Smartphones include several built-in applications, and countless free and paid apps are available from their respective online stores. Tablets are essentially smartphones with larger screens and no built-in telephone capability (although Skype and other voice-over-Internet apps are available). Tablets may have only front-facing cameras for video calls, whereas smartphones have both front and rear cameras. See
smartphone,
tablet and
how to select a mobile device.
Primary Built-In Applications
1. Phone and contact address book
2. Texting
3. Video calling (Apple FaceTime)
4. Web browser
5. Email
6. Weather
7. Predictive typing (see predictive text).
8. Voice dictation
9. Voice-activated virtual assistant
(see Siri, Google Voice Search and Cortana).
10. Alarm clock, stopwatch, timer
11. Calculator
12. Calendar
13. Note taker
14. Music player
15. Photo album
16. Camera (still and video)
17. GPS navigation
18. Flashlight
19. App store search
Available for Download
Following are handy program categories out of the thousands of free and paid apps (see
online app store). Depending on model, some of the following apps may come with the phone such as a flashlight app. Read reviews on the Web, not just in the app store.
1. Flashlight
2. Dictionaries, encyclopedias
3. News, weather and stock markets
4. Video calling (Skype, Tango, etc.)
5. Games and entertainment
6. E-book reader
7. Language translators
8. Retail store finders
9. Mobile tag readers (see QR code)
10. Converters (money, measurements)
11. Magnifying glass and mirror
12. Internet radio (Pandora, etc.)
13. Music identifier (Shazam)
14. YouTube viewer
15. Voice recorder
16. Emergency message sender
17. Compass