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iPhone Needs more Use

Z

zachnelson

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 23, 2010
753
0
I feel like I'm under using my iPhone and even my MacBook Pro.

Apart from texting/messaging, phone calls, taking basic notes and email, I don't use my iPhone for basically anything else.

On my Mac, I browse the Internet, email, and.. thats about it?

What are some apps, or creative uses for my phone I can get out of it that I may have not thought of before.
 
J

JayLenochiniMac

macrumors G5
Nov 7, 2007
12,819
2,389
New Sanfrakota
zachnelson said:
Apart from texting/messaging, phone calls, taking basic notes and email, I don't use my iPhone for basically anything else.
Click to expand...

Which is perfectly fine.

What are some apps, or creative uses for my phone I can get out of it that I may have not thought of before.
Click to expand...

Banking app--I deposit checks online quite a bit
Wunderlist--for syncing of grocery list, etc. with other family members
Flipboard--mainly to catch facebook RSS feeds (Google Reader)
Sigalert--to check freeway traffic when driving
Cardstar--leave your store reward cards at home
Gyft--leave your gift cards at home
 
Tom G.

Tom G.

macrumors 68020
Jun 16, 2009
2,340
1,389
Champaign/Urbana Illinois
Good Lord! I don't think I've read a more inane post on any thread on this forum.

"I always thought a smartphone should be a mini computer."

I use my iPhone as a calculator and as journal, and as a PDA and as spreadsheet, as a phone book and directory. I have apps on it that let me plot when satellites are overhead including the International Space Station, and look at photos taken on Mars. I can navigate to anywhere I want to go on land and water and even to a small extent in the air.

I write, no I dictate messages and small papers of all types on my iPhone and can send them in Pages or word format.

I take and annotate photos at work and for fun, and can do things with the photos that I could never do in the little darkroom that I used to use. I've put together a small slide show with music using all sorts of neat effects.

Where I work we have a lot of outside contractors doing work for us and most of their engineers carry and use iPhones to do fairly complicated calculations on site.

All of this and I still haven't said a word about using it as a very good phone.

Just because you lack the imagination to figure out how to use your phone I really can't see blaming Apple for it.

Just for giggles why don't you tell us what you think that the iPhone, or any smartphone needs to do to live up to your idea of a "Mini computer."
 
D

darster

Suspended
Aug 25, 2011
1,703
1
How about listening to music or podcasts? You have that much space available, why not load some music.
 
A

Amplelink

macrumors 6502a
Oct 8, 2012
934
392
Evernote, Twitter, password manager, internet banking apps, dictionaries, instant messenger, kindle, paypal, spotify, flipboard, watchespn app, etc. The question should be what CAN'T the iPhone do.
 
Jordan921

Jordan921

macrumors 603
Jul 7, 2010
5,069
2,171
Bay Area
cnguyen0320 said:
I don't think this is "perfectly fine." I always thought a smartphone should be a mini computer. It definately has the firepower. I love Apple but they need to step it up in terms of the ability of their phone.
Click to expand...

I can do pretty much everything on my iPhone. What else is it that you need the iPhone to do to make you happy with it?
 
M

Mrbobb

macrumors 603
Aug 27, 2012
5,009
209
zachnelson said:
What are some apps, or creative uses for my phone I can get out of it that I may have not thought of before.
Click to expand...


How should we know what your interests are?

Doesn't Apple say they are 700,000 apps in the store? I bet u find something that will interest u, maybe.

Is OK if u prefer to more physical activities btw, it's probly better than staring at the dang thing all day.
 
C

cnguyen0320

macrumors regular
Aug 14, 2012
177
0
Tom G. said:
Good Lord! I don't think I've read a more inane post on any thread on this forum.

"I always thought a smartphone should be a mini computer."

I use my iPhone as a calculator and as journal, and as a PDA and as spreadsheet, as a phone book and directory. I have apps on it that let me plot when satellites are overhead including the International Space Station, and look at photos taken on Mars. I can navigate to anywhere I want to go on land and water and even to a small extent in the air.

I write, no I dictate messages and small papers of all types on my iPhone and can send them in Pages or word format.

I take and annotate photos at work and for fun, and can do things with the photos that I could never do in the little darkroom that I used to use. I've put together a small slide show with music using all sorts of neat effects.

Where I work we have a lot of outside contractors doing work for us and most of their engineers carry and use iPhones to do fairly complicated calculations on site.

All of this and I still haven't said a word about using it as a very good phone.

Just because you lack the imagination to figure out how to use your phone I really can't see blaming Apple for it.

