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What should you do with an old smartphone?

My recent post on the death of a smartphone got me thinking about what should be done with an old smartphone that no longer has voice service. Once you’ve upgraded to a fresh device, is your old phone useful for anything other than collecting dust? It most certainly is, and here are a few ideas of what you might do with that old device.

Sell your old mobile phone

One of the first and most obvious things that you can do is to list your smartphone for sale or use a website service that allows you to sell mobile devices. Depending on the age and popularity of your old device, there could be a lucrative market out there awaiting your gently used phone. iPhones in particular seem to have a strong second hand sales market and many other phones do as well. If your old phone still carries some worth, why not recoup some of the cash that you gave up on your initial purchase?

Repurpose your old smartphone

Another idea is to repurpose that old smartphone. I’ve see many people reusing their old smartphones in a new way once they’re no longer used for traditional voice calls. There are many uses that you might consider. You can utilize the old rig as a dedicated media device for playing music, video and games, use it as a VoIP phone over WiFi with Skype or another app, use it as a portable storage device, use it as a remote control, use it for taking photos/video, or give it to a child to use as a toy. And let’s not forget, there’s always the option of donating that device to a friend or family member who could use an upgrade from their Motorola StarTac or a similar dinosaur.

Keep the old smartphone as a backup

Accidents happen, and what happens if your new device meets an untimely end? If that were to occur, it’s nice to have a backup phone that can get you back in business right away, avoiding the pressure of having to purchase a brand new replacement immediately. Personally, I always try to keep at least one backup phone to use in case of emergencies and sometimes use a backup on “risky” trips (to avoid the loss or damage of my primary device).

Recycle your old smartphone

Worst case, if you can’t find another use for your old device, recycle it! Retail shops like Target and Best Buy have bins for recycling old phones, so drop them off there instead of tossing them in the trash.

Do you have any other ideas for what to do with a smartphone after voice plan deactivation? If so, we’d like to hear your ideas in the comments below!

Disclosure: This article was a sponsored, paid post.

Go From Smartphone to Remote Control

The following is a guest post written by Bre Carter.

If you are anything like me, you probably talk less on your smartphone than any other activity. Texting, searching Google, playing games, and posting to Facebook all consume much more time than actually using the device for its main purpose. Communicating with each other has kind of devolved into a text based system that places a steep value on literacy. Fortunately for those who do not want to read, you can also turn your smartphone into a cool remote control for your home theater.

Most home theater systems require you to own several different remotes in order to control what you see and hear. This practice of remote control overload gets confusing really fast and keeps people from watching DVD’s or operating other cool features on their systems. By converting your smartphone into a remote control, you can do away with your useless remotes and enjoy the media that you want to.

Google TV Remote app

Instead of going out and purchasing a brand new remote with a specialized interface, most people are deciding to download free apps and products that convert their smartphones into remotes. While still costing up to $100, using a smartphone is a much cheaper option than the existing smart products on the market.

In order to use an app installed on an iPhone, you must purchase additional equipment from a retailer. Most televisions rely on an infrared system to communicate information with remote controls. According to PC World, you need to use products like NewKinetix for iPhone, or AV/Shadow for Android and Blackberry devices.

One of the most useful ways to control your television through your smartphone is the DVR. Companies like Direct TV, DISH, and AT&T U-Verse all have mobile websites that allow you to program your television. If you want to watch Jerry Springer, but have to work during the day, you can program the show from your office and have it waiting for you when you get back.

While the market for smartphone remote apps may be weak right now, once people start purchasing more smart televisions the need will start to increase. In order to get more brand recognition with consumers, brands like Samsung and Google will want to immerse their image in the minds of all of those watching with free apps.

If you are still only using your smartphone to make calls, or look up unknown numbers through Anywho.com, you are missing out on a wide world of diverse entertainment. Try exploring the App Store or the Android Market in order to find remote control options that fit your needs.

Editor’s Note: In our household, we use many Android remote control apps to manipulate our WiFi connected devices, including Google TV remote, Roku Wi-Fi Remote and GMote (used to control a laptop connected to a TV via HDMI). All of these apps connect to the device you’re controlling via Wi-Fi, so no additional equipment is necessary.

About this Guest Author: Bre Carter is a journalism student at Saint Louis University. Upon graduation, she hopes to travel the world while producing compelling content for the masses. When she isn’t writing, you can find Bre with her nose in a book, or her headphones in to block out the rest of the world.

The death of a smartphone, goodbye Motorola Droid

My beloved Motorola Droid (OG) bit the dust about a week ago, thanks in full to a swift drop to the pavement that resulted in the top layer of the display getting cracked into a messy web of shattered glass (see image below).

A mixed bag of thoughts surged through my brain at the realization that this device had met its end. I got a glimpse of sadness, disappointment, fear, nostalgia, shock, disbelief and others. The emotional medley that I experienced was certainly surprising, but hey, we did have a history together. This little puppy had been my number 1 personal assistant for a span of over 2 years. To see it meet its demise unexpectedly was a bit unsettling.

This whole situation got me ruminating on the relationship that people have with their “smartphones” these days. These pocket-computing-systems are inanimate objects of course. They are mere possessions of the physical world, but like anything else that we extract some form of pleasure from, we develop emotional and subconscious attachments. There is a certain fondness or connection there that you might not take notice of until it’s severed.

But enough lamenting over a little circuit board and screen, because after all, in any situation like this, there’s always an upside. Due to this unfortunate event, I now have the pleasure am forced to upgrade my phone to a shiny, brand new device. Huzzah!

So as I head into the remainder of 2012 with a new state-of-the-art smartphone, figuratively attached at the hip, I pay homage and say goodbye to my Motorola Droid. It’s been a fun ride OG!

Smartphones for the budget minded

In the world of technology, everything is so cutting edge that if you don’t have the latest quantum-core, fiber-spacial smartphone, you might as well be living in antiquities. I don’t really blame the tech writers for this, nor do I harbor any ill feelings towards the tech subculture that these writers cater to. But I’m not that guy, and you probably aren’t either.

Don’t get me wrong, I love technology, and I have been an early adopter on many technologies. I was on the internet before the World Wide Web was a thing. I was the first person in my area to have cable internet. But I’m also not a wealthy individual, so I’m not neck deep in technology. I didn’t have a cellphone until 2004. I still use a basic phone whose primary function is talking, and it doesn’t have a qwerty keyboard.

The allure of the technology is great, but I haven’t had enough desire to go that route. I don’t need to be connected to the internet all the time. I’m already in front of a computer nine-hours every work day, so it’s also nice to have a break from it while I’m away from work. And I’ve got to admit, a pet peeve of mine is when people pull their phones out while we’re talking, or at the dinner table.

But life is changing for me where the use of some features, like GPS or Google Music, would be practical. I’ve also just reached the contract end on my current wireless provider (T-Mobile), so it’s the perfect opportunity to seek out my options.

One of the major priorities I have is economical. My budget is at its limits as it is, so I must justify increasing my mobile plan rates with cuts somewhere else. The best case scenario would be to lower my overall rates. So I took the method of factoring in monthly rates, activation fees, and phone costs and average it out for two-years so I can compare costs between services both contractual and pay-as-you-go. I won’t go into the details here, but I found that if I were to use my current mobile service payments as the baseline (700-shared minutes and unlimited texts on two phones), a cheap smartphone at $99 plus only smartphone data plans would cost over $1,200-per-year. If my wife and I both did this, it would be over $2,400-per-year, obviously. Is that worth it?

Everyone has different priorities, but is having access to Facebook in my pocket worth as much as a decent low-cost vacation? My wife and I could hit the Mexican Riviera on Carnival Cruise for a week with that amount of cash, or I could have GPS when I’m out of town once a month, and I can compare prices while I’m shopping (which isn’t very often at my income level). I know there’s more to a smartphone than that, but I’m finding it very difficult to justify such a hefty price just for the minor convenience of the laugh track app when I tell a particularly dry joke.

