Smartphone technology is revolutionary. It has single-handedly changed the way that people work and manage their everyday lives. And yet to many, something like the iPhone is just a glorified email inbox and Angry Birds machine. Limiting a smartphone's capabilities in this way sells the device short. In fact, these devices are being used to do some outside-the-box thinking in ways never before imagined.
Smartphones like the iPhone have become veritable Swiss army knives in countless situations. Here are just a few ways in which smartphone technology is altering the world:
1) Board games
Yes, we all know that the iPhone can play games. But smartphones have proven to be of great use for games that still hold a physical element – namely tabletop games in the vein of Dungeons and Dragons.
According to BoingBoing contributor Matt Casey, the game Golem Arcana is a traditional tabletop game augmented with an mobile app. The software tracks statistics and moves while rolling virtual dice for the players.
“In theory, players could handle all of these tasks with pen, paper, dice and a physical rulebook, but doing so would create a bookkeeping headache,” Casey wrote. “Golem Arcana uses a 'cooldown' system that makes each ability more expensive for a short time after it's used. Players could track this with tokens, but they would have to remember to remove the tokens each turn. This would create an enormous opportunity for cheating — or for simple mistakes that change the outcome of the game.”
2) Tracking Ebola
Games are fun, but there is so much more that smartphones can do – like help track the spread of infectious diseases. How could Apple know how right they would be when they came up with the slogan “there's an app for that?”
The recent worldwide spread of Ebola is being handled in part through mobile devices, according to ITProPortal. The development of big data helps health officials to study areas where there is an outbreak.
“Used in conjunction with existing data, information pulled from mobile phone masts helps to provide a broad overview of what is happening in any given area,” ITProPortal contributor Mark Wilson wrote. “For example, by monitoring mobiles, it would be possible to notice a spike in calls to health and helplines. This could be indicative of a problem in the area so resources could be better concentrated. Mobile phone masts can also be monitored to track changes in population movement – compare current activity level to historic data and it's easy to see when patterns change.”
3) Maritime safety
For many people, the only worry when it comes to iPhones on boats is dropping one overboard. But after a ferry sank off the coast of South Korea earlier this year, a big concern was that smartphones weren't doing enough. According to Signal International, this led KT Corproration and Samsung Electronics to develop new emergency technology that can detect people's distance for up to 500 meters if they have a smartphone. This means that should people fall overboard on a boat, they can be more easily located. This method of rescue makes a lot of sense – countless people these days have smartphones of some kind, and enabling a way to find disaster survivors thanks to this fact is a big deal.
There are really some incredible ways in which iPhones can be used to improve daily life. But in order to enjoy these kinds of benefits, your iPhone has to be working! Contact iResQ today for all of your iPhone repair needs.