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.
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:
- Forgetting to turn off airplane mode after good night sleep 'till lunch time.
- Letting the battery die during the day without proper means to recharge.
- Constantly fighting with backlight intensity, because its regulating sensor is PoS.
Theyre essentially the swiss army knife of tools:
- Flashlight
- Camera
- Level
- Calculator
- Phone
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
- Flashlight
this
Also a mirror to check high/low places
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/
StreetComplere? I have 47 minutes running time with 5% battery use now, I think it’s okay
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Find something you really want to study and learn, that requires retaining a lot of facts
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Download Anki
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Download or build a flashcard deck for what you want to learn
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Do your flashcards every day, and trust Anki to know what cards to show you, and when, and how often. It’s just a few minutes per day.
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Spaced repetition just made you much smarter!
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Repeat, forever, learning all the things.
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Anything’s a dildo if your brave enough. Plus, it vibrates!
I think you can get dildos that can be controlled by an app.
Bit hard to control an app if the phone’s up your bum, innit?
LOL! Some of us have skills and can achieve the challenge. OOps, someone’s calling…
Bluetooth earbuds, if you can use an app you can answer a call. Might need that mute button though
Easy. Mute is just a slight turn and one muscle contraction.
My phone turns on the flash light if you shame it intentionally. You know, the ole twerk for light
But then you have to deal with connectivity issues every time your butthole goes to another room.
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?
I started looking into cozy games on my phone so anytime I get the urge to doomscroll I turn to that instead.
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.
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.
I play solitaire with open source free polysolfc on f-droid. No ads and no bullshit
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.
Make phone calls.
That’s pretty cool. I’m still waiting for my tricorder.
Calling your loved ones
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.
A unified remote\console for displays, ACs, PCs and whatever
On-hand manuals and checklists/
Podcasts\books player
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.
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 Kobe 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.
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.
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 the problem where I live in a country where I do not speak the language of the majority. Libraries aren’t much use to me, here. I do have a card, though. I should see if they do the epub lending thing in English.
Our library apps here have books in other languages. Can’t hurt to look.
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 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
