Greetings, Learning Expressions Readers!
If you’re anything like the staff at the Learning Express Home Office, you’re probably totally, completely, ridiculously in love with your smart phone. I, for one, am entirely besotted.
For starters, before the iPhone came along I rarely knew where I was. I stopped strangers on the street for directions, pulled into gas stations every few miles on long journeys to ascertain my whereabouts, and frequently called family members in a disoriented state of panic. Robert Frost might have thought the backwoods of New Hampshire were lovely, dark, and deep…but they are downright scary when you’re desperately lost (mere minutes from home, as it turns out) and the gas light is flashing. Well, thank goodness I now have a GPS app and a blue dot on Google Maps for that.
Before the iPhone, I never knew my bank balance, or the name of that song, or what time the movie was at, or where to find the best local gelato. I couldn’t watch YouTube movies, listen to my audio book, or even mobile vote on X-Factor! And I certainly couldn’t ask Siri for advice on…well, pretty much everything. At times, it’s hard to even remember pre-iPhone life. I don’t like to dwell on it, much.
With that said, there are a few downsides to the darling device of mine. First of all, I can’t stop muting myself with my face. It seems like every time I talk, my face somehow magically presses the mute button and (horror of horrors) the person on the other line can’t hear me for a brief time. Even more freakish, sometimes my face goes as far as calling other people from my phone book and adding them to my current conversation. Super creepy, not to mention awkward.
But perhaps worst of all is the speaker phone dilemma. While I am busy pressing the phone to my face with apparent gusto, my sister is convinced that cell phone radiation is conducted directly to her brain. Hence, unless she is in a very crowded movie theater or at a very quiet library, she will only chat with me on speaker phone. There’s something disconcerting about pouring your heart out and knowing that everyone in a 20 foot radius can hear...and sympathy sounds so much less convincing when accompanied by a bunch of background noise.
Well, here at Learning Express Toys we have found the PERFECT solution to these smart phone related woes: Native Union’s POP Phone. Let’s see how it shakes out with the Learning Express 3F’s of toy quality—form, function and fun!
We like to think of the POP Phone as “Retro Chic”—imagine the smart phone meets the rotary phone. Designed by the French designer David Turpin, the POP phone combines classic style with a contemporary edge and is finished with a luxurious soft-touch texture. The handset has been manufactured with a high quality speaker and microphone and can be used with all mobile phones when fitted with the correct adaptor. It
has a convenient pick up/hang up button and comes in eight basic colors (lime green, dark blue, sky blue, purple, black, pink, orange, and yellow). While some phones may need an adapter, if you have an iPhone you can just plug in and go!
Function:
Think of all the radiation free, non-speaker-phone conversations you can have now! By using the POP
phone, you eliminate over 99% of absorbed phone radiation. Additionally, rather than struggling to hold the phone to your ear every time you need to use two hands, you can easily wedge the Pop Phone between your ear and shoulder like you can with your home phone. With the POP phone, there’s also no chance you’ll be making accidental calls with your face which, for me, was a real game changer.
Fun:
Bottom line, these phones are a ton of fun. They’re cool, colorful, and even the celebrities are using them (see below). The Home Office staff rarely makes a phone call without using a POP Phone, and our stores are selling out of them just as fast as they get them in. Really, what isn’t there to love?
Well, there you have it readers! I hope you’ve enjoyed learning a bit about our favorite new fun-for-all-ages toy here at Learning Express.
Talk to you again soon!


