Technology has a habit of changing family traditions. For example, televisions changed dinnertime for many families. Popular TV shows would be scheduled to air during dinnertime, so how did we adapt? TV dinners! When people started getting electricity in their homes, we started staying up later. The telephone even helped change migration patterns because family members could move further away from each other but still communicate quickly. Waiting 3 months for a reply to a letter you sent is hard to imagine.

Some of the habits people formed around new technologies can make those without not want to get involved, or as little as possible to get by. Any habit in excess can make a person annoying, ridiculous or even dangerous. Setting too close to the TV can hurt your eyes. Constant talking on the phone makes it hard for other family members to use the phone, and promotes gossip. Reading all night makes it hard to concentrate the next day.

So it stands to reason why this Mobilegeddon craze can be something you might want to ease into. People seem to be always looking down, not paying attention to what is going on right in front of them.

I’d like to point out a few benefits about using a mobile phone that you may not have thought of. There is a myriad of ways a smart phone can make tasks easier, and help you find more time to do what you really want to do.

First, I want you to consider the big picture. How many questions roll through your head, but you don’t find an answer because looking it up would be too time consuming? Think about just one days worth of questions. You wake up in the morning and you’re out of milk. “Where should I go to get milk knowing most stores run out of the kind I like by the end of the day? Does this shirt go with these pants? Is it going to rain tonight? I would call the plumber to fix this dripping faucet, but what is his phone number? Should I change my route to work for construction? Where should we go to eat? How much is 15% of $8.25? How much did that shipment cost? When is my rent due? Is Hawaii a red or a blue state?”

I bet one person could have more than a thousand questions swirling around in their head in just one day! Many, if not all of these questions can be looked up in seconds using a smart phone. Think about it… the time you spend looking up little bits of information. For the weather you walk over to the radio/TV, turn it on, find the weather station. Same for the plumber’s phone number. You have to go to the resource, look it up using that resource’s directory, and then go find it. That takes time when you could just reach for your phone and Google it.

Here is a list of ways to use your smart phone that will make you want to buy a phone holster:

1. If you see something in your store that needs cleaning, take a picture and show, email or text the picture to an employee to go clean up. A picture of the mess will show the urgency.
2. Your night manager tells you one of your freezers is broken. Tell them to Google the details of how it’s broken, it’s cool, but not cool enough, the door doesn’t seal shut. If it’s easy to fix, they can find a video on YouTube and fix it themselves.
3. If you have a product where the package is in another language, take a picture and upload it to the Photo Translator Free app to translate. No typing required!
4. When someone gives you a business card you can take a picture of it and use the FullContact Card Reader app to add the info to your contacts.
5. Find where your refrigerator is leaking cold air by turning your phone camera into a thermal imaging camera by using an add-on.
6. In an emergency, if a customer is having heart problems in your store, after calling 911, you can get their heart rate on your phone by just placing their finger on your phone.
7. Get rid of that old TV in your office and watch important news messages through your phone.
8. With a phone app and add-on called Automatic, you can diagnose your car when the “Check Engine” light comes on. You can get notifications of your mileage and braking habits to improve gas mileage. It can even alert authorities in case of a disabling crash. No more OnStar bills!
9. RedLaser can help you scan a bar code to price compare.
10. Use the app LifeLock to cut down on the cards you carry around. Simply take a picture of the card and the app will help you find it in a hurry when you need it. It can also keep prescription info for refills at the pharmacy, help you fill out all those forms when you go to see the doctor.
11. When you’re out and not sure what is close to go eat, use Monocle in Yelp. Just take a picture down the street of where you’re at and all the restaurants will pop up on your picture.
12. Are your batteries dead in your remote or blue tooth device? Just point the infrared light at your camera’s lens, push a button on your device. If you see a light on your camera, it’s not your batteries, but some other problem. If you don’t see a light, it’s your batteries. (This trick doesn’t work on an iPhone)
13. Borrowing notes? Take a photo of chalkboard or wipe board.
14. Keep inventory of all your equipment by taking a photo of the labels.
15. Use your camera’s zoom to magnify small type to read.
16. For an error message on your desktop screen that flashes too fast to read, take a video, then view frame by frame. Also good for movie credits!
17. Take a photo of radio screen to download a song you like later.
18. When taking something apart, take photos so you can put it back together later.
19. Tell your customers to take pictures of food they have complaints about.
20. Take a picture of your idea drawn on a napkin instead of carrying around a tattered napkin!