10 Household Items Your Smartphone Can Replace

10 Household Items Your Smartphone Can Replace

Convergence in electronics has escalated to new heights in recent years because of the smartphone. Dedicated devices will always have something to offer, but squeezing every last bit of functionality out of an item that you already own can be a great way to save money. Plus, a smartphone and the accompanying data plan aren't exactly cheap, so users might as well save in other areas if they can.

While we're aware that smartphones can do double duty as a camera, portable gaming system, and MP3 player, their potential actually runs much deeper than that. With the right apps or accessories, your phone can accomplish a variety of nifty tasks you might not be aware of. Here are 10 unexpected smartphone features to start, but we're sure there are more. After reading over our list, make sure to let us know in the comments how you use your phone in an unexpected way.

Scanner

Save space and money scanning documents by using your smartphone instead of using a flatbed scanner. The CamScanner app (for Android and iOS) allows you to use your smartphone camera to scan documents, invoices, receipts, or whatever else you want to digitize. The built-in tools enable you to crop the dead space and enhance the quality, and you can save and share the results as a JPEG or PDF. The basic app is free with some limitations. Heavy users and small businesses can spend $50 per year to unlock premium features.

Potential Savings: $80+

Light Meter

You could pay hundreds of dollars for a light meter, or you could use the free Pocket Light Meter app on your iPhone. For slightly better results you could snag the Luxi accessory for $30. The Luxi attaches to the front-facing camera and works in conjunction with the app to determine optimal exposure settings. And while it requires some calibration for the best results, and it is slower than a dedicated light meter, it's a much more affordable option for folks who simply want to fine-tune their photography.

Potential Savings: $100+

Gaming Guide and Additional Monitor

If you don't have the space or budget for an extra computer monitor for gaming, then you probably know the pain of having to constantly ALT+TAB to look up online game guides or watch walkthrough videos. But consider this: With just a phone stand—like the Breffo Spiderpodium iPhone Stand ($19.06 with free shipping via Prime, a low by $1)—with it sitting flat next to your keyboard, your smartphone can double as a second screen. With your phone by your side, you can easily browse video walkthroughs and free online cheat sheets, which beat the pants off expensive paper guidebooks.

Potential Savings: $10+

Personal Trainer

Why buy a pedometer or sign up with a personal trainer when you can get all the motivation and statistical feedback you need to get in shape from your smartphone? Popular free apps like RunKeeper employ your smartphone's GPS and other sensors to track your activity, provide valuable feedback, and even help to coach you. Set your goals and measure your progress with ease; all it costs is effort.

Potential Savings: $15+

Spirit Level

Smartphones are packed with sensors and gyroscopes that determine which way the phone is oriented so as to display the screen in either portrait or landscape. These sensors can also be employed for other jobs, such as determining a level surface. There are loads of free apps for iPhone, Android, and Windows that allow almost any smartphone to double up as a spirit level. You can also find apps that will let your smartphone act as an accurate tape measure.

Potential Savings: $10+

Anemometer

If you're sailing, windsurfing, or wakeboarding, then you're likely interested in the nuances of the wind, but you don't need to spend money on a standalone device. You can either access the current surf conditions via the web, get an app that pulls in the latest data from weather stations, or simply opt for an anemometer app that uses your smartphone's microphone to estimate wind speed.

Potential Savings: $30+

Universal Remote Control

Thanks to an abundance of remote control apps, many smartphones have the ability to control the TV, cable, satellite, and DVR. Some apps even let you remote control your games console, stereo, or computer. What's more, the latest Android smartphones, like the Samsung Galaxy S4, have remote control apps and IR blasters built-in.

Potential Savings: $20+

Instrument Tuner

Even professional musicians use tuning apps to get their instruments pitch perfect. There are a bounty of free options out there that will do a decent job, or you can drop a few bucks and get a feature-packed app like Cleartune ($3.99 for iOS and Android). Either way you'll be saving some money and you won't have an extra device to carry.3

Potential Savings: $10+

Baby Monitor

There are plenty of apps to help lull your baby to sleep or that transform your smartphone into a baby monitor. Having to leave your phone in the baby's room is an obvious drawback, but an old smartphone can easily be repurposed as a baby monitor; there are apps that will alert you to your baby's sounds and even let you remotely view your baby in its crib. Alternatively, you could buy a camera accessory that picks up motion and sends a feed to your smartphone.

