Mr Gears has kindly allowed me to post not only news on the site, but also posts about using smartphones, and in my case, my shiny HTC Desire (2.1, on 3 network).
I would like us to share how useful we find out smartphones day to day – from the outright techy side of things, to useful apps and how your smartphone has helped you in a tight spot. So this post is about an ordinary Saturday and how I used my Desire for geocaching, photos, and planning the day.
Well, it started with undecision of what to do today. I didn’t break out the laptop, so used the Desire to check the weather, and then high tide info to see if a trip to the coast was worth it (it wasn’t). All using the default browser. Then to maps to see how far away our destination choices were (too far for today).
So we decided to go walking in the local area, but to spice it up a bit, we decided to Geocache for the first time. Using C:Geo (available in Marketplace) we were able to see what caches were in the area. This app gives access to www.geocaching.com on the fly, comments, GPS data, a compass, radar setting (yet to try this part of it) and the option to store the info to the phone so that you don’t need a data connection or your radio on to get the info as you are walking.
C:Geo was great, and was accurate. As we found the various caches (we found 5 altogether) the Desire’s camera was great for taking pictures of the treasure hunters in action. At rest stops, I had a data connection available, so I could check up on friends using Friendstream, and sent an email to a friend with regards to Swype.
As we were out for a few hours, and no one important was going to call, I was able to use the Desire’s widgets to turn the radio off to save the battery. 4ish hours of GPS, and the odd use use of data during breaks, and the camera use, only took half the battery.
So, over to you. How useful have you found your phone? lease let us all know in the comments so that the CoolSmartPhone community can learn just how cool the smartphones we use really are!