We have these amazing little computers in our hands. What are some beneficial things we can do with them? Websites, apps, tinkering… anything you can think of or things you already do. I’m tired of doom scrolling.

  • Underwaterbob@sh.itjust.works
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    5 hours ago

    Reading. Books are super easy to ahem find. OLED screens make reading really comfortable at night. Black background, dark orange text, and turn off all the lights and it’s like text is floating in the air in front of you. There are plenty of epub readers out there. Moonreader is my favorite. I paid $5 for it years and years ago now. Absolutely worth it.

    • tal@lemmy.today
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      3 hours ago

      While it’s usable and I’ve read material that way, I’ve found that I want a larger screen. I’ve read books on a Kobe e-reader, a tablet, a laptop, and a desktop, and those are fine. The phone requires movement to the next page with more frequency than I’d like.

      I agree that OLED screens doing light-on-dark look great at night, though.

      EDIT: YouTube clip of an OLED and LCD phone side-by-side in the dark:

      https://www.youtube.com/shorts/I1aGY0Wq5KU

    • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      You can also borrow ebooks through your library’s ebook app, there are a few types. I have signed up for many digital library cards with fake addresses, I get more selection and they get funding, it’s a win for all.

  • Teknikal@eviltoast.org
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    7 hours ago

    I have a lot of emulators on mine I recommend lemuroid as a gateway app it does most older systems and many of the arcade machines of my youth. Assuming you legally own the roms of course.

    I find a cheap Bluetooth controller works a lot better than the touchscreen though.

  • TheTimeKnife@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    I use it for a lot, but one I haven’t seen mentioned. I use it to support my ham radio hobby. I have a satellite tracker for when I want to contact radio sats, a solar weather app for checking HF propagation and I have echolink which let’s me connect to hundreds of radio repeaters around the globe.

    *HF = high frequency, its a section of radio frequencies that bounce off the atmosphere. Let’s you talk worldwide if you have the right frequency and conditions. Solar weather significantly impacts how radio waves interact with the upper atmosphere.

    • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works
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      10 hours ago

      I have a satellite tracker for when I want to contact radio sats,

      which one do you use? can it show where is it on a camera background?

      • TheTimeKnife@lemmy.world
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        56 minutes ago

        I use one called W1ANT Satellite Tracker. I don’t think it has a camera feature. The fun for me is locating the sat and following it from a map. In practice this involves me looking like a lunatic running around my apartment complex with my HT held sideways, staring up at the sky.

      • TheTimeKnife@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        Ham radio is licensed by the country you live in. In the US, the basic technician license is very cheap and the test to get it is fairly easy with an abundance of online materials, including answer keys, to study. The reason these licenses are important is because ham operators need to operate within legally defined band plans, or radio frequency allocation guidelines. Emergency services, search and rescue, your nations military, all use specific radio bands given to them by the government. The license helps teach you how to avoid interfering with someone who can get you into serious trouble. It also helps keep you safe, and requires you to learn some basic electrical knowledge that frankly will be mildly useful the rest of your life. Amateur radio is a really fun skill that isn’t that hard to learn. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask and if you want specific information about your countries licensing, Im happy to help look it up.

        EDIT: Just to add, you can always listen without a license. That’s why scanners exist, but you need a license once you hit the button to transmit on a ham radio frequency.

  • quediuspayu@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    I use my old phones that still work as media players, I uninstall almost everything and basically only use VLC on them to watch stuff on my NAS. They’re like tiny TV’s scattered around the house.

    Now I just only need to learn how to broadcast locally from the PC so they can play the same thing at the same time. I know VLC can do it because I’ve seen dozens of tutorials but they all must be missing something because it never worked for me.

    • PeteWheeler@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      Highly recommend Jellyfin on your NAS. Sounds like that is what your looking for. Very straight forward and easy to implement compared to other self host options.

      Essentially, vid files located on your nas, and then any device on your wifi can stream the vids.

      If your looking for your own personal netflix, jellyfin is your answer.

    • dangrousperson@feddit.org
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      16 hours ago

      You can use Open Source Sunshine and Moonlight for inhome broadcasting. You install sunshine on the source PC and use the moonlight app on the phones.

      https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine/releases https://moonlight-stream.org/

      It’s meant for game streaming, so it supports controller pass through and what not, but you can also use it to just stream the desktop. It also supports multiple clients, although I have never tried that personally.

