Okay, there is at least a random chance that some of us or someone in our family got a new smartphone as a gift this year. Maybe you hand the old phone down to one of the kids for a wifi device. Maybe you thought better of trading it in, and having your data end up on the streets.
There are the usual perennial articles on this subject Such as this one from a site that appears somewhat reputable, or this one from BusinessInsider.
Note: Most GSM phones can be used to call 911 in the US/Canada even without a sim card present. Donations to Charities or Women's Shelters or Homeless service agencies is always an option as long as you wipe the phone completely.
So what does the Savvy Soylentil do with the old Smartphone?
[Update: removed derogatory phrasing that was present in original submission. -Ed.]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Jaruzel on Monday December 28 2015, @10:32AM
I'd have thought the editors were better than this. Not all countries ending in '-stan' are dodgy. Pakistan is a reputable country, and used to be part of India. Casual racism like this is endemic on the Internet as a whole, I would prefer that SoylentNews doesn't stoop to this level also.
Regarding old Smartphones... I put them all into a drawer to never be seen again. Isn't that what everyone does? :) Smartphones are useless to the homeless as they are too power hungry, better options would be the $10/£10 featureless-phones sold in supermarkets - they last a lifetime between charges.
-Jar.
This is my opinion, there are many others, but this one is mine.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Gravis on Monday December 28 2015, @10:52AM
1) Race was never mentioned.
2) Pakistan is not a reputable country.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Jaruzel on Monday December 28 2015, @11:25AM
1) Racial or otherwise, when reading the article I was shocked by the unwarranted slur against other countries.
2) Maybe not in the insular USA where everyone who isn't American is a terrorist, but out here in the rest of the world, there's nothing wrong with Pakistan.
Flaimbait down-mod for calling out something [I found] offensive? Wow.
I'm allowed to express MY opinion - it's called Free Speech, something this site purportedly encourages. I am SO done with you US-circle-jerks who now inhabit SN. This is why I didn't re-subscribe when my subs expired. Even at it's worst, Slashdot was so much better than this.
-Jar
This is my opinion, there are many others, but this one is mine.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 28 2015, @12:15PM
Wow.
Wow, just wow. It's 2015.
Even at it's worst, Slashdot was so much better than this.
Ha! This is some great satire of the green-colored website's users.
Overall, 10/10.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by jasassin on Monday December 28 2015, @12:41PM
Hypocrisy
the behavior of people who do things that they tell other people not to do
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 4, Informative) by Gravis on Monday December 28 2015, @03:21PM
2) Maybe not in the insular USA where everyone who isn't American is a terrorist, but out here in the rest of the world, there's nothing wrong with Pakistan.
tell that to the people in Pakistan who only get power for part of the day because of corruption! Pakistan has a huge problem with corruption. Funny you should mention terrorists because guess where a lot of terrorist groups are started and go to hide? Hell, Osama bin Laden was found just outside the capital of Pakistan!
Flaimbait down-mod for calling out something [I found] offensive? Wow.
decrying racism where there is none is Flamebait.
I'm allowed to express MY opinion - it's called Free Speech, something this site purportedly encourages.
free speech doesn't mean you have your own special place where nobody will hurt your feelings. you haven't been censored, your post is still there and more importantly, you are not being thrown in jail or killed because that's what free speech is all about.
I think it's worth noting that the free speech you think is so great does not exist in Pakistan or any "-stan" country i know of.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 29 2015, @02:54AM
Obligatory read. [xkcd.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 28 2015, @11:45AM
I'm a South African and even we know that Pakistan is not a reputable country.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 28 2015, @01:19PM
Well, I'm a miserable old git, and although Pakistan isn't great, it's not nearly as bad as Bangladesh these days.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 28 2015, @10:56AM
in this case blame the so called 'casual racism' was in the original submission
i think the eds mostly try not to frig with submissions too much (unless they are really lacking). sometimes they slip up, but from a submitter's pov i'd prefer to see not too many changes except usual typo, spelling and grammar fixes
sn is also far more friendly to free speech, which i think is otherwise dying (even on the internet). free speech is full of racism, hatred, bigotry, etc. of course you're always welcome here, but if you don't like free speech and are content with censoring things that you don't like because you think they're racist, you might be happier taking your oppressive bullshit to a more sjw-friendly forum
(Score: 5, Informative) by martyb on Monday December 28 2015, @01:15PM
That is exactly the case. As an editor, I am often challenged to find a balance between minimal intervention and maintaining (for lack of better phrasing) 'a consistent tone' of this site. What follows is my personal view and is NOT an official position of SoylentNews in any fashion.
background: I am heavily invested in the success of this site. I participated in the original slashcott. I have invested a great deal of time and effort pursuing our vision of an open platform for discussion. (I'm approaching 1300 stories edited, I've tested a number of features prior to rollout, especially UTF-8 support. I spent a summer vacation reviewing all of the original incorporation legal docs.) Many a long day at work has been followed by an evening of editing stories. And it has all been worth it. I'm in this for the long run.
