I don’t make it any secret that I have an HTC Android cell phone. I love my cell phone. I show it off every chance I get. I really love what Google has done with the Android operating system. They have changed simple cell phone into the realm of handled personal computing.

A couple weeks back I was attending some special training for my night job. Have way through one of the session for some strange reason we started talking about cell phone apps. Naturally, I had to speak up. I started sharing my favorite applications.

Let me say right her, I don’t consider myself as having some exotic geeky obsession with the apps on my phone. Well, maybe a little bit of an addict with it comes to seeing what new application that are out there. What makes the apps I have so special is that they preform a specific set of functions and they are free.

As a result of that training session’s app sharing time, I thought it would be good to share those same applications with you. For the sake of listing everyone, I have only listed the top eight application I use everyday. 

What I love about the age in which we live. The large volume of available tools for learning is astounding. It does not matter what our learning style is as to what we can find to help us.

Most of us do learn in one of three ways. We either read, see, or do to make taught material part of us. There are some of us who need a combination of the three.

Another great thing about the 21st Century many of these learning tools are Free to little extremely reasonably priced. That is what I want to explore today.

First off I is our transition from the heavy paper books  to their digital grand children. A large portion of  paper books have been replace in the 21st Century by digital books. These can be read from a desktop or laptop computer, eReader or tablet, and a smart phone.

The student in the 21st century cannot be expected to survive on paper and pencils alone. Paper books have not gone away. However, from kindergarten to the graduate student in college at least one computer with internet access is needed as part of their learning process.

Paper bound books are not enough. The days of old hard bound Encyclopedia Britannica has been replaced by Google.com. Webster’s Dictionary, and other great school reference tools can now either be found online of in some digital format. Great reference tools of the 21st century need some electronic device to access them.

Smartphones with apps like Webster’s Dictionary, and news feeds are helpful, but not required. Tablets like Xoom and iPad2 allow doing homework a most anywhere option. Then there is the classic desktop or laptop computer with internet access as a minimum requirement for any student.

In the not to far past if I wanted to protect my property and personal information, I would sit on my front porch in my rocking chair with a shot gun beside me. As time when along I have to depend on the local law enforcement and/or fire department. If they didn’t arrive in time, I had lost whatever was lost or stolen. This in turned forced me to get what is called insurance to recover what of mine was lost, stolen, or damaged.

Since the a great amount of my personal documents as stored on my computer, I had to go to a service like Mozy, to back up that data. However, this still left the information on my cell phone unprotected. This started me looking for a means to protect the information on my cell phone without costing me an arm and a let.

It was about a month ago, my wife suggested that I look at Lookout. So I figured it was worth a look at Lookout.

Earlier this year I was headed up to Emmett Idaho, when I realized I could not remember which highway I was to turn on to get me there. I pulled out my cell phone, touched on the blue arrow head pointing up. After tapping on the picture of a microphone, I spoke, “Emmett, Idaho”.

In less than a minute there was a satellite view of my location, with a blue line showing the direction I should go.

My cell phone is your basic HTC smartphone. The software from Google that allowed me to get turn by turn directions comes with the phone. The only thing I have to pay for is the cell phone service and the data plan which is required for the phone.

All cell phones are you basic two way radio. Towers and base stations, arranged into a network of cells, send and receive radio signals. Cell phones contain low power transmitters that let them communicate with the nearest tower.

On television there is this commercial where a well dress lady comes on and talks about certified pre-owned cars. Her whole pitch is that they are so like new you are getting new most people cannot tell the difference. Her closing line is, “Why pay the difference when you can’t tell the difference.”

About 4 blocks down the street of the car dealership that is promoted in the commercial is a recently build dealership of just certified pre-owned cars. Instead a mixture of several makes and models, these are just Nissan’s. This raises the questions, “Are they really good as new, without paying the price of new?”

The other day, I asked a few people had they ever lost contacts, pictures, or other important information from their computer, cell phone or other electronic device. Then I asked them what they use for a back up system, to prevent it from happening today.

Most everyone that told me they had lost some kind of important data such as pictures, contacts and important documents at one time or the other. Less than half currently are not backing up their information.

The third question I asked them was what dollar value do they put on that information? Some of those I was talking to I had to rephrase the question to, “What would it cost you to if suddenly lost all your pictures, documents, and contacts?” The answers I got were from a few hundred to several thousand dollars. 

In this past week, I receive an email from RetailCosumerExperience.com. That email featured a little android application from Home Depot. The geek and the handyman inside me,  got my cursorily raised.

The more I look through the article about this little app, I could see how the home handyman could really be put to use. My hopes were high for help with planning most any home project. This was short lived after I downloaded the app and start exploring the app.

The first thing the apps asked me was to choose the store location. Then it showed is a screen of lawn furniture. The second button at the bottom showed Shop. In there was categories along with featured items at the time. The only How-to link sent me to a selection of How-to books.

Modern day cell phones are not just for making phone calls and texting. The cell phone of today has become advanced to a handheld computer.  The number of application for the smartphone rivals the number of applications for the desktop computer. Some are free. Then there are other are cost money.

I have found a selection of free applications that make my use of the cell phone more useful than my desktop or laptop computer. Today, I want to share with you some of my favorite free applications.

How do you get your internet? I don’t mean what type of computer or phone you use to get the internet. I mean what type of internet service to you use for the internet?

Back in the very beginning of internet it was delivered to computer, the internet was delivered over telephone lines. Today we can get faster access to the internet over telephone lines. We can get access to the internet over the same cable that brings us our television shows. We can get internet access beamed down to us from satellites  in circling the earth. We can even get internet over our cell phones.