How to Improve What Smartphones Suck At

There are so many new and exciting things a smartphone can do nowadays, whether it’s new ways to entertain you while in the bathroom or ways to help you organize your personal and professional life. But after a few months of ownership and the honeymoon glow has worn off, you begin to notice the things your smartphone can’t do: a lot of them, surprisingly basic.  Here are a few shortcomings smartphones have and ways to fix them.

tech suck

  • Being cheap

Everybody has experienced this at least once: getting that mini heart attack when receiving the phone bill. Yes, buying the phone is not the last time you’ll spend, but there are a lot of ways to make things easier on your wallet. Start off by looking into free resources like VOIP services to save you money on calls. The best way however, is to go with a prepaid plan. That way you can keep track of your expenses and make sure there are no more nasty surprises.

  • Doing what a phone should do

Sure, with your brand new smartphone, you can play games, organize your life, browse the net, but how good is it at making and receiving calls? For the home or office it would be a good idea to have a secondary phone line like a landline or VoIP, but the simplest thing you can do is work on improving its reception.

  • Letting you be its boss

A lot of smartphones come with a bunch of applications you don’t want or need, but at the same time won’t let you install better ones. I don’t want a phone that tells me what I can or cannot do. Fortunately you can fix this by jail breaking, rooting or unlocking your phone or simply just deleting the useless apps.

  • Not breaking

Remember when you could drop a phone from a two storey building and it would work after you put it back together again? Now, a smartphone would faint at a little sweat, or crack if you sat the wrong way when it’s in your pocket. The solution is as simple as getting a case and a screen protector.

  • Not distracting

We all have that one friend who is constantly on his phone while the others are busy with more important things. It would also be nice not to constantly have to read your messages, or check Facebook

, out of fear of missing something important.  You must learn how to recognize if your smartphone is interfering with the rest of your life, and change your attitude toward it. Try also to be more sensible with your notifications. Prioritize the important ones and assign different tones to each according to urgency. Don’t forget to set it to silent in places sensitive to noise.

  • Staying charged

Smartphones have the habit of dying just when you are waiting for that important message/call and have no way to charge it.To keep your phone alive longer, you’llhave to make certain it isn’t wasting its battery on things you don’t need. Turn off all useless apps and features and set your screen to the lowest setting for starters.  Next you have to make sure to be able to charge your phone when you’re out of the house or office. Keep a charger or an extra battery in your bag for emergencies.

  • Taking pictures that don’t suck

This isn’t really important, but still, do you want to bring around your smartphone and a camera to take a halfway decent picture of that party you attended last weekend? There are few ways to hack the lenses of the camera, but try adjusting the camera settings, getting a better app for your camera, or fixing the pictures with a little post processing.

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