Just over a year ago, I finally joined the smartdumbphone crowd (I wibbled about my experience at the time, in case you’re interested). I’m proud of myself in that I haven’t succumbed to the urge to become a meanderthal — I never use it when walking.
I learned a valuable lesson (recounted in Part Five of my earlier ‘Adventures’) when I was a teenager: Early Adopters get Kicked in the Teeth. I’m immensely grateful to all of the early adopters who teased out the bugs before I jumped on the bandwagon… and it’s time for some payback.
One thing I’ve learned (that’s probably no surprise to you) is that there’s a serious amount of dross in the ‘Play Store’; but there are some real gems in there too. My plan is to offer some thoughts about Apps You Might Enjoy; this is the first in that series, and it features an app I recently discovered. It’s called Morse Mania, by Dong Digital.
Morse Mania – a brilliant way to learn Morse code!
- Cost: Free! (at least initially) 🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠
- Availability: Android and iOS
- Storage space: 34.10 Mb 🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠
- User interface design: 🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠
- Advert intrusiveness: 🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠
- Music: None (but it doesn’t need any)
- Audio: Essential!
I’ve known about Morse code for donkeys’ years, but before now I’ve never felt the urge to learn it. It didn’t seem like a skill I needed. It’s still not a skill I need, but learning new things is good for keeping the mind sharp. And when you can do so and have fun doing it, well, that’s a bonus!
One of the things I like most about Morse Mania is that there are absolutely no irritating, intrusive adverts. And, at least while you’re learning the basics, the app is free to use. Also, it doesn’t feature that other bane of my life: annoying constant nagging to ‘upgrade’. I haven’t even been able to find a way to donate to its maker, ‘Dong Digital’. Having said that, from the (admittedly minimal) investigation I’ve done, I gather that there is ‘premium’ content available; my guess is that this is introduced once the learning mode is complete. I haven’t got there yet, but I’m so impressed with this product that I suspect that I will be quite happy to hand over some of my hard-won cash when that time comes.
You can find out more for yourself on Dong Digital’s website; I see no point in copy-pasting the information from there to here. So, without further ado, here are a couple of short video clips I’ve made to demonstrate Morse Mania’s gameplay. I hope you find them entertaining!
If you have a favourite app, how about leaving a comment to recommend it?
H/T to DoingHow for pointing me to the AZ Screen Recorder, which allowed me to easily record, and edit, my gameplay; and special thanks to Rodion Kutsaev on Unsplash for the phone image I used in the post header :)
Wibble 
I can see where that could get addictive fast. Is there a way it tests in the opposite, where it gives a letter and you do the code? To be honest I probably won’t try to learn it but it sounds like a good app and I like your rating system.
One app I use EVERY day (except for the rare exception) is Duolingo for Spanish. I’ve been using it for a couple of years now and can read Spanish fairly ok at least what’s in the lesson. The verb changes with I, he, they, we are still tricky. It’s kept my interest for this long with no signs of lagging.
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P.S. I use this app on my PC 99% of the time. 1% is used on the phone. The phone app is not nearly as user-friendly, but it does let you speak the words and it assesses if you pronounced them correctly. The PC version doesn’t.
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I assume you’re referring to ‘Duolingo’?
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Yes.
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Just downloaded it… I’ve chosen to learn Klingon :D Thanks for the tip!
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Oh my gosh, didn’t realize that was one of the options! Glad you found some value in it. You’re welcome!
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If you want to add me to your friends on there my name is Jade Li
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I looked… there are almost two dozen users with the name ‘Jade Li’ on there. Which one is you? It might be easier for you to find me; my name is ‘pendantry’. Surprised, much? ;)
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Just added you as a friend. I see you have 54 points. You are going to have trouble catching up with me.
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A challenge! I like challenges. qapla’
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qapla?
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https://is.gd/tRHgn3
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I don’t know: I haven’t been playing ‘Morse Mania’ very long. I would imagine that the later lessons would do exactly that: that’s certainly a feature I would include, were I to design it myself.
So, you recommend ‘Duolingo’, huh? Sounds good, I’ll add it to my list :)
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It’s better on the PC.
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Thanks. I’ll investigate!
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Addendum: I’ve just discovered that the current version (5) doesn’t do that… but version 6 will!
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Neat!
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Sounds like fun. I don’t have a very smart phone and really haven’t explored too many apps.
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My phone’s not that ‘smart’ either, by today’s standards. It’s four years old; I have had no experience with newer models, but I doubt that they feature anything more than perhaps larger screens (not always an advantage), more memory and longer battery life. It would only cost you a few minutes of your time to download and try Morse Mania — I’d love to hear what you think of it.
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Well, I can’t do any worse with it than I did with Duolingo. Consistency is my struggle.
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Q: How do you eat an elephant?
A: One bite at a time…
Little and often. I have no problem with committing myself to ten minutes a day. Easy peasy lemon squeezy :)
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Every now and again I think to myself that I should learn morse code. This app would definitely help, but at this point in time, I choose not to add much to my schedule.
Apps… I don’t really use them… Speechnotes is probably the one I use the most when I’m out and about without pen and paper. It converts your speech to text. Is it accurate? Definitely note and sometimes it totally misrepresents what I say but it’s better than nothing. It’s much easier to edit it at a later time than having to remember what I thought of.
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Interesting… why do you think that you ‘should’ learn Morse code? It serves no purpose these days (the only reason I can think of where it might come in useful is if I were to become severely incapacitated and could only communicate by blinking!) My own reason for picking up ‘Morse Mania’ was to use it as a brain trainer. The fact that it’s fun is a bonus :)
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I like thinking of all potential disasters and preparing for them. So yes, the blinking could be a part of it. Or if I needed to send a coded message if kidnapped. The bonus fact that it’s a skill not everyone possesses does play a part, I can’t lie.
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