7 things you didn’t know your smartphone could do

By Ryan Valles | Updated Jan 19 2015
7 things you didn’t know your smartphone could do

These days, the one thing we can’t live without, is our smartphones. We have them with us all the time. They have become an integral part of our lives. We use them constantly. But did you know that you could….

7 things you didn’t know your smartphone could do

Tune your guitar using your smartphone

Using your smartphone you can tune your guitar or any other stringed instrument. The smartphone detects the sound of the string you are playing and displays on screen if you need to sharpen or flatten that string to get the desired note.

Check out DaTuner (lite) (dgit.in/datunerl). This app displays the nearest note and the octave as well as the error in cents. It is very easy to use and extremely accurate.

7 things you didn’t know your smartphone could do

Remotely take a picture with another smartphone

With the RemoteShot app (dgit.in/rmtsht) you can remotely click a picture with an Android device using another android device. The app needs to be installed on both the devices. Pairing is done through Bluetooth.

Once the app is started you choose which device will be the remote and which device will be the camera.

There is a viewfinder on the remote device that lets you frame the shot. Once you click the shutter button on the remote device an image is captured on the device acting as the camera.

The remote device can switch between the main camera and the front facing camera, set a timer interval, turn the flash on or off as well as take pictures with burst mode. Perfect for using it as a remote trigger when taking group pictures and you don’t have one of those long selfie sticks.

7 things you didn’t know your smartphone could do

Your smartphone can be used to check if your TV remote is working properly

Often you find that one of the many remotes in your house isn’t working. You tap it to try to get it to work, next you proceed to pointing it from all possible angles, and eventually get frustrated and open up the back panel to change the batteries. However, before doing any of that there is a simple way to check if the remote is still transmitting a signal. Just start up your default camera app, point the remote to your smartphone lens and voila! If your remote is working, you’ll be able to see a purplish light emanating from the remote’s IR bulb when looking through your camera. The reason is that while your eyes can’t see in infrared, your camera can.

7 things you didn’t know your smartphone could do

Snap pictures of Sheet music and have your phone play it back to you

With iSeeNotes – Sheet Music OCR (dgit.in/staffocr) you can click a picture of your sheet music and have your cell phone play it back for you. This app reads multiple staffs,  recognizes the bass and treble clefs etc and give you a surprisingly accurate playback of the sheet music. 

Though it has its limitations it will not be long till reading sheet music and playing it back with a smartphone is a reality. For now though it’s just a proof of concept and we wouldn’t recommend spending the Rs.250 asking price.

7 things you didn’t know your smartphone could do

Forecast the weather (not just tell you the weather stats)

The good people at OpenSignal stumbled on something very interesting: the sensors in Android phones used to measure light, pressure, battery temperature etc can also be used to work to report the weather. 

Using enough smartphone sensors experts can use the data gathered to accurately forecast the weather. You can be part of the program by installing the Crowdsourced Weather Map app. Mind you this is different from using something like Accu-Weather which merely reports the weather; the Mobile Weather Station app at least in theory is supposed to use analytics to predict patterns and your smartphone helps it in doing so.

7 things you didn’t know your smartphone could do

Help you sleep better

Yes you read that right. As addictive and distracting as smartphones are, if you choose to, they can help you get a good night’s sleep too. Smartphones, with their amazing capabilities, make it hard for us to put them down. We are constantly looking at the screen while messaging, editing photos, browsing the internet, checking our email or even creating lists and tasks.

This confuses the brain as to the time of the day and makes it hard to fall asleep. Add to this the constant buzzing of the phone with incoming messages and notifications disturb you throughout the night. 

Using the Sleep Time app (dgit.in/morezzzz) you can use your smartphone to get a good night’s sleep. 

This app detects your movements through the night and figures out your sleep pattern. All you have to do is place the phone on your mattress before you go to sleep and the app does the rest. 

The apps alarm wakes you up at the lightest part of your sleep cycle. You can avoid waking up groggy with the urge to hit that snooze button.

7 things you didn’t know your smartphone could do

Save your life

Imagine you out in the wilderness and lose your way. Your smartphone can help you find your way back to civilization. Most smartphones come equipped with GPS sensors and navigation software. Apps like Sygic, and Nav free allow users to download maps of entire countries onto the smartphone. These apps and phones do not need access to mobile networks and data plans. 

The apps use GPS satellites to pinpoint your position accurately displaying it on the map stored on your SD card. All you have to do is zoom out to find the closest city or town.

You can even use the battery of your smartphone to start a fire. Check out this video: dgit.in/fiyastata showing you how