25 Unusual and Inspiring Uses for Your iPhone

It’s official. The iPhone has become a large part of our lives and, for many of us, we cannot think of life without it. There are many popular applications that have received a lot of media attention, but there are also those that quietly sit in a segment of our iPhone springboard that become an absolute necessity at the best of times.

In today’s post I will be looking at 25 “Unusual and Inspiring” uses for your iPhone – ranging from health to remote controls for just about anything! Please feel free to discuss apps that you too find unique in the comments below. Now on to the list…

Health

1. Surviving an Earthquake

I thought I’d start off with the most dramatic one first. Imagine thanking your handy little iDevice for keeping you alive in an Earthquake. Well, American film maker Dan Woolley has. Once freeing himself from rubble, and finding an escape to an elevator shaft, Woolley used a first-aid application to assist him in treating his wounds. The application also told him to set reminders not to fall asleep so he would not go into shock.

Some examples of these such applications are; St John’s Ambulance First Aid and Pocket First Aid and CPR (Woolley used this one!)

First Aid

2. Electronic Medical Records

LifeRecord is a handy little application for Doctors and medical professionals. Essentially it gives access to patients’ records via technology called EMRAnywhere. Doctors can prescribe medicine, bill patients and pull up their records regardless of where they are all with the touch of a button. The iPhone application works in sync with the desktop version so all records are kept up to date between the two devices.

3. Become Pregnant

Yes indeed, your iPhone can help you to become pregnant! A woman in the UK (Lena Bryce) was thought to be infertile for four years until she purchased an iPhone and downloaded theFree Menstrual Calendar application. Within two months of using this application, Bryce became pregnant and even gave birth on the exact day the application predicted. The child has been dubbed the first ‘iPhone Baby’.

Menstrual Calendar

4. Baby Monitor

A very smart idea that allows you to use your iPhone as a baby monitor for when it is sleeping (if you can part from it for that long!). CodeGoo’s Baby Monitor application is designed to alert you when your child awakens by placing an automatic phone call to any specified number when it detects sound or movement.

Baby Monitor

5. Warm Your Hands

Feeling cold this Winter? Well this is a great solution for you! The Hands Heater application will run your iPhone and will heat up the processes onboard to keep your hands toasty and warm! Obviously it won’t get too hot (and will likely cripple your battery life), so don’t expect any miracles, but a cool little app nonetheless.

The Hand Heater

Music

6. DJ Deck

An application not to be taken too seriously – Mix Deck is your own pocket DJ. You can mess around with the music on your iPhone by changing the speed and even using built in effects. Obviously not to be used in a real sense, but fun to play around with – who knows, it might inspire you to pick up Logic?

DJ Decks

7. Guitar Tuner

Guitar Toolkit is an application I use regularly myself. After searching through the iTunes store I found it to be the highest rated, and the most expensive. All I can say is WOW! It is very accurate – even with my iPhones microphone. I tune my Bass guitar with it often, it’s quick and easy! On top of this you get functionality of of a metronome and a chord library.

There are many other great tuner apps out there, just not as feature-packed. Cleartune is an example of such an application. If you are just after a tuner, maybe give it a go.

Tuner & Chords

Law

8. Locate Thief

Kevin Miller of Gizmodo has an interesting story of how he located the thief of his iPhone viaMobileMe’s ‘Find my iPhone’ service. While in Chicago, Miller’s iPhone was stolen at a bar. The next day he used ‘Find my iPhone’ to track down the thief, send him messages and eventually corner them until he gave it back.

Now imagine if a said thief stole multiple items of you including your iPhone. Miller is not the first, nor will he be the last. There are numerous cases of these stories floating around the net – lets just hope if your iPhone does get stolen, the battery does not run flat or they don’t turn it off.

9. Blood Alcohol Concentration Calculation

Ever been unsure what your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was and didn’t want to risk losing your license? Never fear – your iPhone is here to help! There are numerous applications out there that assist you in working out what your BAC is. One I have found useful is iAlcohol. It uses a library of drinks and the latest science research to help you calculate when you are safe to drive again. DrinkTracker is another such application.

As a provisional driver (whose BAC has to be 0) this application is very useful after a big night to gauge when it is safe to drive in the morning.

iAlcohol

10. Speed Traps

Trapster.com is a service that is available to you on both your computer and mobile device. It relies on its users to submit information about current speed traps, or known locations of police. You can set it up to alert you within a specified distance of your location.

And yes, it does seem Police are endorsing the use of it – entering in their own locations.

