Ask Slashdot: Best Use For an Old Smartphone? 301
zaba writes "The original iPhone was a dream come true for me. Phone, camera, mp3 player and data all in one device. It had more cpu and memory than my first computer! Several generations of smartphones later, my wife and I have some random smartphones (some iPhone, some Android) lying around. Between privacy concerns, bad batteries, etc. these phones are not worthy of donation. So, I ask you, Slashdot readers, have you done anything fun with an old smartphone? Any suggestions/ideas?"
Will it blend? (Score:4, Funny)
For science, of course.
Re: (Score:2)
Isn't there some cell phone skipping contest in Finland?
Replace the batteries (Score:4, Interesting)
The batteries aren't as hard to replace as some non-techies make you believe. Buy the parts from chinese retailers, do the work yourself and the phone will perform like when it was new. There are a lot of people with worse phones, who would appreciate even an old smartphone.
Re:Replace the batteries (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Replace the batteries (Score:5, Insightful)
Intelligent people don't even HAVE a TV.
Intelligent people have a TV but don't watch what you watch. You're confusing the device for the content.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, what do intelligent people watch on TV? The Learning Channel hasn't been about learning in a decade. Same for Discovery. The "news" networks are atrocious. CSPAN is pointless. CSPAN2 on the weekends is good, but that's BookTV so why not just read? Charlie Rose is on past my bed time.
I like the Daily Show and Colbert, but let's be honest that's not exactly smart TV. Smarter than average, but still a guilty pleasure.
If you want to watch something smart, skip the TV entirely and check out Academi [academicearth.org]
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LOL @ your flamebait. The average has an IQ of 100 no matter what group you're testing.
I wonder what a beowulf cluster of these would do? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I wonder what a beowulf cluster of these would (Score:4, Funny)
Didn't they just do that with 500,000 Android phones in China?
Re: (Score:2)
fuck beowulf clusters... think an array of LCD with built-in controller and wireless communication!
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Whatever. Well make an animated picture frame then, so we don't need a shiny 30fps.
Re:I wonder what a beowulf cluster of these would (Score:5, Interesting)
Something like the MIT junkyard jumbotron then?
http://jumbotron.media.mit.edu/
Re: (Score:3)
If you're doing it with non-realtime content as a form of public performance art of finite duration, it's fairly straightforward: stream it slowly in advance, with each phone buffering its individual pixel value for each frame along with a timecode, then use the network to just transmit the clock & timecodes and have the phones step through their pre-buffered values on schedule.
It's kind of like an orchestra with a director -- unless they're all spontaneously improvising jazz, they have sheet music in f
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, KAAPI (I distributed memory workstealing programming framework) was ported to Iphone/Ipod touch a few years ago. It still appears on their website http://moais.imag.fr/membres/thierry.gautier/TG/Kaapi.html [moais.imag.fr]
Not sure if it still run...
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DistCC cluster for native arm/android compiling
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Two years ago I wrote a SIFI story set about 5 years from now in which a geneticist wanting to do a secret study away from work built herself a supercomputer out of old smartphones.
Granted in the story phones had completely replaced PC's, when not used mobile they had 3-D projectors and laser-scanners to create large 3D displays (with the phone lying flat on the table) and a full-sized projected keyboard as well as voice operation where useful.
Ubuntu's phone-dock idea is effectively the same idea except wi
iPhone dream (Score:3, Insightful)
Phone, camera, mp3 player and data all in one device
Older Symbian s60 devices did the same for a much lower price and IIRC better battery life
It wasnt a dream come true, it was a feature phone dressed up as a smartphone
Re:iPhone dream (Score:5, Insightful)
They really didn't do the same thing. The killer app for the iPhone was a decent touch-screen web browser and a very stable OS, neither was available on the S60 devices. It also shifted away the phone app from being the centerpiece to just being another app amongst others, which resulted in a paradigm shift. Battery life on Symbian phones was also quite awful, if you actually used any radios instead of just keeping the phone in stand-by. Symbian phones were also very crash-prone, unlike the iPhones, and you wouldn't get any major firmware updates, merely some hotfixes to some of the serious bugs.
You aren't just comparing apples to oranges, you are comparing a mid-90's low-end keypad-controlled handheld system design to a modern, touch-screen-controlled Unix-based system.
Re: (Score:2)
I've never used a phone with better battery life than S60, moreso the later models. Because it runs an OS that was designed ground up for ancient mobiles, it uses very little resources.
