Can I Hook Up Any Old Cell Phone To A Cell Service

Cell phone evolution. Credit: Getty Images

A smartphone is really just a figurer. It'southward smaller, of course, and many things are less user-friendly than a regular desktop. But smartphones take powerful features, and once yous've upgraded to a better model, you may wonder what to do with all that valuable hardware.

Fifty-fifty without their cell signal, smartphones may nevertheless function but every bit well with a Wi-Fi connection, making them (essentially) miniature tablets. Yous tin can use all those apps and features you lot ever had, and y'all can access the Cyberspace and even use regular communications similar iMessage, Skype, and WhatsApp.

More:7 astonishing ways to use your smartphone camera

Yes, yous can rid yourself of an old phone, and there are many prudent means to do this. You can sell it or trade information technology in. Y'all tin as well repurpose your gadget for work, lifestyle, or entertainment. In short, don't let that thing waste abroad in a drawer. Put it to practiced use – fifty-fifty if it's somebody else who'southward using it.

Hither are 9 nifty things you tin do with an old cell phone.

1. High-tech warning and sleep tracker

Virtually cell phones come with a built-in alert. Even if yous're not paying for cell service on your old gadget, you can still employ information technology for certain apps that y'all've already downloaded. Yous tin besides download a white racket app to assistance you sleep. Click hither to effort an app chosen Relax Melodies.

Amend yet, use that former phone to track your slumber. As a slumber tracker, the app Sleep Bicycle volition let you know not only when you fell asleep, but also how well you really slept. The data is presented in an piece of cake-to-empathize graph, which will exist accompanied by details likewise as ideas to help y'all sleep better in the future. Click hither for this great app to monitor your slumber.

2. Convenient eReader

Kindles and Nooks were originally designed equally eReaders, but many apps volition enable you to download and read an ebook right on your phone. The most popular eReaders are the iBooks and Kindle apps, merely you tin can notice others as well.

Granted, smartphones have smaller screens than your standard eReader, and they're backlit, while the average Kindle screen behaves more similar printed paper.

For many of us, that's a pocket-sized toll to pay to carry an entire library of books in our pockets. The old phone can likewise make a swell backup when yous're traveling low-cal. Click hither to learn nigh the Kindle app.

3. Entertainment center

Smartphone storage has grown exponentially in recent years; the latest iPhone models take upwards to 256GB. That amounts to thousands of songs, movies, podcasts, and games. This is an fantabulous alternative to your regular phone, since you lot won't receive calls and your mp3s don't have to compete with more disquisitional data.

Now that you lot can download and watch movies from iTunes, Amazon, and Netflix, you lot could lookout man half a Tv set series on a single flight.

4. Children'due south camera

The all-time smartphones have cameras with roughly the aforementioned resolution and optics as a regular indicate-and-shoot, and some photographers adopt an iPhone or Galaxy, considering photos can be edited and shared. Yous may accept retired your telephone, only the camera is every bit useful as ever, which makes information technology the perfect learning tool for children.

Earlier you hand over an expensive point-and-shoot or new smartphone, permit your kids practise taking photographs with that former device.

five. VR headset

You've probably seen commercials where people strap a phone in front of their eyes and accept a nail playing games and experiencing new worlds through virtual reality. It can be a lot of fun, but it also requires moving your telephone in and out of a VR headset mount. Your one-time iPhone tin become your full-time VR gadget.

You will need to pick up VR goggles that are uniform with your model of iPhone. Check out the Google Cardboard goggles as an inexpensive way to go started. From in that location, you can endeavor out a multifariousness of VR apps available through Apple's App Store. The Google Cardboard app works with the Google goggles and is a proficient place to start your VR journey.

6. Command your Apple TV

The Apple tree Tv set remote is a model of minimalist design, but this means information technology can exist a little cumbersome to use. Make your life easier and download the Apple TV Remote app to your old iPhone. Now you can navigate the Apple TV interface, conduct searches, and control your streaming entertainment with ease.

If your remote-control ambitions extend beyond just your Apple Tv, check out the Pronto Smart Universal Remote Control for iOS. This device works in combination with the Peel Smart Remote app to plough your iPhone into a universal remote control that tin handle almost any television, stereo system, or some other home-amusement device.

Your iPhone doesn't contain an IR blaster (the infrared applied science used by almost remote-control systems), only the Pronto and Peel combination makes up for this shortcoming.

seven. Set-up dwelling house security

With increasing popularity, many users are turning erstwhile phones and tablets into a abode security organisation.

With their Wi-Fi and high-res, built-in cameras, an old smartphone (or tablet) tin can proceed an eye on your home at all times. You can download the Skype app and set it upwards to automatically have incoming video calls so you can check on things while you're out. Click here to download the app.

For more sophisticated surveillance, y'all can find specific home security apps. Presence is a popular option, simply you can also check out Manything and Alfred. Install the app, set it upwardly, and place your phone in a strategic spot. These apps offer live video streaming and motion-detection alerts. You can proceed an eye on your front end door, use it as a nanny cam, or check in on your pets when you're traveling.

On a related note, your old iPhone can human action as a video baby monitor through the employ of the $iv Cloud Baby Monitor app, which can ship noise and motility alerts to your current phone and permit you look in on your young 1.

8. Donate it

Ane other way to handle your no-longer-needed cellphone is to donate it to a practiced cause. Cell Phones for Soldiers accepts both smartphones and tablets. You can either transport them in or find a local drib-off location. The amazing nonprofit provides complimentary talk fourth dimension to soldiers and assists with emergency funding for both agile-duty personnel and veterans.

ix. Use it for emergencies

Fifty-fifty if you don't take an active mobile program on an onetime telephone you can still use it to telephone call emergency services. By constabulary, all cell phones are required to allow you to telephone call 911, fifty-fifty without a service plan.

Simply brand sure the device is always charged and y'all'll have it on manus whenever an emergency arises. Identify the phone in a convenient location, like your purse or glove compartment.

What questions practice you accept? Call my national radio show and click hither to find it on your local radio station. Yous can heed to the Kim Komando Show on your telephone, tablet or computer. From buying advice to digital life issues, click hither for my free podcasts.