It's a mad world

Phone apps prove that

The world, it seems, may now with adequate reason be divided into two groups. Those with gadgets - not necessarily geeks, but just people who are up-to-date with new toys - and those without them. And the most manifest marker of difference in everyday life may the mobile phone.

Or rather, what sort of mobile phone one has, and just what it can do. There are those amongst us who still think that all such a device should do is to make a phone call, or enable sending a text, or, at the very furthest let us click a few pictures or listen to the FM. Such is the speed of technological development that this lot may well be called modern-day Neanderthals by others.

For, now we have devices that can virtually be everything from our newspaper, library, SatNav guide, mini-PC and much else. But one of the more curiouser aspects of the latter genre of mobiles happens to be the various applications (apps) that can now be used on phones. Take the case of the Aussie gentleman who, faced with massive parking fines, invented an app that lets users warn each other when parking attendants are in the vicinity. That'd surely save some heartburn, and money.

Some apps, though, are just zany. Take the one which allows for the listening pleasure of various sounds imitating, well, states of flatulence. There's also an app which lets you morph your photo to resemble a mugshot taken at a police station, presumably pandering to latent criminal instincts.

Or if you have trouble swearing in a foreign land, you can use the 'Dirty Mouth' app, which informs you how to curse in different languages. Some apps seem even more weird. Like the one called 'Hello Cow!' All it does is allow for different kinds of 'moos' to emanate from your device on touching the screen. Or 'Hold on', which is all about how long you can hold down an on-screen button, nothing else! At which point the not-so-gadget-friendly lot might just feel vindicated.