One website I follow covered this dilemma and opted for Virgin Mobile or Boost Mobile as alternatives. Today being Cyber Monday, Virgin Mobile is offering three Android smartphones for 50% off, and an unlimited data plan starts at only $35-per-month. At that rate, a smartphone would be even cheaper than what I’m currently dealing with. But as price isn’t the only factor in economics, I don’t know how the Virgin network compares to other alternatives.

I really hope I’m not the only one who is in this predicament. If you have done this accounting for yourself and decided one way or the other, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.

Shoot it! smartphone postcards app review

With the recent announcement of Apple’s new Cards service, it’s a good time to post about one of the original smartphone postcard services: Shoot it!

The concept is simple. Take a photo with your smartphone, upload it to Shoot it!, add a message, add a recipient, click “Shoot it!” and the service will deliver a real-world glossy photo postcard, for as little as $1.29 (previously a buck) for US addresses. The cost for delivering a to other countries is slightly higher.

These smartphone postcards are great for vacations, holidays, sending the parents or grandma a photo, sending a little something to a friend or for many other occasions.

So what do they look like? Here’s a sample.

Sample Shoot it! photo postcard – front

Please pardon the fatso photo. This was back in 2009, before I went vegan. Tera looks lovely as always, of course.

Sample Shoot it! photo postcard – back

Shoot it! postcards app review

Unfortunately, the Android app suffers from multiple issues, making it almost unusable. I tested the app using the Motorola Droid (original) with Android 2.1 and 2.2.

For starters, the screen layouts and design could use some help. On some screens you have to scroll past empty space for no apparent reason, just to get to the button that you need to press to proceed.

The biggest problems, however, are the session timeout and force close issues, which pop up frequently. If you’re taking awhile to prepare and submit your postcard order by adding multiple recipients or typing up your postcard message, the Shoot it! app often times out, dropping your session and completely losing everything you’ve worked on so far. It doesn’t even save work in progress cards to a draft section. The app crashes (Force close) and you have to start over again from scratch and login anew. Frustrating.

If you’re sending to someone in your contacts that has a second line in their address, like an apartment or suite number, the Shoot it! Android app will fail to import that part of the address and you’ll need to manually enter it in the app each time. Very annoying.

I have no idea how the iOS Shoot it! app performs, but if it’s anything like the Android app, I’d be surprised if they maintain any regular customers.

Shoot it! Positives

High quality glossy photo postcards
Send from anywhere in the world using a phone or computer
Support for mailing to numerous countries
Low cost
iOS, Android & web browser support

Shoot it! Negatives

Android app is buggy, unstable and almost unusable
No editing or crop control
Doesn’t support all countries (I could’t send to Peru)
Address book stored on website isn’t accessible in Android app
Can’t edit address book entries stored on the website
Postcard font size not adjustable to allow for more text

Disclosure: Shoot it! provided me with 50 credits for helping to beta test the Android app. I provided a lot of feedback on the many bugs & issues with the Android app, but they never did get them fixed.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich unveiled

Last night, Google unveiled the latest iteration of the Android OS platform, version 4.0, code named Ice Cream Sandwich.

According to Google; Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich brings an entirely new look and feel to Android. The lock screen, widgets, notifications, multi-tasking and everything in between has been rethought and refined to make Android simple, beautiful, and beyond smart.  

Here’s a quick video preview of the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone, the first device to support Ice Cream Sandwich.

Google is highlighting the following as the primary features of Ice Cream Sandwich

Face Unlock

Android 4.0 supports facial recognition phone security! Now this is pretty cool. Using the front facing camera on the Galaxy Nexus, you can unlock your phone with a mere smile.

Android Beam

Using NFC (Near Field Communication) technology, Android phones will now be able to “beam” information to one another quickly and easily when in close proximity. You’ll be able to share contacts, websites, apps, media, just about anything with another Android phone, no cables or network connectivity required.

Voice Typing

Google’s innovation with voice input and voice recognition continues. The new voice typing feature will allow you to “type” emails, blog posts, or any other text just by talking.

