
Ask HN: How do you make good use of old iPhones? - vxa_victor
Keep as backup phone? Recycle? Security camera? TV control?
======
JansjoFromIkea
This might be quite UK centric and is a very dry answer but old smartphones
should be donated to asylum seekers.

I remember reading an article a year or so ago about how asylum live on the
welfare afforded to them and their phone bills (a necessary expense) were a
huge chunk of it, basically all of them paying well more than I do on my PAYG
for similar service. What I see must be the issue is that, without a phone of
their own, the cheapest short term option is to sign up for an option that
provides a phone.

This immediately limits them from the ultra low budget GiffGaff/Asda/etc type
options and will very frequently tie them down to a much less budget friendly
carrier if not straight into a contract.

~~~
slavoingilizov
I don't understand this. If their problem is that they HAVE TO use Giffgaff, I
can't sympathise with that - I use it myself and love the service Giffgaff
provides.

So this doesn't make sense to me - it doesn't feel they're forced into a
corner at all. I'd rather sell the phone and donate money to asylum-seeker
supporting charities.

~~~
JansjoFromIkea
Nah, you misread.

Their problem is that they _can't_ use SIM only options as they need a phone
(potentially multiple) too, so it's cheaper in the immediate term to sign up
to a £15-20 a month plan that provides a (really crappy) phone than a similar
£7 a month one which doesn't.

Of course, on a purely rational level seeing as we're talking about iPhones as
opposed to just phones in general, the best option would be sell the iPhone
and use the proceeds from it to buy and donate multiple cheaper (but sturdy)
Androids

------
gregoriol
Old smartphones are good as security cameras: they have a nice camera and wi-
fi of course, but also could be much better than traditional security cams as
they also can have 3G/4G networking and a battery, in case power/internet is
cut for example. They could also record or play sounds, like an alarm. I have
an iPhone 4 and iPhone 5 doing that. However, it's not easy to find an app for
such a use, I'm planning to open-source my custom one + setup.

However, BE CAREFUL, devices with batteries MAY BE DANGEROUS. I have had so
many bulging/swollen batteries, even with devices just stored in a drawer. No
incident or fires yet fortunately. So always keep an eye on them!

~~~
Kadin
What's the best software to turn an old iPhone (or Android phone?) into a
security camera?

The concept does seem good, they certainly have more capable hardware and cost
less than a lot of network attached cameras.

~~~
gregoriol
There are a few apps on the App Store: iPCamera for example
([https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ipcamera-high-end-network-
ca...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ipcamera-high-end-network-
camera/id570912928)), it provides an MJPEG stream that you can process with a
camera monitoring software like ZoneMinder.

There are also a few open-source projects with this kind feature: StreamIt for
example
([https://github.com/twittemb/StreamIt](https://github.com/twittemb/StreamIt)),
which also provides an MJPEG stream.

This would be the most basic stuff.

MJPEG is however not the most efficient (~200Kb/s networking). There are also
some "video" streaming projects like
[https://github.com/shogo4405/HaishinKit.swift](https://github.com/shogo4405/HaishinKit.swift)
or [https://github.com/wlanjie/lf.swift](https://github.com/wlanjie/lf.swift),
which provide MP4/RTMP/HLS streams and could be processed with a camera
monitoring software like Shinobi
([https://shinobi.video](https://shinobi.video)).

I hope this helps!

------
ericabiz
I run repair shops for a living, so I can tell you the #1 thing people do is
give them to their kids or other family members.

Trade-ins with carriers are big as well, and of course selling them will still
net some money as well. You can sell to local stores or online at sites like
Swappa.

People who aren't as technical as the typical HN reader often don't know that
iPhone, iPad, and laptop batteries are replaceable, and it's usually
relatively cheap to do so. Please educate your friends and family members!

------
perrohunter
I always look for that one friend who still has a really bad/old smartphone
and give it to them for free.

~~~
quasse
As someone who was that friend, it's greatly appreciated. It's nice to still
be able to use a semi-modern phone when you're living on $14,000 a year.

------
santa_boy
Old iPhones make excellent portable music players. Use them yourself in the
patio, car, bathroom, etc.

Donate to others who would have a need.

I donated my favorite iPhone5s (the best iPhone ever) to my dedicated home
helper (yeah ... they exist in this part of the world!)

------
cimmanom
Donate. There are a lot of organizations that collect secondhand phones for
people in need, including the homeless, refugees, people escaping domestic
abuse, and the like.

Wipe thoroughly first, of course.

------
chomp
Depending on how old, sell them on eBay. They have okay resell value, you get
money and keep a phone out of a landfill.

~~~
shinymark
Every time I upgrade I sell my old phone on eBay. I keep my hardware in good
shape and I’m often surprised at the resale value after 2-3 years. Feels great
to recover some of the cost of the upgrade!

------
CogitoCogito
I use them. I've actually never bought a smart phone (nor gotten one for
"free" due to some contract) because there seem to be so many people willing
to stop using functional phones. Currently I'm using an iPhone 5c and don't
have any upgrade plans anytime soon.

------
bonyt
I gave them to my parents. I also still have an old iPhone 5 that I bring to
the rock climbing gym and use on the WiFi because I won’t be as upset if it
plummets to its death from my (zipper) pocket or gets crushed somehow.

With the ability to receive phone calls on linked devices over WiFi, the old
phones are still useful where the risk to the device is unusually high.

------
reembs
I have an old iPad2 and I'm honestly amazed at how bricked it is at this point
just from the passage of time.

Recently I turned it on after a long while, asking myself this post's exact
question.

I went into the browser, but I got SSL errors accessing Google, Apple, etc.
Okay...

