Slashdot Mirror
Three Low-Tech Hacks for Phones and Tablets
OK, now before everyone starts shouting "DUH!", I can tell you that I was at a conference right before New Year's, and every day from about 11 a.m. onward, I heard people saying that their phones were about to die, that they would either about to drop off the grid or would have to spend the next half-hour shackled to an outlet via their phone charger, etc. I never once heard anyone mentioning swapping in a spare phone battery, and according to my own survey of my friends, none of them have ever tried it either. But that conference was my first trip after ordering two spare batteries for my Stratosphere from Verizon ($10 each), and it was also the first trip where I never had to waste a second thinking about how to stretch out the phone's battery life or how much time I had left. Just swap in the second battery at around 3 PM, and then swap in the third one at around 10 PM, if there was still anything worth staying out for.
You could instead get "extended life" batteries for certain models of phones as well, but they cost much more than the standard batteries, and some users report that they make the phone noticeably heavier and bulkier. There are also portable phone chargers — which charge themselves from wall outlets, and then carry a charge that can be used to re-charge the phone through the micro-USB connection — but of course they're bigger and heavier than spare batteries, and you have to leave the phone connected to it while the phone is recharging. I didn't see the need for either of those products after picking up two regular spare batteries.
The most inconvenient part of the process was recharging the multiple batteries at the end of the day — since I didn't have a standalone battery charger, I could only recharge the batteries by charging them in the phone itself, swapping each one out after it had spent an hour charging (if I stayed awake that long). To that end, it would be convenient if more phone manufacturers would make battery-only chargers, so that at the end of the day you could plug your depleted spare batteries into their own re-charger at the same time that you're using the normal phone charger to charge the battery currently in the phone, then go to sleep and let everything charge up overnight. There standalone chargers for some phone batteries, like the Blackberry, but they're in the minority. (Meanwhile, iPhones do not have user-serviceable batteries at all; when the battery dies and becomes non-rechargeable, you're supposed to take it to an Apple repair center to be replaced.)
It seems odd to me that phone manufacturers spend millions of dollars figuring out how to extend the battery life of their phones, and here's a solution that works for almost everyone who has a zippered pocket for spare batteries (and a phone other than an iPhone). But I didn't think of it for years, nobody else that I've talked to ever thought of it either, phone manufacturers don't steer people toward this option, and most of them don't make standalone chargers that would make the process easier. Well, now you know.
2. Hacked furniture to hold a tablet PC above your bed
For years I'd occasionally watched movies on my laptop in bed, and I always felt bit of a strain on my back or neck while sitting up and leaning against a pillow, but eventually the movie would distract me if it was any good at all. Then a week ago, in an act laden with heavy-handed but unintentional symbolism, I dumped all of the books out of one of my bookshelves to make it easier to watch TV without getting out of bed:
The protruding shelf is attached to the bookcase with a pair of metal clamps, and then weighed down with some heavy books to counterbalance the weight of the tablet. (You want the clamps tight enough that the shelf can't move at all, relative to the bookcase.) The tablet holder, a Zuwit 360 Degree tablet stand, is attached to the end of the shelf using its own built-in clamp, and then bent into a downward arc to hold the tablet.
In case you're wondering why I didn't just clamp the tablet holder to a nightstand next to the bed, the answer is that none of the tablet holders I looked at had a flexible gooseneck that would extend far enough. (Remember, the gooseneck doesn't just have to reach from the edge of the bed to above your head; it has to arch up and then bend downward to hold the tablet from above, all while giving you enough slack to reposition the tablet in the air if you want to.) I assume there's a practical upper limit on how long the manufacturers want the gooseneck to be; if it's too long, then when it's extended sideways it could bend under its own weight plus the weight of whatever it's holding. Hence the shelf extending out over the mattress.
To make this work, you need a gooseneck tablet holder like the Zuwit that specifically has short teeth protruding over the edge of whatever it's holding, to grip it so that it won't fall when the tablet is held upside-down. (I'd originally tried this with a BESTEK tablet holder, but the tablet gripper didn't have teeth coming down in front of the screen, so the tablet would occasionally fall out and land on my head.)
It was a bit of work to put together, but I've never felt rested in a more comfortable position while watching a 2-hour movie. All cheaper than installing a flatscreen in your ceiling, and better, actually, since you can reach up and rotate the tablet whenever you change position.
