Mobile phones can do more than ever before, with faster CPUs, higher res screens and better cameras. However, you can get more out of the latest and greatest monolithic slab of silicon by investing in these four useful gadgets.
Starting with music, if you’ve just taken delivery of your iPhone 7, want to go wireless with your headphones but are not yet ready to consign your expensive cans to eBay then why not breathe new life into them with a 3.5mm to Bluetooth converter? Available for under a tenner, or a lot more if you are prepared to pay for a bit more elegance, these tiny devices will plug into the 3.5mm jack directly on your headphones (assuming that your existing cable is removable) and convert the signal to Bluetooth, allowing you to do away with the wire altogether. Granted, it’s one more thing to keep charged up, but they should be good for 8-10 hours and most use the now ubiquitous micro-USB socket for charging. A quick search on Amazon or eBay will throw up dozens of different designs, and these can also be used to convert older cars or music systems to accept music via Bluetooth.
As our phones are never far from our hands it makes good sense to use them to help locate other items that often elude us – keys, glasses cases, TV remotes, purses etc. Stick a Tile tag on anything you want to locate and it’ll use low-powered Bluetooth 4.0 to locate it via your phone. It’s bi-directional as well – press the button on the Tile to make your phone ring. The battery will last for a year too. They’re not cheap, at £19.95 for one or £49.95 for a four-pack, but if you’re the type to constantly lose things then it may be a small price to pay.
Although phones are shipping with more memory than ever before, you can still quickly run out of space if you use your phone as a camcorder – for example, 4K video will take up a whopping 22GB per hour! Even with Apple doubling the base model of the iPhone 7 from 16GB to 32GB that’s not going to leave a great deal of room for other apps or content. The Leef is a small U-shaped device with a standard USB connector at one end and either an Apple Lightning or micro-USB connector at the other. Starting from around £36 it’s available in 16, 32, 64, 128 and 256GB capacities, or an empty version with a micro-USB slot to insert your own cards, and allows iOS or Android handset to capture stills or video and write straight to it. If your phone is your main camera then this is a great addition to your tech arsenal, and is especially useful if you’ll be away from a computer for a while and unable to clear space on your device.
Despite advances in technology, the fact that we’re doing more with our phones means that we’re constantly casting a watchful eye on the remaining battery. Keeping a Nomad Key on your keyring means that you’ve always got either a micro-USB or Lightning cable close at hand. Couple that with a decent portable battery and you should be good for whatever the day throws at you. Nomad also offer a carabiner to clip onto your belt, portable batteries with built in location tracking (using Tile, mentioned above) and even wallets with built in batteries and cables.
Our mobiles are now such an important part of our lives and we invest so much into them – both in terms of time and money – that we hope these four useful gadgets will help supplement the lifespan of your shiny new device!
Martin Bailey’s new book: The Useful Book of Gadgets, Gizmos & Apps is out 04 October & available to pre-order from Amazon now for £9.99.
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