Each of us uses our smartphone differently - depending on age, professional activity, range of interests and needs. Representatives of the older generation, as a rule, are content only with the telephone capabilities of the device. Business people combine voice communication with the wide functionality of gadgets, allowing them to conduct video conferences with colleagues and partners, work with electronic correspondence, documents, business processes and tasks on the go. Young people use mobile devices to the fullest, from communicating with peers on social networks and entertainment to web surfing and numerous selfies. There are also many who use smartphones for reading books, taking photos and videos, online banking, navigation, calling a taxi and shopping in online stores.
The scope of application of mobile technology is huge, but few realize that it can be used with equal success to increase erudition in a variety of fields of knowledge - and the applications listed below can help with this.
⇡#“What? Where? When? Online" (Android, iOS)
A licensed program developed by Mail.Ru Group together with television based on the legendary television program, which over the many years of its existence has gathered millions of loyal fans.
With the help of “What? Where? When? Online" you can find yourself in the role of an expert and test your erudition in an exciting competition with thousands of other intellectuals. There are two game modes to choose from - “Captain” and “Master”. The first allows the user to feel like a team captain, thoughtfully consider the proposed answer options and choose the correct one. In the second mode, the connoisseur will be completely immersed in the atmosphere of an authentic game - in one minute you need to come up with your answer and check whether this version is correct. It is possible to choose the classic version of “What? Where? When?" or testing knowledge on a specific topic.
Among other features of the application, we note a rating system and the ability to conduct multiplayer online tournaments. The program also allows you to try on the role of not only an expert, but also the author of questions, which, after verification and approval by the editors, become available to other players.
In the free version “What? Where? When? Online” has a number of limitations, and the application allows only two games per day. The full set of functions is provided by subscription. You can save money by creating and submitting your own questions to the game. For every question added to the knowledge base of an intelligent casino, the user is granted a weekly VIP status.
⇡#"Da Vinci's Riddles: Quiz" (Android, iOS)
Mobile development by the Planemo Studio team from St. Petersburg, named after the Italian artist, scientist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci.
In "Da Vinci's Riddles" the user will have to answer questions and solve various mental problems. There are two modes of working with the program - “Classic” and “Quiz”. The first includes over five hundred riddles in twenty different categories, covering topics such as science, history, literature, culture, sports, technology, art and many others. The second mode allows you to test your erudition and ingenuity by solving mathematical examples, finding errors in the spelling of words, solving folklore riddles and completing other tasks, of which there are over five thousand. Each question is given 10 seconds and four answer options, and you can make a mistake only three times in one round of the quiz. So you need to be as attentive as possible and quickly strain your brain.
As with “What? Where? When? Online”, “Da Vinci’s Mysteries” has some restrictions, to remove which you must purchase the full version of the application. In addition, the program allows you to buy so-called mind glasses, which can be used to view hints while solving problems.
“1001 tasks for mental arithmetic” (Android)
A mobile application that can be used to train mental calculation and mathematical skills by children and adults of all ages.
The program contains problems from the unique textbook “1000 and one problem for mental calculation” authored by S. A. Rachinsky, a wonderful Russian teacher and educator, known for his original methods of mental calculations. The application allows you to sequentially switch between tasks, select tasks in random order, and also save your favorite exercises in your favorites. When using a profile, it is possible to save progress in the cloud and synchronize user data between devices. All problems are designed to be solved mentally, so you cannot use a pen, calculator or other aids when searching for an answer. The program is free, without restrictions on functionality. Monetization of the project is carried out through banner advertising in the application.
Free mobile apps
Regardless of how busy you are during the day, there are a couple of minutes to learn something new. Interesting applications for self-education will help with this:
- Universarium. The program is called a mobile university. Users have the opportunity to gain knowledge from leading Russian teachers. The training course lasts 7-10 weeks. The lesson consists of a lecture, independent work, homework and a test.
- The most necessary book. A colorful application with hundreds of amazing facts about everything in the world.
- DUOLINGO. Assistant in learning foreign languages. With every mistake, lives are lost. If the answers are correct, the user moves forward. Significant successes are recognized with trophies.
- LEARN TO DROW. A program for those who dream of learning to draw. The lessons are more than simple. The student receives all information in the form of slides.
- NeuroNation. The application is popular with 9,000,000 users. Helps to unlock the potential of the brain and improve its functioning.
