LITTLE ROCK — There are more than 400,000 Android apps. What’s a body to do? Fortunately, there’s an app for finding apps.
The app is Appreciate, and it’s for Android phones and tablets. Appreciate makes recommendations as it gets to know what you like. Or, if you want, you can tap various categories, such as New Games, New Apps, Local info, Guys, Girls, Kids and Trending.
If it thinks an app is a good match for you, it says so. (Have we reached the point where apps think?) A tiny arrow points to a cartoon of a woman if more women like that app, or a cartoon of a man if men like the app. The cartoons are so similar we couldn’t tell the difference. The only clue is the lady cartoon has a hair bun. (Is this sexist? Isn’t everything?) Appreciate has been downloaded more than 100,000 times.
APP HAPPY
Rama Food tours for the iPhone/iPod Touch cost 99 cents to $2, and there are a few free ones. Rama authors are experts in their field and don’t gush about gushy things. We tried the 99-cent Thai tour and found where to get a cab and how to tell the driver where to go.
At the restaurant Nan Soi, Rama suggested that we not look behind us, as organ meats used to tint broth are frequently piled up on tables. (Good tip.) Maps and history lessons are included, but no audio. We learned that Prince Monghut of Thailand was the model for Yul Brynner’s character in The King and I. (The movie used to be banned in Thailand, by the way, because it shows the heir to the throne dancing.) All info and maps can be viewed offline.
Bubble Safari is a free Facebook game from Zynga, the company that makes Draw Something, Farmville and Words With Friends. Bubble Safari is nearly identical to PopCap’s Zuma’s Revenge,but the monkey who shoots the bubbles is cuter and the music is jazzy. Find it at Zynga.com.
Fifty million people downloaded Draw Something before we got there, but Joy is now hooked. You get three suggestions on what to draw. Even the free version lets you draw in color on your Android or iPhone/iPad screen. An e-mail or Facebook partner plays back a mini video watching your pen strokes and tries to guess from the scrambled letters below. Then he draws something and you guess. You can also save your mini-masterpiece, which Joy wishes she had for her brilliant rendition of “Slam Dunk.” Her friend Emily did a great tow truck and peacock. As of last month, there were 6 billion drawings being done on this game, at the rate of 3,000 a second. It’s also owned by Zynga.
Cards lets you snap a picture with your iPhone or iPod Touch and add it to a greeting card that can be mailed anywhere in the U.S. for $3, postage included, or anywhere in the world for $5. We liked the designs.
FREE ANTIVIRUS FOR MAC
The Flashback Trojan attacked Mac users recently. We read that it was the first serious attack on Mac users in 28 years, but actually Flashback Trojan was the son of last year’s DevilRobber and its 18 brothers. A free program from Avast.com is a good fix.
Avast for the Mac is has prevented everyone who installed it from getting the Flashback Trojan. Avast also sells paid versions of its programs for Windows and Mac. With the paid version, you can prevent viruses from attacking. With the free version, you can clean it up after it happened.
Sophos Research found that 20 percent of Mac users who have Windows on their machines got Windows viruses or other malware. (Using a program like Boot Camp or Parallels, it’s possible to run both the Windows operating system and the Mac OS on one machine.)
Around 3 percent of users had Mac malware totally unrelated to Windows. Sophos also offers a free anti-virus program for Mac users.
SKYPE ON PLAYSTATION
Good news for chatty Chucks and Cathys: Sony’s PlayStation Vita does free Skype video chats. It also takes incoming calls during a game. Studies show that gamers use their machines as much for social reasons as for games. Owners of the older Playstation and the “PSP” (PlayStation Portable), can’t do video calls because the PSP has no built-in camera.
With its front and rear-facing cameras, the PlayStation Vita lets you show friends your face or your surroundings. The Skype app runs in the background, so you can pause a game, take a call, and return. If you have Skype credit, you can make cheap calls to landlines or cell phones. The basic machine lists for $249.
GOOGLE TIPS
Google Docs now has a “research” tool that lets you search the Web without leaving the program. And you can add footnotes. To try it out, click “tools” in Google and choose “research.”
Google Maps (Maps. Google.com) can be viewed offline. Search for your destination while you’re online and it will still be there if you lose your Internet connection.
When you’re on a map page and online, hover over the word “traffic” off to the right and click to see if things are moving slow or fast. Click “photos” to see photos of surrounding landmarks, submitted by users. Click “Transit” to find public transportation.
THE NUMBERS REPORT
Sixty-f ive percent of smart-phone owners use their phones to search for local restaurants. Which is interesting, because 95 percent of independent restaurants don’t have mobile websites.Half don’t even have a standard website, according to a 2012 survey by Restaurant Sciences. Smart-phone usage is growing. According to eMarketer, there were 73.3 million smart-phone owners in the U.S. as of last year.
NOTE: Readers can search several years’ worth of On Computers columns at oncomp.com. Bob and Joy can be contacted by e-mail at bobschwab@gmail.com and joydee@oncomp.com
Business, Pages 24 on 05/28/2012