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Do we Really Need Certain Apps for our PC?

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With both OSX and Windows now featuring an app store we can now get many of our favorite applications all in one place and with peace of mind when it comes to security. I have been using Windows 8 for some time now and one of the apps that I use is the Netflix app. The app has been somewhat buggy as of late, but over all it seems to get the job done. I finished watching an episode of Mythbusters and then went off to run some errands. I came home later and jumped onto my Macbook and started working. Square modern app icons.

A hour or so had passed and I decided that I wanted to watch another episode of Mythbusters. I started to head to my web browser when I suddenly stopped and wondered if there was a Netflix app for OSX, something similar to what Windows 8 has. I quickly opened the App Store and searched for Netflix, only to find that it doesn’t exist. I thought that it was kind of strange considering OSX has been around for a while and it seems like it would be useful.

I quickly began to realize that the lack of a OSX Netflix app isn’t actually that big of deal. I only need to click a bookmark in my web browser and I have access to all of the content and features that any app would have. Then I started to question the need for apps like these in the first place, at least for your laptop or desktop. What’s the difference between an app on my desktop vs a link on my desktop that takes me to Netflix? Where is the benefit? With new web browsers that harness the power of our machines more than ever by making use of our GPU and extra processing power, why bother with an app? I am looking for any opportunity that can save disk space and the lifespan of my SSD.

What makes the web based app more appealing is the fact that it’s often more reliable. I mentioned earlier that I have been dealing with quite a few bugs since I have started using the new Netflix app, but when it comes to the website, I have had virtually no issues. Some of this could be due to the website being around much longer than the app and therefore less buggy. Why bother with the app at all when we seem to be moving toward a cloud based world? If we are trying to create a much more seamless experience then why leave the browser that we spend so much time using, just to open an app? The answer isn’t so clear at this point, which is why the pros don’t seem to know either. This is basically the wild west era of the OS and everyone seems to be trying a little bit of everything and then waiting to see what consumers end up doing.

We can always look at things from the other prospective, which seems to be a movement away from the web as we know it today. Maybe we just make everything an app, including all our favorite websites and instead of downloading them, we just launch them from the cloud. Perhaps, we can just get rid of the web address altogether and then just use google to search for apps instead. Who knows how strange things will become and how practical any of this actually is.

One thing is for certain, we are in the middle of a long evolution that will leave us with a much different computer experience than currently we have today. We are stuck in a phase between old and new and it feels weird but I think were headed in the right direction, it’s just going to take another five years or more before we can fully adapt this new way of doing things. It is ultimately up to us, the consumers, to figure out what we want. If we don’t buy it, it won’t continue to exist and so we ultimately decide what works and what doesn’t. So what do you think?

 

Featured App: Happy Street

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Every once in awhile you stumble upon an app that is, at first okay, but then after getting into it, ends up being so addicting you can’t put it down. Happy Street is that addicting game and it’s free. You start off with Billy the adventurer, and Pepin the merchant. They will guide you though the tutorial and have you building your first houses, stores and mini games. Every time you build a house you gain a new resident who stays in your village and buys things from the stores and stands you create, which earns you in-game coins so you can keep growing your village.

Happy Street ScreenShot

 You can go to the forest and mountain to gather resources such as fish, rocks, flowers, wood and more to create things like wood planks, which yes, have a timer on them. The buildings and resources eventually get timers that will go up to 24 hours till they are finished, but this game is so fun, I really don’t mind. The time element keeps the game interesting. Other characters will also give quests continuously throughout playing, which will earn you coins and flooz. Flooz is the special currency in the game that is harder to come by and they do give you the option to buy more, just like most apps now. Starting at 99 cents you get 9 and it goes all the way up to $99.99 for 1500. This is just an option and I have had no pressure to buy more, and I have not done so. As long as you keep doing the quests you will earn just what you need.

The game also is linked with GameCenter so you can earn achievements and add your friends. Having friends is a good thing, you can ask them for some resources you may need and they could have it so you don’t have to wait 8 hours for it to be made. So if you are into cute little animals asking you to make them anvils and cider so you can upgrade your medieval house, this awesome crazy addicting game is just for you.

Available in the App Store and Google Play!

Features:

– Meet Billy, Zoe, Pepin and other unique characters.
– Customize your characters.
– Discover 3 unique environments and more to come.
– Trade and visit your friends.

Possibly a Big Discovery on Mars

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We have been receiving a steady stream of updates from the Mars rover, Curiosity, ever since it left the Earth’s atmosphere and began it’s mission. However, one of the more recent updates, which is being called “earthshaking”, can not be shared at this time.  So what in the world is going on? or to be more precise, what in the Martian world is going on?

Mars
Mars (Source:NASA)

One of Curiosity’s instruments, known as SAM, is able to determine what’s inside a particular sample by analyzing it and then letting us know what it’s made up of. John Grotzinger, who is part of the rover team, has mentioned that they have recently gathered a bit of soil to test with SAM and it has yielded some “Earthshaking”, results.

