Rather than spending my time checking a feed or looking at fantasy football data more, can you please tell me some amazing things that I can view or do on my phone. What would blow my mind that I haven't thought of
The free Merlin bird app will listen for birds around you and tell you what they all are, and help you identify them by sight.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/
Every day a diary entry from the 17th century. Today he went to see Hamlet at the theatre. Seems like an equivalent to watching TV for him, and went to have his portrait painted, no cameras then.
Heavens Above app is pretty awesome. I use it a lot when I'm outside walking my dogs at night time. It also makes locating comets (past tense now, I know...) easier, along with stars and satellites, etc. from your vantage point.
Shazam app for when you're out in the wild, and hear a song you would like to hear again later.
AIY Projects app if you want to play around with Google's AI and robotics hardware at home.
Robot36 app if you want to decode picture images sent over shortwave radio.
Bike Share app if you're in a city where you can rent their bikes. Otherwise, whatever the local one would be.
Google Lens app, for those times you're looking at something and want to know wtf it is, or how much it normally costs. I use it a lot just about everywhere. I know an awful lot about the plant life in my neighbourhood as a result. A lot of it is edible, and some of those actually taste good.
Oticon app if you have hearing aids and like to fiddle around with the settings in a way that you can't with the hardware controls.
FlightRadar24.com website for determining what that plane is that just about to fly over.
These are just a handful of what I use my phone for. I like to make sure when my phone dies, I feel like I got value out of it!
I disabled Safari (via parental settings), use an email account that auto-forwards everything to my main email, thus I can only send email from my phone, but not receive any (the inbox is always empty and I don't check my main email on it).
I only have apps that I use to input things into the phone (writing, taking photos) and I eliminiated everything that isn't designed to end at some point.
No Instagram or any of the likes, only WhatsApp, but muted so I have to proactively check it. I do use a news reader, which is subscribed to the RSS feeds of the sites I want to follow. No algorithmic curation of that content, and no ads (unless I open the sites that the RSS items link to).
Keeping one's sanity away from the side effects of tech these days is quite a technical job, somehow ;)
IMO this is a sign that you don’t need to use your phone as much.
EDIT: My response to your question was really flippant. Sorry. I hate how phones have become consumption powerhouses that eat into peoples’ lives instead of the ultra-powerful tools that supplement them, and your question triggered that nerve (though you didn’t mean to!).
There are lots of useful things you can do with your phone that don’t encourage consumption above all else.
One of those things is learning a new language.
I’ve been using Babbel and Duolingo to learn French. While they don’t replace language classes (though Babbel Live looks really compelling), they are excellent supplements and practice tools.
I recommend Duolingo with a huge caveat: the app is extremely gamified, complete with micro transactions (gems to protect strike freezes, extra hearts since you only get five and every mistake you make costs one), side quests and boosts (you’ll see ads to upgrade to Super Duolingo after every “lesson” and occasional ads for Duolingo Max, the AI-assistance tier). The website version has none of those. I only use the website version.
Search for good games in the vast pile trash mobile games: Gorogoa comes to mind
Start developping apps for your phone
Start modding the hardware of your phone (e.g. build a custom case)
Read books (modern phones with bigger screens are surprisingly comfortable for reading)
Research all the birthdays of your friends and safe them in the contact information. Your phone will remind you to send them a message on their birthday;)
beardyw ·9 days ago
https://www.pepysdiary.com/ Every day a diary entry from the 17th century. Today he went to see Hamlet at the theatre. Seems like an equivalent to watching TV for him, and went to have his portrait painted, no cameras then.
Show replies
ksaj ·9 days ago
Shazam app for when you're out in the wild, and hear a song you would like to hear again later.
AIY Projects app if you want to play around with Google's AI and robotics hardware at home.
Robot36 app if you want to decode picture images sent over shortwave radio.
Bike Share app if you're in a city where you can rent their bikes. Otherwise, whatever the local one would be.
Google Lens app, for those times you're looking at something and want to know wtf it is, or how much it normally costs. I use it a lot just about everywhere. I know an awful lot about the plant life in my neighbourhood as a result. A lot of it is edible, and some of those actually taste good.
Oticon app if you have hearing aids and like to fiddle around with the settings in a way that you can't with the hardware controls.
FlightRadar24.com website for determining what that plane is that just about to fly over.
These are just a handful of what I use my phone for. I like to make sure when my phone dies, I feel like I got value out of it!
hemmert ·9 days ago
I disabled Safari (via parental settings), use an email account that auto-forwards everything to my main email, thus I can only send email from my phone, but not receive any (the inbox is always empty and I don't check my main email on it).
I only have apps that I use to input things into the phone (writing, taking photos) and I eliminiated everything that isn't designed to end at some point.
No Instagram or any of the likes, only WhatsApp, but muted so I have to proactively check it. I do use a news reader, which is subscribed to the RSS feeds of the sites I want to follow. No algorithmic curation of that content, and no ads (unless I open the sites that the RSS items link to).
Keeping one's sanity away from the side effects of tech these days is quite a technical job, somehow ;)
Show replies
nunez ·9 days ago
EDIT: My response to your question was really flippant. Sorry. I hate how phones have become consumption powerhouses that eat into peoples’ lives instead of the ultra-powerful tools that supplement them, and your question triggered that nerve (though you didn’t mean to!).
There are lots of useful things you can do with your phone that don’t encourage consumption above all else.
One of those things is learning a new language.
I’ve been using Babbel and Duolingo to learn French. While they don’t replace language classes (though Babbel Live looks really compelling), they are excellent supplements and practice tools.
I recommend Duolingo with a huge caveat: the app is extremely gamified, complete with micro transactions (gems to protect strike freezes, extra hearts since you only get five and every mistake you make costs one), side quests and boosts (you’ll see ads to upgrade to Super Duolingo after every “lesson” and occasional ads for Duolingo Max, the AI-assistance tier). The website version has none of those. I only use the website version.
pololeono ·9 days ago
Start developping apps for your phone
Start modding the hardware of your phone (e.g. build a custom case)
Read books (modern phones with bigger screens are surprisingly comfortable for reading)
Research all the birthdays of your friends and safe them in the contact information. Your phone will remind you to send them a message on their birthday;)
Show replies