Always been very stable in the past. Some stuff was clunky as hell, though. But battery life, and reception was the best I've ever experienced. Great for... phoning.
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They really didn't do the same thing. The killer app for the iPhone was a decent touch-screen web browser and a very stable OS
I always thought it was angry birds.
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The killer app for the iPhone was a decent touch-screen web browser and a very stable OS, neither was available on the S60 devices. It also shifted away the phone app from being the centerpiece to just being another app amongst others...
Wait a minute, the iPhone can be used as a PHONE? Who knew? Someone tell Apple, maybe they can fit a proper antenna into the iPhone so that users can make a call without climbing up the nearest cell phone tower and looping tin foil between their beloved iPhone and the transponder.
Seriously, I've tried to switch to iPhone and Android. Both are pretty neat, have fun applications, great games but when I'm looking for a durable, water-resistant, reliable device to be used as a phone, send text or even writ
Re: (Score:3)
Phone, camera, mp3 player and data all in one device
Older Symbian s60 devices did the same for a much lower price and IIRC better battery life
It wasnt a dream come true, it was a feature phone dressed up as a smartphone
I used a Nokia N70 for years. The experience was nothing like the iPhone. I even wrote applications for the Nokia and I think it was one of the best phones at the time I bought it. I used it a lot.
I also owned a Windows Mobile PDA, the specs were good, but the user experience was bad. I used it less and less as the novelty wore off, which was a pity as it had been really expensive. I also owned the first iPod Video, although it took Apple 6 more years because I could actually buy videos on iTunes.
What Apple
Mini-me (Score:5, Interesting)
Plug it in and use VNC to a separate session to make it a mini-head for monitoring things like email, tweets, system sensors, etc. For example, what I did with my tablet [google.com].
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Yeah, and for the iPhones, he could use AirDisplay, which makes the device a "real" wireless display head.
Use it as a server (Score:5, Interesting)
For Android phones, use it as a Web/FTP/DNLA/DNS/Email/Proxy server. [google.com]
Re:Use it as a server (Score:5, Informative)
This package actually does a few more things as well ( DLNA, DNS, Dynamic DNS, Email, FTP(S), Proxy, SMS Gateway, Time, HTTP(S), (secure) WebDAV), and the performance seems pretty impressive for what it is. Of course, the power consumption is really low as well. I'm pretty damn impressed by the app in general.
what's wrong with WiFi? (Score:2)
For light usage it should be fine.
Re: (Score:2)
Some cheap tablets come with ethernet connector.
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If you want a wired connection, use USB OTG, although I think most many phones would need to have an updated ROM installed.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
wireless video intercom/cctv (Score:5, Interesting)
With a couple of phones that have user-facing cameras, you could set up a sweet touchscreen video intercom at your frontdoor. If you're worried about them being thieved, you could conceal all but the camera lense and make it a one-way experience only.
For that matter you could use them as wireless CCTV security and potentially check in on them from home, the office, while on holiday.
Re: (Score:3)
Re:wireless video intercom/cctv (Score:5, Funny)
I did a total reversal on this several years ago. I'm 22 now, but when I was in high school, my parents got blackberries with gps. There was an app that pinged back the geocoordinates at regular intervals when a specified SMS was received as well as immediate updates when I logged into them. I set the SMS up to be innocuous, like "I just fed the dog" or whatever. Whenever they were going out with friends, I'd SMS them to start up the tracker, and feed the coordinates into google maps, and know exactly where they were.
It was a pretty sweet deal. I gotta lot of 1:1 secret bouncy funtime with my gfs/bfs those years due to my careful planning, and ability to always track where my parents were and their ETA to home.
Donate To Elderly (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Donate To Elderly (Score:5, Funny)
This is Slashdot. Load malware of some sort onto it, then leave it on the bus.
Remote Controls (Score:5, Interesting)
The fact that this headline is even possible ... (Score:3)
... is vaguely mind-boggling to me.
I must be getting old.
Old iPhone? Sell it (Score:4, Interesting)
I believe I bought my iPhone 3G for $300 on launch day and I sold it about 3.5 years later to a friend for $125, which was well under the asking prices at that time, most of which were around $150-175 if memory serves. I was shocked to see that it had held its value so well, despite being two generations outdated at that point (and feeling like it too).
The scene might be a bit different these days, now that Apple has started offering older models for lower prices, but considering your phone can be purchased without needing to commit to a contract, that alone makes it more valuable than you may realize.
