> On 05/09/2012 02:57 PM, Francois Labreque wrote:
>> "Apps" are the software that you run on iThings.
>>
>> For example, the Wolfram Alpha app that you mentioned earlier.
>
> ...the Wolfram Alpha app I mentioned as an example of utter pointlessness?

Having a front-end client that sanitizes the user's input before sending 
transactions back to the back-end server is NOT pointless when you are 
dealing with devices that have limited (and/or expensive) bandwidth 
capabilities, or small screen resolutions.

for example, on my phone, I could fire up the browser and access the 
phone book web site, wait while it downloads the logos, ads, etc... and 
then have to either zoom in and scroll all over the place to put the 
person's name and city and then scroll some more until I get to the 
"search" button, or I can use the app that acts as a front-end client 
for the web site and is more suited to the 640x480 resolution of the 
phone's screen.  I suspect the Wolfram app is similar.  (Disclaimer: I 
may be wrong, as I haven't tried it.)

This being said, I freely admit that most apps are totally useless, for 
example, there are many apps from store chains that will grab your 
coordinates from the phone's embedded GPS, or by the location of the 
tower it's communicating with, and tell you where the closest store is. 
  Privacy concerns aside, I don't know of anyone who would want to have 
their phone vibrate whenever they get in the vicinity of a particular 
chain of clothing store.  Then again, I'm not a teenage girl!

>
>> There are
>> also word processors, spreadsheets, presentation packages, etc...
>
> How can you operate a word processor or a spreadsheet without a keyboard?

Magic!

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTWfurnBt-2DPkqVngr0dQE37Vj8xclsMZDmmuGo9_BR38Ne2-t

>
>> Who said the only thing you could do on a tablet was surf the net?
>
> I didn't say tablet, I said iPad.

And the iPad is what, in your opinion, if not a tablet?

-- 
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/*   gmail.com     */}camera{orthographic location<6,1.25,-6>look_at a }

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