Trapster

Payments

11. Invoicing and Time Tracking

There are various invoicing and time tracking applications available to us so we can do all the ‘paperwork’ on our iPhone from any location – even a clients office. Billings – a very popular Mac application has recently come out with their iPhone version which will synchronise across both platforms. It works quite well and, while the initial application is free, you need to do an in-app purchase to enable abilities like synchronisation between the two.

Another application, Timewerks, also lets you do your invoicing and time tracking on the spot. While it doesn’t look as visually appealing, it works.

12. On-the-Spot Payments

Think back to when internet banking was first introduced – you were amazed you could access your money from pretty much anywhere in the world? Square is the next thing to put you back into that ‘amazement zone’. In simple terms, it allows you to take payment (cash or card) anywhere, on your iPhone.

When you sign up for Square, you are mailed a small card reader that sits neatly in your headphone jack allowing you to take payments with a 2.9% rate. Other than this there are no other costs. You can even email your customer their invoice on the spot so no paperwork is required. Unfortunately it is not available in Australia just yet, but I can assume it will be more readily available in the coming months.

Remote Control & Access

13. Control House

There are many, different applications out there for controlling your home from a remote location. This can be anything from your alarm, locks, lights, air conditioner and media system. You of course need to buy hardware from the respective company to get this set up, but the convenience would be golden. Some also monitor your energy usage, so you could save money on your energy bills too.

14. Rent a Car

ZipCar is a service offered in the US, Canada and the UK. It allows you to reserve cars for your own use for a specified time. For a while now they have offered you the ability to reserve these vehicles using your computer and use your ‘ZipCard’ (a card with a small chip within it) to unlock the cars.

The concept behind it is ingenious, as it allows you to take total control of your rental. What makes this even better is that you can do all this and more right from your iPhone. Once you have booked the vehicle (via computer or your iPhone), you can use it to beep its horn to locate the vehicle in a parking lot, and even unlock it. Simply brilliant!

ZipCar

15. Car Key

The Viper SmartStart application gives you the same functionality as ZipCar (although a bit more), but for your own vehicle! You may unlock it, pop the trunk, sound the alarm, or even start your car remotely! It certainly would be convenient, however I would keep your keys with you just in case – what if you park in a 3G/Edge blackspot?

16. Remote Access PC/Mac

TeamViewer is a great remote access application for both Mac and PC. It is very easy to use, with virtually no set up. TeamViewer is also available for the iPhone now so you can access your computer while you are out and about. Reports state that it is quite smooth, even over 3G. It’s free too, so why not try it?

TeamViewer

17. Remote Mouse To Computer

There are many remote mice applications out there on the app store, but I have found Air Mouse Pro to be the best. It works in a very fluid manner and is more than just a trackpad. In addition, it offers keyboard replacement, and emulation of your dock.

It also gives you the ability to remote control your media applications. Once you have purchased the application, just download the small program for your computer as well.

18. Automatic Computer Lock

AirLock is an application that automatically locks your computer based on your iPhone’s proximity to it (via Bluetooth). It looks like a promising application but has a few bugs to be ironed out – read all about it in a review from our sister-site Mac.AppStorm.

I can assure you that once they work out the various bugs, this will become one of those ‘must have’ applications for the workplace.

19. Record Cable Remotely

Cable is a great thing isn’t it? With your iPhone you can now remotely record cable programmes from virtually anywhere in the world. For those users with a TiVo, there is aweb app. For users in Australia with Foxtel, there’s a fully fledged App Store tool.

Utilities & Miscellaneous

20. Cooking Guide

You’re at home and don’t know what to cook? Why not pick up your trusty iPhone and do a bit of searching. AllRecipes.com’s Dinner Spinner app is here to save the day!

With this application (free and paid version) you can search through a library of various recipes to try out. It’s a nice, quick and easy way to gain an idea of what to cook up, and you have all the instructions at your fingertips.

Also worth mentioning, for those who are going out but don’t know where to go, isUrbanSpoon’s app.

AllRecipes

21. Paint

Using the iPhone’s multi-touch technology, you can turn your iPhone into a digital canvas. In fact, Jorge Colombo has done just that, painting the cover of The New Yorker.

He used a widely popular application called Brushes. Many people have experimented and played around with it as you can see from their Flickr pool. Some creations are quite impressive and blow you away.

Brushes

22. Desk Calendar

FlipTime is a neat little iPhone app that can serve as a replacement for your desk calendar. It is designed to sit in your iPhone’s dock while you are at your desk. Again, it is another paper-saving solution over the traditional method.

