Hello and welcome to the Anthropocene Reviewed, a podcast where we review different facets

of the Human-Centered Planet on a 5-star scale.

My name is John Green, and today I'll be reviewing the Notes app for iPhones and the

Strange Phenomenon of Sports Rivalries.

But let's begin with the Notes app, which debuted with the first iPhone in 2007.

Back then, the apps default font looked vaguely hand-writing-e and had a yellow background

with horizontal lines between each row of text, an attempt to call to mind the ubiquitous

yellow legal pads used for note-taking.

Even now, the Notes app has a slightly textured background that mimics paper, an example

of what's called skeomorphic design, where a derivative object, say an app, retains

now obsolete elements of the original objects design.

Casino slot machines, for instance, no longer need a pullable arm, but most still have one.

And many apps use skeomorphic design, our calculator apps, our calculator shaped, our digital

watches have minute and hour hands.

This is all done in the hopes that we won't notice just how quickly everything is changing.

For most of my life, I took notes in the margins of whatever book I happen to be reading.

I've never been the kind of person to carry a notebook around.

I want to be a person who journals, who sits on park benches and has wonderful thoughts

that must be immediately captured.

But I usually found that my thoughts could wait, and if for some reason they couldn't,

I always had a book with me, and depend in my pocket.

There are grocery lists in my copy of Song of Solomon and directions to my great aunts house

...