Smartphones drive language learning innovation

HONG KONG (AFP) - The boom in “smartphones”, led by Apple’s iPhone, has inspired language learning tools that would have been inconceivable just months ago — and a Hong Kong firm is leading the charge.

Tens of thousands of “apps” — individual programmes that can be downloaded to the phone and do everything from recognising music playing in a bar to guiding tourists around a city — have been developed for the iPhone since it was launched in early 2007…