Have you got a bunch of old Android smartphones sitting in a drawer? Check out these simple projects that will make you dust off your old smartphones and put them to some good use.
Once you upgrade to a new smartphone, the previous one either gets listed on eBay or end-up in your drawer. If it has been the latter for most of your smartphones, we have a few ideas to save those phones from the dark confinements of your cabinet. Unlike most articles on the Internet, we are going to leave out obvious suggestions such as “use it as a backup phone” or “give it to your kid”. Instead, this write-up provides ideas that take advantage of your smartphone’s hardware to substitute gadgets that would otherwise cost money. There are plenty of good reasons to use a car dashboard camera. The dashcam footage can be useful if you get into a traffic incident. In many countries, it can help speed up your insurance claim process. However, if you don’t wish to spend money on a new gadget, you can turn your old phone into a full-time dashcam. Google’s Play Store has a truckload of dashcam apps, but we found AutoBoy’s BlackBox best among the lot. The app enables you to select video resolution, frame, and audio quality. If your old handset has measly internal storage, the app offers an option to save recordings onto a microSD card. You can also upload videos to your YouTube channel right from the device. The BlackBox app is free, so your expense will be limited to purchasing a smartphone mount and a charging cable. A few months ago, Apple launched a nifty feature that enables you to use your iPad as a second display for MacBook. Thankfully, you don’t have to switch to the dark side to try out this feature. Folks at Datronicsoft offer a similar functionality via Spacedesk software. To get it up and running, you need to install Spacedesk driver software on your Windows computer and Spacedesk app on your Android phone.
