What are some good uses for smart phones?
We have these amazing little computers in our hands. What are some beneficial things we can do with them? Websites, apps, tinkering... anything you can think of or things you already do. I'm tired of doom scrolling.
Calculator, flashlight, camera, blunt object...
I use mine a lot for geocaching. The Seek app by iNaturalist is also pretty good
Reading. Books are super easy to ahem find. OLED screens make reading really comfortable at night. Black background, dark orange text, and turn off all the lights and it's like text is floating in the air in front of you. There are plenty of epub readers out there. Moonreader is my favorite. I paid $5 for it years and years ago now. Absolutely worth it.
100%, but I prefer a somewhat bigger screen, so I use a tablet for reading in bed. I can fall asleep and not lose my place. It's also good for reading comics, which would be a massive pain on a phone.
I also second the recommendation for Moonreader Pro, though. The free version won't read PDFs, so the paid one it worth the few dollars to buy.
While it's usable and I've read material that way, I've found that I want a larger screen. I've read books on a Kobo e-reader, a tablet, a laptop, and a desktop, and those are fine. The phone requires movement to the next page with more frequency than I'd like.
I agree that OLED screens doing light-on-dark look great at night, though.
EDIT: YouTube clip of an OLED and LCD phone side-by-side in the dark:
I have a large phone and I make the text pretty tiny, but I agree. My eyes aren't quite what they used to be, and I can tell I'll probably be hitching the font size up sometime to the point where frequent page turns might get annoying.
You can also borrow ebooks through your library's ebook app, there are a few types. I have signed up for many digital library cards with fake addresses, I get more selection and they get funding, it's a win for all.
I have a lot of emulators on mine I recommend lemuroid as a gateway app it does most older systems and many of the arcade machines of my youth. Assuming you legally own the roms of course.
I find a cheap Bluetooth controller works a lot better than the touchscreen though.
GPS
I use it for a lot, but one I haven't seen mentioned. I use it to support my ham radio hobby. I have a satellite tracker for when I want to contact radio sats, a solar weather app for checking HF propagation and I have echolink which let's me connect to hundreds of radio repeaters around the globe.
*HF = high frequency, its a section of radio frequencies that bounce off the atmosphere. Let's you talk worldwide if you have the right frequency and conditions. Solar weather significantly impacts how radio waves interact with the upper atmosphere.
I have a satellite tracker for when I want to contact radio sats,
which one do you use? can it show where is it on a camera background?
I use one called W1ANT Satellite Tracker. I don't think it has a camera feature. The fun for me is locating the sat and following it from a map. In practice this involves me looking like a lunatic running around my apartment complex with my HT held sideways, staring up at the sky.
How does one get into this? (I would like to do this)
Ham radio is licensed by the country you live in. In the US, the basic technician license is very cheap and the test to get it is fairly easy with an abundance of online materials, including answer keys, to study. The reason these licenses are important is because ham operators need to operate within legally defined band plans, or radio frequency allocation guidelines. Emergency services, search and rescue, your nations military, all use specific radio bands given to them by the government. The license helps teach you how to avoid interfering with someone who can get you into serious trouble. It also helps keep you safe, and requires you to learn some basic electrical knowledge that frankly will be mildly useful the rest of your life. Amateur radio is a really fun skill that isn't that hard to learn. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask and if you want specific information about your countries licensing, Im happy to help look it up.
EDIT: Just to add, you can always listen without a license. That's why scanners exist, but you need a license once you hit the button to transmit on a ham radio frequency.
Rejecting calls
Forgetting to reply to messages
Ignoring emails
Writing comments then deleting the text without posting
Unlocking your device only to immediately forget why you needed to check it.
Please stop spying on my phone.
Don't forget the good ol' classics:
I use my old phones that still work as media players, I uninstall almost everything and basically only use VLC on them to watch stuff on my NAS. They're like tiny TV's scattered around the house.
Now I just only need to learn how to broadcast locally from the PC so they can play the same thing at the same time. I know VLC can do it because I've seen dozens of tutorials but they all must be missing something because it never worked for me.
Highly recommend Jellyfin on your NAS. Sounds like that is what your looking for. Very straight forward and easy to implement compared to other self host options.
Essentially, vid files located on your nas, and then any device on your wifi can stream the vids.
If your looking for your own personal netflix, jellyfin is your answer.
I considered Jellyfin many times and never looked too much into it, it is one of those thing I want to try. At the moment I'm comfortable enough with a plain old file browser and a samba share.
