Entertaining children with your mobile phone
Does anyone still own, or can you even buy, a mobile phone that simply makes and receives calls?
The cellular phone has certainly come a long way. From the systems that now look very primitive, units that were almost as big as briefcases, simply to give them battery power, then came smaller units, that still would not fit in your pocket.
Lots of people, us included, cannot really recall the time that we did not rely on mobile communication, or how we used to get in touch with one another without a trusty mobile.
SMS messages, or texts, were also revolutionary, a practice that many adopted, and used to replace making calls. Very useful for relaying information in a short written form, and when you knew you were unlikely to reach your intended recipient at the time of your call.
These advances were all about communication, but the mobile phone has also become so much more.
You can use them to store music, as radios, to take pictures or videos, get directions and even play games.
Personally I remember thinking that the introduction of Snake on all Nokia phones was incredibly clever, and a very simple game, especially by today’s standards, it became addictive, but also could be used to occupy minds, big and little ones, when there were few other options.
We wrote about entertaining children on the move before, but the mobile phone can be a very useful entertainment tool, when space is limited, or you are caught somewhere without your vast array of semi-mobile toys, games and books.
The mobile computer, and games console, have also made huge advances, but sometimes they run out of batteries, or they do not get packed, so the games on a mobile phone can be very, very useful.
Last week though we also learnt that the phone, specifically the iPhone, can be used as a device for reading books.
Through our Twitter account, we were directed to a story in The LA Times of two guys, two dads, who had created an application for the iPhone that enabled children to read, or listen to books.
Woody Sears, one of the inventors, said he always felt guilty about handing his phone to his children, for them simply to watch videos or listen to music.
iStoryTime was born.
The application allows a user to download and play books, choosing from an expanding library, through an iPhone, or an iPod Touch.
A child can simply look at the illustrations, and listen to the narration, or indeed read them for themselves, so their appeal is to a cross-section of children and abilities.
So the next time your child asks to be entertained on the hop, you may actually have a book in your pocket or bag, or something that can become one at the press of a few buttons.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Similar childrens storage news:
