Ask HN: Things to do on my phone
Rather than spending my time checking a feed or looking at fantasy football data more, can you please tell me some amazing things that I can view or do on my phone. What would blow my mind that I haven't thought of
https://www.pepysdiary.com/ Every day a diary entry from the 17th century. Today he went to see Hamlet at the theatre. Seems like an equivalent to watching TV for him, and went to have his portrait painted, no cameras then.
Shazam app for when you're out in the wild, and hear a song you would like to hear again later.
AIY Projects app if you want to play around with Google's AI and robotics hardware at home.
Robot36 app if you want to decode picture images sent over shortwave radio.
Bike Share app if you're in a city where you can rent their bikes. Otherwise, whatever the local one would be.
Google Lens app, for those times you're looking at something and want to know wtf it is, or how much it normally costs. I use it a lot just about everywhere. I know an awful lot about the plant life in my neighbourhood as a result. A lot of it is edible, and some of those actually taste good.
Oticon app if you have hearing aids and like to fiddle around with the settings in a way that you can't with the hardware controls.
FlightRadar24.com website for determining what that plane is that just about to fly over.
These are just a handful of what I use my phone for. I like to make sure when my phone dies, I feel like I got value out of it!
I disabled Safari (via parental settings), use an email account that auto-forwards everything to my main email, thus I can only send email from my phone, but not receive any (the inbox is always empty and I don't check my main email on it).
I only have apps that I use to input things into the phone (writing, taking photos) and I eliminiated everything that isn't designed to end at some point.
No Instagram or any of the likes, only WhatsApp, but muted so I have to proactively check it. I do use a news reader, which is subscribed to the RSS feeds of the sites I want to follow. No algorithmic curation of that content, and no ads (unless I open the sites that the RSS items link to).
Keeping one's sanity away from the side effects of tech these days is quite a technical job, somehow ;)
> Keeping one's sanity away from the side effects of tech these days is quite a technical job, somehow
Disappointing, right? We are working on something to change this & take a different path into a technological future. Right now we are running out of cash (bootstrapped) & need to find ways to stay alive...
I have a feeling that it would be great to talk to you, after i've ensured survival.
EDIT: My response to your question was really flippant. Sorry. I hate how phones have become consumption powerhouses that eat into peoples’ lives instead of the ultra-powerful tools that supplement them, and your question triggered that nerve (though you didn’t mean to!).
There are lots of useful things you can do with your phone that don’t encourage consumption above all else.
One of those things is learning a new language.
I’ve been using Babbel and Duolingo to learn French. While they don’t replace language classes (though Babbel Live looks really compelling), they are excellent supplements and practice tools.
I recommend Duolingo with a huge caveat: the app is extremely gamified, complete with micro transactions (gems to protect strike freezes, extra hearts since you only get five and every mistake you make costs one), side quests and boosts (you’ll see ads to upgrade to Super Duolingo after every “lesson” and occasional ads for Duolingo Max, the AI-assistance tier). The website version has none of those. I only use the website version.
Start developping apps for your phone
Start modding the hardware of your phone (e.g. build a custom case)
Read books (modern phones with bigger screens are surprisingly comfortable for reading)
Research all the birthdays of your friends and safe them in the contact information. Your phone will remind you to send them a message on their birthday;)
I highly recommend "Backgammon NJ for Android" by Jimmy Hu - well worth the price. It has the best computer opponent I've seen (one that can usually beat me on the hardest setting, all of the computer opponents on the free backgammon games I tried years ago were a joke).
Coffee Golf is a great time waster
- A minimal launcher like OLauncher
- Obsidian for note taking.
- Syncthing-Fork to sync my notes and phone gallery with my computer.
- Local Send for file transfer between any device and OS.
- Readera for reading ebooks.
- Rethink DNS to firewall and selectively block internet for applications or domains.
- This helps a lot, e.g. cutting off Telegram and WhatsApp's internet when I've gone for a walk and just want to listen to music, but don't want to be bombarded by texts or calls. People say you can mute or turn off notifications, but I still subconsciously open these apps and get distracted.
- Newpipe for the occasional one-off YouTube video.
- Harmonic for hacker news. I've found many interesting articles and stories here.
the only other thing that comes to mind is streetcomplete which asks you questions about the openstreetmap map in your area. its a nice casual way to contribute to osm without having to do anything too complicated
- Read articles saved to a "read it later" service, like Instapaper or Readwise.
- Write thoughts and other stuff down.
- Play chess or other mindful games.
- If you have an iPhone, download the free GarageBand and mess around with making music.
- Don't use your phone.
Typical documents include my short term goals, my long term goals, my marketing ideas, my coding ideas, …
For each doc I defined how often I want to read it (every 14 days, every month, …)
Once i read it, I update the latest read date
The app then calculates which doc I should read next
Keeps me of the doomscroll
It provides relief for the before mentioned itch and i end up engaging with longer form content and often learning something, instead of brain rot.
I don't use apps for things if I can avoid them, even if it's a pain.
It's incredibly fun bringing even the simplest of things to life, and really rewarding getting to look back and see how your understanding of motion and weight grow over time.
The gameplay is pretty rote, but the soundtrack is INTENSE. The looong pixel graphic style is fun, and the enigmatic story is also fun.
I highly recommend "Backgammon NJ for Android" by Jimmy Hu - well worth the price. It has the best computer opponent I've seen (one that can usually beat me on the hardest setting, all of the computer opponents on the free backgammon games I tried years ago were a joke).
1. Networking with the experts of your field through right platforms. 2. Gain credibility by showcasing your achievements and progress. 3. Build your own distribution.
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.