20 nice makes use of for an outdated Android machine
We all love getting new devices, however what to do with the outdated ones? Here are 20 intelligent methods to place your outdated Android telephone or pill to good use.
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Got further smartphones sitting round your workplace? How about tablets? As we transfer a number of generations into cell know-how, an increasing number of of us are build up collections of outdated, dated gadgets from each our work and our private lives. And as a rule, these gadgets do little greater than take up area and collect mud.
Here’s just a little secret, although: Your deserted Android devices are literally digital gold mines. You simply have to seek out the appropriate technique to faucet into their potential and provides them new life.
So seize the closest DustBuster and prepare: Here are 20 methods to make your outdated telephone or pill helpful once more.
1. Use it as a wi-fi trackpad and controller in your laptop
With the appropriate software program and a pair minutes of configuration, your outdated Android machine can act as an on-demand controller in your Windows, Mac, or Linux laptop.
An app referred to as Unified Remote and a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection are all you have to make the magic occur. The free model of the app offers you primary mouse and keyboard management together with specialised remotes for media playback and power-related instructions, whereas the complete $5 model provides in program-specific remotes for presentation management together with different superior options.
JR Raphael / IDG
Unified Remote gives primary mouse and keyboard management together with a wide range of specialised remotes.
Grab whichever model you favor and obtain the server-side software program in your laptop — then toss your outdated machine right into a desk drawer or laptop bag and relaxation simple realizing it’s going to be prepared and ready the subsequent time you have to go wi-fi.
2. Turn it right into a distant laptop terminal
Want quick access to your property laptop from the workplace — or vice-versa? Your outdated Android telephone or pill could be a splendid stationary display for preserving a distant system at arm’s attain.
The newer model of Google’s Chrome Remote Desktop program would not assist Android, oddly sufficient, however a third-party app referred to as TeamViewer handily fills the void. To get began with it, obtain and set up the suitable app in your desktop laptop. Windows, Mac, Linux, and ChromeOS are all supported.
Once this system is in place, open it, and it is best to see an entry code and password for distant sign-ins. All that is left is to put in the companion app in your Android machine, faucet in those self same credentials — and inside a matter of seconds, you need to be gazing your desktop laptop out of your Android machine’s display.
You’ll discover instructions for superior types of interplay (together with locking or rebooting the distant system) in a toolbar on the backside of the display. You can pull up a digital keyboard by tapping the keyboard icon in that very same space, in the meantime, and if you have to use the pc’s mouse, you may faucet as soon as to click on, faucet and maintain to right-click, double-tap to pull and drop, and drag with two fingers to scroll. You also can pinch to zoom on any specific space.
TeamViewer is free for private use (so be sure you choose the “private/non-commercial use” possibility throughout this system’s preliminary setup, offered that classification is smart for you). If you are utilizing it in a business context, plans begin at $35 a month for a year-long enterprise license.
3. Use it as a common good distant
Even the junkiest outdated Android machine has ample energy to function a wise distant in your residence or workplace. That could be a useful approach for you and anybody else round to manage your numerous good gadgets and multimedia parts without having any particular entry (or your individual present private telephone in hand).
First, the simple half: Load up your outdated telephone or pill with all of the related apps in your smart-device setup — issues like Nest, Hue, and anything acceptable for controlling your property or workplace tech.
Next, take into consideration including some instruments that’ll let the machine deal with any audio and video programs in your space. There are a number of methods you may make that work:
- Pair the telephone or pill with one in all Google’s ultra-affordable Chromecast streaming sticks. You can then hold the outdated Android machine in your desk or espresso desk and use it as a hub for wirelessly casting content material — every little thing from Netflix and YouTube to TED Talks, CNBC, and Google Slides — to your TV.