Potential Savings: $50+

Flashlight

The vast majority of smartphones now have a flashlight app that comes standard in the OS. Apple added this functionality to iOS 7, and you can access it easily by swiping up from the bottom of the screen to reveal the Control Center and tapping the flashlight icon at the bottom left. There are also plenty of free flashlight apps available if your smartphone doesn't have one. The majority of these apps use the camera flash, the screen, or a combination of the two to illuminate the area.

Potential Savings: $5+

There are a number of other unexpected uses for your smartphone: from blood pressure monitor accessories, to gaming dice apps, and beyond.

10 Household Items Your Smartphone Can Replace

Top 10 Ways to Take Your Media Collections Digital

Top 10 Ways to Take Your Media Collections Digital

There's nothing quite like the feel of a new book, the smell of an old record, or the joy of heading to the comic book store every Wednesday. Sometimes, though, those physical collections can be a burden—like when you're starved for space or want something more portable for traveling. Here are 10 forms of media you can take into the digital age.

10. Scan Photos to Your PC

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You've probably already switched to a digital camera for most of the photos and video you take, but is any of it organized? And what about all your photos from the pre-digital days? If you have a flatbed scanner, take some time to scan those photos into your digital collection and touch them up. If you have the negatives, those can often produce better results, and this simple DIY negative scanner should work pretty well. Once you've got everything in digital, don't just leave it sitting around—come up with a good organization scheme, whether it's just in folders or using a photo management app like Picasa or Lyn.

9. Subscribe to Your Radio Shows as Podcasts

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Radio may be convenient, but it doesn't offer many other advantages. If you have a lot of radio shows you really like, chances are they're already available online as podcasts, sometimes with pretty extensive archives. And, with the right app and a little configuration, you can turn all your favorite shows into a custom radio station that you can stream from anywhere, on your own time. Check out our favorite apps for iOS and Android, and our tips on how to supercharge your podcasts for more.

8. Play Your Video Games, Old and New

If you play video games on a PC, you've probably already started using steam to buy and organize them all—after all, why would you want to buy a disc, especially when online stores have such great sales? But when it comes to those classic games from your past, you may still have a few old systems knocking around. Those are great, but if you want to play on-the-go, you can turn your smartphone or tablet into a portable retro game arcade, or create one for your house that combines all those systems into one. You can even create your own retro arcade table for some serious playing.

7. Turn Your Recipes and Cookbooks Into a Digital Database

Everyone's gotta eat, and cooking for yourself is the ultimate way to save money and eat great food. But once you start building up a good collection of recipes, it can become hard to sort through. Either you've got a shelf full of cookbooks or a box full of disorganized recipe cards you have to hand-write yourself. Luckily, all those cookbook recipes are probably online somewhere, and you can import them right into a digital recipe organization or meal planning tool. Then you can search for the recipes you want, plan your meals for the week, and even create a grocery list from the ingredients. You'll never go analog again.

6. Read Your Newspapers and Magazines Online

Some of you digital mavens may scoff at those of us who still read old school newspapers and magazines, but they're perfect ways to catch up on news or keep yourself entertained when you don't have time to dig through RSS feeds or crawl Twitter. However, paper news does have one downside: it takes up a lot of space and wastes a lot of paper, especially once you start building up a collection. Luckily, going digital is easy: just grab your favorite news and magazine apps on your phone, tablet, or rooted ereader. Apple's Newsstand and Android's Google Play have some pretty great collections, and you can also get a lot of cheap magazines from apps like Zinio. If you're looking for old issues, you can often find them via Google Books or other sources. And when you're done, those old newspapers make great odor removers. Photo by Hector Alejandro.

5. Immortalize Your Journals, Drawings, and Other Personal Creations

Chances are you have a few old keepsakes lying around, from journals you wrote when you were younger to drawings and other projects. You probably don't want to get rid of these, and you shouldn't—but if you don't have room to store them nearby or want to make them easier to access, you can scan them in just like you do photos. Going forward, you might consider taking some of those hobbies ditigal—for example, it's really easy to keep a private journal online or get started with digital drawing. It lacks some of the emotion of pen-to-paper, but you can also do a lot of other cool stuff with it.

