It’s day 30 of Gizmodo’s March Madness bracket challenge to name the greatest app of all time and we now know the first of our two final players. With more than 71 percent of the vote, the people have selected Google Maps! YouTube was eliminated in yesterday’s tournament. RIP YouTube. Today we have two apps that are simply impossible to hate but one of them must go home empty-handed.
If you’re just tuning in, you can read all about our selection criteria for this historic contest right here. Check out the full bracket of contestants embedded below. And as always, if you think we missed your personal favorite app of all time, yell at us in the comments. Now, let’s get into today’s challengers.
Here’s what we had to say about the Flashlight app in the first round:
For many, the flashlight app is no app at all. It’s a built-in utility on most smartphones these days. But that wasn’t always the case. In 2010, a full two years after the App Store launched, Apple finally allowed apps to use the camera flash on the iPhone 4 as a continuous flashlight. Many, many developers jumped in on the immediate gold rush.
By 2013, there were more than a thousand flashlight apps in the App Store, and then the good times came crashing down when Apple added its native flashlight function. Whoever was still making money in the crowded field was out of business and more than a few physical flashlight manufacturers probably felt the pain as well.
The flashlight app does one thing, and the thing it does is useful. That’s something that countless apps cannot claim.
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And here’s what we wrote about the Calculator app last time:
The calculator app. Not a specific calculator, just whatever calculator is on your phone. We all have one. Calculators were even on dumb phones, but the arrival of the smartphone absolutely wiped out the need for most people to own a dedicated number-crunching device.
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So, reader, what’ll it be? Run the numbers, search the dark corners of your heart. Should Flashlight move on or should Calculator take on Google Maps in the final round?
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