Just for giggles why don't you tell us what you think that the iPhone, or any smartphone needs to do to live up to your idea of a "Mini computer."
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know what you're saying. The iPhone is great. I'm not saying it is but it's missing a lot that makes it great. In fact, I'd argue that the functionality of smartphones have overgrown the desktop but the iPhone is still falling behind of Android in terms of functionality. So I'm not saying the iPhone is a very dumb smartphone. I'm saying it's lacking in features especially when it's compared to Android. It still may be the better phone depending on who you are and what you look for. The OP says he doesnt use his phone for much. I want something that he and I can use for more stuff. When we criticize Apple, we push them for more features; think about screen size, LTE, copy/paste, etc. The whiners got that to happen. As someone who loves tech, I just want more. I think we can agree on that. So calm down.
 
R

RotaryP7

macrumors 6502a
Aug 31, 2011
751
30
Miami, FL
A person's phone nowadays is their life. I'm serious. There is nothing I can't do on an iPhone that I would like to.. Except a time travel app.

Live your life, use your iPhone.
 
Jessica Lares

Jessica Lares

macrumors G3
Oct 31, 2009
9,612
1,056
Near Dallas, Texas, USA
What do you do on your day-to-day life? What is your profession? Are you a student? What are your hobbies?

It's perfectly fine not to be glued to your phone, I'm the same way. I'll tell you a few things I use mine for.

Since I'm a student, I take notes and get a lot of handouts. I have a feeder on my printer that I use to scan the handouts and send over to Evernote to have access to on my phone, iPad, and Mac. I note my assignments in the iOS calendar and set reminders of stuff that's due for the next day.

I listen to lots and lots of music, mostly on the radio. I like station surfing and often come across something new. I use SoundHound to detect what's playing, to look at LiveLyrics, and to save for later so I can go on Amazon/eMusic to buy whenever I get back to my computer.

Flipboard is really cool to keep up with the news or just look at pretty pictures. Whatever sites you go on at home, you can easily add their RSS feeds to it to look through their stuff on the go.

As for your Mac... Well, you'd have to answer the above questions first before we could help you.
 
S

stonyboys

macrumors 6502
Oct 16, 2012
323
3
sir if you are not finding adequate use of your phone then you clearly have not found out about online pornography
 
Small White Car

Small White Car

macrumors G4
Aug 29, 2006
10,966
1,463
Washington DC
Tom G. said:
Just for giggles why don't you tell us what you think that the iPhone, or any smartphone needs to do to live up to your idea of a "Mini computer."
Click to expand...

cnguyen0320 said:
When we criticize Apple, we push them for more features; think about screen size, LTE, copy/paste, etc.
Click to expand...

Great history lesson. Do you have a current answer for Tom or is that all you can think of?
 
C

cnguyen0320

macrumors regular
Aug 14, 2012
177
0
Small White Car said:
Great history lesson. Do you have a current answer for Tom or is that all you can think of?
Click to expand...

Sure. True multitasking (side by side apps running), complex programs (like full version of Windows Office) - pages is a scaled down version.. Ability to pair a mouse (some'll say no but if you don't need it don't use it. It just adds precision).

There are more things that can be added but we are very far from them. There is much that android offers that iPhone does not, I didnt include those above. The tech and smartphone world have come far. But I still want more.
 
Nand

Nand

macrumors regular
Oct 14, 2011
115
7
San Juan
Jessica Lares said:
What do you do on your day-to-day life? What is your profession? Are you a student? What are your hobbies?

It's perfectly fine not to be glued to your phone, I'm the same way. I'll tell you a few things I use mine for.

Since I'm a student, I take notes and get a lot of handouts. I have a feeder on my printer that I use to scan the handouts and send over to Evernote to have access to on my phone, iPad, and Mac. I note my assignments in the iOS calendar and set reminders of stuff that's due for the next day.

I listen to lots and lots of music, mostly on the radio. I like station surfing and often come across something new. I use SoundHound to detect what's playing, to look at LiveLyrics, and to save for later so I can go on Amazon/eMusic to buy whenever I get back to my computer.

Flipboard is really cool to keep up with the news or just look at pretty pictures. Whatever sites you go on at home, you can easily add their RSS feeds to it to look through their stuff on the go.

As for your Mac... Well, you'd have to answer the above questions first before we could help you.
Click to expand...

Do you have cloudon app? It's for iPad
It's a good app for word,excel and power point to create,review and edit documents, work with Dropbox and google drive.
I tell you because you are a student and this app help for the work (word, excel,etc)
 
MVRL

MVRL

macrumors regular
Oct 17, 2011
247
0
I love drawing with Paper (by53) on the iPad. It's an amazing app :) I have it on my mbp too.
 
faroZ06

faroZ06

macrumors 68040
Apr 3, 2009
3,387
1
If you're looking for a great way to waste time on an iPhone, jailbreak, get MobileTerminal, and try to install all of the cool stuff like WINE, Java, VNC hosting, SSH, etc.
 
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