when?

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

when did a program become an app ?

[Andrew]

After Win7 it seems.

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

silly

[Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp]

The language has been slaughtered.

A program tells a device how to run.

An application is when you stick your smartphone under a table leg because the beer mat isn't thick enough.

Remember when "doing a shop" was something you could get arrested for?

AB From the well pummelled keyboard of Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp Esq

[Max Demian]

It's mainly smart phones and tablets have apps. Actually it's more accurate as it distinguishes application programs from ones that form part of the operating system or utilities like compilers.

[alan_m]

Everything from the "Microsoft Store" that runs on a PC under Windoze 10 is labelled an App.

[The Natural Philosopher]

There always was application programming and system programming...

[Paul]

cell phone

noun: cell phone

a phone with access to a cellular radio system so it can be used over a wide area, without a physical connection to a network; a mobile phone.

fea·ture phone

noun: feature phone

a mobile phone that incorporates features such as the ability to access the Internet and store and play music but lacks the advanced functionality of a smartphone.

smart·phone

noun: smart-phone

a mobile phone that performs many of the functions of a computer, typically having a touchscreen interface, Internet access, and an operating system capable of running downloaded applications.

*******

Now, compare the things your phone does, to those examples.

Yours is not a smart phone, and it's unlikely to connect to the Google Store or the Apple Store, to acquire new Apps. The Android OS is a mate for the Google Store.

Yours has an alarm clock and some sort of reminder thing. Which is an example of a "firmware application", one that is in the box from the start. They could put anything they wanted in it that way, except it would need more Flash memory to store all that stuff, and it would need more RAM for complex functions like a web browser. That's where the Smart Phone comes in. Some Smart Phones have 12GB of RAM, which is more than some new desktop computers ship with. Nobody is quite sure why those phones got 12GB - it's going to be mostly a waste.

One feature yours has got, is the phone can run for 400 hours on one charge, during which time it's ready to receive incoming calls. And that's pretty impressive. There are other fancy devices, that they have to be charged every day and a half to two days. Yours is like eight times better... at being a phone.

Paul

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

App is merely short for application and application seems to have become the term back in the XP days, and personally, its a bit of a misnamed thing, but then so is program or programme depending on where you are. Brian

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

TVs now have apps of course. I'm sure in the future, even toasters will run apps. Alexa for example runs apps but they run in the cloud and not on the device, which is why alexa is dumb without an internet connection. What I don't get is this. The Echo series can walk you through a set up by using the voice prompts and an app on the phone, yet nobody has seemingly bothered about putting a voice on the bios of a computer to help out have they? Brian

[charles]

when I wanted to join a Zoom meeting yesterday on my PC, I was told to download the 'App'.

[Mike Halmarack]

Near where "Full Stop" or "Period" became "dot"?

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Brian Gaff (Sofa) submitted this idea :

I first came across it for phones, for computers and other things, I default to programs, firmware and software. Who updates their MS Windows 10 App? Its a software update, just as it has always been.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

The full stop became a dot, when email addresses were exchanged verbally.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Jim GM4DHJ ... brought next idea :

Working, driving and constant phone calls, I wouldn't welcome a touch screen, but now - not trying to juggle driving and talking, I'm fine with an Iphone and its touch screen.

[Robin]

Windows 8 brought "Apps". Only new to those moving from 7 to 10.

[Peter Johnson]

When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Acorn used apps long before either. Like near 40 years ago.

[tim...]

Um

No?

[charles]

On my bookshelf: Acorn Applications Guide ©1990