FlipTime

23. Metal Detector

This is a nifty little app that only works on the iPhone 3GS (and iPads). It uses the in-built magnetometer to do this. There have been varied reports about the success of this application, but at least it has some possible basis for success – rather than other gimmick-type software!

24. Speedo

A cool thing about utilising the GPS functionality of the iPhone is that you can start to play around with applications surrounding speed, height, etc. German company xGadgets has created an iPhone app that will do all of this, plus add in tracking too!

There are also many others in the App Store too, they just don’t offer the same feature set. If you want a ‘lighter’ option, they are probably more viable.

Speedometer

25. Spirit Level

iHandySoft have created an ingenious spirit level that makes use of the accelerometer in the iPhone. It’s called iHandy Level and it’s free. It’s very easy to use, just collaborate it and off you go. If you were after a more feature-rich application – iHandySoft have created aCarpenters toolkit which contains more functionality.

Spirit Level

Conclusion

That concludes this (rather large) post. It is amazing what the iPhone can do with all its built-in technologies and it’s great to see developers coming up with very innovative ways to utilise the device. I can safely assume in future versions of the iPhone to come, there will be even more functionality!

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Fastest Ways to Transfer Files Between PCs and Mobile Devices

Remember when files had to be split between multiple floppy disks to move them between computers? Or the inconvenience of burning data to rewritable CDs? Thank goodness we’ve moved on from those primitive methods.

The truth is, file transfers have never been faster than they are today. Yet, to many of us, transfer speeds still seem like they inch along and take forever to complete. It’s funny how inconvenient it can be finding a quick and easy way to move data between devices.

Fortunately, we have you covered. Never again will you have trouble with cross-device file transfers.

Between Windows and Windows

The best method for Windows-to-Windows data transferal depends on how often you will make those transfers. If it’s a one-off file transfer, then you’re better off using something like Bluetooth or Wi-Fi Direct.

For Bluetooth to work, both the sending and receiving Windows computer must be Bluetooth-compatible. Wi-Fi Direct is a similar concept, except files are sent and received straight over Wi-Fi instead. While Wi-Fi Direct is much faster, the downside is that it isn’t as universally available as Bluetooth.

Either way, we have a guide to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Direct file transfers on Windows 8.1; check it out if that’s the way you want to go.

On the other hand, if you will send a lot of files over a long stretch of time, e.g. if it’s part of your regular routine or workflow, it’ll be more convenient to set up a shared folder or shared external drive on the network, one that other computers can access at any time to pull files on demand.

Consult our home networking guide for more details on that.

Between Windows and Non-Windows PCs

These days, it isn’t uncommon to have some mixture of Windows, Mac, and/or Linux machines under one roof. While these systems tend to remain isolated most of the time, there are times when you might need to move a file from one to another.

The main obstacle is that each system has its own unique way of storing file data, called file systems. For example, the most common are NTFS on Windows, HFS Plus on Mac, and EXT* on Linux. Conversion between file systems is not always easy.

But in the case of Windows-to-Mac, it is. Starting with OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), Macs have been capable of reading and writing in NTFS format, as long as the user makes a necessary system setting change.

This means you can share a folder between Mac and Windows and transfer files through it. Check out our tutorial on sharing files between Mac and Windows for detailed instructions.

The same holds true for Windows-to-Linux, but the process is a little more involved. Each system can set up a folder for the other system to access, but you’ll need to install cifs-utils (to access Windows folders from Linux) and samba (to make a Linux folder visible to Windows).

HTG has a wonderful sharing guide that explains how to do all of this in fine detail.

Between Windows and iOS

For the most part, file transfers between Windows and iOS involve little more than music, in which case you could just go ahead and use iTunes for synchronizing–but iTunes tends to be a frustrating mess when used on Windows.

The good news is, there’s a better way.

FileApp is an app, available on both iPhones and iPads, that acts as a mobile device file manager. With it, you can browse and open any file that resides on the device you’re using, including formats like PDF, DOC, XLS, and PPT. (You get to decide which app the file opens in.)

But what we’re really interested in is FileApp’s ability to share files over Wi-Fi. It essentially turns your mobile device into an FTP server, allowing any computer to connect (using an FTP client) and download files directly.

Head over to our guide on sharing files with FileApp for step-by-step directions on how to get it set up. Do note that anyone who connects through FTP will be able to view all files on the device.

Between Windows and Android

Like FileApp, which was mentioned above, Android has several apps available on the Play Store that can turn any Android device into an FTP server. When the server is on, any computer can connect, browse the entire Android file system, and download files at will.

At this moment, my preferred app is My FTP Server. It doesn’t look too great, but it’s incredibly simple and straightforward, and that’s all you really need when it comes to file transfers.

