Xander Crews
Active Member
So...
Like most of you, every so often I browse the Google Play Store and look for new things I can do with my Rezound.
How do you guys use your phones? What cool/different things are you doing?
Maybe there are some things out there that you guys are doing that myself, or others, would love to be doing but hadn't thought of doing yet? It doesn't have to be strictly Rezound stuff...it can be Android stuff in general.
Some things I am doing (I'm sure some of you are doing a lot of these things)...
Since my switch to the G1 about 4 years ago, then the Droid2 and then just last month the Rezound, my phone has become an integral part of my life. I think I'd be going through some serious withdrawal without it.
So what do you guys use your phones to do? I'm sure there are all kinds of things that I could be doing, but just haven't thought of or stumbled across yet.
Like most of you, every so often I browse the Google Play Store and look for new things I can do with my Rezound.
How do you guys use your phones? What cool/different things are you doing?
Maybe there are some things out there that you guys are doing that myself, or others, would love to be doing but hadn't thought of doing yet? It doesn't have to be strictly Rezound stuff...it can be Android stuff in general.
Some things I am doing (I'm sure some of you are doing a lot of these things)...
- I have a bluetooth stereo in my car which automatically starts to stream my custom Pandora channel from my phone shortly after I start the car, as long as I have the proper input selected on my stereo. This is a stereo feature, but works with Android.
- I use a feature manager called Timeriffic. I have it set to automatically go to vibrate & dim the screen in the evening at 7:45. The only time I need a brighter screen is during the day when in the sun. Automatically going to vibrate is nice when I am giving my 11 month old his bottle before bed. Any calls I get while I am doing that won't wake him up. There are all kinds of things you can turn on and off based on the time of day with this app...gps, bluetooth, wifi, etc. Very nice.
- I use an app called CamScanner to scan business cards & docs, and save them to my Google Drive. (on a side note, I search the web for manuals for my various devices and appliances I own. Usually they are in .pdf format (if they aren't, I convert them) and I then save them to Google Drive so I'll always have them.)
- I set up a playlist for my kids on Google Play and play it for them when I'm giving them a bath or via bluetooth when we are in the car. One of the best things I ever did was upload my entire music collection to Google Play. Now I have it with me on my phone anywhere I go. I use it when I cut the grass, in the car, etc...and I don't have to carry around an mp3 player along with my phone. My wife can also text my phone while I am cutting the grass and the music will pause and I'll hear the notification sound, so I can check it...same thing with a call. We have 5 acres and I could be a long way away from the house if my wife wants to get hold of me, so this is nice.
- I use the Wunderlist app to manage To-Do-Lists for work & home. There is a web interface as well so the lists can be managed from a computer. I have a list called, "Shopping"...and if I am at the store, my wife can add things to my To-Do-List on the computer and I have it on my phone. This is better than her calling me and having me remember it, or instead of her texting me, which would take longer for her and may eat up texts from our plan. We have a laptop in the kitchen which makes it convenient to jump on and add to the list.
- I use Google Voice for all calls and texts. Free texting for me...just no mms...yet. Plus, my computer will ring (assuming I have Gmail open) ahead of time and let me know when a call is coming in. All voicemail messages are converted to text and are sent to me in an email...and I can access them at any time through Google Voice on my phone or through the Google Voice web interface. I can read them or play them. It's nice having a record of those things to reference in the future if need be.
- I use the TV Guide app to identify what channel certain stations are. I don't watch live tv much...most of the things I watch are on the DVR...but when I want to watch, say, a playoff baseball game on TBS, I have no idea what station that is...so I have the TV guide app that allows me to set favorite stations that identifies the channel number. It's just handy. Oh, and it also tells you what is on tv.
- There is an app called, Baby Monitor, and it acts as, well...a baby monitor. On numerous occasions we have arrived at someone's house and our kids may be sleeping in their car seats. We can leave them in the car (with the A/C still on if it's warm out or heat on if it's cold out) and I leave my phone in the car. If they wake up crying or yelling, it trips the sensor and the phone will call any phone number you punch in. So I set it to call my wife's phone. Essentially, my phone calls her phone when our kids get up. It works great. And it automatically goes silent so any incoming calls or notifications don't wake the kids. It's a great app to have when you are away from your baby monitors.
- Everyone uses Google Maps & the navigation feature. I love it. But what's nice is since my car stereo is bluetooth, I stream music from my phone to my stereo. I can run the Navigation turn-by-turn direction feature at the same time and when it tells me a turn is coming up, it lowers the volume of the music then turns it back up when it's done talking...and it all goes through the car speakers. It's just one of those things that I think, "damn, that's cool", every time I use it.
- The DirecTV app is cool. From my phone, I can set shows to record on either one of my two DVR's at home. Very handy. I have used this a lot.
- Flashlight app...use this all of the time at night. The wife goes to bed before me, so when heading to bed I find my way around the bedroom with the flashlight widget. It just sits on the home screen and I can toggle it on and off. It's one of those simple things that is soooo convenient.
- Evernote for note taking. I like it because you can access it through the web as well, or a desktop client, or other devices and it's all synced. Apps like this one and Wunderlist...I greatly prefer ones that you can access on the web through their site and also on an iPad (which my work provided for me...I wanted a Xoom, but they gave me an iPad...oh well). It makes it much easier to access things when you can access them from anywhere...which is why a lot of my stuff is in the cloud now. So much more convenient.
- I've used a lot of different sports scores apps to see which one is the best. I've found that ScoreMobile is the best in my opinion. It's very fast, no bloat. The navigation is simple and easy to understand. It's simple to quickly see the scores/box scores/game recaps that you want. I use this app every day. Go Cardinals! Go Blues!
Since my switch to the G1 about 4 years ago, then the Droid2 and then just last month the Rezound, my phone has become an integral part of my life. I think I'd be going through some serious withdrawal without it.
So what do you guys use your phones to do? I'm sure there are all kinds of things that I could be doing, but just haven't thought of or stumbled across yet.