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Week 2: Useless/Weird apps

Have you found yourself browsing through a napp shop on your phone or tablet, looking for something new and cool, and you found some really weird apps? Well, I am sure you have, and you have downloaded some of them.
Like this one app, that can unlock and unblock your phone using your finger print. Well, that was a waste of space. You guessed well! All of my friends could unblock my tablet. But at least it was flashy, ha ha.
Another fantastic app will present to you Ellen:

I must say, that the Fan app is the best so far, and the most ridicules. The worst is that some people actually said it worked!
But there’s another interesting app: GymShamer. It humiliates you publicly if you don’t go to the gym, by showing your current location on FourSquare. I don’t know about you, but I don’t need this app to feel bad if I don’t hit the gym. My spine does it for this app.
Another app, is Ghost Radar Classic. This app tells you if you’re in a ghost zone. It basically looks like a radar based on sonar and shows you where the nearest ghost is. Watch out! You can get killed by it!
Better yet, there's an app, that's called "useless app". It's created just to waste your time on some dull nothing, ah ah. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.syntaxnova.uselessapp

And that's just sad....
Another is called "the most useless app ever" and it's even worse than the other one. Just imagine giving someone a piece of paper with the text on both sides "the other side" hoping that everyone would go back and forth trying to read the message. Well, it's something like that...https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chris_economou.themostuselessappever
If you are really bored, and some kind of competitive, there's another useless, or weird app, if you'd like... Whoever touches the screen the longest, wins!http://www.appcraver.com/hold-on-the-game-you-love-to-hate/
Another app is just funny. It's a proposal app, that asks your girlfriend to marry you. It's tacky, and.. well, if a girl agreed after showing her THAT, run away man....http://gizmodo.com/5158809/proposal-iphone-app-lets-someone-propose-to-your-future-wife-for-you

Another one. A mood sensor. No idea how it works, but it just takes space on your phone, believe me...
http://www.appolicious.com/omg/apps/30342-mood-sense-lite-lauren-schmitt



Comments

Appearance this kind of applications unfortunately was unavoidable after rise of era of smartphones. I think, the majority of this apps are simply created for killing the time, for example in queue to doctor, sitting on a boring lecture etc. and mostly they are free and they can easily replace temporary games like Angry Birds. Of course, we could state the majority of this apps are useless and unproductive but sometimes the most simple and common thinks can give us many good fun. For example, only two persons could download each other on they phones sounds of many kind of weapons and go to play little war, without buying guns for balls (quite safe and interesting solution for children's). It’s clear that there are many of useless applications (noctovizor, scanners etc.) but rather no one is going to remedy about this kind of plague, because the people simply for joke or for fun they like download this things even if they know that’s stupid.
Tomek said…
It's not a problem to build an app anymore. Apple, Google and Microsoft have their own tools for the job and there are numerous other created by smaller companies. Who knows, maybe the fan was created by a bored programmer or a student as an example. I created a program for Windows Phone during a course and abandoned it. The App Store had an app that did absolutely nothing except show that it was bought for a lot of money.
Kasia Kmieć said…
Nowadays the number of all sorts of apps springs up like mushrooms. Obviously with such variety come many useless or weird apps that make you wonder why anyone would install this. One of my favourites is the app called iSteam - it allows you to fog up your screen by blowing into mobile. Then you can scrape away the misty with just your finger, or Bubble Pop Action - the app that transform your mobile into bubble wrap. These are just examples, there are of course thousands more. Most of them are just funny timewasters, nothing more. But I think sometimes there is nothing wrong with letting yourself play with it;)
You can google many lists of the weirdest apps from around the world. If you are interested, here is one: http://becomingacomputertechnician.com/the-20-most-outrageoususeless-iphone-apps
Unknown said…
App were supposed to help us and save our time- what unfortunattly mostly didn't work out. Today we waste our free tme on games or usless aplications which "help" you spend more time on things that you could do in a minute without it. Of course it is nice to have so much apps on your mobile and use this device to do everything during your day, but i think we could live better without most of them,
Unknown said…
First of all, I am a minimalist if it comes to my phone. I get extremely bothered by the fact that buying a new phone more than half of all pre-installed apps are so utterly useless for me. That is an increasing issue these days, as phones come with more and more "bloatware" each year. I have to dedicate my precious time into finding ways of removing those things, but unfortunately manufacturers are making it harder and harder to remove them for no apparent reasons - maybe just to make the life of minimalist users harder.