  • Lots of people gave good uses here so i’ll give one too. the other day I lost my fitbit and I didn’t know wtf I lost it then I remembered smartphones have bluetooth and emf sensors so i downloaded an app to find my fitbit and I found it. Felt like I was going mad looking for it lol

  • Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    Rejecting calls

    Forgetting to reply to messages

    Ignoring emails

    Writing comments then deleting the text without posting

    Unlocking your device only to immediately forget why you needed to check it.

    • kurcatovium@piefed.social
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      19 hours ago

      Don’t forget the good ol’ classics:

      • Forgetting to turn off airplane mode after good night sleep 'till lunch time.
      • Letting the battery die during the day without proper means to recharge.
      • Constantly fighting with backlight intensity, because its regulating sensor is PoS.
  • Not sure if “good” is the right word, but at least cool.

    Torrenting, high speed mobile data modem (especially with manual selection of frequency bands on MediaTek), local OpenSpeedTest server (available as app), WiFi analyzer (most used channels), VNC client, the slowest x86 emulation in Qemu-based Limbo PC emulator, SDR receiver software (SDR++, SDRAngel, Welle.io, dump1090, SatDump), RTL-TCP server, SSTV decoder and encoder, HTTP proxy server, Kiwix server, NGINX web server/proxy, Navidrome server, Cloudflare proxy client, SSH server, VNC server (only for Termux’s desktop), satellite tracker, Mifare Magic NFC card programmer (MCT), audio spectrum analyzer, serial terminal.

    I wanted to attach screenshots, but realized it’s way too much stuff.

  • ace_garp@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    Map your local area.

    Use StreetComplete or SCEE to fix parts of OpenStreetMap data in your area. Fun to do when walking around areas you know.

    Or use a higher level editor to add missing paths, services and buildings.

  • ℕ𝕖𝕞𝕠@slrpnk.net
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    18 hours ago

    It’s a music player, e-reader, and mobile videogame platform that can emulate any retro system and has unique games based on physical activity and geolocation.

    It can also take pictures and send IMs, I guess.

  • Oka@sopuli.xyz
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    1 day ago

    Theyre essentially the swiss army knife of tools:

    • Flashlight
    • Camera
    • Level
    • Calculator
    • Phone
    • SonOfAntenora@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      Good ol nokia had basically all this without being internet connected. They also had a scientific calculator, unit converter, and currency converter too. And a planner for mothly budgets and expenses. If you haven’t used these you might have no idea as to how great thwy were for basic productivity

      • clif@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        I already carried a flashlight in my pocket and now I have one on my watch. Phones are obsolete.

  • Saltarello@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    Some of my favourite mobile centric uses (I’m a FOSS leaning Android):

    • I like to try to ensure most things are available offline: maps, notes, passwords (manager also holds “emergency” documents), media, ebooks, podcasts etc
    • OsmAnd has offline Wiki articles, this is awesome when travelling
    • OsmAnd can be great for finding POI’s such as food outlets, toilets etc when travelling (I since extensively mapped my own locality to help visitors by way of thanks)
    • Using stuff I self host synced to various devices: Nextcloud, Joplin, Paperless-ngx, Immich, Jellyfin & a bunch of others
    • whoBIRD is great especially when travelling
    • If WiFi/data is unavailable when travelling away from home, hook the phone up to TV with a hub, HDMI, keyboard with track pad & it becomes a full media system
  • Photuris@lemmy.ml
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    1 day ago
    1. Find something you really want to study and learn, that requires retaining a lot of facts

    2. Download Anki

    3. Download or build a flashcard deck for what you want to learn

    4. Do your flashcards every day, and trust Anki to know what cards to show you, and when, and how often. It’s just a few minutes per day.

    5. Spaced repetition just made you much smarter!

    6. Repeat, forever, learning all the things.

  • ohwhatfollyisman@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    i have a drawer which would otherwise have been empty, but thankfully i have a nexus 6p, a pixel 2, an lg q6, some lenovo phablet, and a galaxy note 5 to use up that space.

    they also do make mighty fine paperweights if one is needed in a pinch.

    • dingus@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      Too bad you don’t also have a note 7. Having it double as a bomb is a good feature.