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You can do a lot with smartphones these days, but unless you're downloading the best apps for your device, you aren't really using it to its full potential. So if you aren't sure what to download, just make sure you have these 10 apps on your iPhone or Android device. Google Maps This app comes preinstalled on Android devices and should be the first app downloaded on iPhones. Besides top-notch design, the app is the best free voice navigation app for driving directions.

When Medicare disclosed average charges from thousands of U.S. hospitals for 100 common procedures last week, only one hospital was near the top in every category: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Be it a cardiac stent, a hip replacement or a pacemaker, Cedars-Sinai's list prices for these routine treatments ranked among the top 5% in the country. For example, the average charge at Cedars-Sinai for gallbladder surgery with complications was $153,302 in 2011 compared with the U.S. median charge of $42,380, government data show.

When the Recording Academy consolidated last year's Grammy nominations by eliminating 31 categories in R&B, American roots music, classical, Latin, jazz, country, pop and rock fields, the changes felt out of key for some musicians. There were grumblings, protests, petitions and a group of Latin jazz artists even filed a class action lawsuit to contest the restructuring, which brought the total number of categories down to 78 from 109. This year, the Recording Academy has added three new categories to previously scaled back fields with the addition of awards for classical compendium, Latin jazz album and urban contemporary album.

Don't say Kevin Costner doesn't spur change! The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced late Thursday that it will not combine lead and supporting acting categories in the TV movies and miniseries field for this year's nominations. (Translation: the telecast isn't getting any shorter.) The move marks a reversal of its decision in March 2012 to consolidate the lead and supporting acting categories from four to two categories: Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries and Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie or Miniseries.

The Academy Awards telecast has been such a snooze in recent years. By the time the ceremony rolls around, the winners are completely predictable. What was the big surprise last year? That Meryl Streep, the most decorated actress alive, won over Viola Davis. Not even the master of impersonation herself could feign being all that shocked. For those who like their awards shows with a modicum of suspense, Sunday's Tony Awards ceremony, otherwise known as prom night for glee club geeks, should provide a refreshing change.

Who gets nominated for a Grammy? Musicians, sure. But who exactly, on paper, are they? Take Frank Sinatra. Yes, he was a singer of incredible power, and garnered deserved nods for the beauty of his tone and his mellifluous phrasing. But artistry aside, on a basic level, pop singer Francis Sinatra was a native of Hoboken, N.J., a white male who earned his first nominations in the Grammys' first year, 1959. Or multifaceted jazz bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding, a surprise nominee for best new artist this year.

The O.J. Simpson trial is a shoo-in to win Oscar nominations in all categories except best director. JOHN A. SELEINE Seal Beach

As producer of the recent Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards, I feel a reply to Lin Shaye's letter last Sunday is needed to clarify the situation. If Shaye was not so close to one nominee, she may have noticed there were three categories, not one, that had nominees but no recipients. I felt it was kinder to just list the nominees in the printed program. The show's host, Nan Martin, did announce early in the program that the Circle honors "excellence" and not "best" and therefore there would be multiple recipients in some categories while other categories would have no recipients.

After sitting through 3 1/2 hours of the Emmy Awards telecast (Fox), I've come to the conclusion that the Emmys aren't fair. Guest stars should not be nominated in categories designed for regular cast performers (i.e. Christopher Lloyd for "Avonlea" and Kelsey Grammar for "Wings). The television academy should create categories designed for guest stars. Jennifer Sato, Montebello

Re "Greenest Games Ever? Not!" Opinion, Feb. 3: I remember how much fun it was working at the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics before things got out of hand. Here is my plan to save the Olympic Games. Both the Summer and Winter Games would be divided into three categories and staged consecutively at three different host countries. This would improve logistics, security and manageability, shift the focus back to the athletes and bring back the Olympic spirit. The three categories would be: 1. Sports: volleyball, tennis, hockey, baseball, etc. 2. Competition: track & field, races, weightlifting, etc. 3. Performance: diving, gymnastics, ice skating, anything decided by judges or involving horses, guns or kayaks.

How often do you get to see a classic bawdy Restoration comedy by George Farquhar, a long-lost Thornton Wilder meditation on marriage and other human foibles, and a brand-new Ken Ludwig farce - all for the price of a single ticket? Granted, they happen to be the same play, but A Noise Within's West Coast premiere of “The Beaux' Strategem” is a great deal nonetheless. This hybrid creation began its theatrical life in Farquhar's 1707 sharp-edged satire about two rakish fortune-hunters on a road trip to replenish their squandered incomes by preying on provincial heiresses.

