Dumb things with smart phones. Mobile apps can be entertaining.
"I play angry birds," said Jessie Santangelo, and app user.
And they can be informative.
"I like to locate the cheapest gas prices within city limits, uh, finding the movies seeing where they're playing, when they come out," said Tony Adams, another app user.
But trustworthy? Not always.
The Federal Trade Commission has launched it's first investigation into apps for baseless marketing.
It says certain ones that claim to clear acne using red and blue light are bogus.
"When email first came on there was a lot of email scams and then Facebook came up and there's a lot of people on Facebook and Facebook scams. The phone is the new thing to have scams on. It's where everybody's at and everybody's using it," said Luke VanWingerden, the IT Director at USC Upstate.
He says before you download an app, be sure to check out reviews online from people who've already used it.
It's not just buying bogus apps that's a problem. It's what the apps can do, like sharing your personal data on everything from your name to your exact location.
"I'll start to get phone calls on my phone or text messages from random places." said Santangelo, who believes they come from app information sharing.
App makers are supposed to disclose what information they take from you.
But VanWingerden says "there's no way to police exactly what they're accessing. You'd need to have an army of people to be able to say they're actually doing what they say they're doing."
So instead, he recommends be your own police. Look for the app's publisher located below the name. If it's not a company you trust think twice.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement