It seems that among others, there are only 2 Filipino staples that make up people’s impressions of us: rice and traffic. The latter being unfavorable, we’ve come up with 5 things you can do with your phone while stuck in the gridlock on your commute back home!

Play games 

No surprise there! We got a shortlist of new games in 2017 slowly rising in popularity and older games that will continue to be cult classics.

Our favorites:

• 5 Nights at Freddy’s: SL - If you’re familiar with the video game, here’s your portable version! For those who don’t know, we suggest you go through 1 night no questions asked.
• Yuri- An amazing game with the most spectacular hand-drawn visuals!
• Twilight Struggle - A board game-inspired app! If you’re a fan of political strategies, this game is for you.
• Untethered - A Virtual Reality game where the story of a small town in Oregon unfolds through your inquisition.
• Trivia Crack - An addictive game in the likes of Words with Friends that really get your juices going.

Train to be a professional photographer

Yes with your phone! And yes even if it’s means just taking photos of your face! Here is an article that enumerates 29 tips to help you take amazing instagram photos! But of course you can do with a little help from editing apps.

Our favorites:

• Afterlight - this is a top-grossing editing app. The filters include camera grain and exposure, aside from the usual temperature and contrast based tints.
• Filmborn - If you’re tired of VSCO’s filters, Filmborn presents fresh photo editing features.
• TouchRetouch - Ever wanted to remove something from your photos? Well look no further! Touch Retouch is the app for you!
• Facetune - For selfies and portraits! Edit your complexion with this app!
• ProCam 4 - Manual Camera + RAW - This app offers the experience of handling a manual camera without the weight and bulk!

Read amazing books

We trust your taste in books, so we leave you with the best apps to get stories besides your usual e-reader.

Our favorites:

• Radish - If you want to be able to read contemporary works unpublished elsewhere, this is the app to get you to explore the other people’s writing!
• Scribd - A classic. This is helpful for students!
• eBook Search - This offers free e-book access.
• Audiobooks - The app holds a collection of audiobooks.
• Moon+ Reader Pro - One of the top most downloaded readers on Google Play!
• Pocketbook - This can handle not just your usual file formats like epub or pdf, but also CHM, CBR, MOBI, and basically everything!

Meditate

I know. In traffic? But, just try it! It’s not ideal to fall asleep because bad people might victimize you while you’re not looking. We give you apps for meditation.

Our favorites:

• Headspace: Guided Meditation and Mindfulness -  guided meditation that addresses different kinds of needs like focus or energy.
• Stop, Breathe & Think: Meditation and Mindfulness - This app may have aspects that require yoga, but it still helps with mindfulness. Match your mood to the activity best suited to address your emotions.
• Mindfulness Guide - As its name suggests, the app helps with breathing exercises and meditation.exercises.
• Gratitude Journal - One way to meditate is to write down your thoughts, a better way would be to bring out the best of your thoughts in an act of gratitude.
• Meditation Music - If your usual playlist seems a bit too tense for your mood, here’s an app that provides an alternative!

Organize your tasks for the next day

If you’re the type who likes to keep the ball rolling, one way to occupy your thoughts as you slog through your commute is to organize your next day with planners! We give you the apps to help.

Our favorites:

• Evernote - This app is amazing. If you still don’t have it, we suggest you get it ASAP. It’s the app that keeps up with the most hard-working and imaginative bunch.
• Wunderlist: To-Do Lists & Tasks - This is a great To-Do List app with great visuals that will help you love organizing.
• Stride: Goal & Habit Tracker + Life Organizer - Well, the name says it all. It even tracks your water intake!
• Google Keep - This app is nothing less than what you’d expect from Google. It keeps your voice memos and transcribes them!

There you go! We hope this keeps you busy while you brave through the daily grind!

Reminder:  Philippine Law has an Anti-Distracted Driving Act that prohibits distracted driving by restricting and penalizing the use of mobile phones while driving on any public thoroughfare, highway or street in the Philippines.

Find yourself thinking you can make better apps? Then share that imagination with us and apply as a developer! Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter for our latest updates and job postings. Send us your updated CV to [email protected] with the position you're applying for in the subject line.