What I tried many times unsuccessfully is to broadcast the same thing to all devices in the local network.
My ultimate goal (or ultimate wish, I'm having troubles translating) would be to broadcast video in my network imitating regular TV. With a preprogrammed schedule of shows and movies, even better if at certain times it could pick something at random from a playlist or a folder. Yesterday I read that OBS might be able to do something like that.
You can use Open Source Sunshine and Moonlight for inhome broadcasting. You install sunshine on the source PC and use the moonlight app on the phones.
https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine/releases https://moonlight-stream.org/
It's meant for game streaming, so it supports controller pass through and what not, but you can also use it to just stream the desktop. It also supports multiple clients, although I have never tried that personally.
Thanks! I'm saving your comment to give it a try next time I'm in tinkering mood.
Map your local area.
Use StreetComplete or SCEE to fix parts of OpenStreetMap data in your area. Fun to do when walking around areas you know.
Or use a higher level editor to add missing paths, services and buildings.
I agree. That app sadly eats battery like no other I have. So the walk isn't too long.
The higher level editor: https://f-droid.org/packages/de.blau.android/
StreetComplete? I have 47 minutes running time with 5% battery use now, I think it's okay
Theyre essentially the swiss army knife of tools:
Good ol nokia had basically all this without being internet connected. They also had a scientific calculator, unit converter, and currency converter too. And a planner for mothly budgets and expenses. If you haven't used these you might have no idea as to how great thwy were for basic productivity
Also a mirror to check high/low places
- Flashlight
this
I already carried a flashlight in my pocket and now I have one on my watch. Phones are obsolete.
Lots of people gave good uses here so i'll give one too. the other day I lost my fitbit and I didn't know wtf I lost it then I remembered smartphones have bluetooth and emf sensors so i downloaded an app to find my fitbit and I found it. Felt like I was going mad looking for it lol
Not sure if "good" is the right word, but at least cool.
Torrenting, high speed mobile data modem (especially with manual selection of frequency bands on MediaTek), local OpenSpeedTest server (available as app), WiFi analyzer (most used channels), VNC client, the slowest x86 emulation in Qemu-based Limbo PC emulator, SDR receiver software (SDR++, SDRAngel, Welle.io, dump1090, SatDump), RTL-TCP server, SSTV decoder and encoder, HTTP proxy server, Kiwix server, NGINX web server/proxy, Navidrome server, Cloudflare proxy client, SSH server, VNC server (only for Termux's desktop), satellite tracker, Mifare Magic NFC card programmer (MCT), audio spectrum analyzer, serial terminal.
I wanted to attach screenshots, but realized it's way too much stuff.
Some of my favourite mobile centric uses (I'm a FOSS leaning Android):
It's a music player, e-reader, and mobile videogame platform that can emulate any retro system and has unique games based on physical activity and geolocation.
It can also take pictures and send IMs, I guess.
I’m an independent contractor, and I basically run all of my business from my phone. Aside from making calls and sending texts, I have templates in Google Docs that I can edit and then email out as quotes and invoices. I keep spreadsheets of my inventory. I scan into Notes the repair slips so I can keep a copy. I use the navigation apps to route me to my stops during the day. I have a template that I edit to create my timesheet to submit and get paid.
I run almost my whole business off of a small handheld phone, something that was unimaginable just a few years ago.
Anything's a dildo if your brave enough. Plus, it vibrates!
There's no reception inside a person though, so you can't call the phone to make it vibrate.
I'm wearing a 9G Wi-fi belt that Batman let me borrow. Can you hear me moan now?
Make phone calls.
i have a drawer which would otherwise have been empty, but thankfully i have a nexus 6p, a pixel 2, an lg q6, some lenovo phablet, and a galaxy note 5 to use up that space.
they also do make mighty fine paperweights if one is needed in a pinch.
Too bad you don't also have a note 7. Having it double as a bomb is a good feature.
I started looking into cozy games on my phone so anytime I get the urge to doomscroll I turn to that instead.
SGT Puzzles are small micro-games that can last anywhere from 5 seconds to 10 minutes.
MIT Licenced
Any suggestions? I used to play Solitaire but the app I was using at the time had ads and no option to pay. I also played cribbage but that was a long time ago.
Balatro, it's like solitaire but more addictive than fentanyl.
I play solitaire with open source free polysolfc on f-droid. No ads and no bullshit
Fishing Life is pretty fun, and Seabeard (although this one does have ads.) If you like card games, maybe something like Hearthstone, which is a strategic card battle but you don't have to take it too seriously.
