Our top 5 Fav features and things to do with smartphones

Phones do more than talk and text. That's what makes them smartphones. Most people call, email, and now texting is huge. But, keep an eye on this list and catch up on what a small minority of smartphone users already know - some fantastic features that truly enhance your mobile life, making the smartphone THE ONLY communication, entertainment, & productivity device you will carry around all the time.

6. Just talking
…with your phone pressed against your face (therefore not really using your smartphone features)

This is old school! If this is you, read #5, and then keep coming back as we outline #4 through #1.

5. Hands-free
Keeping your hands-free to either drive safely, or view your smartphone screen to check your calendar, look up numbers, and use the data service that you probably pay for. Don’t let a call stop you from doing it all!

Yes, you can use the phone speaker, but sound is average and sometimes with echo, you get no noise cancellation, and it drains your battery.

Almost every phone & every smartphone includes Bluetooth® technology, which as you may know, enables headsets w/o dangling/tangling wires.

Our recommendations on mono (voice only) Bluetooth headsets are based on the following ‘C’riteria – we call it the 5 C’s:

• Clarity (quality/performance)
• Coolness factor (design/style)
• Comfort (fit/size)
• Convenience (chargers, storage, etc.)
• Cost (price to value ratio)

If cost is the least important of all these criteria for you, our current favorite is this Bluetooth Headset. But, there are plenty of more choices, so we offer our selection, and also “Our Review” of each, which breaks through the noise and tries to give you info & price-to-value ratio in laymen terms.

Next up: #4 on our list (hint: this may make you leave the iPod at home!)

4. Music Player
That's right. We said it. Get rid of that iPOD, that Zune, that Sansa, that generic mp3 player. Most smartphones come with a good music player and either built-in memory or an external memory card slot. We like external memory card slots for the simple reason that we expand memory when we want and change cards for different applications. We highly recommend this 16GB card. The "ultra" series speeds up data transfer. This makes a huge difference when you have a bunch of songs and want to shuffle songs or take multiple pictures.

Talk about device integration. Smartphones let you listen to music (using wired headsets or stereo Bluetooth) and when a call comes in, the music is paused allowing you to take the call and then go back to the song without missing a beat. No more carrying 2 devices to the gym.

3. GPS
The Internet (Mapquest, Yahoo/Google Maps) made paper maps & AAA old school.
Then, new portable GPS units from Garmin, Tom Tom & others rendered print-outs from the Internet obsolete.

Now, your smartphone can basically do all of the above - and make things not only affordable, but even more convenient.

The only prerequisites are decent wireless coverage and a data plan - both of which are now more universally available & affordable.

Many smartphones come preloaded with Google Maps & likely another mapping/nav application from your service provider (Sprint NAV, etc.).

If you enable your phone to specify your location, Google Maps:

Quickly shows your exact location on a map,
let's you zoom in/out & pan around as you wish,
displays traffic congestion
tracks your location on the map as you move,
offers search of a location or destination,
provides directions to your destination,
and gives turn-by-turn directions until you reach.

So, exactly why would you pay $300+ for a GPS-only black box that can be a target for theft? (question is obviously moot if you've already purchased one - very handy, those GPS things!)
So, maps, locators, directions, traffic indicators are the cool features available on many smartphones. This is why GPS functionality is rated #3 on our top 5 list of fav features & ways to use our smartphones.

Of course, you can't see anything or do anything if the smartphone is on your belt, in your pocket, in a cup holder, on in your purse!

We like to just pop it into a very affordable, highly adjustable universal dash/windshield mount, and go go go. By the way, side benefits of this hands-free enabling mount - better safety, caller-ID, voice dialing, voice-based Google searches, etc.

Next up, #2 offers a "don't try this at home!" feature (actually, you can, and should!!)