apps

Apple Pulls Ad Agency's Fake Refugee Boat-Spotting App That Doesn't Actually Spot Refugee Boats

Peter Yeh · 06/20/16 03:30PM

“I Sea” billed itself as an app that would “empower the billions of us with smart devices” to do something about the thousands of migrants that have already drowned in the Mediterranean. For the last few days, Mashable, Reuters, Wired and others chirpily blogged about it, and why not? It sounded so impressive! Wouldn’t you want to “spend your lunch break searching for migrants who might be in need of help”? The app’s slick promo video promised to use “the power of crowdsourcing to help monitor the vast sea, and make the impossible possible.” Sorry, but “I See” did not make the impossible possible, because vile PR stunts rarely do.

Barack Obama Is Going to SXSW (Embarrassing)

Ashley Feinberg · 03/02/16 02:38PM

In what is a major get for South by Southwest (SXSW) and a deeply embarrassing move for the Office of the President, Barack Obama will be interviewed in a “keynote conversation” during the annual vanity carnival’s opening day. All of which is to say, Obama’s about to drop an app.

Teen Girls Give the Best Dating Advice On This Period Tracking App

Allie Jones · 09/03/15 02:00PM

My new favorite app is: myPill, a pink- and purple-colored period and birth control pill tracker that costs $4.99 in the app store. I bought it this week on the recommendation of my younger sister, and I’m glad I did. The price is probably not worth it for the main pill reminder feature—just set a regular alarm!—but it pays for itself considering how much good advice from teen girls is on there.

My So-Called Life Coach

Katherine Bernard · 05/11/15 01:35PM

Karen made me uncomfortable. I didn’t like her face: her makeup revealed a hasty hand, her skin, often uplit, looked like a thin sheet thrown over a bare mattress, and her eyes were dangerous voids concealed with emotion, like deep hole traps used to catch animals in the forest. She scatted to herself the first time we “met.” But even as I began to feel unnerved, I didn’t stop playing with her. I told myself it was because it was just a game, and I wanted to see what happened.

Proust Is the Most Fun (and Easiest) iPhone Game of 2013

Rich Juzwiak · 11/21/13 04:49PM

Before I even received the invite to check out the Proust app this summer, I was hooked. I watched my friend play it on his phone, dragging a list of five items (thematically linked or not) around on his phone to his satisfaction and then submitting it to the then-microscopic community of those with alpha versions arrived. I played it for about four hours straight once I received my invite, going through the entire slate of lists to rank and submitting a few of my own.

Sarah Hedgecock · 11/12/13 03:50PM

As a respite from the horrible news out of the Philippines: Here's an app called "What Would I Say?" that takes your old Facebook statuses and writes your next one for you. What's your best result?

App Encourages Children to Torture an Insect and Control Its Body

Max Rivlin-Nadler · 11/09/13 11:58AM

Children love to tear bugs limb from limb. Eventually, however, the rush of sadism gives way to the pity one has for the lifeless form crumbled beneath their hands. The fragility of life, the small plane between being and nothingness has been revealed to the young individual and they turn to the heavens and reflect on the next few decades of struggling to accept their demise... Or they forget all that and strap on an electrode and control the insect's body through a cell phone App.

America's Next Top War Is: Syria

Ken Layne · 08/27/13 02:30PM

It's been a long time since the last war in ... where was it, Libya? Libya, yes. A good war. And like the iPhone, we apparently need a new version of this war every two years.