Stephanie Lynn Leon M.A.

Rise of the App

There was a time not too long ago when an app was something you ordered and ate before your main course arrived. Food that prepped you for the too-expensive Veal Marsala you didn’t end up finishing because the app had already hit the spot 15 minutes earlier. Now the term app has taken on a new, but surprisingly similar, meaning.

Wikipedia tells us that “Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform singular or multiple related specific tasks. It helps to solve problems in the real world. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software, and media players.” While this definition is exact, it also feels limited in the message it conveys.

Apps are quickly becoming a way to organize, strategize and systematize your life via software that is ever-expanding and growing to meet the public’s demands and desires. My friend recently bought a Blackberry because of a specific app she knew would make life easier for her while at work. But apps aren’t relegated to work-related functions only. Games, news, recipes, films, maps, restaurants, etc. are all available just a download away and consumers want things that will make their life easier.

As Marin Perez wrote in his article App, App and Away – the importance of mobile apps, “To a certain extent, the app boom is similar to the first Web boom because there's a ton of innovation, investment, uncertainty and outright fun. While this boom will have its equivalent of Pets.com, it certainly can also produce its own Amazon or Google that will truly capitalize on the promise of mobile computing.” Big leaps are being made all over the world and who knows, your idea might be the next big app to take off.

It is an exciting time for technology with advancements being made daily by companies small and large. Google's Android Market announced just today that if a buyer was not satisfied with their app purchase they would be allowed to return the app for a full refund within the first 15 minutes after purchasing it. With this kind of forward thinking, apps will continue to dominate the phone and tablet markets.

So why not join in? Angry Birds started off as a fairly small app before realizing its potential, and now, several updates later, it has become one of the most successful game apps across multiple platforms. While appetizers are often overshadowed by the main course, mobile apps stand poised to outshine even tradional software.

I'm Still Here - Review

• Score: 6.5/10
• Title: I'm Still Here
• Director: Casey Affleck
• Screenwriter: Casey Affleck, Joaquin Phoenix

I wasn’t going to review I’m Still Here initially. But a few days after I had seen the film my friend asked what I had thought of it. It was a pretty simple question “Did you like I’m Still Here?” she asked. “Yes and no,” I replied, “it was kind of like Being John Malkovich in a weird way. The idea of using someone else’s body to further a career so that people can see the art you so desperately want them to see. Except he went so extreme that I think the message was ultimately lost to the viewer, if there ever was a message to begin with.”

Since that conversation I’ve been thinking a lot about I’m Still Here. I want to discuss the film for reasons that might solely be based on conversations I’ve had subsequent to the screening, because I’m still thinking about the film. It has stayed with me in some respect. I like Pheonix and Affleck, I think they’re smart, interesting filmmakers, and I legitimately like hip-hop, so I was willing to give I’m Still Here a shot even though I never really believed it was Phoenix’s serious attempt at a rap career. I think I am hesitant to write about it because I worry that I’m inferring a lot from the 106 minute mockumentary that simply isn’t there, that I will somehow be writing a dishonest review, based on conversations that the film brought about and not on the film’s merits or faults. I didn’t dislike the film, but I wanted it to be so much more than an inside joke between Casey Affleck and Joaquin Phoenix.

If you can get past the fact that none of the film seems the least bit legit, there might actually be some sort of significance in it.

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Nancy Drew Goes to the Oscars

When I was a little girl I used to get out of doing housework by reading. You’re probably wondering what this has to do with movies and why this piece is going to make it on to this site, but I assure you, I’ll get there. Since as far back as I can remember the rule in our house dictated that every Saturday morning we would get up, be delegated tasks and then proceed to clean the house, top to bottom. Imagine if you will a platoon of 4 people descending on a rather modest 2 story house brandishing rubber gloves, vacuum attachments and Lysol spray cans. We would vacuum, dust and de-clutter every room in the house, methodically, until my Dad gave each room his seal of approval. If there was one thing my Dad really liked it was a clean house.

I really hated Saturday mornings. Not solely for the fact that I hated cleaning but mainly for the fact that I would be so tired from reading under the covers of my bed until 4 or 5 or 6 am, that in the morning I would be completely exhausted. Mysteries were my favourite back then; I couldn’t stop reading until I had figured out what exactly had happened to Mr. and Mrs. Blair’s twins or whether Pat and Rosemary Turner’s house was indeed haunted. Cleaning a toilet or vacuuming a staircase is not something a completely exhausted 8 year old wants to do first thing on a Saturday morning after sleuthing around all night. Nevertheless every Friday night I would completely screw myself by reading Nancy Drew books until my eyes were basically stuck open from straining them in such a low-light situation and my hair was matted down on my forehead from being under the blanket for so long so that no one would know I was still awake. Then one Saturday morning my Dad didn’t make me clean.

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