That said, I also subscribe to the adage "Say what you mean, mean what you say, but don't say it mean." In this particular case, it was unnecessary for the point of the story (what to do with old smartphones) to make any kind of comment concerning any other nationality or group. The community called me out on this and I agree that the phrasing was insensitive. I have updated the story, accordingly. Thank you for holding us to a very high standard.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by FatPhil on Monday December 28 2015, @04:16PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0, Troll) by Subsentient on Monday December 28 2015, @12:05PM
When I fart on my hand, it gets warm.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by redneckmother on Monday December 28 2015, @04:50PM
Well, that's okay, but you need to start worrying when your hand gets WET.
Mas cerveza por favor.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday December 28 2015, @12:51PM
There you go. The eds "fixed" it. PC-douchebaggery scores yet another minor victory.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 28 2015, @12:57PM
IT'S OVER, SOYLENTNEWS IS FINISHED
T
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(here's one to add to the spam filter, buzz)
(Score: 3, Touché) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday December 28 2015, @01:13PM
Nah, that's not quite annoying enough to bother writing a regex for.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 28 2015, @01:10PM
they did? I hate to have seen the original...
"somewhat reputable" attached to a link to a Pakistani website could be read as saying many aren't. Which may or may not be true but what relevance does that have to whether the website at hand has content worth reading?
Recent history, human rights violations and international relations with India as well as harbouring Bin Laden may have tarnished their reputation but as netizens, don't we have a duty to cast our fellow human beings in a positive light rather than give into stereotypes that don't represent the estimated 200 million Pakistanis in general?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday December 28 2015, @01:15PM
No. At most we have a duty to portray them accurately. And we should never censor our community to do even that.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 28 2015, @01:25PM
Is it an "accurate" portrayal to dismiss a website based on its country of origin or should we judge it by its content?
I'm not calling for censorship but I'm just not sure what unnecessary slander adds to a discussion other than inflame the original poster.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday December 28 2015, @02:43PM
When you start cutting out all the parts you don't feel are worth reading, you end up with a site only you want to read.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 28 2015, @04:29PM
Leave it to buzz to rely on a trite turn of phrase instead of thoughtful analysis.
Mr "individualism above all else" proves once again that he's a hypocrite when it comes to stereotyping groups of people he doesn't like.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday December 29 2015, @05:18AM
Learn to use that stuff between your ears. I didn't say I agreed with what was said, only that it should not be censored.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by urza9814 on Tuesday December 29 2015, @03:58PM
As others have mentioned, there's a difference between censorship and editing. This site makes no promise to post an *article* submission without alterations -- in fact, usually we see more complaints over a *lack* of changes than over any change itself. "You didn't correct the spelling!" "What's the point of quoting the entire article?" "You need to define what these random acronyms mean!" -- but when it comes to racism, suddenly people have to jump in with "You should never change what was submitted!" I don't get it.
If you want to inject your personal bias into a discussion, that's what the comment section is for. That's why the comment section isn't edited. The summaries ought to stick to summarizing the article -- particularly since comments injected into articles aren't subject to the usual moderation system. There's a reason we have all these moderation options, and stuffing that crap into the summary is merely a way of abusing the system to bypass everyone else's preferences and make them read your comment, and read it first.
Of course, I'm not sure it's possible to have *completely* opinion-free summaries. In many cases, the article itself is nothing but opinion. But comments that aren't actually adding anything substantial to the story should be removed. If you have a comment, post a comment.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by DeathMonkey on Monday December 28 2015, @08:57PM
...not sure what unnecessary slander adds to a discussion other than inflame the original poster.
And predictably, due to the offtopic flamebait in the post we have a discussion thread with barely any on-topic responses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 28 2015, @06:36PM
I hear you're a racist now, Father.
