What are the potentials of an Android smartphone?

[CMDRSTP]

Hello, all.

As some of you know, I am pretty new to the world of smartphones. A Droid Razr Maxx being my first one. All I can say is I love it. I was leery to update to ICS after seeing a few issues some have had but, I am glad you all finally convinced me as it made the Razr Maxx more battery efficient, smoother, faster, and a joy to use.

That said, I feel like I am underestimating it's value and potential.

I am unrooted. I basically use my phone for...
- Calls with the best reception and clarity I ever experienced.
- Texting.
- Alarm clock.
- Checking emails (wonderful how fast sync is).
- Use of a few apps (Weather Channel, Scanner Radio, Google Maps, SiriusXM).

Currently, I am exploring for a good national news (live video) and music app (Google Play? I could kick myself for picking iTunes years ago). Also, I was looking at adding a medical/drug reference app as I am a nurse.

I know, my list probably seems very "vanilla" but, I am interested in knowing what the potentials are. Not sure how else to phrase my question other than to ask for ideas, input, and advice as to how YOU use phone and what YOU are able to do with it, including apps.

So....what are YOU able to do with your Android? And, what do you suggest to experiment with?

Thank you.

Steve

 

[TisMyDroid]

Oh, I think you're in for a real treat cmdrstp... the things you can do with android... it's endless.

Music is a huge one for me. I use poweramp as my player. It is great to have a huge collection to listen to while driving. And pandora is my second choice for music in the go.

Also navigation sure is handy. I just recently discovered Sygic. I like it better than google maps navigation but that always worked great for me also.

Sent from my DROID RAZR Maxx using Droid Forums

 

[TisMyDroid]

And BTW, GO SU! Getting psyched for the upcoming football season. Can only keep getting better! Basketball will be a little interesting this year... so fricken close last year despite the craziness. Boeheim for some reason seems to have a way of starting out exceptionally strong, then not making it to the end.

 

[CMDRSTP]

That's right! Go SU!

 

[brad92]

+1 for Poweramp. I love it.

And I'm just gonna pretend SU stands for superuser and not Syracuse. Go superuser!

Sent from my DROID RAZR

 

[Xander Crews]

Wow. What don't I do with my Android Rezound? (and a number of these the iPhone can't do...just sayin')

• Streaming Google Music. One of the best things I ever did was put all my Music into Google Music. Awesome. I also use Pandora from time to time.
• I use bluetooth to stream music from my phone to my car stereo.
• I listen to streaming audio when cutting the grass. We live on 5 acres, so there are time when I am not close to the house. If my wife needs to tell me something, she can text me or call me and the music pauses and the phone rings or gives an audible text notification so I can get the message.
• GPS navigation & directions are killer. Especially when I am streaming bluetooth music in the car and the GPS turn by turn directions lower the volume of the music through the car speakers to give directions through the speakers as well...and then the volume goes back up after the directions are given.
• Alarm clock using Alarm Clock Plus every morning...announces the time then plays an audio file which gradually increases in volume.
• Checking sports scores every night on ScoreMobile
• Managing my fantasy baseball team with the ESPN fantasy baseball app
• Twitter
• Using the Mileage app to keep track of my car's gas mileage and other gas stats
• Evernote for taking and accessing notes
• Colornote for a quick, temporary note not meant to be kept
• Wunderlist for creating to do lists. If I'm out shopping, my wife can add items to a dedicated Shopping List in Wunderlist on our laptop in the kitchen, and I'll have it on my phone while I'm at the store because it instantly syncs across the browser & phone interface.
• Taking photos. My Rezound is the first smart phone that I have used that takes excellent photos. Far superior to anything else I have ever used...lots of features as well. So I take a lot of photos with it and they instantly upload to my Google+ online albums.
• I use the DirecTV app to record shows with my DVR while I am away from home. That has come in handy many, many times.
• I use the Baby Monitor app to use my phone as a baby monitor if we are away from home and my 1 yr. old or 3 yr. old are sleeping somewhere...maybe in the car or wherever. I can turn on the app, put the phone in the car, and when they make noise over a certain level, my phone automatically calls my wife's phone (or whatever phone we want it to call) and we know they are awake.
• Timeriffic is a great app that allows you to set your phone up to do things automatically based on the time of day, such as turn vibrate on, the volume down, bluetooth on or off, wifi on or off, screen brightness, etc, etc. Very cool.
• Use the Square app along the the square card scanner device (which is free btw) to scan credit cards and take payments on your phone. The money goes right into a PayPal account. Nice if someone owes you money for lunch or whatever. Quick and easy.
• I use Google Voice for all calls and texting. I love Google Voice.
• Google+ & Facebook
• Flixster to check movie times, watch trailers and buy tickets.
• I use CamScanner to scan business cards, documents, etc. as pdf's and upload them to Google Drive. I just like having pdf versions of documents all in Google Drive...makes it easy to find later. (I also search online for pdf manuals of appliances and other things I own and save them to my Google Drive. Very convenient.)
• I used to use my phone to go Geocaching a few times. Kinda fun...and scarily accurate.
• Google Goggles came in handy once when I was at work. A co-worker's son had a standard dumb phone and he wanted to find the manual online, but nowhere on the phone did it say what model it was so it was hard to find the manual. I scanned it with Google Goggles and it identified the phone as a certain model and we then found the manual. Very cool. Nice app to have on your phone on the off chance you may have a use for it.
• Scan QR codes that I come across with Redlaser.
• Use Ringdroid to edit and transform audio files into ringtones.
• Shush is a cool app. When you turn the volume all of the way down, Shush will pop up asking you how long you want to keep the volume down...and when time is up, it will return the volume to the level it was at before. Very nice before a movie in a theater, or during a meeting at work, etc.
• I use Yelp every now and then.
• I use Sound Recorder to record meetings at work sometimes and then I upload it to Google Drive to share it with the group after the meeting.
• Instagram for cool effects on photos I take.
• Flipboard or Google Currents to get news that I am interested in pumped into my phone.
• Checking the weather with Accuweather
• And my Google calendar is something I use every single day. Couldn't live without it.
• I can use AndFTP to upload images or docs to one of my websites.
• I have used JooID to make changes on my Joomla website, right through my phone. Worked very well.
• I use the Flashlight app for a flashlight every night when going to bed since the wife goes to be before me and the bedroom is dark when I go to hit the sack. Keeps me from bumping into things.
• I'll use Shazam to identify songs that I hear. Have used this in restaurants a few times.
• I'll occasionally use my phone as a modem for a laptop if I am on a business trip at a hotel that charges for WIFI. Don't really use that often, but it's great to have when you need it. I watched a Blues game on a live online stream on my laptop when I was in Chicago on business one weekend. Didn't have to pay the hotel for WIFI.

I am sure there are a dozen other things that I just can't think of right now. I use my phone for a lot of things.

 

[TisMyDroid]

WOW cprice, that is a super list! I think you should also copy it over to this thread... http://www.droidforums.net/forum/dr...do-you-have-some-us-might-not-know-about.html

Those looking in on that thread would love to hear about the apps you listed here. Fantastic!

Sent from my DROID RAZR Maxx using Droid Forums

 

[CMDRSTP]

Great post, cprice12!

 

[Glass_Joe099]

That is a great list of things you can do. If I can accomplish a tenth of that stuff I'll be freakin' ecstatic!