4. Consolidate Your Massive Comic Book Collection

If you're tired of digging through long boxes just to read a few of your old comics, it might be time to take them digital. You can subscribe to your favorite comics from companies like Marvel and DC with apps like ComiXology, or use a CBR reader for old, indie, or other scanned issues. Check out the best comic book readers for the desktop, iOS, and Android for more, and start collecting.

3. Load Up Your Ereader with Books

Physical books still have their time and place for sure, but when you don't want to carry around a giant tome like Lord of the Rings, an ereader is the perfect option. Not only can you load up on ebooks for free or cheap, but a lot of ebook apps actually enhance your reading experience by helping you keep track of characters, look up words and locations, search through text, translate it, and more. Check out the five best ebook stores for more, and if you have some ebooks lying around already, you can consolidate them and remove their DRM with Calibre for a truly organized collection.

2. Rip Your DVDs, Blu-Rays, and VHS Tapes

If your shelves are buckling under the weight of your massive DVD and Blu-Ray collection, maybe it's time to go digital. Maybe you've already started with a service like Netflix, but when it comes to the movies you already bought, you have a lot of choices for downsizing that physical collection. Our favorite method, though is ripping those discs and crafting your own personal library of movies on a home theater PC or set-top box. You probably know how to rip a DVD, and ripping Blu-Rays is almost as easy, so what are you waiting for? Analog formats like VHS are more complicated, but with the right equipment, it can be done.

1. Organize and Upgrade Your Massive Music Library

Okay, so you probably knew this was coming—in fact, you've probably already gone digital with most of your music collection anyways. Ripping CDs is a breeze, and music stores like iTunes and Amazon make it so easy to buy music you've probably ditched CDs altogether. But if your library's a little overwhelmed, it may be time to go clean it up a bit—get rid of stuff you don't want, make sure your metadata is all correct, and so on. Try out a new music player or upgrade those old, low-bitrate songs. Streaming services like Spotify and Rdio can get you pretty far, but they probably won't replace your library 100%. And if you do still have some analog music lying around—like old records—you can digitize and clean those up for your library too, so you can listen to them anywhere.

Top 10 Ways to Take Your Media Collections Digital

Read Later" Apps Compared: Pocket vs. Instapaper vs. Readability

"Read Later" Apps Compared: Pocket vs. Instapaper vs. Readability

Chances are, you stumble upon a lot of articles during the day that look interesting, but that you don't have time to read right now. Lots of services have cropped up to solve this problem, and today we're looking at the most popular three and pitting them against one another: Pocket, Instapaper, and Readability. Here's how they stack up.

We've touched on this subject a few times before, and this article originally appeared back in March of 2012 (which is why some of the comments are outdated). However, with the years come new names, new features, and more. So, we've updated this comparison to include the latest versions of each app.

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Pocket (Formerly Read It Later)

Pocket was the first of these bookmark and read later services back when it was called Read It Later, and as such has an impressive spread of supported devices and apps. It's also come a long way in the looks department, and has some killer features that make it our favorite of the three.

Price: Free

Supported Devices: Pocket has official apps for iOS, Android, Chrome, and the web. There are also third party clients for Windows Phone, BlackBerry, WebOS, and others available.

Supported Apps: Pocket has, by a good margin, the most support among third party apps. If you want to save articles from Pulse, Flipboard, the Onion, TweetBot, the Alien Blue Reddit Client, and other apps, Pocket is the service to use. It also has browser extensions for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari, and a bookmarklet that works in any browser. For everything else, it has an easy save-by-email function. You can view the full list of supported apps here.

Interface & Features: Pocket is probably the most feature-packed of the three clients. Apart from the features mentioned above, Pocket can also:

• Save embedded video in any article so you can watch them inline. No other read-it-later app does this (though you must unfortunately be online for this feature to work in Pocket).
• Send articles to other people via email, or—even better—straight to other Pocket users.
• Choose from two different fonts, multiple font sizes, and three different color palettes (black on white, white on black, and sepia).
• Choose from two views on the home screen: a tiled "card" view and a traditional list view.
• Tag articles for easier browsing

Who Should Use It: When in doubt, Pocket probably supports your device of choice and the apps you use. It has a solid feature set and a well put together interface, plus it's supported by nearly everyone that supports a bookmark and read later app. Currently, it's our favorite read later service.

