It is not that I haven’t known that iPhone/iPod Touch apps existed before even though I do not presently own an iPhone. As a Verizon user, I purchased an iPod Touch last year to install a couple of photography apps to use out in the filed, one being a Depth of Field calculator and the other was the On One app for controlling ones camera. However, with the introduction of Robert Giroux’s Easy Release, an app designed to allow photographers to capture model and property releases on their iPhone/iPod Touch, it consequently made me aware of the whole world of apps that exist out there. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal put the number of qualified apps at around 150,000 and this is since 2008.

I mean really, there are apps for confirming ones flight on Alaska Airlines, for visiting the Museum de Orsay, calculating meters to inches, checking the price of an item in a store with its bar code against its competitors, figuring out how far one walks and translating languages beyond its use for playing music or games,  as well as watching movies, videos or TV shows. Oh yah, when one it is not doing all of these things, maybe they will use the iPhone to talk to their family, friends or business associate. As a photographer, I have loaded the tide calculator, the sun and moon rise and set times, a GPS tracking device, a wildflower guide, a bird guide (but not one yet for shore birds) and an exposure guide for daylight and night conditions. I just got started and I still have a lot of room for more musing and apps.

In The Wall Street Journal today their Business section carries a story about how The Hearst Corp is devoting a handful of employees to start pumping out apps as an additional business venture with sports feeds for specific professional teams and markets. Sorry, Verizon, when my contract is over I am going iPhone. I don’t care if you have more coverage. Unless it gets with the program, AT&T is where it is happening.