Google +

Google’s social networking service is getting another big push thanks to tight integration in Android 4.0. The Android app will offer easy sharing options, a messenger app that allows you to communicate with groups of friends and a video chat feature.

The debut device

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone itself will feature a dual core 1.2GHz processor, a 720p HD display, single motion panoramic camera, zero shutter lag, “top notch” low light performance, 1080p video recording AND editing!

Booyah! This is what I’ve been waiting for. I’ve actually be considering the purchase of an iPhone 4S lately, primarily due to the video editing capabilities. Now that the Galaxy Nexus is set to arrive in November, it’s looking like it will be my next phone.

For more deets, check out the Google blog post on Android 4.0 and the Galaxy Nexus website.

Are you looking forward to getting your hands on Ice Cream Sandwich?

Review: AirPlay on AppleTV

Apple released the iOS update to version 4.2.1 this week, which adds several desirable features to the iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad. I upgraded our iPad and AppleTV to the latest version and gave it a quick test. But first, an explanation of features.

Added features with 4.2

• Multitasking on iPad The iPhone and iPod touch has had multi tasking since early this year. With the 4.2 upgrade, the iPad now has multitasking ability. This is the most requested feature for the iPad.
• Folders on iPad Folders allows simple drag-and-drop functionality to organize apps and files.
• AirPrint This is one feature I was looking forward to. The print feature is available in the apps, but it won’t find the printer, and there is no printer setup screen anywhere. I’ve looked up a few sources to find out how to get it to work, and it seems Apple hasn’t released an accompanying AirPrint application for Mac or PC. We’ll have to wait on this.
• AirPlay Probably the most exciting upgrade, AirPlay allows content on the iPad, iPhone or iPod touch to stream to a local AppleTV wirelessly. I’ve used the feature and find it compelling. More on this later

• Find My iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch Helps track down and secure lost devices and private data. This is a feature many new “smart” portable devices are adding.
• Game Center Game Center appeared on the home screen automatically after the update. I haven’t used it much, but it seems like a great gateway to find new games.
• iTunes TV show rentals TV show rentals are available. I checked it out on iTunes, but I’m still not sure why anyone would spend the money to do this if they already had cable or satellite. On the other hand, I cancelled my cable service and probably wouldn’t mind spending the $15.99 for the season pass to AMC’s The Walking Dead.
• Unified mail box All email accounts go into a unified inbox.
• Find text on web pages Exactly as it sounds. Helps find relevant information.
• Reply to calendar invitations RSVP to invitations directly from the calendar app. Works with Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft Exchange.
• Enhanced enterprise support Stronger security features and device management.

Testing AirPlay

How does AirPlay work? Simple. When viewing photos or video, or listening to audio, you just select the AirPlay button, and then chose where you want the content to go. I tried it out with AppleTV. See the video below.

With AirPlay, I would recommend the AppleTV to any iPad owner. It’s one of the cheapest accessories you can get for the thing, and it’s just so cool. It’s true that you can stream this content from your computer to an AppleTV or similar device (Roku, Boxee, etc), but if you have an iPad, you might be downloading stuff on the fly and want to watch it as soon as you get home.

Or even with the iPhone or iPod touch, AirPlay is compelling. Imagine this scenario: you’ve got music playing on ear buds, and when you get home, you simply hit the AirPlay button and transfer it immediately to your home speakers without having to fidget through a separate device.

With this new iOS update, iTunes has also been upgraded to also include AirPlay. I tried this out as well, and it works great. The only issue is there isn’t a conflict resolution, so whichever device selects an end point last gets immediate access regardless of whatever else was being shared. An example was streaming audio from the local PC to the AppleTV, and then using the iPad content. The iPad immediately streamed to the AppleTV. iTunes on the PC didn’t recognize this change.

Also coming to the market are audio/video receivers, speakers, iPod docks, and more with AirPlay. So from the portable device or from iTunes, you can stream audio to whichever device you chose. This seems like it has great potential.

There were a few other bugs with AirPlay, but I don’t imagine how an app developer wouldn’t include this in the future. It’s just too convenient.