But as a proof-of-concept only, this is a pretty ugly piece of furniture, and while I'm able to get in and out of bed easily without hitting the protruding shelf, it gets more complicated if you're ever have "company." In my case, there's enough space behind the bookcase that I can tilt it backward, moving the protruding shelf and the tablet holder so that they're no longer over the bed. This solves the problem of how to get it out of the way, but not the fact that it's still a pretty ugly conversation piece. You can un-clamp the protruding shelf from the bookcase and hide it away, but you're still left with a bulky, empty bookcase oddly perched at the end of your bed, and that's too much of a pain to lift and move some place every time you want to assemble the tablet holder or disassemble it when you have company coming over. I want to take another go at it using a shelf attached to a stack of milk cartons — which would be even uglier, but much lighter and easier to disassemble and move out of the way.
Speaking of milk cartons and ideas that make my chiropractor happy:
3. Hacked furniture to hold a tablet in front of an exercise machine
So that's what I did with the BESTEK tablet holder that didn't work for holding the tablet upside-down in bed; it works perfectly well attached to a stack of milk cartons, where the tablet only has to be held sideways. Again, ugly. But again, easy to disassemble and hide if I know company's coming over.
Of course there's a space on the elliptical trainer (underneath the control panel) for holding books, tablets, and other reading/viewing material, but it requires you to crane your neck downward to focus on that space, and I always felt uncomfortable looking in that direction for more than a few minutes while exercising. The obvious idea was to hold up the tablet by attaching the gooseneck tablet holder to the control panel of the elliptical itself, but (a) the body around the control panel is mostly hollow plastic, which has too much "give" for the clamp to attach to it securely; (b) if the tablet is attached to the machine directly, then it jiggles while the machine is moving, making it hard to watch the screen; and (c) the gooseneck still doesn't reach far enough to hold the tablet higher than eye level, which is best for your posture if you're looking at it while exercising.
Hence, the tower of milk cartons. Now when I first went to the local Container Store and was told that a stack of five milk cartons would cost $60, I assumed I was being subjected to the usual downtown Bellevue yuppie price-gouging that also gave us $500 "minimalist" bookshelves available in the same store, but, no, that is actually what non-stolen milk crates actually cost. (They're so easy to walk off with, and useful as "modular furniture," that the International Dairy Foods Association as launched a campaign to get people to stop stealing them.) With a bit of experimenting, you can find the right height for the gooseneck tablet holder, and position the tablet so that it's far enough from your face for comfortable viewing, while still close enough that you can touch the screen. (The stack of books in the topmost crate keeps it from tipping over from the weight of the tablet.)
Of course if you work out on an elliptical at a gym, it's a bit less convenient to carry a stack of milk crates in with you. Maybe a tablet accessories company should come out with a portable, collapsible tripod that rests securely on the ground while extending upward to provide a thick, flat surface about 5 feet above the floor — where a gooseneck tablet holder could be clamped onto the flat surface and then hold the tablet itself in front of the user's face at the right altitude.
Then if you start watching a movie on the tablet while working out and you don't make it all the way through, you can finish the movie on the tablet while it's suspended above your head in bed. Gives you something to do while swapping out the batteries in your phone and waiting for them to recharge.
I have multiple batteries and its great. One of the main reasons i don't like Apple hardware.
I think we just went from "news for nerds" to "news for morons who couldn't find their ass if it wasn't attached" in one post.
1. get a spare battery.
2. get a long arm to hold your device for you.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
Clearly you're not a musician or you would have found this.
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
I used to carry the spare batteries, but the portable phone charger can charge my phone AND other devices about 3 or 4 times. My ear is not tethered to my phone, so it's not a big deal to have my phone plugged into a plastic device that's about the same size as my phone. If you can't put your phone down for a few minutes at a time, then go for the spare batteries - but then you've got to figure out when you are going to charge them. Want to spend your whole evening in the hotel charging a variety of batteries in your phone?
1. Carry a spare battery.
2. Clamp your replacement tablet over your bed so you can masturbate without the tablet slipping off the bed and breaking.
3. Clamp your tablet in front of your treadmill - fuck it, you're never going to use that thing. Forget 3.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Soulskill is killing my soul with this "story".
In my day, a "hack" was building a serial interface to an IBM Selectric typewriter to turn it into a printer...
Today, a "hack" is buying a spare battery for your phone.
You're still standing on my lawn.
I just found a new way to hack my desktop computer and you simply MUST try it! /end sarcastic parody post
For years I have been annoyed by having to bend down and turn my computer on or off.
I hacked it by putting a power strip between the plug and the wall and now can turn it on and off by stepping on the power strip's switch.
Of course I get all kinds of disk errors, but Windows does that anyway and almost always fixes things for me.
