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What to do with an Android spare smartphone (no sim card)? (mander.xyz)

submitted 4 months ago by Mothra@mander.xyz to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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Turns out Australia is removing 3G support nationwide and that means I have to upgrade. I've had my phone for at least 4 years but it runs well, I wasn't planning on upgrading for at least another year.

I want to keep using it, but I'm not too tech oriented so my thinking has been, " I can play music with it, some games, videos"...And that's fine. But perhaps some of you guys have more creative ideas? Curious as to what would you recommend.

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[–] i_stole_ur_taco@lemmy.ca 22 points 4 months ago (3 children)

The most common thing I’ve seen are projects where it acts like a screen or control panel on the wall. Something that’s a fixture or art project.

You don’t need it for anything like music or games - your new phone will be more convenient and run those things better anyway.

A friend of mine stuck an old tablet on the wall and connected it via Bluetooth to his keg system. It gave him a permanent status readout on his beer temperature and how much was left in each keg. It just had a power cable plugged in all the time so it didn’t need to be charged.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 3 points 4 months ago

Oh that's cool, I like that with the beer. Unfortunately I don't brew... Or have any other setup that could use a dedicated screen.

I also think I'll end up playing media more with the new one, but I keeping some of my CD rips and most watched/recurrent videos stored locally on my old phone would be useful for whenever YouTube messes up everything ( as it is doing right now ).

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 months ago

Really good idea, as long as it can stay plugged in.

[–] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I wonder if this would work while having the battery removed.

[–] i_stole_ur_taco@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

The last few phones I had wouldn’t power on if they didn’t have a minimum battery charge, even when plugged in. That’s to ensure a minimal amount of available power to be able to boot the phone. I wonder if the phone would have the same restriction with a missing battery and not just a drained battery…

I assume you’re concerned about the battery eventually blowing up from being on the charger forever?

[–] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 months ago

That's right. I wonder if you could trick certain models with simulating a battery.

[–] Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 months ago

Not sure how easy this is anymore, but when I was a teen I was flashing my friends phone with cyanogenmod and it died midway through, bricked and wouldn't charge either.

We opened it up, cut open a charging cable and manually attached them to the battery terminals with the battery removed until it turned back on and we were able to flash stock and back to cyanogenmod lmao