There is also an application for photography lovers - Photography Lessons. Tips on shooting, composition, and lighting will help you create real works of art.
⇡#"Vikium" (Android, iOS)
A mobile client for the online platform of the same name with an impressive set of cognitive simulators that develop memory, attention, logical thinking, as well as the ability to concentrate and analyze information.
According to the developers, all Vikium developmental simulators are based on scientific methods. Among them are Schulte tables, the Stroop effect, the Ebbinghaus curve, the “N-back” task, the Wechsler test, the Wundt technique, Gottschaldt figures, Raven matrices and others. It is argued that all of them increase the productivity of the brain and help develop verbal-logical memory, as evidenced by a study conducted by scientists from Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov research. It sounds convincing, but we won’t judge whether it’s really so. This is exactly the case when the effectiveness of the program needs to be tested in personal practice.
To fully work with Wikium, you need a premium account, which can be connected for a certain period or forever. Users who have paid for the service have access to a complete daily program for self-development, additional educational courses, as well as an unlimited number of approaches to all simulators. In addition, a premium account allows you to see complete training statistics, as well as compare your achievements with the results of other Vikium users. The application can be used by children from 7 years old, and there are no upper age restrictions. For young users, there is a special setting in their personal account - “Elementary school student”.
⇡#Mnemocon (Android)
An application for the development and training of memory using mnemonic techniques that make it easier to memorize the necessary data by forming associations (connections) between them.
Mnemocon is based on exercises from the textbook by M. Ziganov and V. Kozarenko “Mnemotechnics. Memory based on visual thinking." The program presents basic techniques for encoding information into images and forming connections between them, supplemented by a large number of exercises and training tasks. Mnemonics methods will help you better remember small text information, telephone numbers, geographical names, historical dates, multi-digit numbers, names of new acquaintances, abbreviations and allow you to retain much more useful information in your head. The application is distributed free of charge and has a lot of positive reviews on Google Play.
Memorizing numbers. Mnemonics.
Mnemonics, as you know, is a memorization technique, and one of the most advanced and widely used. The application offers you convenient simulators with various tasks for memory training. Using this technique for a long time, you can easily remember long numbers, such as a bank card number, someone's car number, and so on.
Download
⇡#NeuroNation (Android, iOS)
A program for training the brain and unlocking mental potential, which during its development managed to appear in the ratings of the best applications on Google Play and the App Store.
NeuroNation features more than twenty interactive exercises and personalized courses, created in collaboration with eminent neuropsychologists and based on scientific developments from a number of famous European universities. The effectiveness of the program has been proven by research from the Free University of Berlin and is confirmed by many positive reviews from users, who total over 17 million people. NeuroNation is free and available in its basic version to all users without any restrictions. As an addition, the developer offers a premium version of the product, which opens up many additional features, new exercises, intensive courses and detailed reports on the results achieved.
List
Evernote
With this assistant it will become easier for you to conduct business, plan your activities and, in general, achieve success. With Evernote, you can post notes, create lists, create projects, capture ideas, and even set an alarm to remind you of an upcoming task. Moreover, it is not necessary to have access to the Internet; even if you are without a connection, you will not miss anything.
Time management has never been so simple and accessible to everyone.
One note
This is a digital notepad that will always be with you. It is interesting and convenient because you can not only print in it, but also, in moments of inspiration, record your ideas using a drawing.
An excellent program for those who like to create mind maps. They save time and help you memorize material faster. This is especially important when speaking in public.
Also in One note you can share your ideas with colleagues or friends or even jointly lead a project. It is enough to simply give them access to the necessary document.
By the way, couples in love often use it for romantic notes and drawings. Or they indicate a list of products that need to be purchased. In general, register and try.
Google calendar
Few people have not encountered it in their activities. With its help, you can schedule meetings and set reminders, invite other participants to any events by sending them notifications by email.
You can access the necessary files from any device connected to the Internet; just log in directly to your account.
If you enter your goals into Google calendar, it itself will try to organize the space for their implementation. For example, you want to exercise 2 times a week - it will select the most suitable time for this task.
Train your brain
This is a unique application that will help you develop different types of thinking through games. You will strengthen your memory, improve attention and perception. Learn to speed read. In general, you will pump your brain to the fullest.
A good bonus in Train Your Brain is the minimum amount of advertising that pops up only after the game ends.
Puzzle English
With it you will quickly master the English language. Puzzle English allows you to customize your learning program based on your needs.