The same issue bothers me when browsing app stores - most of apps there are completely useless. I always wonder who installs "fart sound" apps and such, and to my amazement they are on the "top downloaded" list. It somehow makes me lose faith in humanity, but at the same time I think of all the great programmers making pretty awesome apps that I find useful, that get heavy usage on my phone, that many people would find useless - but hey, they are at least functional.
Unknown said…
I agree with Tomek, however, who said it's because it's so easy to make apps these days. I think it's unfair though that useless apps are everywhere - as it's hard to find really useful apps if all you see on the app stores are things that really are worthless.
Unfortunately, in times of smartphone and mobile operating systems, we have to deal with garbage applications. I remember the times of millions of computer viruses, when you weren't able to check your mail safely. Today, I don't have such problems with viruses, except that I install junk browser plugins sometimes. Instead I have millions of apps in my nokia marketplace. I have contact with very stupid applications. One of them is Mosquito Repellent. Producer says that the program should make
tones which repel insects. Of course it's not working. Moreover, I don't like apps which only redirect to another web page - you don't have to be a developer to put a link under a button. The simple games or funny apps like kwejk help to kill time, for example in queue. I still remember an app to draw on a steamy window. It's useless, but if you don't have a steamy windows at hand, you can take your smartphone and draw heart to another person.
alt_pl said…
I like to see people using such apps but I don't use them myself because they are simply... silly :) . We live in interesting ( due to technological growth ) times. On one side we try to make everything very practical when on other side we want some chaos in our technology. Those apps are children of this trend. I remember one of the first silly app on iStore which was called "I am rich". It did only one thing : there was gem and golden sign "You are rich"... It cost 999 USD. There were many counterfeits of this app given for free. For my surprise I found out that there were people who actually bought it ( source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Rich ). Due to this case there are no apps that would surprise me even more :)
Kacper K said…
I agree with Simon. With each passing day it is much more difficult to find well-written applications that work correctly. However, in my opinion, at some time, someone will write an interesting game / application, for example, angry birds or Evernote. From what I know, only Apple has a filtration system newly added applications to the app store, Android does not have such a system, so each published application in the Android Market is available for download. Even those having malicious code.
Darkia said…
Of course where is intrnet there can be anything. It's obvious there will be something really stupid, and sometimes, in that big collection we will find something good. I really enjoy playing logic games on my pc tablet or mobile phone. I must think a little in it, but not to much, it's perfect for break :D
But ofcourse there are a lot of usefull aplicaction, but sometimes weird. I really like "sky map". I don't know it's usefull, but it was fanny to look from it to sky :P
usually i prefer free apclication.
I only one time buy aplicaction it was DS emulator, it was really good buy :D
Unknown said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said…
I agree.. there are many crappy apps out there which are nothing more than waste of space. Finger print app would be a great example of one of those apps.The app which humiliates you if you don't go to gym sounds really cool :). It might be a motivation to make you not to miss your workout session. Regarding the Useless App and the fact that is a time wasting app... I am amazed that it actually was rated 4.1/5 stars. Why would anyone rate it so high if it was totally useless ? Perhaps we like to waste our time and this app will help us to achieve it ;). Even useless apps have their own purpose. ( To be useless! lol)
Anonymous said…
The worst example of such applications are those that are pre-installed on branded phones... The only way to get rid of them is to install your own system. Always annoys me ;).
Another example is the already mentioned applications that don't do anything or send millions of notifications to the user. Another portion of useless applications are repeated games. The same game under several names.
When I already find free, useful app I'm flooded with tons of advertisements or micro payments ;D
Maria said…
I’ve read an article about strange applications recently. Among them were many alarm clocks.
The app I liked the most, was the alarm clock that didn’t stop ringing until you’ve taken a picture of a specific object.
It’s not so easy though, because it gives you different things to photograph. You need to take a picture of a sink, for example. So it won’t stop until you go to the bathroom. But how does it work? How does the app know that it’s a sink you’re photographing? Never mind, I came up with a perfect solution! Just sleep with an IKEA catalogue next to your bed, you’ll find everything there :)
The truth is, most apps are useless, they are made for fun.
My brother uses an alarm clock application where you have to do a mathematical task. After you’ve done it, the alarm stops. He likes the app very much! Even the slightest intellectual effort can you wake up!
Unknown said…
I never used strange/useless applications and I never understand why they are created. I never understand why applications like that are pre-installed on the smartphones. Ok apps like this are made for practice I guess. Nowadays everyone can build an app what is good because sometimes application created just like that become super popular and still super useful but this is progress no matter what we say.
Functionality is basically the most important thing for me, when I browse for apps. Even the slightest difference matters to me, since I want to maximize the efficiency of any operation I perform, therefore often spending more time on comparing apps, that seem to provide the same exact functionality. In other words I don't install useless apps. However I might add that if an app provides fun for me, that I don't consider it useless, since it serves the function of entertaining.
Unknown said…
In my opinion more wired/useless app is in google store. In itunes store they have more restrictive criteria to adding a new apps. However i found few useless apps in app store, for example "Mini" it's app with useless crap which you can buy for max 2$, another wired app is crashing bubble foil, yes you do this on your mobile screen. Probably for somebody that apps are very useful. Every app could earn million $, one simple rule "supply demand".

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