8 Things you never knew you could do with your smartphone

Smartphones are great to have and these little handheld  pocket computers demonstrates to us on how the technology industry has evolved from industrial computers which could fill-up an entire room with vacuum tubes and magnetic tapes to pocket sized computers which do far better than their larger industrial ancestors. Smartphones could help us pass time while we are bored but can do better. Aside sending text messages (SMS, MMS), instant messaging, making calls, playing games and taking photos, smartphones can do more interesting things and here is a list of 8 interesting things you can do with your smartphone.

(1) Control devices with infrared

Have you ever being in a situation whereby changing from one channel to another on your satellite TV became a daunting task simply because you misplaced your remote control or just cannot find your TV remote at the moment or you are feeling a bit fatigued to standup and walk to your TV to change the channel, don’t worry anymore as a lot of people have being there, and recent technologies have being put in place to solve such problems.

Today, smartphones like the Samsung galaxy S6, HTC one M9, LG G4, LG Flex 2, Samsung galaxy note 4, Galaxy note edge, ZTE Nubia Z9, and so on have infrared (IR) blasters inbuilt in them already. An IR blaster which has being built into a phone can allow the phone to function as a universal remote control. With the aid of preloaded apps (available in the app store), the phone can be programmed to control a TV or even your air conditioner. Common names in the smart remote control market includes; the Peel Smart Remote app, which acts as an advanced TV guide with reminders and content recommendations. Other popular brands include; Chromecast, Smart IR Remote, SURE Universal Remote, Unified Remote, Swoosh Presentation Control, Xbox one Smart Glass, Twinone TV Remote, which are available to both android and ios users on Google play and App store respectively. If you have any of the above mentioned phones and will love to learn how to install and control your TV with the Peel Smart Remote click here for that. But if you don’t have any of the above mentioned phones, check App store for ios or Google play for android versions of the app respectively. Sorry to blackberry users, please don’t be offended as I did not include support on blackberry in this article, I will do my research on that later.

(2) Identify songs instantly/ Instant song recognition system

You probably might have come across apps like Shazam or Sound Hound but don’t know what they are used for. These apps are tools you can use to identify songs instantly just by playing them on your smartphone. But Google, Apple and Microsoft have already created their song identification tools inbuilt into their respective virtual assistants (real life version of Jarvis in Iron Man) such as Google Now, Siri and Cortana respectively.

(3) Learn and speak new languages effectively

When it comes to speaking a different language, even the best linguist can flop while making simple sentences. You might have being finding the task of learning a new language daunting up until now. But learning how to speak a new language is not as hard as it used to be in the past due to the advent of language translator apps such as Google Now for android and iTranslate for ios, you can translate a certain word to another language and get both spoken and written response.

(4) Convert your smartphone to a gaming console

Today, high definition gaming is beginning to go mobile. With the aid of an MHL (Mobile High Definition Link), you can connect the micro USB port of your HD televisions and monitors. An MHL cable can cost anywhere around £10 to buy and then you will be able to experience the media from your smartphone on a big screen. MHL is supported only on Samsung and Sony phones in the Sony Xperia Z3 series such as the Sony Xperia Z3+, Sony Xperia Z3 compact, Sony Xperia ZL, etc. 

(5) Solve complex mathematics problems with a snap shot

Solving calculus and vector analysis would not have seemed like a problem you would want to solve with your smartphone but it actually is. With the aid of apps like Photomath which utilizes OCR (Object Character Recognition) technology to recognize letters and numbers with the aid of your phone camera.

How it works.

1.  Download Photomath from Google play for your version of android OS or from app store for your version of ios.
2.  Install the app on your phone.
3.  Open the app.
4.  Write down any mathematical equation (e.g. x2-5x-6) on a sheet of paper.
5.  Open the camera on the Photomath app and snap the equation.
6.  Then just grab a cup of coffee to relax as it will solve the equation not to give you the solution alone but also the workings used to arrive at that solution.

(6) Control your lost or stolen phone remotely

Phones have become an integral part of our lives and losing them or letting them get into the wrong hands can be devastating to fathom. Technology they say makes life easy but I will like to add that it also makes life safer. With the aid of smart apps like Find My Device app on android and Find My IPhone, disabling your smartphone from another smartphone so as to prevent your private information from getting into the wrong hands has being made easy. But before these device can be found, they require the owner to sign into his or her cloud his/her cloud account e.g. Google account for android and Icloud for IPhone.

For android, before you misplace your phone sign into your Google account, turn on mobile data, make it visible on Google play, turn on location and make sure Find My Device is turned on.

If the device has being stolen, do the following:

1. Open android.com/find and sign into your Google account,
2.  If you have more than one device, click the lost device at the top of the screen,
3.  On the map, see about where the device is,
4. Pick the task you want to accomplish, if needed, first click Enable lock & erase.

For IPhone, you much first have the phone signed in to Icloud. Secondly, open Find My IPhone app on another IPhone, IPad, or IPod touch or Icloud.com/find on a Mac PC. Thirdly, you can turn on Lost Mode to remotely lock your IPhone with a pass code on the lock screen, play a sound, and erase the phone. You can also report to your wireless carrier that your phone is stolen so that they block calls, messages, and data use on the phone.

(7) Connect your mouse or keyboard to your phone

With the help of a USB OTG (On The Go) cable, you can connect your mouse, game pad and other computer peripherals to your smartphone. But before you purchase an OTG for a few bucks (less than $10) make sure your smartphone supports it. You can find out by googling the list of smartphones compatible with the USB OTG cable. You can also connect a wireless Bluetooth mouse and keyboard to your smartphone by turning on the Bluetooth in the settings.

(8) Use your phone as a level

Have you ever encountered difficulty in aligning objects such as pictures, TV stands or even shelves, worry no more as you can now find tons of bubble level apps available to both ios and android on their respective app stores?