Re: (Score:3)
If it's an original iPhone, it's probably worthless.
Still usable, and still worth a bit (Score:4, Informative)
If it's in good shape and still works, you can still get a decent price [ebay.com] for them.
It's still quite a usable device.
Re: (Score:2)
The 3G launched June 9, 2008. If you sold it to your friend 3.5 years later, by my admittedly sketchy math that's december of last year.
I didn't do much research, but its easy to find that the going price for a brand new iphone *4* was $99 in december of last year, and you could get them even cheaper on sale: http://www.iphonehacks.com/2011/12/radioshack-to-offer-30-discount-on-iphone-4s-and-iphone-4-from-sunday-dec-11th-through-dec-17th.html [iphonehacks.com]
yes thats with 2 year contract, and not being tied to a contract
Re: (Score:3)
Looks like you posted concurrently with a correction I just posted, but yeah, I realized after the fact that I was off by an entire year. It was 2.5 years later, not 3.5. That was a brain fart on my part when doing a last minute edit before posting.
Regarding the price, I do believe that there was some other factor at play in inflating the used prices of the 3G (and the original iPhone too) at that time. I think there was something that people were able to do with the 3G that wasn't possible with later phone
Re: (Score:2)
Correction: it was about 2.5 years later, not 3.5, just in case anyone actually cares. I originally had 2.5-3, thought about it some more, realized it was on the lower end of that range (bought it summer of '08, sold it winter of '10), but then brain farted and put down the wrong number. Sorry about that.
Re: (Score:2)
Second correction: the going price was $200-300, based on the e-mails between my friend and me.
Tonight is not a good night for my recollection...
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I have no idea what you're talking about with Gamestop. I was talking about Apple selling the iPhone 3GS [apple.com] for free and the iPhone 4 [apple.com] for $99...assuming you're willing to get a 2-year contract with each. Those were the older models and lower prices I was referring to.
iPod touch (Score:2)
IP Video Camera (Score:5, Interesting)
Plug the phone into a wall outlet and install one of the numerous free Android apps that turns the phone into a wi-fi IP video camera. Mount it on your front porch and see who stops by when you're not home. Integrate the camera into an external Zoneminder server if you want motion detection, alarms, and recording.
Re: (Score:2)
Why did you post an insightful comment as AC?
A home wifi phone would be very useful.
Re:IP Video Camera (Score:4, Interesting)
Believe it or not, some people do believe in anonymity not just as a method to avoid shame when posting dubious comments ;)
Permanent bathroom smartphone (Score:2, Funny)
Mount it near your toilet for easy access to Angry Birds or whatever when in the toilet, or set up a small speaker set in your shower room and use the smartphone to play music from online streams over WLAN or similar.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
And chatroulette.
Steam punk it (Score:5, Interesting)
Build a cool ass steam punk enclosure for it. Make it a table top phone with a handset using a mic and headphones (hide them inside the ear and mouth piece). Keep the display but root it and get some brass typeset graphics for the number keys, etc.
If it can do Skype or video chat try that too.
Make the enclosure big and brass with lots of adjustable levers for positioning it (3 arms would do).
OR
Make a Jukebox out of it and enclose it in something with cool speakers.
Maybe even both.
Privacy? (Score:3)
Are you unsure if you can completely wipe the phone?
Anyways, put it on craigslist. Or ask around. I'm sure someone will be willing to take them. I use Android devices as scoring devices for quiz meets, so if someone wanted to give me a pile of Android phones, I'd be happy. Or if someone wants to get into development, having a range of phones is always helpful.
I would go with... (Score:5, Interesting)
Alarm (Score:3)
I always keep my previous Android as not only an emergency spare, but use it in a dock in the bedroom as an alarm clock and weather station.
The only thing annoying is that you can't use NTP with it, unless you are rooted... so since there is no cell connection, time will drift.
Wifi Cameras (Score:2)
Compared to the price of your usual IP camera's its a bargain solution.