It contains various tasks to develop the ability to recognize English speech by ear. You can even compete with other participants thanks to the quiz. Replenish your vocabulary, improve your grammar.
The training format is varied. Everyone will find the most suitable form for themselves. In Puzzle English you can even watch movies and clips in their original sound, optionally including subtitles to learn new words and pronounce them correctly.
Fitness plan: 30 days
If you want to get your figure and health in order, relieve excess stress and get into a good mood - then this program is just for you.
The exercises are selected in such a way as to get the maximum benefit from the training, the intensity of which will gradually increase.
Thanks to the video guide, you can figure out how to properly perform any exercise to avoid even minimal injuries.
The fitness plan will definitely not let you get bored; you will pump up your arms, legs, abs and in general, your whole body in different ways every day. And monitor your progress.
Speed reading
If you want to read books as quickly as possible, while remembering and understanding what you read, then this is the place for you.
The exercises are performed in a playful way, and after each of them, a record of your mistakes and achievements is kept. Accordingly, you will have visual statistics with which you can adjust the learning process in accordance with your own capabilities. That is, work on mistakes to achieve the best result.
By the way, if your friends or family also have Speed Reading installed, you can organize competitions with them, which will only add motivation to learn.
Word of the day
A rich vocabulary indicates a high level of intellectual development. And the ability to speak beautifully will never hurt anyone.
Moreover, there is no need to allocate a certain time for its development.
The Word of the Day will give you one notification every day with a new word and its designation. Literally one minute a day - and after 2 weeks you will feel more confident in conversation, using terms that will increase your status in the eyes of your interlocutors.
Insight Timer - meditation
The life of a modern person is full of stress; every day he has to live through a lot of tension. And this negatively affects health, mood and general well-being.
Meditation is one of the most effective means in the fight against insomnia, depression, fears, and so on.
Insight Timer promotes not only relaxation and wellness, but also an increase in the level of awareness and sensitivity to one’s own experiences.
Moreover, it does not matter what level you have reached previously, it contains material both for beginners and for meditation adherents themselves, who, by the way, have the opportunity to upload their lessons, sharing the knowledge gained from their own experience. A beginner can choose a teacher with whom he will study on a regular basis.
And what’s most interesting is that it’s quite possible to relieve stress even while doing household chores by choosing light and relaxing music from the selection.
Spendee
This is home accounting, which you cannot do without if you want to learn how to properly manage your finances.
It has a beautiful interface, which only increases the level of pleasure from using this program. In addition, you can create a joint account with one of your family members so that income and expenses are recorded automatically. If you also link a bank card to it, all transactions will also be displayed.
Spendee has a spending conversion feature in the form of a chart or graph. This will allow you to track how your financial situation changes every month.
Forest: stay focused
Forest will not let you relax, will also increase your work efficiency and save time, which can well be spent on relaxation.
Because it is focused on combating procrastination. This is a state when you want to postpone completing some task until later, being distracted by completely insignificant matters. And then at the very last moment, in a state of stress, trying to quickly complete it.
Forest has received many awards, in particular an award from Google Play as the best application for self-improvement. He was also considered one of the best in 2015, 2021 and 2021.
The idea is that you plant a tree, a virtual one. And the longer you are not distracted by your phone, the more it grows. As soon as you leave the program, which must be turned on for a certain period, the seedling will die.
You have the right to set a timer for the period of time during which you plan to work. And also make adjustments to the “white sheet” if the phone is needed for work purposes.
For each successfully grown tree, you receive coins that can be spent for charitable purposes. The developers donate funds to the Trees for The Future organization, which plants real plants.
It turns out that you will not only work effectively, but also contribute to the greening of the planet.
Writelight
Suitable directly for those who want to learn how to express their thoughts beautifully and freely. It is especially ideal for novice writers and bloggers who experience the so-called blank sheet phobia.
You will be able to develop your creative thinking, learn to find ways out of difficult situations and write without stopping and long thoughts.
Writelight can also be used as a diary, recording your feelings and ideas without subjecting them to criticism and evaluation.
Focus Lock
Another way to increase productivity. It differs from the previous one in that Focus Lock simply blocks other applications that interfere with focusing on the task. You set a timer, specify unnecessary programs for work and set intervals for rest.
And no matter what happens, you won’t be able to change your decision. You simply will not be able to launch prohibited services until the signal to end the blocking sounds.
