By 2ndactt/ Photo by ready made on Pexels.com
Old smartphones can do anything. Reuse old phones with apps, and you save for yourself lots of hard, cold cash from buying the following gadgets that many of us need in our everyday life.
1. Dash camera
Old phones stacked somewhere in your house can be repurposed as a dash camera. This kind of app comes with different names. Try “car video recorder,” “drive recorder,” “auto DVR,” or “car black box” on Google Play or App Store. Most of them provide free downloads but have in-app purchases.
The primary function of these apps, of course, is road video recording and photo capturing. They also display speed, locations, timestamps, and the data that you would find on a physical dashcam. Some apps double as a navigation device that helps drivers check routes.
But these apps are battery drainers. Make sure that you connect your old phone to a power source while using it.
2. Speed camera radar
You can also utilize an old phone, making it a speed camera radar or a speed camera detector. It comes with various names. Many of these apps provide maps dotted with locations where speed cameras are deployed and issue warnings when you are close to one.
Like the car video recorder app, you need to connect the old phone to a power source when using the app.
3. Home surveillance
Do you have family members that you need to look after while you are away? Or do you hoard diamonds and pearls in your house that you have to prevent burglars from breaking in?
Type keywords like “surveillance camera,” “IP camera,” “home security,” “CCTV,” “video monitoring,” or “baby monitor” in App Store or Google Play and you can turn your spare phone into surveillance equipment.
It works with two phones. The old device is the monitoring camera at a designated location, and you watch real-time streaming from the phone carried with you. Both phones need to be connected to the Internet. Don’t just turn on the app, walk away, and wonder why you never get anything streamed back.
4. Magnifier or reading glasses
There are apps turning the camera lens on a smartphone into a useful magnifier. Download these apps, and you have a magnifying glass readily to use. There is no need to go out and buy one, telling the whole world that you have become farsighted over time.
Some magnifier apps do more than enlarging prints. They can be a flashlight, take screenshots, and offer contrast mode, among others.
5. Bedside clock
As screens are getting larger, we can make old phones into a stylish digital clock to replace that black, brick-shaped classic bedside clock people used to have at home.
In addition to time and date, many apps go extra miles to include weather conditions, charging indicator, and sleep timer.
6. Insect repellent
Consider keeping off pests with that old cell phone of yours? Software developers have created apps for this purpose.
Search “insect,” “pest,” or “repellent.” You get a small list of these apps that claim to keep ants, mosquitoes, and flies from getting near you. Some apps say they disperse rodent animals, but the author of this article is not so sure.
The theory behind is that anti-pest apps make the phone send off ultrasonic soundwaves that are audible only to insects, not to human ears. These waves create stress for little bugs so that they run away.
This may be a more eco-friendly means of getting rid of insects, compared with pesticide.
Do you have old phones that you no longer use? Reuse those old phones with apps, and let them be the little helpers while saving you money at the same time.
Recommended products >>