Put Debian on it (Score:3)
and run it in a chroot jail. [google.com] Then benchmark the processor with Povray 3.6:
Debian 7.0(armhf), gcc 4.6, -mhard-float -mcpu=cortex-a9 -march=armv7 -mthumb
-mfpu=neon -funsafe-math-optimizations
Parse Time: 0 hours 0 minutes 4 seconds (4 seconds)
Photon Time: 0 hours 1 minutes 30 seconds (90 seconds)
Render Time: 1 hours 20 minutes 38 seconds (4838 seconds)
Total Time: 1 hours 22 minutes 12 seconds (4932 seconds)
Debian 6.0 (armel), gcc 4.4, -mfloat-abi=softfp -mcpu=cortex-a9
Parse Time: 0 hours 0 minutes 4 seconds (4 seconds)
Photon Time: 0 hours 1 minutes 43 seconds (103 seconds)
Render Time: 1 hours 49 minutes 59 seconds (6599 seconds)
Total Time: 1 hours 51 minutes 46 seconds (6706 seconds)
Here are some results compared to other processors:
Ordered by pps/GHz:
Core i5 2400S (2.5 GHz): 235.17 pps ; 94.07 pps/GHz
Athlon II x4 (2.8 GHz): 179.82 pps ; 64.22 pps/GHz
Celeron 220 (1.2 GHz): 81.15 pps ; 67.62 pps/GHz
Pentium 4m (1.5 GHz): 36.24 pps ; 24.16 pps/GHz
Exynos 4210 (1.2 GHz): 29.90 pps ; 24.91 pps/GHz (-mfloat-abi=hard)
Atom N270 (1.6 GHz): 28.96 pps ; 18.10 pps/GHz
Exynos 4210 (1.2 GHz): 21.99 pps ; 18.32 pps/GHz (-mfloat-abi=softfp)
PowerPC 750 (700 MHz): 20.47 pps ; 29.25 pps/GHz
Pentium !!! (450 MHz): 12.43 pps ; 27.62 pps/GHz
Re: (Score:2)
Throw it away (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Wow. Dozens of comments down the line and finally this one :-) It was quite literally the first I thought of, especially in light of this being featured on /. just days ago.
Build a robot (Score:2)
Robot [engadget.com]
You could also turn into a web cam or, with appropriate sensors, a weather station.
Give to aspiring developer ... (Score:3)
If you have no interest in mobile development do you have someone among your family and friends who does? Give it to them for debugging and testing.
Easy peasy (Score:2)
Old second gen iPod touch + clearance dock for $10 equals 32 GB music system. though I have been contemplating a permanent hook up for my van.
Open source! (Score:2, Informative)
Give it to one of the Open Source mobile distribution developers! For example: Replicant, SHR, Debian:
http://replicant.us/ [replicant.us]
http://shr-project.org/ [shr-project.org]
https://wiki.debian.org/Mobile [debian.org]
Smart Thermostat. (Score:2)
I have an original Motorola Droid that I'm going to see about turning into a smart thermostat. When I get the time, I'm going to try to interface an HID chip like the U421 [usbmicro.com] with it. Once I get those two talking, it should be trivial to interface with the furnace and AC units and a few 1-Wire temperature sensors around the house.
True, that phone is probably more powerful then my first two or three computers combined (TI-99A, C=64 and a whopping Turbo (4X) XT compatible), but it's just sitting in a drawer a
microwave (Score:2)
compare how long it takes for each old smartphone to asplode. hilarity ensues. maybe do it outside. and stand behind a lead wall.
Re: (Score:3)
What about old Palms? (Score:2)
Like Treo 680, Vx, etc.?
WiFi Android mini-tablet (Score:2)
Make a belt out of them... (Score:5, Funny)
Chick Magnet.
throw it in a fire (Score:2)
Recycle it (Score:2)
Easy.
I got rid of my clock radio (Score:2)
I went from using a crappy CD player clock radio to using an old rooted Android phone. It's overkill, but benefits include picking whatever MP3 I want whenever I want... including pulling it over the network with ES File Manager, over wifi, from bed... checking weather, ebay, woot, random browsing, etc... The alarm settings, being software-based, are much more flexible and intelligent than most hardware clock radios... I get Monday-Friday how I want, weekends how I want, and one-off alarm changes are no p
Use it? (Score:2)
Jailbreak it... (Score:2)
old fart (Score:2)
I just bought a new nokia C2-01 as my primary cellphone! and now THIS?!
Not for iPhone, but I use old phone as a navigator (Score:4, Interesting)
My old S60 series Nokia - it has offline maps, with driving instructions (and voice guidance) and a working GPS. I got a car-window mount and a recharger for that (cost about â 10) and now it serves as a navigator in my car. I connect it via USB every few months to load in the latest map data, but other than that, it now lives in the glove compartment when not in use.
