A mobile device – what can you do with it? Cellular phones have come a long way since the Nokia 5110 (released 1998) pictured to the left, which was said to at one point have been the most popular handset in the world. The question in the beginning of this article might seem trivial and quite self-explanatory at first glance, but truth is, most people still mainly use their mobile phones for three things: calling, sending text messages and setting alarms. That might have been somewhat true for me 10 years ago, but as I’m sure you’re aware of, a mobile 2009 naturally has so many more uses! Lots of people walk around with high-end devices, not knowing (or caring) what it’s capable of. The cell phones of today are computers, and I basically expect them to perform all the tasks I can do with my PC, as well as being able to capture high quality photos, record video and give me GPS directions.
In those ~140 grams of plastic, metal and circuits are many gadgets and widgets that we used to have separately now all wrapped into one: a portable music player, a video player, a radio, a clock, a timer, an alarm, a calculator – just to name a few.
This is a straight-forward list of the things I use my cell-phones for. You might find more uses for your mobile phone (depending on your specific model) by reading it, or better still – help me add some new ones to the list.
Updates & Additions
- See which friends happen to be nearby via GPS and chat with them
- Automatically receive information about the places I visit from Wikipedia via location-aware, augmented reality software
- Listen on demand to any of the 4.5 million tracks on Spotify with offline playing (superb client!)
Things to Do With a Smartphone
- Call (voice & video)
- Send text messages
- Listen to music (with 16GB of storage)
- Listen to the radio
- Watch movies and TV-series
- View pictures
- Alarm clock
- Timer
- Calculator
- Flashlight (Torch Button)
- Write down notes and sync them with an online account
- Draw stop-motion animations
- Paint pictures (only to pass time when I’m bored on a train or a bus)
- Purchase tram and bus tickets
- View PDF-files
- Read the occasional Word document
- View five day weather forecasts
- Play 3D-games with hardware accelerated graphics
- Console-emulation (Sega Master System, GameGear, Nintendo 8-bit, Super Nintendo, Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advanced, Commodore 64, Amiga and even Playstation games)
- Play classic DOS adventure games (Sam & Max, Simon the Sorcerer, Monkey Island, Full Throttle etc)
- Play openGL ports of Quake 1, 2 and 3
- Travel dictionary
- Ebooks reading
- Exchange files, contact cards and information via Bluetooth
- Balance my account
- Remote control for almost any electronical device with an IR-receiver (via the infrared port, obviously)
- Remote control for WinAmp on my computer via HUD (Bluetooth)
- DOS emulation
- Tell the time
- Take pictures
- Record videos
- Record audio (mostly song ideas)
- Send multimedia messages to friends (MMS)
- Calender
- To-do lists and Reminders
- Dictionary/Thesaurus
- Unit conversion (pounds to kilos, inches to centimeters etc) Internet:
- Check/send email
- Chat via MSN/Skype or any other instant messenger
- Read news
- Browse the web
- Watch videos and listen to music on YouTube
- Listen to Internet radio
- Read the morning papers
- Play online games
- Look up articles on Wikipedia (all the time, I’m of an inquiring mind)
- Search for people and phone numbers
- Check bus/tram timetables
- Receive RSS Feeds
- Watch live TV-channels
- Use my mobile as a modem for a non-connected computer
- Video calls over 3G with front facing camera GPS:
- Get GPS driving and walking directions
- Find restaurants and other nearby points of interest
- Get warned of speed cameras when driving
Oh, I almost forgot. Last (and in my case probably least) I sometimes use my phone to talk to people! I perform plenty of other tasks with my handset as well, but since they are mainly related to the phone itself they don’t qualify on this list.
Know of more uses? Do you use your phone as a hammer, to project videos on a wall, teleport yourself to work or as a kick-ass lightsaber? Leave a comment!
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