- Use your machine as a devoted distant in your residence or workplace leisure setup. If the machine is working an Android model from 2012 or later, you can provide your self a ready-to-roll Google TV distant that’ll work with any appropriate streaming merchandise by putting in after which signing into the official Google TV app. The Play Store additionally has a spread manufacturer-made apps for controlling particular parts, together with these by Comcast Xfinity, AT&T U-verse, and Roku.
- Set up a full-fledged media server utilizing Plex, then use your outdated machine as a devoted distant to stream your individual native content material to a TV. (The Plex media server software program is free; a premium subscription with added options runs $5 per 30 days, $40 per yr, or $120 for a lifetime license.)
4. Let it energy scientific analysis
Here’s one thing: Your clunky outdated Android machine might truly assist scientists seek for extraterrestrial life, detect earthquakes, or enhance most cancers therapies.
It’s all a part of a sequence of applications that use your machine’s computing energy to conduct scientific analysis. Some of the extra worthwhile choices:
- Zooniverse connects your telephone or pill to a wide range of analysis tasks starting from wild beluga whale identification to breast most cancers tumor mapping.
- DreamLab is a undertaking helmed by Vodafone that sometimes goals to uncover perception into how most cancers pertains to a affected person’s DNA profile. That, in flip, might enable for the event of extra particular and efficient cancer-fighting medicine. More lately, the app has been centered largely on analysis into potential therapies for COVID-19 as a part of a partnership with the Imperial College of London.
- MyShake, from the UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, makes use of your machine’s sensors to detect and analyze earthquakes. If you reside in an space the place earthquakes happen, leaving your machine plugged in and on a secure floor will present the scientists with helpful real-time information about any seismic exercise.
All of the apps work in basically the identical approach: After downloading and putting in (and generally going by way of a short setup or sign-in process), you merely plug your machine in and switch its display off. As lengthy because it stays related to an lively Wi-Fi community, researchers will have the ability to put its processing energy to make use of.
JR Raphael / IDG
Apps like Zooniverse, left, and DreamLab, proper, can flip your outdated Android pill or telephone right into a scientific analysis machine.
5. Transform it right into a free-standing safety digital camera
Who wants a fancy-schmancy related digital camera while you’ve obtained an outdated Android telephone sitting round? With assistance from a third-party app, the digital camera in your dated machine can allow you to regulate your property, workplace, or top-secret crime lair from anyplace — and even carry out superior capabilities like video recording and movement detection.
Just obtain the free IP Webcam app or get the totally featured $5 professional model and comply with its directions. Within moments, you’ll peek by way of your machine’s lens from any appropriate net browser and cackle with wonderful glee.
6. Reframe it as a full-time videoconferencing station
Set up your outdated Android machine with the app in your video-chatting platform of selection — Zoom, Google Meet, Skype, or regardless of the case could also be — then drop it right into a dock in your desk or convention room desk. Say “hocus pocus” for good measure, and ta-da: You’ve simply created a everlasting entry level for digital face-to-face communications.
Just suppose: With sufficient outdated telephones and tablets, you may create a complete house- or office-wide videoconferencing system. Sign every machine into its personal distinctive account, with the title of the room as its username, and seeing somebody throughout the constructing won’t ever be greater than a pair fast faucets away.
7. Turn it right into a kitchen command middle
Hard to imagine, however my historic 2011 Motorola Xoom pill was one of the used gadgets in my home till it lastly kicked the bucket some six years into its life. That’s as a result of I transformed it right into a multipurpose command middle for our kitchen — a job my 2012 Nexus 10 pill then took over for an additional couple years after that.
So the right way to make a kitchen command middle of your individual? Easy: First, use a customized Android launcher like Action Launcher or Nova Launcher to simplify your outdated pill’s residence display and add in some easy-to-perform gestures — like double-tapping anyplace on the display to launch Android’s voice search operate for on-the-fly info-gathering and different hands-free instructions. If your machine is at the least rather less historic than mine, it is best to have the ability to reap the benefits of hands-free voice activation and a a lot wider number of instructions with Google Assistant as an alternative.
