APPetizers: Smithsonian goes Main Street

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Get to know your neighbors in rural America with a new app created by the Museum on Main Street within the Smithsonian Institution Travel Exhibition Service. Oral histories are underrated and a valuable tool for connecting generations. This app lets you record and share traditions and history from your town using the themes of sport, hard times, recipes, traditional music and more.

Navigation seems to be overlooked in the app's design. Yes, you can filter for voices -- man, woman, boy or girl -- and six types of stories, but other than that you have little choice in what you hear or where the historians are from.

Where's the map? Where are the photos of the towns we're listening to or, better yet, the people? If you're hungry for more content, visit the companion website at stories frommainstreet.org, which has more to it.

If you have a story to tell, get the app and record your history.

Stories From Main Street

AVAILABLE FOR iPhone, iPod touch, iPad; free

DESCRIPTION Shares the voices and stories of small-town America

BOTTOM LINE Get it if the sound of someone else's voice will keep you company.