Instapaper

Instapaper was long popular with the iOS crowd, but has since expanded to other platforms. Its always been praised for its design, but we think its biggest strength lies in its article discovery. Not only can you save articles you found on the web, but the ability to follow your friends on Instapaper is a great way to pick up a few more, plus the Editor's Picks help you find articles you wouldn't have otherwise read. It's mainly focused on the Mac and iOS side of things, but has a lot of third party support on other platforms too.

Price: $3.99 on iOS, $2.99 on Android. Instapaper also offers a $1/month subscription service that lets you search your entire archive of articles, which is handy.

Supported Devices: Instapaper officially only supports iOS, Android, and the Kindle. You can also export your articles in ePub format, for use on any ereader that supports it.

Supported Apps: Instapaper doesn't have quite as many supported apps as Pocket, and many of them are iOS and Mac apps (like Reeder, NetNewsWire, and Tweetbot), but the list is still impressive. You can also submit articles via a bookmarklet or by email. Check out Instapaper's list of supported apps for more information.

Interface & Features: Instapaper has a very pretty interface, and has grown to include a solid list of features. Apart from the above, Instapaper also lets you:

• Choose from 14 different fonts, multiple font sizes, paragraph spacing, and line spacing options as well as three color palletes. Instapaper has more choices for customizing the reader interface than any other app of its type.
• Follow other people on Instapaper and read articles they've "liked"
• Discover popular articles others are reading through Instapaper's "The Feature" section (which is a little wonky and includes a lot of duplicates, but is still a great way to find stuff to read)
• Choose from two views on the home screen: a tiled "card" view and a traditional list view.
• Scroll through articles by tilting your device back and forth.
• Define words you don't know using an offline dictionary.
• Organize articles in folders for easier browsing.
• Search your entire archive of articles (pro subscription only).

Who Should Use It: If you love choosing between a bunch of different fonts, like novel features like tilt scrolling, and have other friends using Instapaper, this app is for you. In our experience, it doesn't always work as well as other apps at stripping and presenting articles, but as far as design configurability goes, it's the most powerful of the three.

Readability

Readability has always been a big name in making web articles more readable, but it's way behind the times on the bookmark service and mobile apps. Still, while it may not be as mature and feature-filled as its cousins, its simplicity may win over people who just want to get reading.

Price: Free

Supported Devices: Readability supports iOS, Android, and Kindle devices, and it has extensions for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari, plus the usual bookmarklets and add-by-email features.

Supported Apps: Readability doesn't have a lot of app integration, though it does work with a few popular ones, like Pulse, Reeder, Flipboard, Tweetbot, Longofm, and iCab Mobile. Check out Readability's apps page for more info.

Interface & Features: Readability looks pretty similar to Instapaper, but with fewer options. We think it looks a little nicer and its gestures and animations really make its interface nice, but it isn't nearly as feature-filled as the other apps. With it, you can:

• Navigate the app with a number of handy gestures
• Tag articles for easier browsing
• See what other people are reading with the "Top Reads" list, which is an awesome way to find new articles
• Choose from two views on the home screen: a tiled "card" view and a traditional list view.
• Choose from five different fonts, five text sizes, five settings for column width, and two color palletes (light and dark).

Who Should Use It: Readability is probably the prettiest in our opinion, both in interface design, gestures, and animations, but it doesn't have a ton of features or support a lot of apps. If you just want something simple, Readability will work fine, but otherwise, we'd recommend skipping it in favor of Pocket or Instapaper.

Read Later" Apps Compared: Pocket vs. Instapaper vs. Readability

SyncING Files Between Computers Without Storing in the Cloud

How to Sync Files Between Computers Without Storing Them in the Cloud

So you have multiple computers and you want to keep your files in sync, but you don’t want to store them on someone else’s servers. You’ll want a service that synchronizes files directly between your computers.

With such a service, you can synchronize an unlimited amount of files and people can’t gain access to your files just by gaining access to an account on a server and viewing the files via the web interface.