Now I don't have to do all that stretching anymore!
Makes as much sense as the asinine article posted up there.
I think I'm lost. Is this Pinterest?
I got sick of scooping dog food for my puppy out of the bag with my hand, so I grabbed a plastic cup and started using that instead. I call it the "puppy food cup".
Sorry to "cool story bro" you, but that stuff is kind of weak. "Buying a new battery", "overcomplicated solution to replicate this. (note the standing function. Works great for me while in bed.)", and "I just bought college dorm room furniture" don't really qualify as hacks. Unless the slippers I bought this weekend qualify as a "temperature hack for keeping my feet warm."
Support the EFF and Creative Commons. The war is coming, and they're supporting you...
The battery tip is great, but even better than "more manufacturers making out of phone chargers" would be standard sized batteries, or at the very least, standard battery connectors, so anyone could make out of phone chargers, or one charger fits all.
the above is my personal opinion and does not necessarily reflect that of the little voices in my head
that's the downside to getting an apple device *ducks and puts on fireproof body armor*
r.e. "news for morons who couldn't find their ass..."
There's an an app for that: blutracker-locator.
Attached ass or not, blutracker should help.
I think we just went from "news for nerds" to "news for morons who couldn't find their ass if it wasn't attached" in one post.
I got a virgin mobile 3g/4g hotspot. I got the 2GB for $35/mo, which comes with unlimited wimax. Now, after 10GB/mo they will throttle you to 2mb/s, so it won't compare to Google Fiber, FIOS, or anything of that nature. In my experience it's more reliable and better speeds than Clear. So what I did was take my service-less Android, set up Google Voice, and downloaded Groove IP for Android. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gvoip&hl=en . So now I can make outbound and take inbound calls using Google Voice, carry the wireless hotspot in my pocket, disable 4g mode, and basically have phone and internet for $35/mo. As a single guy, this is pretty sweet. The virgin mobile is a little hard to activate, but the investment in terms of effort is worth it.
Mark Anthony Collins
Store your extra cell phone battery in your front pants pocket along with paper clips, foil gum wrappers and loose change. You never know when a fire in your pants will come in handy.
What the fuck is this?
WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?
I'm AC because I can't be bothered to log .. I mean .. what the FUCK is this?
Why not go the whole way? Why not title the piece 'Three Secret Hacks No-one That Will Add Five Years To Your Life'. That's *real* link bait. $NUMBER $VERBS That Will $OUTRAGEOUS CLAIM.
Hacks? These aren't hacks. Someone had a vague idea, couldn't fit it into a tweet so instead shit it into a word-processor and scrabbled around to fill it out with more ideas. Yet they couldn't make it beyond three. Hacks? Changing the batteries in your fucking phone? Which of you unbelievable cunts upvoted this? It has appeared on the FRONT PAGE OF SLASHDOT, like a turd hung on a rainbow.
Is this the same Bennett Haselton who founded Circumventor? Who is dedicated to combating internet censorship? What irony, I now want to censor your post.
Metal clamps? COUNTERBALANCED BY HEAVY BOOKS? Is this April 1st? Did I accidentally fall into some timewarp and miss winter? And you'd tried it before but had to change your method because the tablet kept falling out and slamming into your head? How many times, Bennett? Did it damage the part of your brain that assesses quality of submissions on the internet?
MILK CRATES? $60? STACKED ON... I ... running ... WHAT THE FUCK.
I'm kidding. Well done. Ingenious. Do you have a blog?
I use a USB external battery. I'll charge it at night right alongside my phone and then I carry it along with me. It connects to my phone using a standard USB->microUSB connection. (Apple users could use a USB->Apple cable, but I have an Android phone.) I get two "30%->100%" charges out of this battery. (I'll rarely let it dip below 30%. Given that, with heavy use, it usually will take about 4 hours to deplete my phone's battery this much, I can wind up going for 12 hours before needing a recharge. (Since I bought mine, other models came out which would give me 3 or more phone charges.)
The poster says that USB external batteries are bulky, but how much bulk would keeping 2 batteries on you be? Not to mention the inconvenience of having to open your phone's case, shut down your phone, open the phone itself, replace the battery (making sure to remember which is the charged and which is the depleted), put everything back together, and boot your phone back up.
This is the one I bought ($30 on Amazon) in case anyone's interested.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
And it's a work HACK, a HACK to use at WORK! I noticed I got hungry around 4pm so started buying a bag of biscuits when I was out for lunch. It's not much but it's certainly slashdot material.
