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April 5, 2012
Lumia

Are you smarter than your smartphone? It's test time…



I realised the other day that my smartphone is pretty clever! It got me thinking, ‘is this Lumia 800 actually smarter than me?’ To help me decide I tried to think of all the things that my phone can do much better than I can, let’s just say I was a little worried with the results. I have illustrated some of my points with a little test for you!

via Flickr 

So, time to find out if you’re smarter than your smartphone!

Calendar/Reminders

Now this was my first port of call. Without my smartphone I would never be able to remember the birth dates of many close friends and family. I would also never remember a meeting, special occasion or any other important date in the calendar. So I wondered if you guys had the same problem? Time to test you!

Test: from the top of your head do you know the birthdays of the five closest people in your lives?

Social Networking

My smartphone enables me to communicate with hundreds of people at the click of a few buttons. Unless I gather all of my friends and family into a big  field there is no way I can ask them all something at the same time or even just tell them how I’m feeling! We all know access to social media via our phones allows us to tell lots of people something very quickly, so here is test two.

Test:  You have two minute to tell ten people how you’re feeling (two minutes is generous by the way, I could tell 400 people in less than 15 seconds)!

Saving Memories

The human brain doesn’t remember everything, to remember many memories you often need a trigger. That could be a photo, text message or email. I stroll into work on a Monday morning knowing that the obvious question is coming, ‘what did you get up to at the weekend?’ I often freeze at this point and remember maybe three of the possible twenty points of interest from my weekend. Later on I will head to the photos and texts on my mobile and remember it all! So time for test number three.

Test: I want you to tell me what you did not last weekend, but the weekend before that. No cheating by looking at your phone!

Maps/Navigation

When was the last time you held a tangible, physical, old Ordanance Survey map? No, I can’t remember either. When was the last time you just knew how to get somewhere you’d never been before? Yep, again, I don’t think any of us have done that. Which is exactly why your smartphone is definitely smarter than you on this occasion. You can still try a little test though.

Test: try travelling 5 miles to somewhere you have never been before using Nokia Maps/Nokia Drive on your phone. Then simply stop at the destination, switch your phone off and try to find your way back. Do you think you’d be able to find your way back? I don’t reckon you can!

The Internet

The all encompassing internet. What can’t you find out? This is a little like comparing the potential of your brain to five million Steven Hawkins put together and that’s still not even close. Regardless, here is a test question that you can’t use your phone to find out, you will only be cheating yourself if you do…

Test: which city is visited more times than any other city on the planet?

Test over everyone, pens, I mean fingers down! As silly as it may seem this post is designed to make you realise just how much your phone can really do and I’ve only scratched the surface above! Can you think of any other functions of your smartphone that make you feel small, insignificant and worthless to this planet?!