Behind the Times Using Smart Phone Innovations

When the latest editions of various computer or cell phone gizmos come out from time to time, some people rush out to buy the new products, even to the point of camping out in line the night before they first go on sale in order to get a jump on everyone else.  I'm in the opposite group of folks, who tend to reluctantly join in on new innovations just around the time when something else is coming up to make them obsolete.  Such is the case with these "smart" phones.  I had gone for the longest time on my cell phone without any Internet, finally getting around a couple of years ago to putting it on a relatively primitive Blackberry.  But I upgraded to a more "current" phone on my account, for practically nothing, a few weeks ago and am now in the process of trying to figure how to use it.  I am pretty happy, though, about my Internet access, which is now lot faster and easier to view than with that old Blackberry clunker.  And I have been able to transfer to my new phone an application that I had been heretofore been using a lot on my laptop computer: Quizlet.

Quizlet is a website that allows users to learn and practice material from just about any field that one can dream up...with me, my focus of interest is foreign languages.  With Quizlet, I can study and practice vocabulary lists from many different languages.  The application on my phone has a feature that allows me to practice matching words with their meanings, and I've been availing myself of this a lot in recent days.  How far this will actually take me in learning the languages I'm studying is another matter, though...but at least I am spending more time, interspersed more throughout my day, in studying them...

It looks as if Apple is now coming out with a "smart" wristwatch with a built-in computer to mimic a lot of what we get now with smart phones. I like that innovation, but I think that with the tiny, limiting screen that necessarily goes with a watch's small face, I'd rather wait until they develop eyeglasses that have computers built into them, providing more full screens to interact with. But for now, I think I'll just revel in my ready access to Quizlet, ESPN, Wikipedia, and, oh yes, that cool flashlight that my new cell phone provides...