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Month: April 2016

The Coolest Things You Can Do With Your Smart Phone (That You Might Not Know About!)

A lot of us are attached to our phones. But while we might use it to text, make calls, and use social media, there are a wealth of possibilities that we are not exploring. And it’s because a lot of us don’t even know what our phone is capable of it. In fact, here are some of the coolest things you can do with your smartphone that you might not know about!

Pay for items in store

It can often be a long procedure in the store when it’s time to checkout. After all, you have to find the right card and then remember your pin. Therefore, this can all take far too long in our fast-paced world. However, there is a way you can pay for items in store by using your mobile phone! And that is via contactless payments on your smartphone. You can just use your fingerprint, and this combined with their contactless tech, means you can pay for your item without getting out your card! And if they don’t do this, a lot of companies have an app you can use. Therefore, you can use this to pay with your saved details before leaving the store! Soon all we will need to take out is our mobile; we can leave our wallet at home!

VeroPay App

Take thermal images

We all capture so many photos on our phone. In fact, it’s likely a day won’t pass without us snapping. But rather than another selfie, your phone camera can come in very useful. If you buy an add-on, you can ensure your phone camera can take thermal images. You basically take a photo of the area and then see the thermal energy in the picture. That means you can see when the electric is not working as it should be. And it can also help you to diagnose if you need more insulation in your house if an area is cold when it’s hot! Some people even use it when they go camping to ensure they get cooking sooner rather than later. Of course, you will need an add-on to be able to do the imagery. There is a lot online about the different types like FLIR One vs. Seek XR. That way, you can ensure you make the right choice for the purpose you need!

Do your math homework

Okay, you might not be at school anymore. But it doesn’t mean you won’t have equations that you need to answer which leave you clueless. And if you have a kid who needs help with their math homework, it can also leave you dumbstruck. But your phone can turn into a maths tutor. If you download the app Photomath, you just take a picture of the math problem, and it will tell you the answer. Moreover, it will show you the steps to get the answer which is useful to show your kid. That way, it will help them to do things like algebra and fractions in the future! And it can be a good learning tool for you for any maths problems you might come across every day!

And remember that your phone is fantastic for keeping your health in check. Not only can you check your heart rate, but there are apps you can download to ensure you are drinking and eating healthily too!

Random Links

No links are better than random links, so I have culled my Bookmarks to find some things that have piqued my interest lately, and I am presenting them here for your perusal. I supposed that the act of coagulating these links into a blog post no longer makes them “random” in some sense of the word, but nevertheless, here they are. Enjoy.

 

Always Something Interesting

Shorpy.com is an historic picture archive “featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.”

That sounds pretty neat, and it is. The site is choc-full of very high resolution, pre-Scalia imagery (too soon?) for you to look at. Who doesn’t like a hi-res picture of ‘newsies’ smoking cigarettes?

 

Gone Phishing

GoPhish is an open source phishing framework that allows you to create fake emails, add them to phishing campaigns, then track their success. Perfect for the Inter security professional in your house to do some social engineering in order to find out which family member is most likely to give up the login information for your Netflix account.

Being open source, it’s free to use as you wish.

 

Facebook Safety

FaceCrooks.com keeps an eye on all things Facebook related, with security tips, account setting recommendations, scam alerts, and more. Keep this one in your back pocket if you are a Facebook user.

 

Credit Card Fees

Don’t you hate being charged more to use your credit card when you get that cup of coffee? It’s an understandable position that many small shops try to recoup some of the processing fee for small transactions, but there are restrictions shop owners may be unaware of. This site keep you, the consumer and/or business owner, up to date about what you can and can’t expect related to charing fees for card use.