2012-07-01 60 Minutes : Season 2012 Episode 14

The App Revolution A decade ago, we would never have thought it possible. Today, we wonder how we ever managed without them. Apps – those cheap and simple little software programs – have revolutionised our lives turning our phones and our computers into information and entertainment super centres. Nowadays, there’s an app for every occasion. Some are useful, some are plain bizarre, like the program that turns what you say into a song – another one measures how ugly you are. If you come up with the right idea, there’s a fortune to be made. And, as Charles Wooley discovered, you don’t have to be some Silicon Valley geek to get in on the act. Reporter: Charles Wooley Producer: Danny Keens Good Vibrations If summer had a sound, it would be the Beach Boys. Millions have grown up and grown old bopping along to their music. Their songs take us back to a simpler time when all you needed to be happy was the sun on your back and the sand underneath your feet. But behind the scenes, the Beach Boys were going through all kinds of Hell. Drugs, breakdowns, legal spats, and the deaths of key band members, threatened to wipe them out for good. Now, 50 years since they first harmonised, they’re back with a new album and a world tour. And after spending some time with them on the road, Allison Langdon can say they are as carefree and as passionate as their lyrics. Reporter: Allison Langdon Producers: Nick Greenaway, Sandra Cleary The Vanishing Come with us on a breathtaking journey to the very top of the world. In Greenland’s remote Arctic wilderness, every day is a grim struggle to survive. And it’s only becoming harder. You see the world of the Polar Eskimo is disappearing, a casualty of climate change and encroaching civilisation. Their language and their culture might have vanished forever. But then an eccentric professor came to stay. Reporter: Michael Usher Producers: Danny Keens, Nick Greenaway