Second, populate the house display with the appropriate apps for the aim. Netflix and different video-streaming companies will successfully flip your outdated pill right into a cooking-time tv. Recipe apps will also be helpful, as can cloud-connected note-taking companies — like Google Keep, Evernote, or OneNote — for fast viewing of non-public recipes or enhancing of always-synced family-shared purchasing lists.
8. Make it a data-based extension of your present telephone service
If you utilize Google Fi (previously generally known as Project Fi) in your present telephone’s wi-fi service, reap the benefits of a little-known bonus characteristic: the power to get an additional SIM card that is related to your account and capable of present information on some other machine — with none superfluous charges.
All you’ve got gotta do is order the cardboard from the Google Fi web site, pop it into an outdated telephone (or a pill, for those who occur to have one with a SIM slot) — and bam: That machine is immediately on-line and related. You’ll pay just for no matter cell information the machine makes use of in any given month, on the identical flat fee related together with your common Fi plan, so it is basically simply an extension of your major telephone.
That opens up loads of attention-grabbing prospects: You might use your outdated machine as a ready-to-go backup telephone in case your common one is ever lacking, damaged, or low on battery; you would use it as a devoted hotspot to beam out cell information entry with out draining your major telephone’s battery; or you would use it as an always-connected on-the-go slate in your youngsters (hiya, airport video-streaming) with out having to pay for an additional line of service.
9. Make it your dwell window into the world
Don’t have the best view out of your desk? Let your outdated Android telephone or pill be your window to wild and thrilling locales.
To get began, seize the EarthCam Webcams app from the Google Play Store. It’ll provide you with one-touch entry to a powerful listing of dwell streaming cameras world wide, from the hustle and bustle of New Orleans’ well-known Bourbon Street to the swooshing serenity of Niagara Falls. Pull up any view you want, then faucet the icon to go full-screen and gaze the day away. If you end up craving some selection, you may think about upgrading from the app’s free assortment to a set of 175 dwell cameras for a one-time $5 charge.
JR Raphael / IDG
EarthCam allows you to gaze down Niagara Falls — or a slew of different webcams world wide — for a break from the mundane.
You can discover fairly a number of mobile-friendly dwell cameras on the internet as effectively: Pull up your machine’s browser and check out the San Diego Zoo’s assorted animal cams — together with a penguin cam, koala cam, and tiger cam, amongst different unique views — or the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s in depth underwater cams for much more “aww”-inducing choices.
10. Convert it right into a digital photograph body
Ah, recollections. Snag a reasonable stand, plug your machine into its charger, and switch it right into a cloud-connected photograph body in your residence or workplace.
If you utilize Google Photos, simply open up the app, faucet on any photograph in your predominant library or inside a particular album, after which faucet the three-dot menu icon within the upper-right nook of the display. Scroll horizontally alongside the menu that seems and choose “Slideshow.” The app will cycle by way of your images and provide you with loads of recollections to replicate upon while enjoyable or taking good care of enterprise.
If your outdated Android telephone is a Pixel, you can even set it on one in all Google’s official Pixel Stands to start out an ever-evolving Photos-linked slideshow displaying any particular albums and even particular folks you need.
11. Use it as a devoted e-reader
Want a distraction-free studying surroundings in your subsequent enterprise journey or public transit commute? Load up your outdated Android machine with solely the apps you want for studying — Google Play Books, Amazon Kindle, Nook, or no matter tickles your text-ingesting fancy.
You may even borrow books out of your native library: Check together with your nearest department for info on the right way to do it or obtain the free OverDrive app, which is utilized by a wide range of libraries, faculties, and establishments.
Be certain to disable notifications from Gmail and different noisy apps — heck, even swap the machine into airplane mode as soon as you’ve got downloaded the content material you want — and you have got the equal of a devoted e-reader with out all the same old telephone or pill temptations.
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