably. Well.
Speaker 1: I guess that that that's about all I have for
Speaker 1: app stores. How about you? You know what that brings
Speaker 1: us to? Listener? Mai, So today's listening al comes from
Speaker 1: Sylvia and it's a doozy. Here we go. Hi there.
Speaker 1: You recently had a podcast about digital cameras where you
Speaker 1: recommended holding your sunglasses in front of the lens to
Speaker 1: enhance the contrast of a scene with a lot of glare.
Speaker 1: For listeners who don't know how polarizers work, you should
Speaker 1: be careful to specify that the sunglasses need to be
Speaker 1: oriented the same way they would if you were wearing them,
Speaker 1: so that an imaginary vertical axis from the ground matches
Speaker 1: the vertical axis of the glasses as worn. Otherwise you
Speaker 1: run the risk of actually enhancing the glare in the
Speaker 1: scene and reducing the contrast. This is also true amountable
Speaker 1: polarizers if you have the kind of camera which rotates
Speaker 1: the camera lens as it auto focuses. On another topic,
Speaker 1: you mentioned that a polarizer can protect the lens. That
Speaker 1: was Chris who mentioned that this is true, but at
Speaker 1: a cost, since polarizers chew up some of the light
Speaker 1: and darken the scene. There are gizmos called daylight filters,
Speaker 1: which are just high quality pieces of flat glass you
Speaker 1: can mount in front of your camera lens to keep
Speaker 1: it clean and protect it from the occasional whack on
Speaker 1: a passing door knobs. True experience. Listen to your podcast.
Speaker 1: I learned so much from you guys. Keep up the
Speaker 1: good work. That's our haiku. Thank you Sylvia very much
Speaker 1: for that. That was very informative, and um, I'm so
Speaker 1: glad to hear about the daylight filters now. I I
Speaker 1: wrote back to Sylvia and mentioned that I use a
Speaker 1: little point and shoot cyber shot camera, so it doesn't
Speaker 1: really apply to me anyway, but um, you know, for
Speaker 1: other shutter bugs out there, it's good to know that.
Speaker 1: I have to admit, maybe you do learn a lot
Speaker 1: from us, Sylvia, but I learned a lot from you too,
Speaker 1: So thank you very much for writing in Yeah, greatly
Speaker 1: appreciate it, And if any of you have anything you'd
Speaker 1: like to say to us, you can write us at
Speaker 1: tech stuff at how stuff works dot com. You can
Speaker 1: read our blogs at how stuff works dot com. Just
Speaker 1: go over there, look in the right hand side. You'll
Speaker 1: see our blogs over there, and uh, everyone pretty much
Speaker 1: here just about blogs at this point, it seems so
Speaker 1: you can see lots of different blogs about lots of
Speaker 1: and subjects, not just tech stuff, although of course the
Speaker 1: tech stuff ones are the best. And if you want
Speaker 1: to learn more about apps and cameras and all sorts
Speaker 1: of other wacky technological gadgets and gizmos, you can at
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. And we will talk to
Speaker 1: you again really soon for more on this and thousands
Speaker 1: of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot com
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