In the past, people would use letters to communicate with others who are far away. Depending on where the person they need to talk to lives, a reply could take days, weeks, or even months. Today, you can get a response from your friend who’s in another country in a matter of seconds. Although letters and snail mail isn’t entirely gone, it’s presence has been in recession with the emergence of smartphones.
It’s near impossible to find someone who doesn’t carry a phone with them nowadays. With technology making everything more accessible, it’s no secret that smartphones are a must for everyone. Aside from contacting other people, smartphones can do a lot more. Here are some surprising things you can do with your phone.
Watch Movies
Although a lot of people know that they can watch movies and videos on their phones, a lot of people still do it the old way. What they do is they connect their phone to their desktop or laptop and copy the movies unto their memory cards. Although this is what most people do, it’s quite cumbersome and can take up a lot of space on your phone.
A better way to do it is by downloading free movie apps and enjoying the numerous selections it offers right on your smartphone. No wires to connect, no waiting times for downloads to finish copying, and, most of all, no more storage allocated for movies on your phone. Streaming movies on your phone is faster, safer, and more fun.
Remote Control
A lot of people know how much of a hassle it is to lose the TV remote control. To avoid that, you should place your remote in a safer place, start finding/replacing that lost remote control, or you can use your smartphone instead. Yes, you read it right. Through some apps, your smartphone can function as your TV remote control.
Believe it or not, you can even use your smartphone as a remote for other devices as well. In smart homes, most people can control the air conditioning, appliances, the lights, and can even lock and unlock doors just by a few taps and swipes on their smartphones.
Checking Batteries
Speaking of TV remote controls, you can actually use your smartphone to check if the remote is broken or if it needs replacing batteries. Don’t worry; you won’t need any wires attached to your smartphone to check a battery’s life.
To check the batteries of your remote, open your phone’s camera. From there, point the remote’s diode at your camera. The diode is the small glass-like bead, usually on top of your remote. Try pressing anything on your remote while it’s pointed at your camera. If you see the diode lighting up brightly, then your batteries are working fine. A faint light might signal that your batteries need replacing.
Compass
Lost in the woods and forgot to bring your compass? Well, you’re in luck. You can use your smartphone as a compass, provided that you have an app for that. These can come in handy when you’re camping. With certain apps, your phone can even measure wind pressure like a barometer and wind direction like a wind vane.
Scan Barcodes
When you’re shopping for groceries, chances are that you might find an item that you want to know more about. Instead of calling an employee to ask something, you can use your smartphone to scan that item’s barcode. After it finishes scanning, details such as production date, expiry date, and other important information about that item get displayed.
Takeaway
Technology has indeed given us a lot of awesome devices. One of those devices is the smartphone. Smartphones can do more than just calling and texting. With advances in technology, a smartphone can function just like other tools. The ones mentioned above are only a few of what your phone can do.
