Tommy Kapai: Let's compare apps with apps

As soon as you've got used to the latest innovation, something comes along to replace it.

When they first came out, computers were the same size as a small fridge. Now they are thinner than a slice of toast and there are more names for software and hardware than you can wave a wand at.

Over the weekend I attended a course where one of the students asked if we were all getting a tablet as part of the resource kit handed out.

To which one of the elder statesman in the Marae offered a round of aspro - free of charge.

It seems no sooner have we upgraded, downloaded, linked in and logged out than something else comes along to make what we have only started to understand become out of date instantly.

As for apps, most of my whanau are still struggling with what they are, let alone what they can do, besides look pretty on your home screen.

An app is a software application that can be downloaded on to your cell phone or computer to open up a whole new realm of information.

One of the coolest apps I know of is called Apporo (loose translation in Maori for apple) which was created in Tauranga by two clever local boys and about to be licensed worldwide.

Apps are where the "big bikkies" are and when the latest app sensation called WhatsApp sold last Friday for $19 billion it sent a clear message where the IT world is heading.

The down side being the WhatsApp site went down for three hours yesterday and the 450 million users were geekless.

Then there are the firewalls who promise to protect us with a network of NetSafe, anti-viral software but quicker than you can say "nekminit" they too have gone past their use-by date.

The one that gets me, well it hasn't even come close to signing me up, is Twitter. The name says it all.

Why would I want to give a blow by blow account of my every breath for everyone to follow? Have we all become instant applause junkies?

Facebook was and still is a sign of what is to come and nowhere seems sacred to text, twitter or take a call. How many of us can own up to doing just that in the wharepaku/ toilet. It kind of puts a true light on how far we have come with our computer-driven compulsions.

As for the claims these geeky gadgets will give us more time to enjoy our lives, our families and our passions, the jury is still out, with the instant generation putting up a strong case.

We only have to look back a dozen generations and beyond to see our tupuna (ancestors) had memory sticks called whakapapa and whaikorero. This was the whanau flash drive where the knowledge needed to survive and succeed was held in memory vaults, available in a heartbeat and protected at all times by guardian kaitiaki.

Sometimes we are so obsessed with moving forward in a flash drive-driven instantly gratified world that we forget our tupuna, both dead and alive, who know stuff that Google will never have the answers for.

The challenge is finding the balance of the instant and the ancient, the tokotoko and the memory stick.

When it comes to gender, some say computers must be female - because even the smallest mistakes are stored in a long-term memory to be used later on.

Others are of the opinion they are male, because in order to get their attention you have to turn them on.

No matter the gender, we are all hard wired to our hard drive. broblack@xtra.co.nz