Then I went to the settings app to see if there are updates, but the device is
obviously unsupported at this point.

Finally I went to the App Store to try and install some picture frame app or
something, but that was stupid of me since I already knew Apple certs were no
longer valid in my obsolete OS.

Bottom line: It's trash with a touch screen. Galaxies are much better in that
aspect. Rooting them provides a world of possibilities.

~~~
wingerlang
I disagree, I also have an iPad 2 and it works perfectly fine for watching
youtube and browsing. I can't say I have any issues with downloading apps
either, of course most new ones wont be supported.

------
BooneJS
We've had an iPhone 3gs (30-pin) plugged into a speaker playing music in our
son's room for years. He plays the violin, so listening to the piece he's
working on and previous pieces is useful and calming for him.

------
chooseaname
Old iPhones:

1) Make excellent phones.

2) Make great music players.

3) Make great backup phones to use when hiking, biking, running, etc.

4) Make great GPS devices for older cars (Some maps apps let you download maps
to be used offline).

------
lingan
I would like to use mine as a "pay as you go backup". But I don't know a
service that would let me do that without any monthly fee.

~~~
Rjevski
What are you looking to do exactly? I don’t quite get it. Pay as you go SIMs
don’t have a monthly fee (at least not in the UK).

------
ddrmaxgt37
I connect my old phone to my speakers during parties as a kind of streaming
device. It's easy to control them from my main phone

------
alimbada
I had to use my old iPhone 6 as a backup recently when water got into my 6S
and the touch screen became erratic and had dead spots on it. Took a few days
for it to get repaired (sister-in-law's husband did it for free so I wasn't
going to complain about how long it took) so I had to use the old one during
that time.

------
acheron
I mostly only get new ones when there are serious issues with the old one, so
generally they just get recycled. My first, a 3GS, did last many years with a
white noise app as a overqualified noise machine in the kids' room but even it
is finally dead. One of my wife's was still in good condition at one point and
we did resell it.

~~~
eswat
Did you know what caused your 3GS to pass on?

Wondering how many phones out there could be given a second lease on life if
just given a battery replacement.

------
bluedevil2k
I use my old iPhone as an international travel phone. I keep the Messages,
Mail apps, but add things like WhatsApp, VPN, Skype, Google Translator,
Measurement Converters, GoEuro for use when I travel overseas. Bonus points if
you have to turn it on when you get back to the US and it doens't have many
apps on it.

------
larrik
I pass them down to my kids as iPod Touches. Then I mostly forget about the
previous generation.

I'm hesitant to replace their iPhone 6's with our iPhone 7's. It doesn't feel
like an upgrade. Our 7's have had issues since the beginning, and the
headphone jack is _very_ valuable to the kids.

~~~
joezydeco
I'm going the opposite way, I'm trying to get rid of the 6s. I've had nothing
but bad luck with touch disease and NAND solder joints breaking over and over.

The whole early build of the 6 and 6+ is cursed. I hope Apple loses that class
action lawsuit in a super-bad way.

------
curiousgal
Give it to someone from the Third World, chances are, it'll change their love
more than you would imagine.

------
tedmiston
They mostly collect dust as backup phones. But it feels better as insurance
than selling them away for a couple hundred bucks a pop.

Maybe I'll put the Hue app on one so I have spare remote controls for lights.

It would be nice if I could use an old iPhone as a hub for HomeKit, but I
think it only supports iPads.

~~~
isatty
Yep only iPads and AppleTVs

------
zachwill
I've jailbroken a couple and given a few more away to family that otherwise
wouldn't have paid to upgrade.

Would love to run little servers and other dumb stuff on them, but I never
have. Always felt like it'd be fun to run a server/Python process on my older
phones.

------
pilom
I made a Myst linking book like this
[https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/myst-linking-
book](https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/myst-linking-book) but it was way
easier to do with a smartphone.

------
the_watcher
I thought about using mine as a Fire TV remote because the one that comes with
it is so bad, but the battery life just isn't good enough (and I don't want to
have to always plug it in after use - I keep my remotes in a tray inside my
coffee table).

------
anigbrowl
I have several phones doing sterling duty as paperweights and look forward to
suggestions. One disappointment of our market system has been the failure to
produce new apps designed to run on older hardware.

~~~
ryandrake
It’s also kind of tragic that companies stop providing software updates for
older working devices, or allow open source to fill in. I can pull my PC from
20 years ago out of a closet and reasonably expect to run Linux on it, yet
there is no equivalent for my 8 year old iPad.

------
jareds
I created an itunes account for my daughter when she was two months old. The
phone stays on a charger in her room and is used for nothing but playing apple
music when she's sleeping.

~~~
davchana
I hope you realise & know that an old device with always connected charger is
at high risk of fire.

~~~
Rjevski
Not really considering the battery is not charging constantly (contrary to
popular fear-mongering, once a phone is at 100% and left plugged in, the phone
will simply run off the power and disconnect the battery).

------
fossuser
Sell the old one - I get around $500 back every year from Craigslist when I
upgrade. If that’s too much of a hassle Apple will buy it back from you for a
little less.

------
bitVelocity
I use my old phones as wireless IP security cameras with visual and audio
triggers to capture the video, I also use them as backup 2FA devices.

~~~
josefresco
What apps do you use for security?

------
cauterize
1\. The security camera to watch your pets while you're away too! I like the
Dog Monitor iOS app

2\. Shower music player

------
tmaly
I give them to my family overseas in the Philippines. Old IPhones are still
very useful over there.

------
dwighttk
I give them to friends.

------
nunez
We typically donate ours

