What was the fate of your latest smartphone? Is it in a drawer, collecting dust between loose batteries and an instruction manual for a long forgotten waffle iron? Maybe you donated it to a friend or forgot it completely. Do you even know where it is? Your monster.
Accused, it’s worth thinking about, because it’s probably still a lot of life in there, and it might even save you some money. From dash cams to baby monitors, your old Android and iPhone devices can be rebuilt to provide years of faithful service until they finally break down, once the universe reaches a state of entropic heat-death – whichever comes first.
With more and more people becoming more and more conscientious with their waste and environmental impact, you would do your bit to save the planet as well. With all that in mind, here are a few things you can do to help bring your old handset into a brand new life hereafter.
1. Store it in a dash cam
Dash cams have skyrocketed in popularity over the past few years, and with good reason. They provide unequivocal evidence of insurance claims from both drivers and cyclists, while occasionally recording crazy incidents such as meteors strolling through the air or trees being blown over.
If you have an old phone with a working camera, then you are good to go. If you are breathing new life into a new Android handset, then AutoBoy Dash Cam is a solid choice. It automatically deletes older recordings you do not need, and has a crash sensor to ensure that important recordings are never lost. You can also set it to back up your videos on YouTube, and it will even work in the background, allowing you to double the phone as a sat nav.
The equivalent of the iPhone app – Smart Dash Cam – is similar, though it does not support background recording, so you can not use other apps while driving.
Keep in mind that you will also need to purchase a smartphone mount that attaches to your windshield, and have some way of charging the phone in your car to prevent the battery from running out on long journeys. If you do not have a USB port in your drive, or only have one, then there are many affordable USB adapters in the car available on Amazon.
2. Keep an eye on your little one (s)
Babies present a plethora of new challenges, and new parents will especially love to do everything they can to make sure their genetic copies are as safe as they can be. Sure, you could buy an expensive baby monitor, but why do that when you have an extra computer with pocket in hand with a built-in camera and microphone?
Cloud Baby Monitor (available on iOS and Android) is a comprehensive app that attaches the snug face of your little tyke to any other device you like.
It’s packed with features including privacy encoding, a summary of sleep patterns, direct sound and motion alerts, two-way communication, an adjustable visibility light, built-in lullaby sounds, and more. Unfortunately, it will not feed hungry mouths automatically, but who knows what a future update might bring.
3. Protect your home
In a similar vein, you can also use old phones to build a complete home security system, with bonus points for placing them in refurbished animals and retrieved books.
An app like Alfred Home Security Camera – available on iOS and Android – takes advantage of the camera and microphone power of your handset, and provides views of your home, complete with automatic alerts when burglary is detected.
The app has features similar to a popper monitor, minus the lullabies of course, allowing your potential intruders or curious squirrels to vibrate with two-way communication and / or a remote alarm.
You can also add friends and family to your circle of trust, though you may want to remember that fact next time you walk in with sans towel.
4. Discover it deeply
Sure, you could spend hundreds on a fancy action camera, but for casual swimming and snorkeling, there’s a much cheaper option – a waterproof phone bag.
You can pick up the YOSH IPX8 for less than a tenner on Amazon, and it will fit most devices up to 6.8 inches in size, and completely protect them from a potentially watery grave. It is worth the money only for the rest of the mind, even if your spare handset is waterproof, and especially if salt water has a nasty habit of being rather corrosive.
You can not operate the touchscreen controls when you are fully immersed, but on almost any device you can operate the shutter button by pressing the volume controls, which is an ideal solution.
5. Get a desktop butler
If you’re sitting next to a smart assistant on the table, you could pre-order a smart assistant-powered screen like the Amazon Echo Show 5 – or you could just use your old phone. Grab a dock, let it be plugged in, and boom – you have a full-time assistant on your hands.
From Siri and Alexa, to Google Assistant and even Cortana, you have weather, news, radio shows, agencies, music and more, all just a voice command away. For best results, we would recommend that you connect to a speaker so you can hear all about the clattering of keyboards, or bacon candy, depending on your location.
Older phones probably have the much missed headphone jack that makes things easier, but if you have Bluetooth speakers, then you’re all good to go.
Find Aliens (Android only)
BOINC, despite its name, is actually a pretty serious app for Android only that can approach the number-knotting power of your spare phone to contribute to various research initiatives.
These may include the pursuit of extraterrestrial life, such as medical and climate research, to name a few. Your phone will charge some electricity when charging (to keep the app running) of course, but that’s a small price to pay to help ensure the survival of the human race, don’t you think?
7. Be a shortcut king (Android only)
If you are a hardcore streamer, media connoisseur, music lover, or just love to multitask as efficiently as possible, then Deckboard is the app for you.
Designed to create macros for your Windows PC, the possibilities are almost endless, allowing you to create customizable buttons that can do everything from launching apps to opening folders, viewing conversations and much, much more.
Having a permanent screen with all your most used apps and features at your fingertips is a godsend for hefty time savers. It is unfortunate that the wall approach of iOS has been noticed again – this is another Android-only affair.
8. Just get rid of it
No, we do not mean it in the bin – we are talking about sales and / or recycling. If your spare phone is only a year or two old, it’s worthwhile to see what the running rate is on sites like eBay and phone recycling sites (more on that in a second).
Apple fans will be happy to hear that iPhones hold their value more than any other handset – twice as much as Samsung phones, in fact. However, this is bad news for everyone else – outside of these two markets, advertising value can be quite grim.
However, it never hurts to see, and you can still expect to get a decent amount of cash for last year’s flagship. Use a site like Compare My Mobile to see what your phone is worth on many different sites, and choose which one offers the best price.
Some of them offer a slightly higher amount in the form of vouchers, which you may want to avoid, and you will sleep better in the knowledge that – in many cases – your old handset will be recycled.
If you would rather have your phone carry out your legacy in working order, giving someone in need is another option. If no one cares, then charities like Oxfam will be more than grateful to receive all the extra gadgets you have rounded up.