Quite tough, but for some cases this is the only option to learn to maintain boundaries without breaking them.
Lumosity
Lumosity is a great brain trainer. Includes 25 interesting games for the daily development of both memory and thinking, attentiveness and other cognitive abilities.
Their complexity varies depending on your capabilities and the results that can be achieved. You will also track development dynamics to understand where you should focus more effort.
Shuffle my life
If you feel like routine and everyday life have literally swallowed up your life, Shuffle my life will help you bring back some color to it.
Do you know how? Through completely unusual, creative and interesting tasks. Every day you will receive, so to speak, work, the implementation of which will be carefully monitored by the application.
For example, call someone and wish them a happy birthday, photograph 5 unusual objects, record a speech on absolutely any topic, read an article on Wikipedia...
In general, Shuffle my life will not let you get bored; it contains more than 400 different ideas. That is, you will probably be provided with creativity for the whole year.
Russian spelling
For those who want to improve their literacy and vocabulary. The training takes place in the form of testing, you will be offered a word and variants of its spelling. If you make a mistake, Russian Spelling will remember this and repeat it in further training to ensure that the correct spelling is reinforced in memory.
Logic and ingenuity
If you want to learn how to systematize the information received, process it, analyze it and present it externally, logically justify it, form hypotheses and calculations - then Logic and Ingenuity is just for you.
Here you will find more than a hundred different tasks, the solution of which will require a lot of thinking. Moreover, you can choose according to your taste, so much more. Some people will like non-standard puzzles, while others will like algorithms.
⇡#“Phenomenal memory” (Android)
An app based on William Atkinson's book Memory and Care, which uses the time-tested method of memorizing poems to develop memory.
According to the developer, like any other ability, memory can be trained and developed. The main thing is to choose the right exercise technique. In the case of Phenomenal Memory, the emphasis is on memorizing texts, divided into small fragments, the repetition of which is carefully monitored and controlled by the application. The program allows you to use not only poetry, but also songs, poems, fables, ballads, as well as any texts as working materials. It is promised that if you follow the instructions of the application and complete all tasks, the result of “pumping” your memory will be as phenomenal as the name of the product.
Ready to check it out? Go for it. Well, for the purity of the experiment, it would be logical to purchase the full version of the program for just 100 rubles, which does not have distracting advertising and has a lot of additional functionality (import and export of settings, statistics, memorization history, dark mode, adding an unlimited number of your own texts and other useful “ buns").
Improve yourself as a person
There are a number of apps that can help you become wittier, learn to defend your opinion, and emerge victorious in arguments.
Black rhetoric
Probably everyone has had a situation when, in the midst of an interesting discussion, there was a lack of wise thoughts. Sometimes you want to answer your opponent succinctly, but in such a way as not to offend him. The Black Rhetoric program will help with this. There is everything you need in an argument - sharp phrases for all occasions.
Quick talker
An assistant in training diction and expressiveness of speech. Users can recite tongue twisters, read poetry, and perform breathing exercises.
Language of the body
Will teach you to “read” people by their movements. The application will show you how to find out that a person is lying, is very worried, feels sympathy or, conversely, hostility towards the interlocutor. It will also tell you how to understand the character of your opponent by the posture, position of the arms, legs and facial expressions.
⇡#"Mathematical Tricks" (Android, iOS)
A program that helps develop mathematical thinking and greatly speed up solving arithmetic examples in the mind.
The application implements the thesis voiced by American mathematician Paul Lockhart that real mathematics is the discovery of new ideas, and not a set of instructions. And it is very important that students learn to discover these ideas. These are exactly what are presented in the “Mathematical Tricks” program, which clearly explains the essence of various arithmetic tricks, tricks and patterns that allow you to hone your skills in performing the operations of addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, exponentiation and many others. The application supports multi-user mode and can be useful at any age. The program is distributed in two versions - Free and Pro, which are functionally identical and differ only in the presence of advertising in the free edition of the product.
Brain Wars
A multidisciplinary application that is suitable for training various mental skills and memory. Exercises are also aimed at developing mathematical abilities, reaction speed, attention and memory. The program is created as a collection of puzzles of varying degrees of difficulty depending on which option of your brain you are pumping. By the way, you can exercise both independently and participate in a competition for the speed and quality of performing the exercise. Brain Wars will independently find a suitable opponent for you.
Download: Android\iOS