We’re focused on syncing files over the network here — either over a local network or the Internet. We’re looking for Dropbox-style solutions that don’t store files on a central server like Dropbox does.

BitTorrent Sync

BitTorrent Sync uses BitTorrent to transfer files — in private and in encrypted form, so no one can snoop on them. Just install it, select a folder, and generate a secret. Provide that secret to anyone — either another computer you own or a friend you would like to sync files with — and your folder will be automatically kept in sync across all configured PCs. This happens directly — either over a local network or over the Internet — using the powerful and fast BitTorrent technology.

BitTorrent Sync offers clients for Windows, Mac, and Linux, so you can use it to sync your files with computers running any popular operating system. Unlike many other services, its features are completely free and it doesn’t require you run a separate server.

AeroFS

AeroFS is free, assuming you don’t need its more advanced features. It creates a Dropbox-like folder on your computer and files sync automatically between the computers you set up. You can share each folder with one additional person, but you’ll need the paid version to share with additional people after that. It doesn’t use BitTorrent and relies on a user account system — there’s a central server that manages user accounts and sharing, but files aren’t hosted on AeroFS’s servers. They’re only stored on your computers. AeroFS promises that it “can’t even see your file names.”

Its interface is very similar to Dropbox’s, even down to the tour that appears when you install it. It’s a very Dropbox-like solution, but it skips the cloud so you can sync unlimited files. Like Dropbox, it supports Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Cubby

LogMeIn’s Cubby offers cloud storage, but it also offers a “DirectSync” feature. DirectSync allows you to synchronize an unlimited number of files directly between computers, skipping the cloud. Microsoft’s Windows Live Mesh used to do this, but Live Mesh has been discontinued. Cubby is available for both Windows and Mac OS X; there’s no Linux support.

You will have to create an account, and cloud storage is enabled by default in Cubby. While DirectSync was previously free when we recommended it as an alternative to Windows Live Mesh, DirectSync is now a paid feature. Unless you really love Cubby, you’re probably better off with another solution.

Roll Your Own Server

These are the two biggest options. However, these aren’t the only ways to sync files directly between your own computers. There are other options you have, although those solutions aren’t as easy to use and will require more manual configuration:

• SparkleShare: SparkleShare is an open-source Dropbox-like file syncing solution. The only difference is that you host it yourself. You could host Sparkleshare on one of your computers or on a server you have access to and get Dropbox-like syncing that’s entirely under your control.
• rsync: rync isn’t an instant syncing solution, but it can be used to run automatic incremental backups to a server. You could run a nightly rsync job and sync your files to an FTP server.

There are many other options you can use. Anything with a self-hosted server component or any sort of solution that automatically creates incremental backups and uploads to a remote server will do, but you’ll have to host your own server software in both cases. Solutions like BitTorrent Sync and AeroFS are the most convenient because they’re not made to require a separate server — they just run on your existing computers.

Disadvantages

Of course, there are a number of disadvantages to doing it this way. You’ll have to ensure you have backup copies of your files, as there’s no central backup copy in the cloud on someone else’s servers. There’s also no way to access these files from your phone or tablet with a mobile app, as you can with the Dropbox, Google Drive, or SkyDrive mobile apps. They’re not stored on a central server the apps can pull from; they’re just automatically synced between your computers.

And, of course, your computers must be powered on at the same time or they won’t be able to sync directly with each other.

In return, you get the ability to sync an unlimited number of files and keep them entirely under your control. It’s up to you which tradeoffs you want to make.

How to Sync Files Between Computers Without Storing Them in the Cloud

Updating Your Desktop Programs

HTG Explains: Do You Need to Worry About Updating Your Desktop Programs?

There was a time when we had to worry about manually updating desktop applications. Adobe Flash and Reader were full of security holes and didn’t update themselves, for example — but those days are largely behind us.

The Windows desktop is the only big software platform that doesn’t automatically update applications, forcing every developer to code their own updater. This isn’t ideal, but developers have now largely stepped up to the plate.

The Important Stuff is Updated Automatically

The most important updates you need to worry about are security updates for particularly vulnerable applications. These include your web browser and browser plug-ins — Flash, Adobe Reader, Java, and so on.

