Well, I liked your post.
Yeah, some of the apps (well, a LOT of them actually) are pretty darn silly. Kinda reminds me of the early days of personal computing when everyone and their brother was creating apps of specialized, limited purpose for just about anything one could imagine. And I'd see folks who had literally hundreds of small, highly specialized apps downloaded on their desktops.
Same thing these days with the smart phones. My daughter-in-law has so many downloaded she doesn't have a clue how many there are, has forgotten which and what they do, etc. Common to see her muttering to herself something like, "I know I've got an app for that, somewhere, I just have to figure out where I stored it and the name was."
Usually, in that case she'll find she has downloaded at least 8 versions of same idea, each a little different, each having some feature the other doesn't, so she ends up running each to see if its the precise one she had in mind.
A knot guide? I'm an old retired sailer, current routine boater, fisherman, past Scout and Scout Troop Leader, etc. And know more than a little something about knots. Basically about 6-10 common knots will handle about any need or requirement for even outdoorsy types. Past that, you're just getting into highly specialized knots, or decorative knots. And it'd probably be a wise idea to actually sit down at home and learn those basic knots and PRACTICE successfully tying them, numerous times, before going out in the field and doing something where your health, safety, or success may rely upon a knot you just tied.
Went through that not long ago, last summer, with a grandson. He's a teen now and grandpa figured it was time for him to REALLY learn some of the skills of boating and fishing.
So before the season, in early spring, I warned him that this fishing season things were going to be a little different. In the past grandpa rigged his lines and tied the knots, etc. This time? He was on his own. Had to do all his own stuff.
So before I took him out for the first trip of the season I offered to have him come over and sit down with me and I'd run him through the drill. Show him, then have him do it himself, repeat ... how ever many times it took for him to have the knot tying methods firmly entrenched in memory, and to have the EXACT, proper method of actually doing it correctly down pat. For some knots, it's more than just knowing something like loop over here, under there and so forth. Little skills of cinching and snugging, preventing overlap or extra twist in line, and so forth which is only learned by DOING.
LOL, he announced to me that it'd not be necessary, he'd looked up the knots I'd mentioned as the basic necessary ones on the internet, and memorized the pictures and instructions. I asked how much he'd actually practiced them? He announced it wasn't necessary, he had a good memory.
ROFLMAO !!!
I didn't have his confidence in his "instant" learning skills. But figured, "Okay, live and learn."
Upshot was that after the first two trips out, several lost fish due to faulty knots, loose gear flying around due to knots coming loose, etc ... I finally asked him again, "Want to sit down with me for a while so I can show you where you're going wrong?"
This time he took me up on my offer. And found out that there are indeed some little techniques and slights one needs to know that aren't shown in most of those online "guides". After he got those worked out by practice, practice, practice with me coaching, he was fine.
The same goes for "tracking guides". Some little mini-app or small book is going to leave out a whole lotta stuff. Small book is handy only to refresh memory (like crib notes), of someone who has actually done some more thorough study and practice.
In the case of bear tracks, and you're way out in the boonies. Best if you just know basically a bear track as versus something else. If its large and fresh and you see the claws marks (bear don't have retractable claws), instead of looking up precisely what kinda critter it might be, I'd suggest looking carefully around to make sure you haven't stumbled too closely upon the animal.
I'm not knocking the usefulness of such phones. But relying upon them and the apps you've got loaded on them too heavily is probably not a good idea.
I would like to see some specialized apps, tho.
i.e. Some times ago I was driving in heavy traffic, in a lane next to some gal who must've been driving to work. I paid particular attention because I saw here weaving more than I was comfortable with. Got along side, I was in my truck so was seated high enough to get a good view. She was talking on the phone, driving, trying to take an occasional sip of her coffee, AND was in the process of either taking off or putting on a pair of pantyhose. I'm not sure which. Nice legs. But her erratic driving was such that getting a better look didn't seem like a worthwhile proposition to me. I made it a point to get past her quickly and as far away as possible so if she did wipe out, she wouldn't take me along with her.
We need an app that can detect careless driving which will then promptly shut the phone down after screaming in the operator's ear, "Pay attention to your driving !!!". And which will then disallow use of phone until vehicle is stopped.
