TECH TALK
By Tak Sato
Who doesn’t enjoy playing a game or catching up on news on their smartphone, tablet or computer—including Chromebooks—when they have time to spare?
If I don’t feel like reading the latest news from The New York Times, Washington Post or Wall Street Journal —all free subscriptions, courtesy of our awesome local libraries—my go-to is the solitaire app on my Google smartphone. Like most game apps, mine is free; unlike many apps that people use, mine has no advertisements. Don’t you hate it when ads ruin your game experience?
No-Ad Apps
Ever since my first Android-based smartphone, Samsung SIII circa 2012, I’ve paid for premium apps that I use daily or for apps I love for their ingenuity or fun factor. As a self-proclaimed gearhead who can’t turn a wrench, I’m a sucker for good car racing games that let me play at driving a Ferrari F40.
Many apps are based on the business model of “freemium,” created from the words “free” and “premium.” A wide range of apps in Apple’s App Store (iPhones & iPads) and Google’s Play Store (Android-based smartphones & tablets, and Chromebooks) can be installed on your devices for free, unlike a premium app that charges for installation. To cover costs, the free apps display ads delivered by digital advertising networks. I’ll hazard a guess: most app developers, just like you and me, must put food on their table. App ads are a way to earn money for the developer while enabling people like us to download and use the app for free. This is the “free” portion of “freemium.”
If, like me, you find ads annoying but you want to keep using the app, you can upgrade to a version to remove digital ads in exchange for paying a small fee or premium. That’s where the “mium” comes from in “freemium.”
But what about those unicorns I mentioned a few paragraphs ago? Some app developers create free apps that have no ads but may accept donations if you want to show your appreciation for their app. This is what I mean by unicorns.
Here I’m listing several, including:
Classic Solitaire Klondike (entertainment),
Merlin Bird ID (hobby) for birdwatchers,
Seek (Science) for identifying plants and animals,
PhotoScan (Photography), which I talked about in a prior column, and the
AirNow.gov (Health), which turns a website into a shortcut.
Finally, bonus entertainment unicorns for Android-based smartphone, tablet and Chromebook users (sorry, iPhone & iPad users) include OpenSudoku by Oscar Garcia Amor, lichess by lichess.org mobile 1 and OpenGemmy by Scillarium Studio.