20 ideas to reuse your old smartphone

Why scrap when you can re-use your old smartphones and tablets.

Older smartphones and tablets are comparatively useless against the newer generation and faster ones. Here are some practical uses for the old ones. 

When smartphones and tablets came into existence, they were considered an advanced gadget unlike PDAs. You did not need to carry along your phone and laptop along with the PDA anymore as the phone or tablet itself was more productive and multi-usable. Those who jumped onto the smartphone and tablet bandwagon in its earlier days are now considering (or have already done so) opting for the faster, new generation ones which feature dual core processors and larger crisp display panels, not forgetting additional features such as a better GPU, higher RAM and an advanced operating system. Older smartphones and tablets today have no resale value against the newer ones which are competitively priced. Finally you might end up selling them for a very low price, scrapping them, or leaving just them lying around the house. Why not get them into some use? Read on and you shall find out that the older smartphones and tablets can still be put into use at home, office or while travelling. Here are around 20 uses for them.

1.       Watch favorite flicks: Some smartphones and most tablets that have a fairly larger display screen can play videos or stream videos from the internet or your local media server with ease. Why not use it as a personal media player? You can have your kids enjoy their cartoons, spouse enjoy their favorite TV episodes, watch movies or simply stream Youtube videos. It can be a great travel entertainment. The screen may not be large enough, but it is definitely worth the use. You can also stream movies to your network and watch your flicks on TV from them using the Wi-fi.

2.       Listen to favorite Music: Those having a smartphone with a smaller display screen can dump their music on to the SD card and use their smartphones as a personal music player. You don’t need to buy yourself an MP3 player as your phone can do the same.

3.       Listen to local or internet radio: Most smartphones and tablets have Wi-fi and can be used as a local or as an internet-streaming radio. Simply install a radio app from the internet and connect it to your home entertainment system. You don’t need to have your notebook or PC to listen to internet radio anymore. Since the smartphone or tablet consumes very little power, you can save on electricity bills too.

4.       Surf the Internet: Any internet enabled smartphone or tablet can be used for instant web surfing. Shop online, check emails, read the news or chat with friends, you can do all this relaxing in your lawn, resting on your bed at night or when on a vocation. You don’t need to carry along your heavy notebook or tablet, especially when you are on a short trip.

5.        Check and reply to emails: Use your smartphone or tablet on your desktop, in your pocket (smartphones only) or anywhere to check and reply to emails. The device can come in handy for instant email checking with apps from Gmail, Yahoo and also your other POP or exchange mails. You won’t need to check your desktop email client for personal emails at office anymore.

6.       Download torrents: Since torrent client apps are easily and freely available for smartphones and tablets, you can use it to download torrents with great ease. Simply configure it once, feed in the torrent file and keep the device connected to a wall charger to carry on downloading your torrents. You can eliminate the PC or laptop now and make your phone your torrent client.

7.       Make it a server (FTP/HTTP/Media): If you have a fairly large SD card in the smartphone or tablet, you can convert it into a miniature server for file sharing using a Samba or FTP server or use it as a web server with an HTTP server. Test and run your personal web server at home or office.

8.       Play games: Make the phone or tablet your personal play station. Install your favorite games and entertain yourself while travelling or on holidays. Children can also make use of these devices for their entertainment. You don’t have to worry anymore about your personal phone being used for gaming and entertainment and lose out on important calls or battery life.

9.       Computer engineers can use them: Since the phones and tablets are light-weight and feature Wi-fi connectivity, computer networking engineers can benefit from them on their field work. Use them for testing wireless routers, internet connectivity, or network issues. Test network shares, scan for IP and MAC addresses on the network, check wireless router signal strengths and leaks, ping to servers and PCs, and a lot more.

10.   Design and/or test apps: If you are interested in creating your own apps or are just curious about the new apps available on the internet, your old phone or tablet can help you test and use the apps before deploying them to other phones and tablets.

11.   Use it as a time piece: If the phone or tablet is not really of any much use, you can always convert it onto a beautiful time piece. Lay it on a stand on your desk or in your show case, run a clock app. You can use it for alarms and reminders too. You could also use it as a world clock.

12.    News reader: Use your smartphone or tablet on your desk as a news reader for instant flash news or your daily e-newspaper. Check the stock market or simply stream videos from free internet news channels.

13.   Read E-books: Those with larger display screens can use their smartphones and tablets as e-book readers. Download e-books from the internet and use it while travelling or at night in bed.

14.   Use it as a camera: Phones like Sony Ericsson really have a great camera. Why not use it as a camera while on a trip? As it also would feature a GPS and Wi-fi, you can instantaneously tag and upload the photos and videos to the internet or social networking sites.

15.   Social networking: A smartphone or tablet can be used as a perfect social networking device. Keep in touch with friends and family continuously on your phone with apps like Facebook, Google+, Twitter or MySpace. Create a common family account and keep it at home for all house members to use or simply use it personally on your office desk.

16.   Photo frame: If your smartphone or tablet is not fast enough, but has a good and large enough display screen, you can always stuff it with your personal photos, run a slideshow and use it as a digital photo frame on your desk at home, office or your car.

17.   Online banking: Since smartphones and tablets are internet enabled, you can use it purely for banking at home. Convert it into a miniature kiosk at home for your spouse at home. Older family members who do not know how to use the PC for banking can be made comfortable with the minimal input banking apps on the phone.

18.   GPS device: Those who always travel around the city or country can use the smartphone or tablet as a personal GPS device. Download maps or a GPS app and use it to navigate around the place.

19.   Internet chat: Chat with friends and family using the internet via VoIP. Apps such as Skype enable a user to make international phone calls using the internet. Those with a secondary camera on the phone or tablet can use it for video chat too.

20.   Second display to your PC: You can always use your tablet or large screen smartphone as a secondary display monitor on your desktop PC or laptop. Download the necessary app for your operating system and use the wireless network to enable the second display on the tablet or smartphone. This display can be used for docking or placing chat windows, tickers, messengers, news feeds, video or TV and a lot more. It helps you utilize your primary monitor entirely for your office work while the less important windows can be shifted to the secondary display.

All these and many more uses can be found for your older smartphones and tablets. Be it a Windows, Android, Blackberry or Symbian OS, apps on the market can convert your older smart gadgets into more usable ones.