The Greatest App of All Time Day 24: Uber vs. Calculator

March 24, 2024

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The Greatest App of All Time Day 24: Uber vs. Calculator

It’s Day 22 of Gizmodo’s March Madness bracket challenge to name the greatest app of all time and we’ve reached the final round of the Sweet 16. Yesterday’s tournament saw Google Earth running away with more than 87 percent of the vote and HQ Trivia has been eliminated. RIP HQ Trivia. Today we have our most controversial nominee going up against one of the least divisive candidates.

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 contestants.

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Here’s what we had to say about Uber in the first round:

Uber was a pioneer in at least two ways. It taught Silicon Valley that you can defy regulations as long as you embed yourself in society fast enough. And it became the poster child of burning through investor money for years as long as you make big enough promises. Founded in 2009, the company posted its first annual profit just last year. It spent over a decade stringing investors and the public along with promises of self-driving cars and private helicopters. It managed to reach that milestone by abandoning everything that made Uber a futuristic tech company and focusing on being the glorified cab service it’s always been.
Despite countless articles, best-selling books, a popular TV miniseries documenting all of Uber’s bad behavior, people still seem to love it. Or they at least tolerate it because it’s convenient. And I’m sure there’ve been some edge cases where it filled a hole in rural areas or improved the lives of people with disabilities. So if you want to vote for Uber, we’re making that possible.

And here’s what we wrote about Calculator:

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.

So, reader, what’ll it be? Do you want to put Uber on the fast track to the big title or does Calculator earn a slot out of simple respect?