there’s one obvious downside to our
fascination with gadgets obsolescence
just when we start to get used to our
new purchase be it a smartphone tablet
laptop or television it seems there’s a
better one around the corner to make
matters worse you might even find that
newer and shinier tech toy costs even
less than the one that you just bought
hey everyone welcome to gear up the
WatchMojo series that looks at the
latest in gadgets gear and games I’m
Marc Saltzman and in this video I’ll
share five awesome uses for your old
smartphone or tablet a few life hacks if
you will that you can consider before
you ditch that old device before we
begin we publish new videos every day
so be sure to subscribe for more great
content all right number one a
surveillance camera if you have a spare
smartphone or tablet you can use it as a
free Internet enabled security cam just
install one of the free apps that use
your device’s camera such as presence or
many things for iOS or salient I for
Android and leave that device plugged in
turned on and pointed towards something
you want to keep an eye on now from your
primary phone or tablet you can see what
your older devices see or you could set
up motion alerts so you’ll be notified
of any movement is detected some of
these apps will record footage for you
as well to the phone or tablet itself or
a cloud solution many of these apps also
allow for two-way voice communication in
case pet lovers want to interact with
their dog or cat while at work the
second way to reuse an old phone or
tablet turn it into a universal remote
why spend hundreds of dollars on a
touchscreen universal remote when you’ve
got a perfectly good smartphone or
tablet that can do the trick many phones
and tablets including ones from Samsung
Sony and LG have an infrared or IR
blaster to control your home theater
right out of the box
even if yours doesn’t have an IR blaster
many new Smart TVs internet-connected
blu-ray players and media boxes support
remote apps for your device as long as
you have Wi-Fi you’re good to go
a popular app is called sure universal
remote for both iOS and Android you can
also use your old tablet or smartphone
to control other devices in your home
like your smart thermostat your LED
lights multi
Soundsystem and more the third way to
repurpose your old tech use it as a
backup drive instead of buying an
external hard drive consider wiping your
old phone or tablet clean connecting it
to your PC or Mac via its USB cable and
dragging and dropping your important
photos videos music or documents now you
can keep this backup in a safe place
just in case you need it in the future
it’s not recommended to keep that backup
in the same room as your main computer
just in case of fire or flood sure you
might only get 16 32 or 64 gigabytes of
memory with a spare phone or tablet
compared to a few terabytes with an
external hard drive but it might just be
enough for some plus it’s still an ideal
way to protect your important files
without having to spend any additional
cash number 4 turn your old smartphone
or tablet into an alarm clock
smartphones and tablets are also great
as high-tech alarm clocks
simply download one of the many alarm
clock apps prop up your device on your
bedside 9 table and leave it there as
your main alarm clock not only can you
set the alarm and adjust the font size
color and style but you can also have
custom information shown on this screen
like local weather along with various
alarm sounds to wake you up these apps
are also ideal for playing streaming
music including thousands of radio
stations from around the world or why
not wake up to your favorite song that’s
stored locally on the tablet or
smartphone many apps can also play
soothing white noise sounds to lull you
to sleep as well as podcasts audiobooks
and radio plays as a tip just be sure to
disable app notifications and messaging
like emails and text so your sleep won’t
be disrupted and the fifth way to reuse
an old tablet or smart phone use it as a
digital photo frame while dedicated
digital photo frames aren’t popular
anymore you can turn an old tablet into
one for your desk at work your kitchen
counter or even mounted to a wall in
your hallway most tablet operating
systems like iOS and Android have
integrated photo gallery apps that can
cycle through all of your photos and
videos every few seconds minutes or
hours you can store your memories on the
phone or tablet’s internal memory or if
you’re online linked to one of the many
free photo services you can update on
the fly Android users might opt for the
free day frame app while iPad owners
might consider the
digital photo frame app both of which
pull images from Social Feeds –
including Instagram Facebook Twitter and
others hey thanks for watching gear up
I’m Marc Saltzman let us know in the
comments section if you have other good
ideas for your old and outdated tech for
more tech tastic lists be sure to
subscribe to watchmojo.com do you agree
with our picks check out these other
great clips from WatchMojo and subscribe
for new videos every day
fascination with gadgets obsolescence
just when we start to get used to our
new purchase be it a smartphone tablet
laptop or television it seems there’s a
better one around the corner to make
matters worse you might even find that
newer and shinier tech toy costs even
less than the one that you just bought
hey everyone welcome to gear up the
WatchMojo series that looks at the
latest in gadgets gear and games I’m
Marc Saltzman and in this video I’ll
share five awesome uses for your old
smartphone or tablet a few life hacks if
you will that you can consider before
you ditch that old device before we
begin we publish new videos every day
so be sure to subscribe for more great
content all right number one a
surveillance camera if you have a spare
smartphone or tablet you can use it as a
free Internet enabled security cam just
install one of the free apps that use
your device’s camera such as presence or
many things for iOS or salient I for
Android and leave that device plugged in
turned on and pointed towards something
you want to keep an eye on now from your
primary phone or tablet you can see what
your older devices see or you could set
up motion alerts so you’ll be notified
of any movement is detected some of
these apps will record footage for you
as well to the phone or tablet itself or
a cloud solution many of these apps also
allow for two-way voice communication in
case pet lovers want to interact with
their dog or cat while at work the
second way to reuse an old phone or
tablet turn it into a universal remote
why spend hundreds of dollars on a
touchscreen universal remote when you’ve
got a perfectly good smartphone or
tablet that can do the trick many phones
and tablets including ones from Samsung
Sony and LG have an infrared or IR
blaster to control your home theater
right out of the box
even if yours doesn’t have an IR blaster
many new Smart TVs internet-connected
blu-ray players and media boxes support
remote apps for your device as long as
you have Wi-Fi you’re good to go
a popular app is called sure universal
remote for both iOS and Android you can
also use your old tablet or smartphone
to control other devices in your home
like your smart thermostat your LED
lights multi
Soundsystem and more the third way to
repurpose your old tech use it as a
backup drive instead of buying an
external hard drive consider wiping your
old phone or tablet clean connecting it
to your PC or Mac via its USB cable and
dragging and dropping your important
photos videos music or documents now you
can keep this backup in a safe place
just in case you need it in the future
it’s not recommended to keep that backup
in the same room as your main computer
just in case of fire or flood sure you
might only get 16 32 or 64 gigabytes of
memory with a spare phone or tablet
compared to a few terabytes with an
external hard drive but it might just be
enough for some plus it’s still an ideal
way to protect your important files
without having to spend any additional
cash number 4 turn your old smartphone
or tablet into an alarm clock
smartphones and tablets are also great
as high-tech alarm clocks
simply download one of the many alarm
clock apps prop up your device on your
bedside 9 table and leave it there as
your main alarm clock not only can you
set the alarm and adjust the font size
color and style but you can also have
custom information shown on this screen
like local weather along with various
alarm sounds to wake you up these apps
are also ideal for playing streaming
music including thousands of radio
stations from around the world or why
not wake up to your favorite song that’s
stored locally on the tablet or
smartphone many apps can also play
soothing white noise sounds to lull you
to sleep as well as podcasts audiobooks
and radio plays as a tip just be sure to
disable app notifications and messaging
like emails and text so your sleep won’t
be disrupted and the fifth way to reuse
an old tablet or smart phone use it as a
digital photo frame while dedicated
digital photo frames aren’t popular
anymore you can turn an old tablet into
one for your desk at work your kitchen
counter or even mounted to a wall in
your hallway most tablet operating
systems like iOS and Android have
integrated photo gallery apps that can
cycle through all of your photos and
videos every few seconds minutes or
hours you can store your memories on the
phone or tablet’s internal memory or if
you’re online linked to one of the many
free photo services you can update on
the fly Android users might opt for the
free day frame app while iPad owners
might consider the
digital photo frame app both of which
pull images from Social Feeds –
including Instagram Facebook Twitter and
others hey thanks for watching gear up
I’m Marc Saltzman let us know in the
comments section if you have other good
ideas for your old and outdated tech for
more tech tastic lists be sure to
subscribe to watchmojo.com do you agree
with our picks check out these other
great clips from WatchMojo and subscribe
for new videos every day
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