With its iPhones and iPads, Apple has led people toward a new way of operating digital devices that relies on direct manipulation of items with finger gestures, not a mouse and scroll bars. App icons are arrayed front and center, not buried deep in a file system or limited to a strip at the bottom of the screen.

A study released by Massachusetts-based application analytics firm Localytics today confirms my suspicion that we both love — and are quickly bored by — our mobile applications. And, perhaps, that studies will confirm just about anything.

In part 1 of its study, Localytics analyzed thousands of Android, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 apps. Using its realtime app analytics service, they found that, while most smartphone users are willing to try new apps (as evidenced by the 10 billion downloads from the iTunes store), 26 percent of the time they download an app, use it once, never to use it again.

Installing applications in Ubuntu is as easy as the app store in iPhone. Hit the Ubuntu Software Center, find the application you want and click Install. Due to this convenience, most of the time, you won’t need to backup the applications itself.

However, there are times when you want to restore the newly formatted machine to the original state and you find it a chores to manually install all the applications again. This is when the backup is useful.

When we say “backup” in this case, we don’t really mean backing up the actual application. What we are going to do is to export the list of all your installed app onto a text file. Next time, we can just get the system to reinstall the apps listed in the text file. /> id="more-20622">

Backing up your Apps

(Optional) To list all your installed applications, open a terminal and type:

sudo dpkg --list

To backup your list of applications to a text file:

sudo dpkg --get-selections > app-backup-list.txt
 

This will create a text file of the name “app-backup-list.txt” in your Home folder.

I found this site http://likebutton.me/ handy for aggregating useful @Facebook content on the internet from from a broad range of websites.  What’s cool is it’s a “One Stop Shop” and will save busy people alot of time, while adding a good amount of value to their experience.  This could become the default page for many Facebook users and content surfers out there.

As we take a glimpse into the future of Facebook applications and reach this small example already reveals the power of social plugins.

By the way you can also add your own site:

Note: You must login to your account to start liking.