Making a smartphone

It’s called smartphone, but is it really smart? After all, most people use the smartphone to browse social networks, listen to music, play games, make memes and upload photos to Instagram. Not much advanced intelligence needed to run those things. However the smartphone is essentially a small computer. You can do pretty amazing things with it including launch it into space as a nanosatellite.

But that is for dedicated use. In cases where you want to keep using your smartphone for your online activities, you can also set your smartphone to do other things like locate your missing car, lock and unlock your homes, watch your health and contact your relatives if you get into an accident, etc. Check out a few other ways you can make your smartphone smarter, and your life easier. You’ll probably look at your smartphones differently now.

Recommended Reading: 30 Famous Tech Gadgets Disassembled

Viper SmartStart

Make the Mercedes-Benz owner envy you, with Viper SmartStart, a device that allows you to perform regular tasks your remote key can do, for instance lock the door, honk the car and release the trunk, all with your smartphone. On top of that, with Viper SmartStart you can even check your vehicle status to ensure it’s safe, and ready to rock and roll. [$149-$399]

Hone

Keys have a special ability to disappear right when you are looking for it. Hone is a Bluetooth device for iPhone and iPod that helps you find your key. The setup is easy – just tie the device to your key and press the Find button on your iPhone. The device will light up and emit a sound to indicate its position. That’s it, smart and elegant. [$49.00]

Lockitron

The Lockitron not only lets you unlock the door with just a touch on the smartphone, but also notifies you when someone is knocking at the door. With the right customization, you can even set your door to unlock whenever you get near the door – no more fumbling around with your house keys especially when your hands are full. [$179.00]

Square Register

Square Register is a revolution that’s disrupting the current old, static transaction system. It takes the advantage of the smartphone’s mobility to let you accept any credit card payment anytime, anywhere. The buyer signs on the smartphone to authorize payment and avoid potential fraud, and the information is encrypted before any processing initialize.

Geode

Geode can convert all your physical credit cards, loyalty cards, and membership cards into digital information. To use the cards, you can transfer the card information to the provided Geode card temporarily. Flick to activate the card, say a credit card, then swipe it through the terminal as normal.

You can also store all the barcodes from your loyalty cards and display it at the back of the Geode to allow for scans. [$159.00]

Tōd

Use these smart beacons, called Tōd, to track the location of your child, a beloved pet or even your car. Get notifications via email or text when they make an unscheduled departure from the compound or if they wander off too far from you. [$32.00]

Pico Genie A100

Heavy projectors are so last-century. I’m going for the Pico Genie A100, a speaker-enabled projector as mini as the iPhone! The outcome is a 60″ viewing area with sound-boosting effect, not to mention that you could carry the Pico Genie 100 around during presentations. But honestly, I think it fits better as a gaming device! [$262.00]

Botiful

Just plug in your smartphone to Botiful, the robot, and you can move it anywhere and communicate with any human using the minimalistic Skype interface. What’s even more fun here is that you can also explore everywhere that your big human body cannot reach with this feet-sized robot. It makes me feel like a god that’s omnipresent, only I’m a little bit mini! [$199.00]

Scanbox

You can use your smartphone to help you scan codes such as QR Codes but even better, you can get a simple, portable Scanbox to stabilize your camera to perform bulk scanning tasks! The Scanbox comes with LEDs that light up from the bottom, providing prominent light sources for the best scanning quality possible. [$15.00]

NODE Chroma

You can call NODE Chroma a real-life Photoshop color picker, as it really is. Place the Chroma on the colored object, and the color will be saved into your smartphone or personal computer with the standard formats of RGB, HEX, CMYK and LAB for your future reference and even comparison. [$149.00]

Sensordrone

Sensordrone is a sensor computer that harvests vital information around your environment, such as air quality, gas leaks, temperature, humidity etc – practically anything that can be sensed! Great for people with jobs that require technical measurements while on the go. [$175.00]

Crash Sensor

Your life will be safer with the ICEdot’s Crash Sensor. All you need to do is mount the device on your helmet before you take off to any of your extreme sports or cross-country races. The device will notify your emergency contacts and send GPS coordinates to initiate rescue attempts should an accident occurs.

Misfit Shine

Misfit Shine helps you track your physical activities on-the-go. Upon equipping it on your body, Shine will track your physical activities and inform you at the end of the day that if your body movements are well enough to keep you fit and shiny. [$79.00]

Health Appliances

While Withings Blood Pressure Monitor helps you monitor your blood pressure intelligently, Medisana ThermoDock checks if your body temperature is beyond dangerous parameters. Your data is stored within the VitaDock app for future reference. Smart health management for smartphone holder! [$158.00, $80.00]