BrandChannel: How to breathe new life into your old, unused phone

It may have happened to many of you that you found your replaced smartphone a few years ago in your desk drawer. Of course, the specific device may not be the latest piece, its screen may be slightly worn or cracked, or its battery may not last until the end of the day, but regardless, it still works.

It would be wrong to throw away something like that, if only because we can prevent tens of thousands of potentially dangerous money from being paid out with simple ingenuity. Instead of yearning for the various gadgets on the electronics store shelves, with our old phone we can easily replace a series of devices that we would otherwise have wasted our hard-earned money on. Let’s see what you can use old, but still working smartphones!

desk digital clock

One of the most straightforward ways to use it, for which you don’t even need to download separate apps. You simply have to find a suitable support or, if the hardware is such, a dock in which to set it up and you have it! The watch can be customized to indicate the time using digital or analog indicators, but it can act as a kind of digital barometer with the help of meteorological applications.

instead of a mouse

On great — and very expensive — laptops, a large touchpad takes the place of a mouse. Such a thing is very convenient to use, and it also supports the use of multiple fingers and various gesture controls. However, there is no need to spend hundreds of thousands of forints for such a machine, when a used smartphone can be turned into a similar device in seconds. We can choose between several types of programs (for example, Unified Remote), both of which allow you to control the computer, either as a mouse or a trackpad, or if you are watching a movie or series on your computer, with functions similar to a remote control after tv. And in a workplace environment, we can even entrust the playback of presentations to the device saved from the account.

security camera

A common problem with older phones is that their batteries don’t last very long. On the other hand, if it can be used with a charger connected – for example, because we don’t take it with us – the situation is completely different. If your old device is already at this point in its life, using it as a security camera can be an excellent choice. Here too, we can choose from countless software available for free or for a few dollars, and from here we just need to find a new place for the phone’s camera, which can act as a baby monitor, we can monitor pets, but we can even monitor the garden or the perimeter of the home to prevent unauthorized entry.

Smart Home Center

Nowadays, more and more families have various smart gadgets, from Internet-connected speakers to smart light bulbs and various smart home appliances. Usually, for similar devices, the manufacturer develops its own application, but it often happens that only one member of the family has access to various gadgets, that is, these applications are available only on one phone. On the other hand, if we turn the old phone into a smart home center, this will not be a problem, since this device will always be at hand. This way, you will no longer have to call your family member to play music or switch your living room lighting to night mode.

digital photo frame

At the beginning of the 2000s, photo frames suitable for displaying digital photos were considered very cool, but today we can replace them with a used phone. You can also find projection mode in the ‘normal’ gallery apps, but there are also many apps available where you can view beautiful landscapes, animals or flowers, but of course you can also fill your phone with favorite family photos.

A global supercomputer in the service of science

It seems surprising at first, but our smartphone is also a computer, and it’s not particularly weak. So it sure is a waste if it’s gathering dust in the drawer, while we can also put it in service of a good cause. There are many scientific platforms in the world where various research related computational tasks are solved by using the processor time of unused computers operating in different parts of the world. We can support medicine, for example in fighting various cancers, we can help with space research efforts or we can bring seismologists closer to understanding the mysteries of earthquakes. All we have to do is register with a similar platform – such as Zooniverse, DreamLab, MyShake or SETI @ Home – launch the relevant software on our machine, and while we live our lives, the machine runs silently. Great, right?

An intelligent companion for vintage cars

In modern cars you can find a nice touch screen and many convenient digital services, but you don’t have to save tens of millions to enjoy the achievements of technology in an old car. Our phone that is no longer in use can even be set up as a “permanent clock” in the car, we just need to ensure that it is powered by a suitable connector – this can usually be solved with a USB charger that can be inserted into the cigarette lighter. From there, all we have to do is find a suitable phone mount that we can attach to our windshield or dashboard. Thus the phone can be suitable as a navigation device, but also as a media player.

for emergencies

Whether you are traveling or during daily life, it can be useful to have a spare phone in case something happens to the device we are currently using. Sometimes an unfortunate and careless step can be enough to break our device, but the situation is even worse if it breaks or gets stolen. In cases like this, it would help if we could pull out another phone to call for help — and that doesn’t even require a SIM card. The only thing you have to pay attention to is that the phone is charged, or that we have a power bank with which we can bring it to life.