Unfortunately, we won’t find out exactly what these earthshaking results are until they have confirmed them beyond a shadow of a doubt. After all they don’t want to deliver big news only to have to take it back later and say they were wrong.

The funny thing about scientific discovery is that everybody interprets these sort of things differently. We could very well hear news that a never before seen gas has been found trapped in the soil sample, which would be interesting but not necessarily “earthshaking” to those of us outside the scientific community, with the exception being some of our fellow geeks of course. Either way we remain in state of suspense until we can find out more about whats going on out there. I can’t even begin to speculate myself.

There’s no doubt in my mind that these scientists are basically freaking out about not being able to tell us, and to make things worse, it may be several weeks before we can know. For now we will just have to wait and see what these earthshaking results are and hopefully we are in for a big suprise.

Pondering Apple Software with Jonathan Ive in Charge

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The recent shake up in Apple’s executives has left Jonathan Ive in charge of software design as well as hardware design. This change up could have Apple’s next big software release featuring some big changes.

Jonathan Ive
Jonathan Ive, Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple Inc.

Jonathan Ive has always pushed the idea of keeping things simple and clean and he will likely bring this mentality into play when working with Apple’s software. In every corner of OSX and even iOS, you will find bits and pieces of texture and art incorporated right into the UI. One only needs to perform a few common tasks on any Apple OS to find these little decorations. For instance, the wooden bookshelves in iBooks, linen textures on the side panels, and torn paper on the calendar, these are all things that Ive will likely remove in future versions.

I personally don’t have a problem with them but then again I don’t have any doubt that Jonathan Ive will do a great job in overseeing the design aspect of Apple’s software. Simplicity can be just as beautiful as any decorative pattern or texture. If anything, the application itself should be the centerpiece not what surrounds it, but there needs to be some balance. Take away too much and you risk making the OS feel too utilitarian and dull but add too much and it can become distracting. Some critics of Apple believe that these little decorations date the software and make it look silly. It will be interesting to see what the critics say about Ive’s spin on the next generation of Apple OS software.

I can’t help but wonder what other changes are in the works for the next release of Mac OS. It’s not perfect but OSX has been around for sometime now and it’s still just as enjoyable to use as it ever has been. Will we see a move away form the Dock? It is possible that the next Mac OS will more closely resemble iOS, even more than it does already. This seems to be the case with Windows 8 which feels a lot like Windows phone and the Xbox dashboard mashed together. I feel the Dock is effective and elegant but at times unnecessary.

I like the way iOS handles open applications by keeping them out of view at the bottom of the screen, you only need to swipe up to access them. I would like to see the new Mac OS handle open applications in a similar way. I understand you can hide the dock but it’s just not the same. We could have open applications and their corresponding windows be in this bottom slide while all of our other applications could be accessed through the Launchpad. Also, since the Dock will be removed, we will need a quick way to access the Launchpad, preferably by gesture.

We can only offer up our best suggestions, but given Apple’s record of releasing OS software we technically should have little to fear. We will just have to wait and see what Ive and the crew at Apple come up with.

Possibly the Most Distant Object in the Universe and Looking Into the Past

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NASA has recently discovered what they think is the most distant object to ever be observed. This object is actually a galaxy named MACS0647-JD and it’s so far away that normally we wouldn’t be able to see it, even with our best telescopes. So, how are we able to see it then? Well, we lucked out, we got a little help from a cluster of galaxies known as MACS J0647+7015. Large celestial objects like galaxies have such large gravitational influence that they can actually distort and bend light passing near them. In the case of MACS J0647+7015, NASA was able to use this gravitational distortion as kind of a deep space magnifying glass. This effect is what enabled NASA to capture the light of this distant galaxy.

Nasa Most Distant Object
Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Postman and D. Coe (STScI) and CLASH Team.

The light of MACS0647-JD has taken nearly 13.3 billion years to reach Earth. We are essentially looking at an object from the theorized beginning of the universe (the big bang). This amazing discovery actually gets me thinking about the distances between objects in space and how long it takes for light to travel between them.

What if we could somehow instantaneously appear 65 million light years away from Earth, and what if we had a telescope with us that was capable of zooming in all the way to the Earth’s surface. Would we see dinosaurs walking the Earth? Theoretically, yes, we should. This raises some fun ideas about what’s possible in the universe. What if we just went a fraction of our first trip away from Earth? Perhaps we only go far enough away to witness the early  beginnings of human civilization and maybe we could just get it all on video. This video would be our exact history, nothing unchanged or lost from our true story. How amazing would that be?

Assuming that in our hypothetical world we can travel to almost any distance, we could actually watch the beginning of our solar system. We could know truly how the Moon was formed and perhaps even watch our solar system form, maybe even watch the Milky Way form. Of course we would need to somehow move our camera closer to the objects we are observing at a relatively quick rate in order to watch the creation of large objects like the Milky Way form in a reasonable amount of time, basically a galactic time lapse. Just a little food for thought.

To see a full article on the new discovery, head over to the official NASA post.