1. GPS Navigation
GPS in Australia still has its flaws due to a lack of Satellite visibility (it works by triangulating your position by bouncing a signal off several satellites) and this also causes problems with Urban Canyoning (Signals get bounced off buildings and/or blocked due to the low angle of the Satellite). But thigns are slowly improving and the ability to utilise Mobile towers for triangulation improves performance and accuracy in urban areas. There are many Apps available on all platforms so its more a matter of what suits your fancy (I prefer Sygic for walking and TomTom when I'm helping navigate in a car).
2. Document Scan
While I haven't seen fully featured Object Character Recognition (OCR) Apps yet there are plenty of Apps available that will do Document Scanning into PDF file formats. From here you can import it into many other Reading Apps and use Pinch to Zoom functionality to view the text at what size you need.
3. Instruction Manual Reading
I honestly don't know how MOST people can read those manuals in 8 point font sizes but most companies now supply manuals in an electronic format. Apps like Good Reader will keep you organised with easy access to all your Manuals and you can zoom in and out to your hearts content. I use this for all sorts of things from building Lego to reading manuals for my new Hardware.
4. Public Transport Route Planning
Since Public Transport is State based and access to route information and timetables is different in each State you get different functionality depending on where you are. But these Apps are generally a good overview to plan your trip especially if you are very reliant on Public Transport.
5. Business Card Recognition
You might get mixed results with these but they work well if you can get a decent photo (since cameras on phones have improved this is getting better) and your card is a fairly standard layout. They promise to take a photo of a card and automatically fill in the details for your Contacts but sometimes they can get so muddled its easier to do it by hand than trying to fix up the mashed up results.
6. Easy Share Contacts
Forget the Business Card altogether and go straight to being Bump Buddies! Apps like Bump let you automatically share your contact details with another person by simply being close in proximity (they generally use Near Feild Communication).
7. Make Relay Calls
Ever since the Internet Relay Service was established and the release of Internet capable devices this sort of thing has been looked into. Nowadays you can access it via several means including Instant Messaging services (like WIndows Live Messenger for Mobile) or by SMS relay. Video Relay is also becoming possible as more devices become enabled with Video capabilities.
8. Communication Board
Whether you can't hear or speak, mobile devices offer an infinite source of communication capabilities that range from the simple note App to a more complex and customisable communication board (where you press pictures).
9. Dictation
I've never had much luck with Dictation programs but Dragon has introduced its free software on various platforms. Supposedly it does not require training but I've never had much luck with these (they still get affected by background noise). But as the technology progresses they should remove the need to type. Apps like Siri have been met with mixed experiences (Android is considered to be better at this if not as comedic. ie you can ask Siri to marry you and she will reply that it's not in her license agreement).
10. Emergency Distress Button
If you are someone who is at high risk of Health issues but want to live independantly this might be your answer (alternatively there is VitaCall but you need to be within a certain range). Many of these can be set to do things such as automatically dial a number and leave a voice message, send an SMS containing a plea for help along with your GPS coordinates and much more.
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