Teach your Grandma to become a smartphone expert in 1 week

If you’re thinking of buying grandma a smartphone, or if she already has one but doesn’t know all the cool things she can do with it, here’s a step-by-step guide to get her up to speed in one week. Yes, with a little practice and patience, even grandma can go from a mobile newbie to smartphone expert!

Monday: Start with what she knows.
Ease her in by doing some of the things she did with her old phone: make a phone call, add a contact and send a text message.
● Quick Tip: Tell her, just like a desktop or laptop computer, smartphones can send email -- a great alternative to pricey text messages! When adding contacts, don’t forget to add email addresses along with phone numbers.

Tuesday: Baby steps.
Tell her she may think of it as a mobile phone, but in reality a smartphone is a tiny yet powerful computer. She can use it to go online, browse her favorite websites and download apps. To get started, try a web search: the next time she can’t remember the name of the lead actor in her favorite movie, ask her phone.
● Quick Tip: Tell her that when it comes to typing on small keyboards, practice makes perfect. Of course, she can always speak her query by using Google Voice Search -- click the mic in the search bar and start speaking!

Wednesday: Discover apps.
Tell her that a mobile application, or an app for short, is a software program designed to run on a smartphone. The sheer number and diversity of available apps is overwhelming: play games like Angry Birds, keep track of thoughts with Evernote, customize screens with Beautiful Widgets and follow online news sites with Pulse. If it’s an Android device, Android Market is the one-stop app shop.
● Quick Tip: Tell her Google mobile services puts the power of search, Google+, Google Maps, Gmail and YouTube in the palm of her hand. These apps are free to download, and are the first step in transforming a mere mobile phone into a supercharged smartphone.

Thursday: Create content and share with her friends.
Tell her that her smartphone comes with a high-tech digital camera and video recorder -- and because it’s connected to the internet, she can share everything she creates with family and friends. Take pictures and share them instantly over e-mail or through social networks, and shoot videos and upload them to YouTube.
● Quick Tip: Just like a point-and-shoot camera, tell her to focus her picture before snapping the shutter. Most smartphones let users tap the screen to focus on a particular point, but certain models have built-in face detection to locate faces in the frame and automatically set focus.

Friday: Venture out into the real world.
Tell her that her phone is a friend when she is out and she doesn’t know the locale, when the trains run, or lost the bus schedule. Google Maps for mobile is an atlas, compass, phonebook, and travel guide rolled into one. She can use Google Maps to get step-by-step directions to her next destination, and choose between driving directions, walking directions, or (in some cities) public transit.
● Quick Tip: When using Google Maps, improve location accuracy by enabling GPS through the settings menu on her smartphone. When done using Google Maps or other location-based apps, disable GPS to help conserve her phone’s battery life.

Saturday: Make her phone work for her.
Tell her that to simply type or say the word ‘makan’ into Google. Because she is searching from a smartphone, Google assumes that she wants places nearby. Her phone will give the names of the closest ones, and even put them on a map along with reviews from other diners, hours, photos and other information.
● Quick Tip: The Google Places app is a local recommendation engine. Find, rate and share places and discover new ones. With each rating, Google learns a bit more about her tastes, so she'll get better recommendations when she searches.

Sunday: Walk the bleeding edge.
Tell her that smartphones are packed with future tech, but walking the bleeding edge isn’t nearly as intimidating as she might imagine. Google Translate for mobile lets her instantly translate between more than 50 languages. Soundhound can listen to a song and identify its name and artist after just a few notes. Instant Heart Rate uses her phone’s camera to track color changes on the fingertip that are directly linked to her pulse!
● Quick Tip: Google Goggles is a mobile app that employs advanced image recognition technology to identify objects and return relevant search results. Goggles can identify products, famous landmarks, storefronts, artwork and popular images found online -- it can even solve Sudoku puzzles!