GPS Logger + CarCam (Score:3)
I would like to put my old Android mobile/tablet into my Car, and use it as a GPS logger. It would charge from the car battery. I would be able to access it from the web if my car where to be stolen, and see where it is, and see who's in my car via a tiny camera. There also would be a camera facing outside front and back (or omni) to catch other events while parked.
So basically, is there an app that turns my old android into a dedicated Car GPS logger + CarCam unit?
Re:GPS Logger + CarCam (Score:4, Informative)
Here ya go! [androidacademy.com]
Radio (Score:2)
I use mine for streaming radio, but my battery is still good.
Does it have HDMI out? (Score:2)
Some smartphones that are coming off of 2 year contract have mini-HDMI ports on them. I just sold a DroidX that did.
If so, install the XBMC apk, and use it as a home theatre PC!
You can use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse and have the perfect home theatre experience.
Car Locator (Score:3)
If it's worth the $25 a month to you, you can buy a data only plan from Simply Mobile, plug the phone into your 12v line and hide the phone in your car. If your car gets stolen, you'll be able to locate it. That all assumes of course that the phone has GPS.
Re: (Score:3)
Call forwarding isn't a phone feature, it's a carrier feature.
Re:Donate it (Score:5, Funny)
to underpriviled inner city orphans in a homeless shelter.
No one underprivileged would be able to afford the AT&T iPhone plan.
They don't need a plan (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:They don't need a plan (Score:4, Informative)
Why isn't this comment modded up more?
Plenty of charities will accept phones for exactly this reason. They can refurbish old phones well enough so they'll keep a charge and be able to dial 911 for emergencies. Even if your phone has a single fatal flaw, they can re-use parts of it to get other, identical models working.
If the phone currently works (even if you have to use the charger to get it to power up), just remember to scrub your data before you send it in. Many smartphones have this ability as a built-in feature so the phone appears to be "factory fresh" from a software and data perspective.
Re:Donate it (Score:4, Insightful)
Got to love the demonisation of the poor. It's much cooler than being racist. SImply change the word "black" for "welfare recipient" in all of your rants and no-one will bat an eyelid.
It's not like we're in the middle of the worst economic crisis for decades, with many people being laid off and needing society to help them get by while they try to be the one person out of the two thousand who applied to actually get the menial, low-paid job that is all that's on offer in the ex-industrial town they had the misfortune to be born in. Heaven forbid anyone would aspire to owning a consumer good which the constant saturation of advertising states is the only way to validate yourself as a person.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chavs-Demonization-Working-Owen-Jones/dp/184467696X [amazon.co.uk] might open your eyes (UK context but applicable to many western countries)
Re:Burn them (Score:5, Informative)
Burn the mother fuckers already, and get on with your life.
Yeah, but those of us who don't have a life can use half-dead Android phones as Arduino controllers.
Or we could use them with AndroUAV to control our own drones.
http://www.amarino-toolkit.net/ [amarino-toolkit.net]
http://developer.android.com/tools/adk/index.html [android.com]
http://www.instructables.com/id/Androino-Talk-with-an-Arduino-from-your-Android-d/ [instructables.com]
http://code.google.com/p/androuav/ [google.com]
Re:Burn them (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Burn them (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Burn them (Score:4, Insightful)
how does it count more? Its all just doing stuff.
Re:Burn them (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Burn them (Score:5, Funny)
I believe this is what you're looking for:
http://slashdot.org/story/12/08/20/0216225/finland-hosts-mobile-phone-throwing-championships [slashdot.org]
Re:Throw them ... for distance and glory! (Score:5, Funny)
I throw them at the kids on my lawn. But the lil' bastards just keep coming back for more, so I keep the .410 with rock salt loads handy.
The cell phones are rich in rare Chinese vitamins and minerals, and eventually get buried beneath all the beer cans, and other trash. So I am effectively building a rare earth heavy metal mineral mine for my great-great-great-grandchildren.
I am also hoping that some of the kids might port Openwrt to the phones that they pick up.
Sometimes Da Ranch gets visitors from foreign countries, who ask if they can borrow a phone that works with the bands in the area. I just tell them pick one up of their liking off the front lawn.
Re: (Score:2)
For Android I use Unified Remote [google.com], works well for controlling my HTPC. It's Windows only but much more full functioned than most of the competitors (there's even an API for writing custom remotes). There's another one out there that uses a Java server for the PC portion that I tried but it only did basic keyboard and mouse emulation and Google doesn't show it in my list of previously installed apps now.