Do we need old smartphones?

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Czy dziś da się używać starych telefonów do codziennych zastosowań?

Thailand’s Chulanglonghorm University wants to give life to old smartphones. Researchers came up with the idea of using phones that are no longer in use and turning them into microscopes for students. For this purpose, samsung has allocated 500 devices. There are to be 2 500 microscopes for 500 schools across the country. We are facing a huge problem with electro-waste and these solutions can be very helpful. Why throw away devices that still work when we can use them for a good cause. There are also many other ideas for using old smartphones models. Some people convert them into a home monitoring system, a TV remote control, an alarm clock, an electronic nanny, a music player, a digital photo frame or a webcam.

Did you buy yourself a new phone? Maybe you got a business device with Dual-SIM support and your private smartphone is redundant? Chances are you’ve accumulated several older appliances over the years that are lying useless in a closet. Android was unveiled in 2008, and you’ve surely had more than one phone/tablet that ran on this very operating system. Even older Android devices have great capabilities. You just need to find the right way to use them, which will allow you to give them a second life. Even if you think that you have a seemingly weak phone/tablet, which technical specification does not surprise anyone anymore, for the following applications it should be completely sufficient.With a special app and literally a few minutes of configuration time, your old Android device can be turned into a controller for your Windows, Mac or Linux computer. Would you like easy access to your home computer from the office or vice versa? Your old Android phone or tablet can be a great device to remotely control your computer. Even older Android devices have enough processing power to serve as a smart remote from which you will be able to manage most of the devices in your home or office. This useful solution will allow you and your household to easily configure devices such as your home theater, TV, Chromecast, and more. Your old seemingly useless devices can help scientists discover great things like cancer cures or detect earthquakes. You can get all this by installing the right app to make the computing power of your device available for scientific research. Of course, one device doesn’t have it enough to be useful to scientists, but if you choose one of the more popular options you can contribute to scientific research. Why buy a dedicated IP surveillance camera when you can use an old Android device? On top of that, there is a good chance that it will have a better camera than a dedicated camera. An old smartphone or phone can easily serve as a device that will allow you to monitor your home, desk or any other location of your choice. More powerful apps have built-in motion detection features that send a notification to your phone.You can set up your old Android device with the app of your choice such as Skype, Hangouts, Google Duo or any other app to make video calls with it. You can set it up in the location of your choice and plug it in, or use the docking station if you have one. If you have more than one old Android device, you can create a whole videoconferencing system by placing them in different places in your home or office and giving them individual names. Such solutions have one advantage. When talking to colleagues on your phone, you can still answer calls. There are many more uses for old phones. Instead of hiding it in a drawer, think about how you can make use of a device that was once very useful and can also be useful now.

https://interestingengineering.com/thai-university-turns-old-smartphones-into-microscopes-for-students

One thought on “Do we need old smartphones?

  1. Kolczyńska Helena says:

    I think that it is interesting how people think about the environment. It is time to also think about some trash we made up since the technological change. Very interesting.

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