Did you get a shiny new Apple device to start the new year? You might be left wondering what you can do with the old one. Sure, recycling is an option, but there’s already a lot of e-waste in the world. Why not try to put your old phone to work instead?
Your old phone, after all, has a lot of parts that are still useful—a camera, a screen, and a decent processor. There’s no reason you can’t find some use for it. I’ve been digging through the Popular Science archive, and the broader internet, collecting clever uses for old phones. Here are a few.
A Simpler Phone
Maybe you have an aging friend or relative who struggles to use modern smartphones. Maybe you occasionally find yourself wanting to use a simpler version of a smartphone. In either case a little-known iPhone feature can help. Any iPhone made after 2018 can turn into a simpler phone using Assistive Access, an accessibility feature that presents a much simpler version of the user interface.
This mode provides simplified versions of the phone, camera, messages, and photos app, all with large clear buttons that are impossible to misinterpret. Notably there’s no access to a web browser, social media, or any app that you don’t specifically add while setting up Assistive Access. This mode basically turns any old iPhone into a perfect flip phone alternative that’s compatible with iMessage, giving you a compelling reason to keep that older phone around.
A Digital Picture Frame
There’s no shortage of digital picture frames on the market, sure, but why buy something like that when you can just use your old iPhone or iPad? We’ve talked about using an old iPad as a digital picture frame using a dedicated application called Synced Photo Frame, which can automatically sync with a shared album in Photos. The application works with any iPad capable of running iPadOS 12, which includes most made after 2017. You could probably do something similar with an iPhone, though those have a much smaller screen.
A Retro Gaming Handheld
We’ve talked about how you can use emulators to play retro games on your phone, which is pretty great and means your old phone can turn into a dedicated retro gaming device. For the best results you’re going to want to buy a mobile game controller so that you have physical buttons. The result is that your old phone becomes something like a Nintendo Switch, but capable of emulating retro games.
The advantage of using your older phone is that you can use all of the storage on the device for fitting as many games as possible. You can also leave an older phone in your controller full-time.
A Baby or Wildlife Monitor
Your old phone has a built-in camera, which you realize. But that means it has all sorts of uses. You could plug it into a charger and leave it recording as a sort of improvised security camera. Even better: You can use dedicated apps to get more out of the camera.
Anthony Spadafora of Tom’s Guide wrote about setting up an old iPhone as a video baby monitor using an application called AlfredCamera. This is an application designed to turn an old phone into a purpose-built security camera. Just plug your phone into the charger, aim it so that the camera is covering what you want to record, and leave it there. You can even set this up to give you an alert any time there’s movement.
This isn’t just great for home security or parenting—it can also be a tool for bird watching.
Ronny Steen, a professor of environmental science and natural resource management from Norway, wrote about turning an old smartphone into a bird-monitoring app. There’s no reason you couldn’t use an app like AlfredCamera for that.
In short, there’s all kinds of things your old iPhone could be useful for. Consider them before throwing it out.
The post 5 clever uses for your old iPhone or iPad appeared first on Popular Science.
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