If super-spy Jason Bourne suddenly lost all of his high tech gadgets save for his Android smartphone, he’d be just fine.
tinycam monitor
Let’s suppose Jason is about to persue some bad guys. But first he must hide an important flash drive. Jason downloads “tinycam monitor”, which will allow him to remotely view up to 16 cameras to make sure no one gets near that flash drive. Jason sets up only four cameras, which works out great because “tinycam monitor” allows him to view up to four cameras simultaneously from his smartphone.
Get it from: Google Play
Motion Detector Pro
Jason is about to leave when he realizes that being able to view his flash drive may not be enough. He decides to download “Motion Detector Pro”, which will use his smartphone’s built-in camera to detect motion. If someone gets too close to his flash drive, “Motion Dectector Pro” will snap a photo of the culprit and immediately email it to Jason’s laptop for analysis.
Get it from: Google Play
Night Vision Camera
Jason exits his apartment through the fire escape and vanishes into the night. Shortly after beginning his pursuit he suspects the man across the street is one of the bad guys he needs to find. The darkness makes it difficult to see.
Fortunately, Jason had prepared for this earlier by installing “Night Vision Camera,” a powerful app that maximizes his camera’s ability to capture images in the dark. He snaps a few picss and saves them for later review with one click.
Get it from: Google Play
Ultra Voice Changer
As the evening wears on, Jason decides to call his secret contact. Neither of them know who each other is, and to keep it that way, Jason uses “Ultra Voice Changer” to seamlessly convert his voice to a robot, maintaining his annonimity.
Get it from: Google Play
Night Vision Texting
Moments later Jason’s smartphone beeps. He has a new text message. But viewing his texts in the dark could easily give away his location, so he uses “Night Vision Texting”, which optimizes his smartphone’s screen for dark environments without drawing attention.
Get it from: Google Play
Layar
All this spy stuff has made Jason hungry, and since he’s in an unfamiliar city, he uses “Layar” to instantly enhance his surroundings with an augmented reality that has the power to point out places of interest, including great places to eat.
Get it from: Google Play
Google Maps
He selects a local pub and uses “Google Maps” to get the best step-by-step walking directions.
Get it from: Google Play
Brightest Flashlight
It’s dark inside the pub, so Jason uses “Brightest Flashlight” to read the menu more easily. “Brightest flashlight” practically turns his smartphone into a roman candle, with the abilty to turn on all smartphone lights.
Get it from: Google Play
PDAnet
After dinner Jason decides to review all that he’s learned so far this night. He stops into a local computer store and installs “PDAnet” on a display computer, and tethers it to his smartphone, establishing an internet connection.
Get it from: Google Play
My Internet
But Jason suspects he is being tailed by a baddie, so he uses “My Internet” to create a hidden browsing event. If someone should check the computer after he leaves, there will be no trace of the pages he has viewed.
Get it from: Google Play
Verdict
As Jason prepares to leave the computer store he suddenly realizes that his smartphone is the only high-tech device he needed after all.
I'm the opposite of Bourne.
I can't even find my way with a tour guide. Cardinal direction means about as much to me as quantum physics means to a hairdresser. I have the unique gift of getting lost even with the aid of explicit turn-by-turn directions and detailed mileage and landmark descriptions.
I'm not the only differently-abled navigator out there, and the gurus at Google know this. Google Local is now available for some cell phones. (You have to have a compatible device, and a data service.)
Think Geek for Mapquest, Yahoo and Google Maps. But better.
Whether you are walking or driving, Google Local will get you there - even if you are constantly getting lost.
I was skeptical, so I tried it out. It really works just the way it does on your computer! You type in the address of the starting point, or zoom to a spot on a map, and then key in your destination, and ba-da-bing! You’ve got step by step, turn by turn directions, right there on your phone.
I can’t wait to get lost again!