PHOENIX - I write this column with a headache. I went to a meeting of the SABR Analytics Conference here Thursday night. The throbbing may never stop. SABR stands for Society for American Baseball Research. It is basically an organization that turns a child's game into calculus. A huge room at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication on the downtown campus of Arizona State was nearly full, so my cynicism must be misplaced. Picture a room with Billy Beane and 300 of his closest friends.

Steven Spielberg was inspired by Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation. Ben Affleck was provoked by a Middle Eastern hostage tale. Adam Pesapane wanted to transform a hand grenade into an avocado. All three directors will walk the red carpet at Sunday's Academy Awards, but for Pesapane, 39, the shot at Oscar gold for his 1 minute, 46-second stop-motion animated film represents more than a chance to add a fancy statuette to his mantelpiece. The English major-turned-commercial director, who goes by the professional moniker Pes, is hoping the Oscar attention for his "Fresh Guacamole" movie, made for less than $100,000 by Showtime Networks, can help him climb the show business ladder and give him a chance to direct his first full-length feature film.

Gold Standard writer Glenn Whipp is sweeping through all 24 Oscar categories this week, assessing the races, predicting the winners and helping you prevail in your Oscar pools. He looked at the three short film categories here , the sound awards here and the visual crafts fields here . Now, with an Oscar show that promises to heavily emphasize music, it's time to break out the song and score picks. ORIGINAL SONG The nominees: "Before My Time" from "Chasing Ice," music and lyric by J. Ralph "Everybody Needs a Best Friend" from "Ted," music by Walter Murphy; lyric by Seth MacFarlane "Pi's Lullaby" from "Life of Pi," music by Mychael Danna; lyric by Bombay Jayashri "Skyfall" from "Skyfall," music and lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth "Suddenly" from "Les Misérables," music by Claude-Michel Schönberg; lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil And the winner is ... "Skyfall.

Gold Standard writer Glenn Whipp is sweeping through all 24 Oscar categories this week, assessing the races, predicting the winners and helping you prevail in your Oscar pools. He tackled the troublesome shorts categories here . Now it's time to peek behind the wall of sound. Three movies - "Argo," "Life of Pi" and "Skyfall" - landed nominations in both the sound editing and sound mixing categories. Four of the last five years, the same movie has taken both categories, with "Hugo" being the latest to pull off that particular feat.

Gold Standard writer Glenn Whipp is sweeping through all 24 Oscar categories this week, assessing the races, predicting the winners and helping you prevail in your Oscar pools. He begins by tiptoeing through the minefield of the three categories of short films. Let's start by noting one important rule change this year -- the entire academy membership received screeners for both the animated short and live action short nominees and can vote in these two categories without having to attend special theatrical screenings.

A Freedom to Create Prize was unveiled Tuesday by a British philanthropic organization called ArtVenture that will give cash awards in three categories to artists who "use their talents to promote human rights and confront discrimination and oppression." The largest prize, $50,000, is in the general category, open to artists in all creative fields anywhere in the world. There are also categories with $25,000 prizes for artists younger than 18 and for artists who have been imprisoned because of their artwork.

Your pie charts on foreign-born residents on pages A1 and A45 (Dec. 19) have a gross terminology error. There are three racial categories (black, Asian and white), but then there is another category (Latino) which in fact is almost entirely a sub-category of the "white" racial group. By showing the pie chart the way it is, the impression is left that Latinos are some other race. I'd strongly suggest changing the categories to include "Latino" and "non-Latino white" (or "other white")

Drake's critically lauded “Take Care” took home the prize for rap album at the 55th Grammy Awards on Sunday. For his second album, Drake could have employed a surefire strategy of platinum producers, staggered singles and aggressive promotion to help ensure that the album would avoid that ill-fated sophomore slump. Given the pomp and hype the 26-year-old has amassed over his abbreviated career, such an assault was certainly expected. He skipped tapping names like Timbaland, Kanye West and Swizz Beatz (who all contributed to tracks on his first disc)

The experience of watching five short animation or live-action films in one sitting - each a finalist for an Oscar in two of this year's shorts categories - can be a bit like walking into a museum to find the Rothko's been hung next to the Monet. It's not unpleasant, just unexpected. Any thematic or stylistic links are purely coincidental in the bundle of five Oscar-nominated animated contenders (there are three bonus shorts not in the running) and a separate grouping of the five live-action finalists that hit theaters this week.