"Hack" #1: So that I'm not tethered to a wall outlet, or go off the grid, I stay up late so I can manually swap out batteries and wear out the plastic clips that holds them in. Assuming I own a phone that has changeable batteries.
Better solution #1: Buy a universal external battery charger which is usually a small box that can easily fit in your pocket with a 9-volt battery and a charging cable.
"Hack" #2: Empty an entire bookcase of books, buy a bulky and expensive holding bracket, and jury-rig the whole thing together just so I can watch a movie that I may or may not even enjoy. But at least I put some of those books to good use as a counter-balance. Although I hope I don't sit up quickly in bed and headbutt my expensive tablet.
Better solution #2a: Read one of the books on my bookcase. When tired, or when I have stopped enjoying it, put it down. Plus now I can get out of bed much easier.
Better solution #2b: If I really need to watch movies at night, but a $20 goose-neck lamp and use some bent coat hangers to suspend the tablet. Or if I don't like the movie, take the coat hanger bracket off, and use the lamp to be a bedside lamp so I can read a book. See #2a.
"Hack" #3: Buy milk crates (hey another place I can put all those books I displaced and don't read), and attach failed device from "Hack" #2.
Better solution #3a: Use a portable music player and listen to music or listen to an audio book.
Better solution #3b: Using a bungee cord and a decorative plate holder, and place the tablet over the console. You don't really need to watch the clock.
Better solution #3c: Buy a sheet music holder (under $40 for even an expensive one) and place it just in from of the elliptical. It collapses down much more compact than 4-5 milk crates.
" I never once heard anyone mentioning swapping in a spare phone battery, and according to my own survey of my friends, none of them have ever tried it either."
You need to expand your circle of friends. Before the iPhone, pretty much all cell phones had replaceable batteries. My old Nokia had a desk charger you could park the phone on for charging, and it had a slot to charge a second battery. This phone would go 3 days between charges (IIRC).
BTW - google "ipad holder treadmill" and you'll get a lot of options, including DIY versions.
Place nail here >+
Whose phone dies at 11 a.m.? And again at 3, and then at 7 p.m? A smartphone that can't even last a full day isn't worth carrying around.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
I once valued having multiple batteries. Until I realized that remembering to keep them charged was more effort than simply having a spare cable with me. And, if it weren't for Apple and their proprietary connector I wouldn't even need that because everyone would just be using USB. For at least 80% of a usual day I'm near a charger, if I'm on top of things the phone will be charged enough to comfortably carry me through the other 20%. I do appreciate that for a small subset of the population who fly on a regular basis the dynamic might be a little different, but that's not most people.
The tablet stand for exercise equipment is a neat idea. I might have to try something like that some day.
Can't be done for Apple devices.
There are hundreds of external battery pack solutions for the iPhone, most of them more compact than spare batteries for other cameras. And they can be recharged independently of the phone unlike your spare batteries, which was the whole point of his hack... You can also get them in any form factor, from a small extension to the bottom of the phone to a case for the phone to a simple brick you can use for endless recharging in a backpack.
In summary, battery packs > spare batteries.
Thereby making the iPad look as stupid as possible by trying to support itself like the Surface
The Surface doesn't have an arm.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
After being a constant reader for the last 15 years, I've finally registered a user with your site. All in an effort to poo-poo your editorial staff for allowing such hogwash to pass to the front page. I expect this kind of grade level writing and subject content from LifeHacker, not you guys.
If you get an underpowered portable charger, you've thrown away your money. My charger has both a "fast" port and a "slow" port for lower power items, and charges my phone as fast as plugging into the wall.
It amuses me how overused the word hacked is used now days. 1.) You found a logistical method for keeping communications up throughout the day. (You didn't hack anything) 2.) You Found a way to clip your tablet above your bed. (You didn't hack anything) and enjoy your sore arms. 3.) Much the same as 2. I can see where you might be able to construe any modification as a hack. But, quit being a GD hipster and telling everyone you hacked this or hacked that. Good effort on the engineering and what not but they are hardly hacks IMO.
Is this an early April Fool's Day joke? This is the worst 'article' posting that I've ever seen on slashdot. I don't jump on the "slashdot has gone downhill" bandwagon, but...seriously? A spare battery and extremely ugly furniture? Thanks, but no thanks.
If you have an ugly furniture setup in your home, then please, please don't post pictures on the internet and encourage others to copy it. You should be slightly embarrassed of your setup. Very poor aesthetics. No wonder you don't have to worry about "company" in bed.
If decent looking furniture is out of your price range, that's okay. However, don't brag about your terrible design philosophy.