Trina Machacek column – The world through tech — and apps

Can I learn about them. Well of course I can. I think.

Small children can navigate an app. What’s the big deal?!? Oh, the big deal is all the things’ apps are now doing. I have to admit I take great pleasure in deleting an app on my phone. I get these notices that I am getting close to using up my allotted “space” in my phone and I need to immediately, if not sooner, clear out some stuff.

I follow the path my phone takes me on. I see things listed that are foreign to me, so I delete them haphazardly. I don’t give much thought about whether or not what I choose to delete is important. One day, I am sure I will delete something that should not be deleted, gone forever in that cyber world. Probably something so important that the poor person I call on the help line will moan and groan about another older sub-cyber person messing up their device.

Oh, well. Live dangerously, Trina. Delete without emotion.

I am slowly, like less that turtle slow, beginning to understand some of the coolness of apps. I even came up with the coolest idea for an app. It was to make your phone turn into a mirror. Oh I was so excited and wondered why anyone hadn’t ever thought of that before. HAHA! So full of myself. Of course there were already apps for that.

Isn’t that line, “Oh, there’s an app for that,” true? Yes, it is. Apparently, there are mirror apps in the hundreds that are already out there. I will have to make my fortune another way. But to have a mirror in my phone might come in handy. Like a magnifying glass if I get a sticker. Or one that can tell the user about local public restrooms, where you would find thumbs up or thumbs down over a toilet would tell all you would need to know. I can only imagine the remarks left by previous “poopers!” Yes, a million, million app ideas are out there.

I admit I haven’t, or at least I don’t think I have, ever paid for an app. I don’t remember giving my credit card number to any weird site. So the apps that catch my eye are usually ones that want my money! Imagine that. Hey if I had created the mirror app that I thought of it would have been free. Until I learned all about VENMO and PayPal and the like. I am all about making the American Dream come true — within my pocketbook. But! Yes, an app driven “but.” There have been apps that I would like to try. I have found, though, that if you sign up for the “free” period you are usually signing up for somewhere around $9.95 a month after the first 30 days. Oh, and if you use the app more than 6.78394 times in sixteen days 3 hours and 12 minutes, that $9.95 scoots right up to $39.95 a month, and does not come back down to the original $9.95. Of course you can opt out, unsubscribe or “cancel at any time.” Once they get your numbers and information, they gotcha, don’t they? Ah yes, the infamous “they!”

If you don’t think you are connected in ways you haven’t even thought of, well think again. I was sucked in by an app that will tell you all about a rock you may find while out gallivanting the countryside. I like rocks. The pretty ones. Little ones only. I have a mother that brought home BIG rocks for a rock garden. I would cuss under my breath as I was pulling weeds from her lovely rock garden every Saturday in summer, that I would never bring home big rocks. So, I like little ones, that I can hold in my hand and put in my pocket. And hear them when my pants go into the dryer after they go through the washing machine.

Anyway … this app would tell me if my rock was jasper, or quartz, or, be still my heart, GOLD. Maybe plain ole rock made of rock stuff. So I gathered a few of my rocks around my house, signed up to “use the app for free.”

As I started to sign up, I was asked all about me and then … please enter your credit card number, you know to start your FREE trial. Me? DELETE.

Next thing I know, ads are flying at me to buy metal detectors and rock saws. Ah, technology — and apps!