If you’d prefer to send individual files rather than opening up your device as a full-blown file server, consider using PushBullet (recommended) or AirDroid. Both can send files over the network to any connected computer at the tap of a button.

And, of course, you could always plug your Android device straight into your computer with a USB cable, as detailed in our guide to transferring files between PC and Android. By far the most straightforward option.

Cross-Platform Transfer Methods

In addition to all of the above methods, there are a few other techniques and services you can use that will likely work regardless of which devices you’re trying to bridge. As such, these are often the most convenient options, though they do come with their own downsides.

Dropbox is the obvious choice. We’ve written about transferring between Android and PCs with Dropbox before, but Dropbox is also available on iPhone, iPad, Windows Phone, Windows Tablets, Blackberry, Kindle Fire, and the Web. Use the provided Public folder for easy sharing of files.

The drawback of using Dropbox–or any other cloud-based storage–is that your files must travel through a middleman, which is inherently less secure and less private. Plus, you have to upload and download separately rather than transferring straight to the target device.

Another option is to transfer through email using a file transfer service like FileMail, which is free, requires no registration, and allows files up to 30 GB in size. If FileMail doesn’t work for you for some reason, you can try these other methods for sending large email attachments.

But the best alternative is to use a cross-platform direct transfer app calledFeem. This awesome tool is available for download on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Windows Tablets, and soon enough, Blackberry.

With Feem, you can make a direct transfer from any device to any other device, as long as Feem is installed on both. The transfer is made wirelessly over Wi-Fi, which means it’s fast, unrestricted, and doesn’t rely on a middleman service.

There are a few other features too, which you can learn more about in our overview of Feem for file transfers. The one big downside is that it’s ad-supported, and if you want to remove ads, you’ll have to buy a license for each Feem app ($5 for Windows, $2 for Android, etc).

Any Other Ways to Transfer Files?

If you’re frequently shuffling files around, I’d go with Feem. If you’re working with the same files across multiple workstations, I’d stay in sync using Dropbox. But if you just need a one-off transfer, I’d go with one of the more device-specific solutions.

In any case, you should now be equipped to make any kind of file transfer between any two devices.

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Top 10 Web Design Resources

All credit goes to photographers, illustrators and designers as they have developed such beautiful designs that you can incorporate into your own designs for commercial and personal use. These artists have made it easier to share these resources with others by waiving the rights under CCO licence.

1. Public Domain Archive

As the name suggest Public domain Archive is free public domain image repository built to provide free images from artists and photographers all around the globe. It is completely free from contraction and attribution.

Website source – http://publicdomainarchive.com/
Copyright – It is completely free from contraction and attribution.

2. Pond5

Image Source-webdesign.tutsplus.com

Pond5 is the prime source to gather classical and vintage images (65,000 images) for your project. It also has a separate section named as Public domain where images are subject to copyright (being available to the public as a whole).

Website source – http://www.pond5.com/free
Copyright – It is completely free from contraction and attribution.

3. Pixabay

Image Source-webdesign.tutsplus.com

Pixabay is one of the famous and image mine for artists and designers for stock photography. It consist more than 400,000 images and art illustrations,

Website source – https://pixabay.com/
Copyright – It is completely free from contraction and attribution.

4. Pexels

Image Source-webdesign.tutsplus.com

Pexels is another popular image depositary. Daily more than 10 new images are uploaded.

Website source – http://www.pexels.com/
Copyright – It is completely free from contraction and attribution.

5. Picjumbo

Image Source- webdesign.tutsplus.com

Picjumbo is meant for both personal and professional usage. It is well known for its beautiful stock photography.

Website source – https://picjumbo.com/
Copyright – It is completely free from contraction and attribution.

6. Gratisography

Image Source-webdesign.tutsplus.com

Gratisography is a stock photography website by Ryan McGuire. He offers picture perfect images for commercial and personal usage as well.

Website source – http://www.gratisography.com/
Copyright – It is completely free from contraction and attribution.

7. Picography

Image Source-webdesign.tutsplus.com

Picography offers high resolution images from some of the professional photographers. It can be used for commercial use.

Website source – http://picography.co/
Copyright – It is completely free from contraction and attribution.

8. Stocksnap

Image Source-webdesign.tutsplus.com

Stocksnap is a gold mine for stock photography.Weekly hundreds of images are added to its database. Its one stop place to find beautiful and high resolution photography.

Website source – https://stocksnap.io/
Copyright – It is completely free from contraction and attribution.