(Score: 1) by Unixnut on Monday December 28 2015, @10:50AM
I mean, I never had a smart phone last long enough to even consider gifting it to someone else. They usually survive 12-18 months, before the screen gets cracked, or odd things start happening, like suddenly refusing to charge, the touchscreen giving incorrect position input or not registering presses in some areas, or the USB connector wearing out. Still have Nokia's and BB's from the early 2000s going strong (as my backup, when the smart phone inevitably stops working at the worst moment, like my S4 did the day before Christmas).
Then again, I buy my phones outright, so I usually will buy a phone and use it until it breaks. Phones are expensive (400-600 Euros new), so I don't think the majority of people just buy a new phone because "oooh, shiny!" . Those rich enough to blow money like that are enough of a minority that them gifting the phone would not make a big dent.
Plus they are the ones who usually sell their old phone second hand, to offset the price of the new one. Their old phones are still pretty new and usable by others.
If I ever manage to have two smartphones concurrently, I would probably use the old one for Android development. I doubt any of them would last long enough for there to be a third spare smart phone that I could consider gifting.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday December 28 2015, @01:12PM
You gotta be more careful. Buy a phone case, a big bulky one, and a screen protector. My EVO 4G was in an otterbox and my Nexus 5 in in a Ballistic case. They have survived numerous ~1m falls to concrete. When I swapped on a new screen protector (they came in a 3-pack) I wiped off the phone and the condition of it could be described as practically brand new. No screen scratches and no case damage or scratches. So your phone will be more valuable if sold used (not that you want to sell a used smartphone.) As for the charge port, my guess is either rough handling of the phone while the charger cable is plugged in or a crappy USB connector which failed.
All of my smart phones usually last 2+ years easy. I'm only on my second smartphone. First one was an EVO 4G in 2010 and then a Nexus 5 in 2013. Sill on the Nexus 5 and the recent Android 6 update fixed a number of smaller issues like the cameras awful autofocus.
(Score: 1) by Unixnut on Monday December 28 2015, @01:29PM
I did, after I broke my third smartphone, I bought the toughest armoured case for it I could find. Added a good 1cm to all sides of the phone, 0,5 mm protrusion above the LCD, dual layer with thick rubber and polycarbonite shell, and the LCD still managed to get smashed when it fell on the carpeted floor :-(
The only thing I can say, is that the phones were mostly Samsungs (2 x Note 2, 1 x S4). I had 2 HTC's both of which eventually developed odd touchscreen behaviour, and the USB charging failure was the note 2. The other note 2 had the USB port failure and cracked screen, and the S4 just has the broken LCD.
Maybe just Samsung phones are fragile? Shame I like the vivid colours of the OLED screen and their hackability, otherwise I might consider a different phone in future.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday December 28 2015, @01:38PM
The Ballistic case I have for my Nexus 5 has a ~2mm protrusion above the LCD. Makes edge touch difficult but is rarely an issue. Best part is it doesn't add much to the sides, about 5mm, but the corners, they achilles heel of screen glass are thick. Still fits in my shirt pocket.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Monday December 28 2015, @03:06PM
My female-unit and I both had Samsung Captivates for 3 years and neither of them have more than a couple of scratches. I generally carried mine in a belt pouch (awesome fashion statement) but on several occasions had it fly out of my hand putting it away or something. Once it landed 10 feet away, face down on one of those polished concrete floors, after which it slid about 40 feet. One tiny scratch on the screen. I had a Nexus 4 with the stupid glass back fall from chair height onto a ceramic floor. I thought I was done for, but it lived without a mark.
Perhaps later Samsungs are cheaper, or perhaps you're just unlucky. The one thing I've seen is that many people who carry their phones in their pockets tend to end up with problems with flaky connectivity, flaky screens, or flaky buttons. I think the constant stresses of the slight pressure of sitting, etc, add up and loosen connections. Despite the geek factor, use a belt pouch. It's convenient and protects the phone quite well.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 28 2015, @05:53PM
Try another case, try to be more careful with your phone, or maybe carry a rabbit foot. I've been using a Note 2 for ~2.5 years that was bought used and haven't had any issues but I've only dropped it twice.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday December 28 2015, @01:30PM
Everyone knows someone like that, but I still have a working Opti-moooooose with too little memory to actually do anything today and its replacement was a Defy that at least recently was still being used by my kids as a micro-tablet (mostly playing music).
My experience is a five year old phone has too little memory and support to install modern music-type apps, but a 3-year old phone is marginally OK. The cutoff is probably around four years old and likely depends on the luxury level at the time, I'm sure there were phones in 2010 ranging from 128M of flash all the way up to a couple gigs and the bigger ones will run better.
