By: Ellen Smith

Freshman Wesley Sidleman displays his iPod Touch. Photo by: Ellen Smith

Dean of Students Mr. Olson working on his iPhone. Photo by: Ellen Smith

“Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?”  In 1983, a twenty-something Steve Jobs used this exact quote in his quest for a CEO of Apple, Inc.  Accordingly, Jobs’ recruit was a hesitant executive from Pepsi-Cola, John Sculley.  Jobs eventually took the task of full leadership into his hands, and is now the CEO of Apple and one of the most notable men in the history of technology.   His desire for only the best is indeed “changing the world.”  From the 1984 Macintosh computer to the newest addition of the apple family today, the iPad, Apple electronics have definitely changed the world.  This quote from from the man behind Apple as we know today will be forever true.  Applications, more popularly known as “apps”, are an exploding trend all over the world, even here at PHS.

Taking a look at the student body, it is quite obvious that iPod touches dominate the scene in the case of portable media/music players.  Applications are also quite popular.  Not only can they serve as tools, but a gaming industry is developing around the concept of apps.  Freshman Sommer McClellan is very enthusiastic about her iPod touch.  She enjoys playing games on her iPod, and sophomore Karla Rosas and freshman Morgan Hite do as well.  The gaming industry becoming swiftly available has led younger and younger children to purchasing iPod touches, simply for the apps themselves.  Many of them admit to not even having music on their iPods.  An iPod is not just a music player anymore.

McClellan checks the app store often, and again, all three students are wise when it comes to spending money on applications. Hite “tends to get the free apps,” and McClellan adds “I get free ones because I might not like the (full) game if I buy it.”  The beauty of the app market is the pricing.  There are a surprising number of free apps available, and of very good quality.  Also, many full priced apps come with a free, or “lite” version.  This allows the buyer to test out an app without paying for it.  Rosas adds that she likes the free ones as well.  Many consumers end up satisfied with the lite version itself, and gain lots of applications without spending a great deal of money.

A lot of students take advantage of the always-increasing amount of storage on iPods.  One page on an iPod can consist of a maximum of twelve apps.  Rosas said she had three pages of apps, while McClellan had six- a maximum of 36 applications per iPod.  Now, more applications can be stored on fewer pages because of a “folder option” that lets users house up to 12 apps on a single icon.  Hite took advantage of this and “had 10 pages, but put them into groups so (she) only has one now.”  The Apple app store, which ironically has its own app, has a section for the top 25 most popular applications.  Currently, Angry Birds holds the top paid spot, with Angry Birds Seasons also dominating the top free position.  Rosas recommends the Facebook, Battery LED, and Moron Free apps.  She says that Facebook “connects with friends and lets me get to chat.”  Hite also likes Facebook, along with My Photo Manipulator, The Impossible Game, Talking Snowball, and Rock Band.  Facebook’s app has been holding a steady top 25 spot for quite awhile, even if there is some light controversy about having friends at your fingertips for 24 hours of the day.  McClellan recommends Cut the Rope, Unblock, Sunday Lawn, and Papi Jump.  She also advises getting a good calculator app, because “it helps if I forget mine at school.”  Indeed, the era of calculators appears to be moving in the direction of the app, as even graphing calculator apps are becoming available on the app market.  Another app rising in popularity is the Inception app.  This phenomenal application causes buyers to think differently about all an app can do.  Inception uses most of its soundtrack from the movie, along with some different tunes, to do what it claims is to “induce dreams.” “New dreams can be unlocked in many ways,” it says, from “walking, being in a quiet room, while traveling or when the sun shines.”  The app plays its music and uses the iPod’s microphone to pick up noise from in the area, and then augment it into the music.  What results is a fascinating weave of everyday sounds into the music itself, from footsteps to even placing the iPod on a surface.  The sensitive microphone does it all.  This non-traditional app requires the newest version of iPod touch, because of the microphone.  Not only are students taking advantage of this great piece of technology, but the principals are as well.

PHS principals are all fairly recent adopters of the iPhone 4.  Mr. Condon, principal, and Mr. Olson, Dean of Students, also have some preferences about which apps they buy, use and purchase.  “I use a lot of apps that are related to school,” says Mr. Olson, “Powerschool, Groupwise Email, and Google apps being the most often used.”  Mr. Condon adds iBooks to the list.  iBooks is an app for reading material, made by Apple itself.  However, Condon does not use this app for only reading.  “Because I can access many of my working files, it provides me with the opportunity to leave my office more frequently and visit classrooms or complete work from other sites.”  Mr. Olson “checks (the app) AppMiner about once a week to see what apps are on sale.”  Mr. Condon also admits to checking the store frequently, but buying apps seldom.  Both principals agree to downloading more free apps than priced ones.  Even though priced apps may offer more to a user, there are still many free ones that do incredible feats.  Mr. Olson recommends a great list of applications.  “Gas Cubby tracks gas expenses, Mint.com app tracks finances, ESPN score center, Open table, Group On, Xfinity TV, Netflix, Bing Top 100 Songs by Year, Pandora, Redbox, and PS(Photoshop) Express” are all great apps to give a try.  For outside of school, he enjoys the popular app Angry Birds.

As with anything, the app store has a few hidden diamonds in the rough.  These applications are pushing the boundaries and leading the way into our future.  Dragon Dictation is one of these apps.  Dragon Dictation is a “voice recognition app that allows users to speak, or dictate, text or email messages.  It is up to five times faster than typing on (an iPhone’s) keyboard.” Dragon is perfect for longer text messages or emails that are difficult to compose on an iPod/iPhone’s virtual keyboard.  Another great way to use this device is when typing an essay.  Dragon can type out a composition using its voice recognition technology, and thus slash tens of minutes that could have been spent meticulously tapping out the paper. This groundbreaking app is available to iPod touches as well.  “MapQuest, Around Me, Shazam, and Parking Mate” are other great tools, according to Mr. Olson.  Word Lens is an app that uses an iPod’s/iPhone’s camera to translate text into English or Spanish.  These apps will become everyday tools to us eventually, but for now we can marvel at the complexity and smartness of them.

With apps being released for iPads and now even Macbooks, it is amazing to believe that this concept has only been around for about three years. Applications are becoming more and more a part of our everyday lives, thanks to a man full of plans to “change the world.”  Yet Steve Jobs and Apple are only paving the future in technology.  And keep in mind the fast growing phrase “There’s an app for that.” Already this saying is becoming true.