9. Unsplash

Image Source-webdesign.tutsplus.com

You will be amazed to use the beautiful stock photography from unsplash. Daily 10 new images are added to it.
Website source – https://unsplash.com/
Copyright – It is completely free from contraction and attribution.

10. PLiXS

Image Source-webdesign.tutsplus.com

PLiXS offers different type of beautiful stock photography. Its has a huge range of categories as per your project.

Website source – https://plixs.com/
Copyright – It is completely free from contraction and attribution.

Hope these designing free resources are really helpful to use stock photography.You can use them into beautiful pieces as per your requirements.

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200 Ways To Make Money Online

We hear many stories of people making a lot of money from just sitting at their computer, and it is entirely possible. There are many folks making six figures a year from just working online. The internet is a gold mine if you know how to access that treasure.

Money schemes can be a scam tough! It is therefore important that you do your research. The infographic below shows over 200 ways in which to make money online. Pretty straight forward, these ways are completely legal.

What it demands from you is that instead of sitting idle and watching your crappy TV, you sit in front of your computer, learn and make money!

Even if you’re not willing to give up your full time job, you can easily fit these tasks around it. It’s a good way to bring in a few hundred every month and add it to your income.

I myself make money from the following ways listed in the infographic – writing/blogging (like this article I’m writing now), graphic design, coding, internet marketing, freelancing, affiliate marketing and advertising. It is a lot and that is because it’s my full time job. If you do this sort of thing full time, you can easily carry out many different ways to make money. And they all add up at the end of the month.

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25 Unusual and Inspiring Uses for Your iPhone

It’s official. The iPhone has become a large part of our lives and, for many of us, we cannot think of life without it. There are many popular applications that have received a lot of media attention, but there are also those that quietly sit in a segment of our iPhone springboard that become an absolute necessity at the best of times.

In today’s post I will be looking at 25 “Unusual and Inspiring” uses for your iPhone – ranging from health to remote controls for just about anything! Please feel free to discuss apps that you too find unique in the comments below. Now on to the list…

Health

1. Surviving an Earthquake

I thought I’d start off with the most dramatic one first. Imagine thanking your handy little iDevice for keeping you alive in an Earthquake. Well, American film maker Dan Woolley has. Once freeing himself from rubble, and finding an escape to an elevator shaft, Woolley used a first-aid application to assist him in treating his wounds. The application also told him to set reminders not to fall asleep so he would not go into shock.

Some examples of these such applications are; St John’s Ambulance First Aid and Pocket First Aid and CPR (Woolley used this one!)

First Aid

2. Electronic Medical Records

LifeRecord is a handy little application for Doctors and medical professionals. Essentially it gives access to patients’ records via technology called EMRAnywhere. Doctors can prescribe medicine, bill patients and pull up their records regardless of where they are all with the touch of a button. The iPhone application works in sync with the desktop version so all records are kept up to date between the two devices.

3. Become Pregnant

Yes indeed, your iPhone can help you to become pregnant! A woman in the UK (Lena Bryce) was thought to be infertile for four years until she purchased an iPhone and downloaded theFree Menstrual Calendar application. Within two months of using this application, Bryce became pregnant and even gave birth on the exact day the application predicted. The child has been dubbed the first ‘iPhone Baby’.

Menstrual Calendar

4. Baby Monitor

A very smart idea that allows you to use your iPhone as a baby monitor for when it is sleeping (if you can part from it for that long!). CodeGoo’s Baby Monitor application is designed to alert you when your child awakens by placing an automatic phone call to any specified number when it detects sound or movement.

Baby Monitor

5. Warm Your Hands

Feeling cold this Winter? Well this is a great solution for you! The Hands Heater application will run your iPhone and will heat up the processes onboard to keep your hands toasty and warm! Obviously it won’t get too hot (and will likely cripple your battery life), so don’t expect any miracles, but a cool little app nonetheless.

The Hand Heater

Music

6. DJ Deck

An application not to be taken too seriously – Mix Deck is your own pocket DJ. You can mess around with the music on your iPhone by changing the speed and even using built in effects. Obviously not to be used in a real sense, but fun to play around with – who knows, it might inspire you to pick up Logic?

DJ Decks

7. Guitar Tuner

Guitar Toolkit is an application I use regularly myself. After searching through the iTunes store I found it to be the highest rated, and the most expensive. All I can say is WOW! It is very accurate – even with my iPhones microphone. I tune my Bass guitar with it often, it’s quick and easy! On top of this you get functionality of of a metronome and a chord library.

There are many other great tuner apps out there, just not as feature-packed. Cleartune is an example of such an application. If you are just after a tuner, maybe give it a go.

Tuner & Chords

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