Since iPhone 5s owners carry their camera everywhere, they can always take beautiful photos or shoot videos to record memories. That said, here are 15 great ways to use the iPhone 5s camera for more than just taking photos or family movies. Use these tips to remember who borrowed something, where you parked the car, or to keep everything ready for future use. A few of these tips will help you make up for your loss, prevent people from cheating on you, and even stay healthy. No one should post or post them on Facebook or Flickr, but use them with services such as: Dropbox or Evernote to keep pictures close at hand.
Scan Pictures and Documents
While sitting in a meeting, the facilitator distributes a few documents that everyone should keep and refer to at a later meeting. Paper haters can use the iPhone 5s camera as a scanner. Evernote has optical character recognition, so take pictures using the app’s scanning feature as follows:
- open app
- Choose from the section of the app’s menu. Three options will appear at the bottom of the screen as seen below.
For documents, use the third option. The camera puts an overlay on the screen. Fit the paper to the rectangle and tap the camera button to take the picture. It saves to the camera roll and the user can tap the checkmark at the bottom right or take a photo of a second document. Take photos of all the pages in the document before tapping the checkmark. When finished, the document appears at the top of the endnotes list. Tap to annotate, save to a new notebook and add tags. Users can also scan Photos this way or take photos of objects useful for the tips below.
There is a tool called StandScan which helps the user to scan many documents or photos. It’s a small document-sized white box with LED lights and a hole at the top for the iPhone 5s camera.
Remember Where You Parked The Car
Have you ever been to a downtown mall or an office building with a large parking lot? For people with bad memory, the iPhone 5s camera can help you remember where you parked the car.
Take pictures of the markings on the walls or concrete pillars. For example, a nearby hospital that I visit often to see my church members marks the garage section using colors and letters, such as a green floor and section D. If that’s not enough, take a photo of the lit elevator buttons to remember which button to press. to find the garage floor.
Remember Who Borrowed a Book or DVD
Over the years I have lost many books, movies or CDs in the old days because I forgot who borrowed them and they forgot to return them.
Set up an Evernote notebook and take a photo of the person holding the item. If this sounds odd, take a photo of the loaned item and tag it with the item and the borrower’s name. Enter the contact’s phone number or email address to easily request a refund.
Personal Property Certificate for Insurance
A friend recently lost almost everything when his house burned down. Fortunately, they found a family notebook with photos of the living room and other rooms. The insurance adjuster used the photos to document the items hanging on the walls and sitting on the shelves. This helped them make up for their losses.
Use a digital notebook to do the same. Take photos of valuables with serial numbers for electronic products. Store them in a folder in DropBox or Evernote notebook and share with insurance adjuster.
Remember People’s Names
A great way to remember someone’s name is to take a photo and put it in the phone’s address book along with their contact information. In cases where people are nametaging, make sure the photo includes the nametag so you can quickly take the photo and add the name later.
Record Eating Habits for Diet
Many people post images of their meals on Instagram and Twitter. Why don’t you do the same? Not to brag about eating lobster, but to record your diet. It’s faster than entering text into a weight loss or fitness app. Record meals based on photos at the end of the day or a few days later.
Mileage Recording for Business
People who go to work often report a mileage each month or keep records for tax purposes at the end of the year. Do not write the start and end mileage. Instead, hit the odometer reset button on most cars today and take a photo of the trip and car mileage numbers at the end of the tip. Use Dropbox’s auto-upload feature, which stores all captured images in the Camera Uploads folder and saves them together. date and time in the photo name. At the end of the month, record the date/time and finish mileage. Subtract the miles traveled to get the starting mileage. The easiest way to save travel miles for business.
Teachers Can Keep a Record of Homework
My wife teaches in elementary school and tweets the homework list on her smartboard to keep parents up to date with homework so parents can find out what their child’s homework is. She plans to post on a Facebook page this fall as more parents use Facebook than Twitter. You can post your pictures…
Remember Where Things Belong
When people use the church sanctuary at my church, they often move the furniture. For those who do not attend our Sunday Mass regularly, it will be easier for them to remember where the items belong if they take a photo first. Someone who’s teamed up to a high school game, borrowed a class from their local school, or rented a beach house or mountain cabin from a private party can also use this tip to leave things as they are. Take photos on arrival and look at them to make sure everything is in place before leaving. That way, the owner won’t hesitate to lend the room or cabinet again.
scavenger hunt
Church youth groups or scouting units love scavenger hunts, but don’t like the trouble kids can get into stealing items to bring back at the end of the night. Instead, take group photos at fun places like the big clock in the heart of our town. Then, when all is back, enjoy the slideshow by connecting the phone to an Apple TV and projector.
Keep Cheaters Away in Risk Game or Monopoly
Have you ever had to quit to go to school, work or finish it the next day after playing a long board game? Take a picture and give it to all players so that no one cheats.
Remember Medicines
A new doctor always asks what medications a person is taking. Take a photo of the bottles and save the image to DropBox or Evernote for quick access. This records the name of the drug, the doctor’s name, the pharmacy RX number, and usually the phone number and/or address of the pharmacy in one image. If medications change, delete them and get new ones.
Save a Child’s Things for Night Outs
People sending their children on an overnight trip can take pictures of the child’s belongings and keep the photos in the suitcase or email them to the companion. This helps the child and companion get all of that child’s belongings back home.
Remember Settings in Electrical Equipment
The soundboard in my church’s lecture hall is not locked. Sometimes people play with it. A photo helps our multimedia team quickly return settings to their defaults. This also works with apps on a phone with complex settings. Take a screenshot by pressing and holding the power and home button at the same time. Use this tip for anything that has physical or digital settings you need to remember.
Keep a Shopping List of Out-of-stock Items
When the milk runs out, take a picture of the carton and save it to a shopping list in Dropbox or Evernote.