A lot has to do with patience. There are people who freak the heck out if google music takes more than three seconds to start, just like there's people that freak the heck out about people who spend $500/year to avoid having google music take more than three seconds to start.
I have a 2012 Nexus 7 tablet, the one with memory problem that makes the flash slow over time till it dies, and believe it or not, with cyanogen installed I'm still using it as a kindle app dedicated device. Kindle app is like bottom of the barrel, when it takes kindle app more than 30 seconds to cold start, then you get to throw the device out.
As for "why" you'd want a secondary device that only plays music or whatever, you take it camping or outside doing yardwork or exercise with the idea that when you drop it or otherwise lost, you won't care. Naturally now that I've prepared I've never needed that prep so even my old Optimoooooose S is still operational, although so limited its actually not usable with modern software. Also a minimum in phone size was reached last decade and every year since, phones have been exploding in size, and sometimes you just want a little phone, even if it can't make old fashioned phone calls and only works on wifi. Smartphone cameras are pretty bottom tier but if you really needed another camera, I guess it would work.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 28 2015, @12:55PM
smart phones? sounds like there's a galaxy amount of them out there ^_^
there's actually just two "kinds" of smart phones: smartphone type-A = android or smartphone type-B = iOS.
anyways, there's "utorrent" for android.
connect to usb charger (and wifi) and let it seed/leech at tiny power draw.
furthermore there's "xbmc" for android. if the GPU is "beefy" enough it can play-back most 720p, no problem.
added benefit if it can output to HDMI via a USB-2-HDMI dongle ... connect to big-screen tv.
lastly, if it is a big phone -or- half a tablet and it has GPS you can download off-line (and free) "MAPS.ME" for android and use
it as a navigation aid for your transport ... car-battery (or small solarcell) 12VDC to usb-5VDC converters are dirt cheap.
(Score: 1) by theemomac on Monday December 28 2015, @08:31PM
Moonlight nvidia gamestreaming is available for most androids distros and iOS 8+. So any device with hdmi output can become a gamestreaming box.
https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-android/wiki/Setup-Guide [github.com]
I just set this up on a Samsung Galaxy s4 and it works great. Great use for a dated device, I set this up on a RasPi B+ and it works fine so most budget smartphones and tablets should work fine
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday December 28 2015, @01:28PM
My mother and I both got EVO 4G's within a few months of release. I kept mine until 2013 and I replaced it with a Nexus 5 which I still use. She had her EVO 4G much longer and it finally broke when she took it out of its otterbox and it fell face down on a wood floor which shattered the screen. I then gave her my old EVO 4G which she used until my brother gave her his Nexus 4 after that EVO stopped charging (think she dropped it on its USB connector when it was plugged in). If I plan to go to a new phone, she will get the Nexus 5. But I have no plans as the Nexus 5 is working for me and I see no reason to upgrade. If I do buy a new phone the requirement will be a removeable SD card and possibly battery.
Other people I know upgrade fairly often. Why is beyond me. A friend has upgraded his phone more than any other person I know. He isn't wealthy but a new phone or two each year isn't uncommon for him. His problem is the "gadget factor" where he wants the best/latest/biggest/etc. So he buys an array of awful phones because it has some interesting feature. The latest is this phablet with a Atom CPU that chews through battery like a pill head chews through a prescription. To him it's soooooo coooool. I see it as a waste of money, time, and energy. His old phones are sold to the public, even though I have warned him of potential data leaks.
A co worker destroys everything for security even though his technical skills are so low that I am surprised he knows how to turn his PC on. Thankfully some people, as ignorant as they are about technology, get the security part right. I once came in and spied a small bin with two smashed ipads within. He really ripped them up and I told him it was dangerous to destroy the battery. I pointed out the two flash chips which were unscathed among the twisted wrecks and told him that is where his data lived. So he proceeded to take a punch and hammer to each chip. I told him that was the safest route to go, just smash the flash (hey, that rhymes! New security slogan perhaps? SMASH THE FLASH!).
(Score: 3, Informative) by VLM on Monday December 28 2015, @01:57PM
Here's the official on topic thread, aside from the prog signalling spiral about racism and funny stories about people destroying phones.
So on topic I had never heard of dayframe, which looks cool as the ultimate bottom end use for a phone or tablet when its too slow to do absolutely anything else. Some problems, cheap LEDs don't last forever at 24x7 on after a long life, 4chan as an image source could be cool (not necessarily the pr0n and shock boards, either), and its 12 megs in size which will be an issue for total POS phones from five years ago. I would imagine dayframe, one of those weird gray market ebay android PC on a stick thingies, and a dedicated desktop monitor would make an unholy hell of an amazing desktop digital picture frame. I'm already thinking "mothers day gift" on this one. Note there are little low power automotive monitors if you don't want a 30 inch digital picture frame.
