On top of the iPhone’s voice, text, and internet functions, the versatility of the hardware, and the plethora of apps available from the iTunes store make the iPhone a very flexible device.

Here’s our pick of 5 unique uses for your iPhone, in no particular order:

Use your phone as a security camera

It’s actually possible to set your phone up as a CCTV camera, protecting your room/car/office while you are away. If you always wondered who was stealing your M&Ms, now you can find out!

Control iTunes over your WiFi

Save money on fancy HiFi remotes, and simply play your favorite tracks on your computer, and control it with your iPhone! You’ll need a home WiFi network (who doesn’t these days?) and it’s a simple case of pairing your phone with iTunes. Now there’s no need to get out of your comfy seat to change up the music.

Measure the performance of your car, including 0-60 times

If you ever wanted some performance figures to impress/bore your friends with, now you can take measurements with your iPhone. BMW have released a free app called the “M power meter” that uses the iPhone’s accelerometer, and can measure and display 0-60 times, acceleration, G forces etc. All the numbers a petrolhead could dream of!

Reading eBooks, without an expensive eBook reader like the Kindle

The iPhone’s high resolution screen makes it suitable for reading long documents, and books, without too much eye strain. Stanza is a free application that makes it easy to download eBooks onto your phone from a vast collection, and read them using book-like gestures (e.g. turning the page with a side flick of the finger). You can even convert books from other formats that you have, e.g. PDF, and download them to your phone. Very neat.

Keep fit by using your iPhone as a pedometer

It didn’t take long for application developers to realise one of the simplest uses for the accelerometer built into the iPhone: tracking steps, in the same way a clip-on pedometer does. Making sure you take at just 6000 steps a day has been correlated with better health, so get going and install one of these simple pedometer applications on your phone now!