Posted on December 1, 2007 10:30 AM by chadley
You just got yourself a spiffy new cellphone that has tons of new features and you can't wait to use it. One of the things that it has is a camera. What all can you do with a camera in a cellphone, besides take goofy pictures of yourself and your friends after you've had a couple rum and cokes? Well, the great thing about having a camera in your cellphone is that you are very likely to have it with you. You may not always be walking around in public with your 7 mega-pixel digital camera, but you probably have your cellphone, if you own one. Here's what you can do with it in addition to taking candid pictures of your cat, or your brother's kid, or your brother's kid's cat.1. Make A Wishlist - Every year my family wants me to compile a list of potential Christmas gifts. I find that it is much easier to do this throughout the year rather than try to think of a list on the spot in December. One thing I like to do is walk through the section of a store that I like (usually the one that makes the most noise and uses the most electricity) and when I see something that would make a good gift for me I snap a picture with my cellphone. Later, when I get the chance, I add the item to my wishlist. If you don't manage a wishlist on this site or elsewhere, you can just keep the pictures and then when Christmas rolls around send all the pictures in an email, or put them on your Picasa site or something.
2. Old School Text Messaging - Recently my wife and I got new cellphones. We have service with Verizon Wireless, and they have a "new every two" plan, so we were able to upgrade our phones every two years, choosing from the list of phones that they offer, some of them for no extra cost. While we really liked the LG Env, we didn't want to pay the $100 to upgrade to that phone, so after some research, we opted for the most recent incarnation of the phone we already have, the LG VX8350. The VX8350 is a great phone, but it doesn't have the fancy keyboard that the Env has for sending text messages. So instead of sending text messages using the number pad on the VX8350, many times I just break out a sheet of paper and a sharpie and write my message, then take a picture. Obviously, I can't do this if I'm at the mall or something, but it works great when I'm at work, and I can send a 100 character message in the time it would take me to send an 8 character message with the number pad. If you have access to a whiteboard where you are (see #6), then that's better than paper, because it is recyclable!
3. Pictures Of Your Kids - I know that people already use their camera phones to take pictures of their kids. My phone is loaded with pictures of my daughter. I still have pictures of her on my phone that I took on the day she was born. That's not what I mean. What I'm talking about here is a little more serious. The next time you go to Wally World, or a parade, or even just to the mall with your kids, take a picture of them beforehand, that way if you get separated (every parent's nightmare), at least you'll have a picture or two to show exactly what they're wearing and what they look like, for people who help you look for them.
4. Remote Shopping - My wife is on one side of town on her lunch break at her job, and I am on the other side of town at Mega-Mart looking at clearance Halloween decorations. Instead of trying to explain what the ceramic leaf shaped bowl and platter look like and whether they would work for a party we're attending next week, I just snap a picture and send it to her for her approval. Easy peasy.
5. Financial Record Keeping - We have a monthly budget and I try to stay on top of our purchases but it can get tough. One of the things I do to keep track is take pictures of receipts, especially the ones that my wife wants to hold onto in case of returns. Later, when I have time, I just browse through the receipt pictures and make sure they get entered into our financial software. Make sure you have a good idea of how close you need to be with your phone to make a legible representation of the receipt.
6. Whiteboard Records - Where I work, dry erase whiteboards are used a lot in meetings. When you run out of whiteboard space or when the meeting is over, before you clean the whiteboard take a picture with your phone, and save it for reference. If your phone takes good enough pictures, there is software that will take a picture of a whiteboard and convert it to a nice clean bitmap.
7. Reminders - Using your camera phone for reminders is probably a no brainer, but one thing you can do is take pictures of stuff you want to be reminded of, then put them in a conspicuous place on your phone. If the babysitter needs diapers, then take a picture of the diapers box right there when she tells you , and set the picture as the wallpaper on your phone. The next morning, if you're like me you're probably going to look at that wallpaper more than once before you walk out the door.
8. Documentation - You just bought some shiny new gadget or some totally cool computer software/game. You install the software, type in the license key from the packaging, then start playing for the next 17 hours non-stop. Five months later your computer crashes and you've got to reinstall. What did you do with that package that had the license key on it? Well, it doesn't matter because right before you started your marathon session of Quigley's Killer Quakers, you grabbed your camera phone and took a picture of the license key. Hopefully, you made sure that you can read it. Newer camera phones take pretty good pictures (VX8350 is 1.3 Megapixels) and have a zoom feature when viewing them.
9. Remember Where You've Parked - I've seen this one mentioned elsewhere, but I have done it myself, so I am including it in my list. You've just parked the car about 3 miles from the airport (as the 747 flies) and you're going to spend the next 10 days and 9 nights cruising the Caribbean. You know that your brain will most likely be in neutral at 11:30pm on the day that you return, so why not take a couple pictures on your camera phone that will give you nice visual clues as to where your car is parked? That way you won't have to cart 175 pounds of baggage all over creation trying to find YOUR Pearl Red Honda Pilot.
10. Recipes - I use my phone from time to time to help me while shopping. I have this bad habit of writing up a shopping list or printing out a recipe, then leaving it at home or in the car, leaving me to try to remember each item on the list. Before you walk out the door, take a picture with your camera phone, that way if you forget the list or recipe you don't have to abort shopping and go back, or return later for forgotten items. This one also works well for recipes in general. If you're at a party or something and your host makes a delicious dish that you simply must have the recipe for, don't hope that they remember to email the recipe to you later, have them break it out for you quickly and snap a picture. Hopefully you'll capture the whole recipe, but if not you can probably fill in the blanks later over the phone.
So there you go. Ten things you can do with your camera phone. If you have some cool ideas that I don't have here, feel free to leave them in the comments.
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Tags: cameraphone, cellphone, technology