Some on topic apps they missed:
If you thought dayframe wasn't extravagant enough, I have radarscope on my phone and even subscribe for the lightning feed and because I'm a good boy and like to fund developers. Why not have a continuous radar display hanging on your wall. Likewise I can't use Waze because its too distracting while I drive (I'm a good enough driver to know when I shouldn't be Fing around, unlike, apparently, many other drivers) but plenty of people around me play with Waze when they are theoretically driving, so that would make an interesting real time traffic report when hanging on the wall. So on the bad side you can burn coal to run an art installation 24x7 instead of just checking the phone, on the good side, it looks cool and people do more wasteful things to look cool, so its not so bad, probably.
Torque the ODB-II scanner for the car. Also comes with cool heads up mode. The newer the car the more you get to see. My '97 Saturn reported nothing more interesting than a digital temperature gauge, my '14 toyota replacing it has an even sparser dash (the coolant temp is just an idiot light now) but the ODB-II port has way more telemetry like 4 or so catalyst temps alone and all kinds of stuff. Mostly useless. It is fun to "dyno test" cars with torque where it'll report peak and current HP output and all kinds of stuff like that. As a HUD, you could do worse. It can be a bit finicky at boot and shutdown. Speaking of cars, all the shade tree mechanics I know caught on to the "snap a pix while you disassemble" trick and a disposable phone is more compatible with grease, rust, and engine oil than a newer primary phone.
Somehow the article missed the kindle app. Reading is not cool, kids. But if it were, an old phone or tablet is a usable ebook reader. Much like at work I sometimes have more than one book on the desk, or more than one data sheet, or more than one monitor on my desk for some decades now, having more than one ebook reader is not exactly a problem especially when loaded with non-fiction / technical stuff.
Somehow the article also missed calculator apps. The battery is inconvenient but I've been thinking about more or less permanently setting up a calculator in my carpentry basement area. I'm pretty good at mental math but sometimes a calculator would be handy. And being a spare secondary device if I filled it with dust or dripped polyurethane on it or dropped it, I wouldn't be as annoyed as if I trashed my "real" phone.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 28 2015, @03:08PM
What to Do with our Old Smartphones? A Few Ideas...
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=14/10/02/0434230 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by snick on Monday December 28 2015, @03:33PM
Old android phone with wifi + bluetooth speaker. Very portable music streamer. (as long as I stay in wifi range) I also have my old school music collection (mp3s) on the sd card, so I can still play the music I own even w/o wifi.
The only downside is that the battery is the weakest part of the old phone, so after 3-4 hours of music I need to plug it in.
(Score: 2) by Valkor on Monday December 28 2015, @07:19PM
I have my previous device running BOINC. It also has service through FreedomPOP which is a single fee that gives a small amount of data and calling each month.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 28 2015, @10:02PM
—https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/911-wireless-services [fcc.gov]
Nothing in there about GSM vs. CDMA.
(Score: 1) by RobC207 on Monday December 28 2015, @11:52PM
Mossberg.
It's the only way to be reasonably sure.
(Score: 2) by VanessaE on Tuesday December 29 2015, @02:05AM
And now I'm imagining someone with a gun and a skeet launcher with a pile of phones next to it.
PULL!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Popeidol on Wednesday December 30 2015, @08:25AM
I had a bad run with bicycles being stolen.
I snagged an original Galaxy S, installed cyanogen mod, disabled everything except gps and mobile data, threw in a cheap sim, and installed Prey [preyproject.com]. Strapped it in a waterproof bag under the seat as unobtrusively as possible with a short extension cable running out. Now if it goes missing I should hopefully be able to at least find the damn thing. I was going to include an external battery in the build but it gets a week or two per charge anyway.
Even a galaxy S is overkill for such a simple job. You don't need a working screen or most of the hardware so you can just buy a damaged unit for the job. It'd be pretty easy to wire one up hidden in your car - and with a constant power source you could get it to do more interesting things as well (say, text you automatically if it's used between certain hours/in certain locations, or hook it up to an OBD2 dongle and log a lot of interesting car-related data)
It feels weird, but old android phones are pretty disposable. If it gets damaged or snatched from the bike I'm up and running again with $20 worth of hardware and an hour or two of my time.