Most Useful Mobile Accessories

Date Posted:29 June 2013 

With the help of a variety of accessories, your mobile experience can be much more than simply a telephone.

Headset

A Bluetooth headset gives you the freedom of hands-free use wherever you are and whatever you’re doing. It lets you talk while you’re driving, without having to hold the phone to your ear (and risk a fine). It allows you to walk with your phone in your pocket while GPS navigation instructions guide you to your destination. And it lets you listen to your favourite music through your phone, without annoying those around you.

Battery charger

This is one accessory no mobile phone user can afford to be without. The average smartphone battery lasts around eight hours of normal use before it requires recharging. Therefore having a charger at home or work is essential.

Chargers come in a range of forms for various applications and include:

  • AC chargers that plug into any AC power outlet
  • Portable chargers that plug in and charge your phone wherever you happen to be
  • Case chargers that charge your phone while it is in its case,
  • Car chargers that plug into your car’s cigarette lighter port
  • Solar chargers that employ a fold-out solar panel to charge your phone using the sun’s rays.

Keyboard

Thanks to Bluetooth technology, you can use a full sized wireless keyboard with your smartphone whenever you need to do some serious word processing. You just pair it with your phone, start typing and the words will appear on the screen of your phone. Or if you’d rather talk than type, you can simply download a dictation app and dictate your document into your phone, with the words also appearing on the screen.

TV tuner

If you’re away from home and you don’t want to miss the news or your favourite programs, this may be a truly helpful accessory. An IDTV tuner is a mini set-top box that plugs into your phone and lets you view free-to-air television channels on your screen. It doesn’t need an Internet connection and it lets you play, rewind and record live TV programs. It even comes with its own battery, so you don’t flatten your phone.

External speakers

Portable Bluetooth-enabled speakers can be paired with your mobile phone to provide high-quality playback at up to 85 decibels. That means you can take the party with you wherever you go and even do karaoke if you select speakers with an inbuilt microphone. This is also a very useful accessory if you use your phone for teleconferencing, as it will allow group of people to join in the conversation.

Phone finders

If you are constantly leaving your phone behind or forgetting where you put it, a key chain phone locator is a great accessory to have. These phone finders clip onto your key chain and use either Bluetooth to alert you when you get a certain distance away from the phone or GPS to actually track it if your phone is lost or stolen. Because a smartphone is such an expensive item to lose, these accessories are often highly worthwhile.