I confess to being a bit too fond of my smart phone. Yes, I check my email with embarrassing frequency, and I tweet a bit too often (@wmarybeard). But I have never really got into apps, as such... or at least not into the ones that go beyond the very basics. I am awfully impressed by their cleverness, but I am never quite sure why I'd want them.
So, for example, I really dont want to go round a museum looking at my phone, rather than the stuff (and actually I dont observe many people doing that, awesome as some of the museum phone guides are cracked up to be). And further down the food chain I am baffled why anyone would want to buy themselves a hypochondriacs phone guide to medical symptoms.. or even a free app calculator for dividing a restaurant bill (err pencil and paper??).
But I have got three firm app friends, two old and one more recent.
The everyday star is the UK train times app. This doesnt just let you check train times (like obviously), there is a natty little button to click, which tells you the "next train home" ... brilliant when you're going from Kings Cross to Cambridge, because it tells you the platform the train is going from some while it comes up on the departure board.
The next is the BA app, which lets you travel entirely paper free, downloading your boarding pass onto your phone, then just handing it to the guy at security. Or in theory it does. I have had fun doing this (even if it hasnt exactly been in everyday use . . . it's the thought that counts), but have always wondered what would happen if you ran out of battery or you couldn't get a signal at Heathrow. So I have always printed out my boarding pass as well, which rather defeats the object.
My latest acquisition.. actually a present ... is slightly more cerebral. It's SPQR, a brilliant little app which brings up loads of Latin literature right onto your phone, and also Lewis and Short's Latin Dictionary. Now I don't need Virgil all that often, when I'm on the move .. but you'd be amazed how often I turn to a Latin dictionary.
It really has been a life saver...I promise