The first time someone ever showed me a smartphone one of the apps on it was a compass. I said that was really cool and asked how well it worked if you were out in the wilderness where there was no cell service or wifi.
“Oh, it won’t work if you don’t have wifi,” he said. That made it seem a lot less cool because the time you need a compass the most is when you’re out in the wilderness somewhere far from any technology. Maybe something’s changed since then, or maybe the iPhone has always had an interior gyroscope and he didn’t know that, but the iPhone compass will work anywhere. There are also lots of astronomy apps that will identify the stars above you, around you, even below you–sometimes I point my tablet at the floor just to see what’s on the far side of the Earth. And now someone has written an app that will point you to the center of our galaxy. I think so, anyway–because I can’t really see the center of the galaxy, in spite of it being really, really, really big. From where I am it points roughly west–although direction is kind of meaningless because of the distance.
The app is a little weird, too, in that it has to be resting flat to show me where the center of the galaxy is. It’s a little like a real compass in that regard, which is why I once had an assistant Scoutmaster tell me that compasses don’t work when you’re on a hill. He was a bonehead, of course, but fortunately there was another Scoutmaster who knew how to read a compass.
I do think it’s really interesting to have something that gives a sense of where we are in our own extremely large galaxy, which leads to thoughts about how many other galaxies there are out there. The universe we live in is a very, very, very big place, and we are so extremely small.
Just for a little added perspective I pointed the SkyView app on my phone in the direction of the center of the universe and clustered in the southwest, just about the horizon, were Mercury, Mars, Venus, and Pluto. All so distant but, in comparison, they seemed so close.
There are so many cool apps you can get now. I know Shazam has been around for a long time but it still amazes me that it can identify any piece of music after just a few notes!
I remember when smartphones came out every new app seemed cool because it was such an unusual thing. This particular app, though, really stuck out for me because it’s so simple but still kind of a neat thing to think about.
How did I miss this post?!!! How very cool is that?! I don’t usually add apps to my phone, but the other day, I was looking at my apps and it seemed to have added some of its own. Don’t know how and probably don’t want to either, but I got rid of them. What I do know is that my phone is always listening whether I want it to or not, so I’ve come to terms with that. Be that as it may, if there was an app that I’d loved to have, it would be that one. Oh, okay. So I looked it up and you have to have an I-Phone. I have an Android. Oh well. Maybe Matt will figure out how to make this for Androids in the next year or two. Anyway, that is really amazing! Mona
I have an iPhone and new apps show up occasionally. Mostly they’re ones that already do what the old ones do but in a slightly different way. And it’s weird that they don’t have an Android version. Phones have brought back the browser wars.
I feel very close to you, Chris.
Even without a compass I always know how to find you.