A flashlight app that could make you a hero
By: Kristi Palma
Boston.com staff
Reviewing: HT-C Flashlight
By: Health & Fun Appz
Price: Free
Platforms: Android
Should you get it?: Yes! If you have to be awake when the sun is down, it will come in handy more than you think.
One of my favorite apps on my Android is the flashlight app. It's one of those things you don't realize you need until you have it. Like a lint brush.
For starters, I wake up for work at 5 a.m. That means it's still dark and my hubby is softly, blissfully snoring. It means if I turn the bedroom light on, I may wake him up and face a confrontation that's less than blissful.
Enter the flashlight app. It turns on your camera's LED light so you can use it as a flashlight. With one quick click, I am peering into my jewelry box in the dark corner. I am digging for that green and silver necklace to match my skirt. And doing it discreetly (you're welcome, honey!).
It helps with my kids, too. I have been known to check for middle-of-the-night fevers armed with my flashlight app. It has three settings of brightness, so I choose the lowest setting so I don't wake them up. I've also used it to search for lost toys under the dark wasteland that is the underside of my couch (note to self: must clean more).
One of my favorite flashlight app stories, however, is when we left a late-night wedding celebration in a remote, wooded area only to realize our car was at the end of a long, pitch-black path. We stood motionless with about five other couples as we looked warily into the black night.
Then I remembered my phone in the clutch purse at my side. I pulled it out and fired up the flashlight app. An actual cheer went up from the group. And I led us down that dark, scary path to our vehicles.
So this simple app not only supplies instant light, but it also makes you a hero. Brilliant.