That's pretty cool. I'm still waiting for my tricorder.
A unified remote\console for displays, ACs, PCs and whatever
On-hand manuals and checklists/
Podcasts\books player
I love emulating old Gameboy games on my phone. It can play things all the way up to Switch, but there's sort of a nice mix of nostalgia and simplicity to just go monotone. No micro transactions, no server connecting, nothing. Just me and the bits.
I guess that's not terribly beneficial, unless you count my mental health.
Where do you get the games from. I have a switch and an old gameboy carriage but I’m too out of it to bridge that gap
They're called ROMs, can't give you links because that's naughty but if you use your reputable search engine of choice for Gameboy ROMs you can find them pretty easily.
Most people will download roms, which is technically illegal although with 30 year old games there usually isn't much concern on enforcement (heck, even Switch games aren't really enforced). The legal way is to dump the rom from the original cartridge, though, and there are tools for that. Honestly, as long as you own the original game I'm pretty sure you can just argue you have a license to play, though.
Generally you can't share links to roms on communities, although I bet some communities are cool with it (/0 maybe?). Try not to go anywhere that looks suspicious, in any case. Most people don't malware Gameboy games, though lol. They won't be .exe in any case.
As for getting it to work, Android and iPhone have different emulator apps available on their respective stores. I tried MyBoy prior but tend to prefer Retroarch (which covers multiple systems, but is a like harder to setup). On Mobile, default has controls on screen so it's pretty much plug and play though. It's so much more convenient than digging up ancient systems, though!
Calling your loved ones
Mine's pretty great at reading a 1400-page manual for an 8-bit system. Whether or not my habit of reading a 1400-page manual for an 8-bit system is actually beneficial is up for debate.
I have a tuner app, drum machine, and recording apps on my phone. I like to pretend I can play trumpet, mandolin, piano, hammered dulcimer... which means I practice something nearly every day.
Fractional calculator: TMC (Tape Measure Calculator). Invaluable for working out tape measure fraction math. Yes, I use metric when it makes sense. Not all materials are metric and this app makes division trivial.
Banking app. Fucking magic.
Airplane boarding passes. I only use a couple airlines, have both apps installed.
Personal news. I have recently discovered TTRSS which is a tiny RSS feed that you can selfhost and then the client on your phone shows you news from your computer
Bitwarden. All the passwords, all the time.
OpenStreetMap. Almost enough to replace google maps. I also use HereWeGo (TomTom corporation) when I need traffic data.
Transit apps for your (or any other) town. Can be pretty invasive, I recommend siloing them in the "work profile" all Android phones now include.
UnCiv. Wonderful time waster
Oh yeah, audio. I've been listening to news and narrative history podcasts for years. I finally put the Pimsleur files for learning Spanish on the phone, I don't remember which app I'm using to play them back, maybe Rocket? It's helping I think.
I used an old phone one time as a light sensor in my grow tent. The sensor is close enough to tell me how bright the tent was.
Articles
Language learning
Manuals
Troubleshooting
Fitness assistant / planning
Notes
Emulating old games (I'm actually emulating a bunch of n64 games, but mostly playing majora's mask now, next will probably be conker's bad fur day)
Minecraft too
Ibis paint and other programs can be drawing tools
Play a compilation of song covers at exactly 135 BPM so I can do my treadmill without losing my center or my step.
Work the laundry machines, and set a separate timer because the app notifications are unreliable.
Text to check that my kids are alive and assure them that I and their dad are also not dead today.
Order grocery delivery.
Listen to birds and learn their names (Merlin)
Be part of the earthquake alert system (MyShake)
Wordle/ Quordle/ Waffle
You're only missing Octordle!
If you have an extra wifi router as well, secured network-security cameras. Lots of programs out there to do just that (been looking at a few and I'm not 100% on a perfect recommendation till I set something up myself).
I use my phone for banking, paying, made appointment for health checkup, route planning and gps, bike computer/gps, buying stuff, diagnose car and look for more info, check for sound decibel, check the weather, visit some questionable site made for adult, save and manage password, take photo(as note making), make memes, switch on/off my table lamp and ventilation fan, order my slave robot vacuum to do their work, and pay all the bills.
Camera and accelerometer can let you do a lot of really creative things! I've tried a few projects but the main bottle neck is battery so it has to be some inside use that can be wired with power. I saw some guy stick it to a dryer with an app that notifies when dryer is done.