Believe it and fall for it. How many of these useless apps have you used?

With the popularity of smartphones, more and more magical apps have begun to emerge. By installing apps, mobile phones can act as navigators, rulers, flashlights, etc., replacing many common tools in life. However, not all mobile apps are reliable, and there are many "useless apps" that are useless. Today, let's take stock of those apps whose functions are just for fun. How many of them have you installed?

Mosquito Repellent App

This type of app has been around for a long time. There were similar apps on Symbian or JAVA phones before. In today's iOS and Android platforms, mosquito repellent apps are emerging in an endless stream. These apps basically claim to use ultrasound to repel mosquitoes, which is non-toxic and harmless and has excellent effects. But is it really such a good thing?

Mosquito repellent apps often work very well, but the results will definitely disappoint you

In fact, the effectiveness of mosquito repellent apps is well known to everyone who has used them. At least the mosquito coils, mosquito repellent liquids, and sprays in supermarkets are still so popular, which is a clear proof of this. Mosquito repellent apps are basically useless, and sonic mosquito repellent is just a beautiful fairy tale that sounds more pleasant. First, the mobile phone speakers may not be able to produce the "ultrasonic waves" claimed by mosquito repellent apps; second, there is currently no clear evidence that sound waves can repel mosquitoes.

Some mosquito repellent apps state in their principles that mosquitoes use sound waves to communicate, so ultrasonic waves can be used to disrupt the movements of mosquitoes, or to emit so-called male mosquito sound waves to drive away blood-sucking female mosquitoes. However, there is no definitive answer as to what sound waves can disturb mosquitoes, and it is not uncommon for female mosquitoes to avoid male mosquito sound waves. Of course, there are indeed some sonic insect repellents on the market that work by simulating the ultrasonic waves of bats to scare away insects, but there is still no clear evidence as to whether they are effective against mosquitoes.

Therefore, mosquito repellent apps are basically just for fun. If you really believe in such apps, the happiest ones are probably the mosquitoes, because there is nothing happier than having a full meal every day.

Decibel Meter App

Mobile phones can be used as many tools in daily life, such as rulers, compasses, flashlights, etc., and even can be turned into decibel meters after installing apps. Many friends have used such apps and then used their phones to test how quiet their computers are, how the noise level is at the construction site next door, etc. However, decibel meter apps are not very reliable.

The decibel meter app can indeed reflect changes in sound volume, but if you want to measure the specific decibel value, you may be overthinking.

The principle of the decibel meter app is very simple, which is to use the microphone of the mobile phone to pick up the sound and then detect the decibel level of the sound. However, the microphone pickup ability of each mobile phone is different. The same decibel meter app installed on different mobile phones can produce completely different results. Naturally, the value measured by the decibel meter app will not be very accurate.

In fact, testing the decibel level of a sound still requires professional tools to get a relatively accurate result. You can see that all hardware noise tests use a dedicated decibel meter, and no one would use a mobile phone to test whether it is noisy or not. Of course, if you just want to know the general changes in the volume of the sound, you can still try the mobile decibel meter app, but it really cannot test the exact decibel value. It is the kind of app that can be used for fun but not for real use.

Radiation Test App

In addition to testing decibels, can mobile phones also test radiation? That's right, many mobile phones are now equipped with magnetic flux sensors, so some developers use this hardware to make apps for electromagnetic radiation testing. Many friends are afraid of radiation, so they believe in such apps. However, are mobile phone radiation testing apps really useful?

Radiation testing apps are useless except for scaring yourself

In fact, the magnetic flux sensor on the mobile phone is not very reliable for measuring radiation. The magnetic flux sensor on the mobile phone can only measure static magnetic fields, but the magnetic field of electromagnetic radiation is periodic, and a field strength tester is needed to accurately test it. On the other hand, the accuracy of the magnetic flux sensor on the mobile phone is not high, and the accuracy is often only 0.01~0.1μT (micro Tesla), while the accuracy of professional instruments is at the nT (nanotesla) level, so the mobile phone is just a joke to measure electromagnetic radiation.

Of course, this type of magnetic flux test app is not completely useless. For example, it can be used to detect whether an object is magnetic or whether something is iron. There is no reliable radiation test method on mobile phones. You don’t need to panic if the value measured by the mobile phone is off the charts. The off-charging value may be caused by the magnet in the headphones at hand.

Battery Repair App

Most mobile phones use lithium batteries. After using them for a period of time, the batteries will be depleted and the capacity will decrease significantly. Therefore, some friends will choose battery repair apps to extend the battery life and increase the battery life of the mobile phone. However, is this really useful? The effect may be very limited.

The battery is not something you can repair just because you want to.

The principle of battery repair apps is often to modify the batterystats.bin file in the Android system to rebuild a new power record. The batterystats.bin file is actually just a file used to monitor the power consumption of apps. In fact, you cannot restore the battery to health by modifying this file. The loss of lithium batteries is a physical process. Modifying the software configuration cannot restore the battery to its original state.

By modifying the batterystats.bin file, even the system power display will not change. Battery repair apps are just for fun and cannot solve battery problems.

Smart Home Appliances App

With the development of mobile Internet, the "smart" of home appliances is becoming more and more frequent. Many traditional home appliances have added "smart" modules, which can then be operated with apps. However, many "smart home appliance" apps are actually useless. At best, they allow mobile phones to act as remote controls, which is very useless.

Home appliances are called "smart" if they can connect to apps, but "smart home appliance" apps are not necessarily useful. Home appliances should still be used as they are.

Some home appliances require you to get close to operate them, such as the range hood in the kitchen. When you are not cooking, you will not get close to it or turn it on; but when you need to use it to cook, you must walk to it. In this case, what is the point of using a mobile phone remote control?

Similar "smart appliances" include washing machines, dishwashers, etc. For such dispensable functions, installing network modules that increase the failure rate and selling price is undoubtedly not worth the cost.

Of course, with the increase of sensors on electrical appliances and the expansion of manufacturers' cloud services, "smart home appliance" apps will become more and more useful. I hope that in the near future these useless apps will become less and less.

Summarize

In fact, there are many useless "useless apps" on mobile phones, such as lie detectors, cat and dog language translators, X-ray apps, etc. However, these apps are unreliable at first glance, and there are very few users who take them seriously.