The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the leading trade fair of the consumer electronics industry that took place at the beginning of the year, made one thing more than clear: 2011 is going to be the year of the Apps. You think that 2010 has been the year of the Apps? Well, that was just the beginning… Tablet PCs, Smartphones and the continuous hype around all apple products make sure that Apps stay on top of the list for every mobile enthusiast. Because they make life so much easier…
In what way? In pretty much every way you can imagine…because these days there is hardly anything that a smartphone cannot do!
Here’s just a little selection of everyday items that you can leave at home from now on – assuming that you have the right app!
- Your bubble level bar, plumb bob and protractor
For all DIY’ers, home improvers and hobby-carpenters there is one app you absolutely shouldn’t miss: The iHandy carpenter kit lets you measure distances, angles or check the verticality of a wall with nothing more than a smartphone. A landmark invention for all of us who do not have a perfectly equipped tool kit at home, but in how far this satisfies the slightly more sophisticated demands of a professional, like an architect or engineer, is questionable, to say the least. - Your calculator
Considering that every ordinary mobile phone has got a built-in function for calculating, this may sound little spectacular at the first glance, but don’t let that first impression deceive you! HandyCalc is much more than a mere gimmick for lazy adders and multipliers: It solves whole systems of equations, draws the corresponding graphs and calculates variables or statistic data like the median or mean value. Quite a professional tool for a freebie app. - Your parking disc
Yes, really. There is an app to replace the good old parking disc. Works amazingly easy, although you might hope for the whole system to be just a little bit more elaborate: Just install the app, set the time and place it behind your windscreen for the whole world to see – and that is it. Unfortunately, that’s probably going to be it with your iphone, too, because I wouldn’t trust the iphone to be in the exact place when you come back from your shopping spree. If you ask me, to simply risk getting a ticket might be the wiser choice in this situation, economically speaking, but maybe that’s just me… - Your electric heater
There is one App that we have examined above all else: The Portable Heater. Do we have to worry? Is the iphone going to replace our electric heaters? Nice try – but apart from a competent graphic design and more or less convincing sounds this application does not offer anything more than hot air. Or, to be completely honest, not even that…
So what do these examples tell us? There are good apps and rather useless apps. There are some that really make your life easier – and others just don’t. But its good to know that there some things remain which are not in imminent danger to be replaced by a digital alternative …