In the past, you had to worry about these. Flash didn’t update itself, nor did Adobe Reader. Browser updates weren’t as automatic, requiring manual intervention to install a new version of Firefox or Internet Explorer. It paid to keep an eye on updates and install them promptly — Flash and Reader weren’t going to update themselves, after all.

Updates are now more seamless. Chrome updates itself in the background, so you don’t have to worry about having the latest version. Firefox followed in Chrome’s lead and updates itself in the background, too. Even Internet Explorer updates itself separately from Windows Update, ensuring users have the latest version.

Adobe Flash checks for updates automatically and alerts you to them, allowing you to install them. If you use Chrome, Chrome handles Flash updates automatically. Adobe Reader also updates itself automatically.

Java is the worst — it only checks for updates once per month by default and has you download an updater that contains junk software like the Ask Toolbar. However, even Java can be set to check for updates more regularly — this is essential if you need to have Java installed. If you don’t need to have Java installed, you should uninstall it now.

Of course, Windows is also capable of automatically updating itself via Windows Update. This process is much more seamless than it was back in the days when users were forced to manually visit the Windows Update website in Internet Explorer to check for and download updates.

Most Applications Have Built-in Updaters

The majority of applications you use have built-in features that check for updates. Whether it’s a virtual machine program like VirtualBox or VMware, a chat program like Skype or Pidgin, or a frequently updated system utility like CCleaner, they’ll check for updates and let you know when there’s a new version. iTunes, Safari, and other Apple programs are updated through Apple Update on Windows.

Most games now automatically update themselves, too, especially if they’re purchased through an online storefront like Steam or Origin. You don’t need to hunt down patches on websites unless you’re installing an old game from a disc you have lying around.

Software Without Built-in Updaters

So where does that leave us — which applications don’t automatically update themselves?

• Hardware Drivers: The hardware drivers your manufacturer provides don’t automatically check for new versions. This is good — you shouldn’t be updating your drivers regularly. The big exception is that gamers should update their graphics drivers — but NVIDIA and AMD include updaters that handle this.
• Older Software: If you still depend on an application that you purchased on a disc a decade ago, it probably doesn’t have a built-in updater. You may have to manually hunt down patches for old games and other software that you install from a disc. However, such outdated applications won’t be getting regular updates, anyway.
• Miscellaneous Utilities: There’s a good chance you have some utilities installed that don’t automatically check for updates. For example, the 7-Zip file archiver and WinDirStat disk usage statistics viewer don’t check for updates. But, let’s be honest — you don’t really need the latest version of 7-Zip or WinDirStat. They aren’t updated frequently, new versions won’t introduce exciting new features, and it’s doubtful there will be any security vulnerabilities you’ll need to worry about. The same goes for most other applications you have installed that don’t automatically update themselves.

App Update Checkers Aren’t That Great

Knowing that some applications don’t automatically update themselves and being aware that manual updates for everything from Flash and Adobe Reader to Windows itself were once necessary, you may be tempted to use an application that checks for updates for your installed applications and alerts you to them.

There are several software updater checkers you could use, such as Secunia PSI, which is focused on ensuring you have up-to-date applications with no security holes.

It would be great if there was one application that handled updates for all your installed applications on Windows. You wouldn’t have to worry about being out-of-date or using twenty different updaters. However, these third-party utilities will never be that one tool. They’ll never handle all of your installed applications. They aren’t necessary for your most important applications — your browser, plug-ins, and other software that’s updated on a frequent basis will update itself.

These tools could theoretically be useful for handing updates for lesser-known utilities and ancient games that need patches after you install them, but they generally don’t handle that sort of thing. Secunia PSI can be useful as a way of quickly seeing if a computer has up-to-date versions of its browser and plug-ins installed, but it’s not something you need to update your desktop programs.

We’d love a centralized updating solution for Windows, but no third-party can deliver it — Microsoft would have to deliver it themselves. There’s no practical reason to use such a tool or regularly check websites for updates. Just ensure your applications are set to automatically update themselves — they should be by default — and don’t worry about it.

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Of course, everyone uses different software. It’s possible you use an application that does need regular, manual updates. You’re stuck updating it on your own in that case — it’s unlikely a third-party updating tool would help.