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.

By: Patricia Ortiz

This sign is at the border between the U.S. and Mexico. On the right of the sign it says the sam thing as on the left. Photo by: Patricia Ortiz

When people see their loved ones for the first time in a long time the first thing people feel is joy.  Sometimes this turns to fear when people are heading to Mexico.

Every time the news comes on it seems like something horrible has occurred in Mexico. It appears that during this year tragedies have grown in Mexico. The truth is that the situation is not as bad as it seems. Every year Mexican authorities have a program dedicated to protecting those individuals who make the trip to Mexico. Police cars are parked on the road, and the army is everywhere. When my family took the trip down to Mexico last December, a blanket of comfort came over us when we saw the authorities guarding those that were taking the trip. One thing that gave my family courage to go to Mexico even though we saw the news and the situation that was happening was that we were not going alone. My uncle and his family were driving with my family so that we would not drive alone. My uncle was not the only one that was heading down south with us, many other families were heading to Mexico.   

The safety that was on the road on the way to our town was with us all the way.  Sometimes the police would stop suspicious looking vehicles.  Every so often a car would be stopped at random just so the authorities could ask were the vehicle and the people were heading.  When we finally reached our destination we felt very safe.  The police patrolled the streets often to make sure nothing strange occurred in town.  When my family knew that we were being protected we could relax and have fun.  

My parents recently remodeled the house we own in Mexico this caused us to go furniture shopping days after we arrived.  That is never fun, but my parents convinced me to go.  Once our shopping adventure was complete, we went out to eat at this amazing seafood restaurant.  The restaurant we went to had the tables and chairs under a giant palm tree.  Palm trees lined the sides of the lake near the restaurant.  The lake had the cutest fish in it all of the fish came in gorgeous colors like vibrant orange, fiery red, and sunny yellow.  The fish were not the only wildlife in the lake.  Dukes in multiple colors swam about.  

Christmas was very special in the year 2010.  My cousin got married.  The marriage was probably one of the main reason why we gathered the courage to head down to Mexico.  My family being Catholic had the religious ceremony in the bride’s home town.  Later the reception was held at the groom’s town.  The food was typical Mexican food such as carnitas (pork chopped up and cooked in something similar to Crisco), arroz ( rice cooked with tomatoes), mole ( substance like sauce made with a special kind of pepper), frijoles charros (beans cooked with bacon, ham, hot dogs and tomatillos), and tortillas.  Once everyone was done eating the fun began.  Everyone got up and danced with the bride and groom and then when that was done everyone got up and danced.  All good things come to an end and when the party was over, the whole family had to stay behind and clean up the mess that was made.  Cleaning up the mess took part of the night of the wedding and part of the day after the wedding.  Once we were done cleaning up, we all sat down and shared funny stories of the wedding.

Overall our vacation was one of the nicest vacations my family has ever had.  The insecurity that people felt about going on vacation to Mexico is understandable.  The news and media all exaggerate at times about what is really occurring south of the border.  Some things that the media says may not be exaggerated but still everyone just needs to calm down and have faith that those whose  job is to protect the citizens will do their job well.  The public should calm themselves and remember that everyone needs to get over the fear of seeing loved ones that live far away.