Ask HN: Interesting things to do with old smartphones?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3334873

by ja27 • 15 years ago

1 2 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I now have two old Android phones and am looking for ideas of something interesting to do with them. I've had old phones before, but without wifi they've been limited to just games, playing music, or reading ebooks. Now with wifi and some power, there are surely some more interesting things to use them for.

So far the best I've come up with is using them as wireless webcams using IP Webcam. They could also be alarm clocks or be used for streaming music or news. But what else?

retroafroman• 15 years ago

Ideas I've had:

-Dedicated bicycle speedometer/route tracking computer (if it has GPS)

-Remote for my music server

-Timelapse camera

-GPS tracking device/bug

-Sleep analyzing alarm clock (if it has accelerometer)

-Media player (obvious)

-Donate to developers to facilitate porting newer releases/ROMS to older devices

-Networked motion sensor alarm? (I assume an app for this exists)

I'm sure there's more I've thought of at one time or another, if I remember, maybe I'll edit and add them here.

EDIT: Also, the Android Open Accesory Development Board[1] would allow you to branch out of what the phone itself is capable of and work with external devices via the USB port. Perhaps robots, for one idea?

[1]http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/usb/adk.html

ja27• 15 years ago

I like the idea of putting it on a bot. I was thinking to just use it as a wireless camera there, but with the ADK the phone could drive or even run some lighter computer vision code.