If you have anything older than an iPhone 5S: congratulations. You have an old iPhone! Not that that is a bad thing, as those phones are still perfectly capable of doing most tasks. Indeed, had I not dropped my iPhone 4S into a river, I would likely still be using it to this day.
Anyways, if you do decide to upgrade your smartphone, what happens to your trusty old iPhone 4/4S/5? One option of course is to sell it, but that is more difficult than it sounds. Sure, you could get a decent amount for your device if you find a buyer on Amazon, Craigslist, or Ebay. The only problem with that is that it takes time and effort on your part to make the sale, and there’s no guarantee that the buyer will be happy with your used device (if they find a scratch or defect for instance, they might ask for a refund).
Another option is to sell it off to your cellular service provider or a company like Gazelle, but they will only give you pennies on the dollar.
So, if selling your old iPhone isn’t the best idea, what else can you do? Keep it. Yup, even if you have a shiny new iPhone 6 or 6 Plus sitting in your hand right now, your old iPhone is still more than capable of performing other, less obvious tasks. Wondering what they are? Read on!
1. Turn It Into A Universal Remote
Since you are no longer using your old iPhone as a daily driver, you don’t have to worry about draining its battery or otherwise over-using it. Most cable companies have an associated app on the app store that lets you control their cable boxes with your phone, meaning you can use your old iPhone to control every cable-box-controlled TV in your home.
It doesn’t end there either. Load Xbox Smart Glass onto your old iPhone, and use it to control your Xbox 360 or Xbox One without the need for a controller.
Beyond that, there are several other electronic devices that can be controlled through your iPhone as well. See what you have, and then check if there is an associated app. You will find that the possibilities are nearly endless!
2. Turn It Into A Dedicated Camera
Old iPhones such as the 4 and 5 can be turned into compact cameras with the addition of a few third party attachments (like improved lenses).
Even without such additions, you can still treat your old iPhone as though it were an advanced digital camera. Wipe its hard drive, and you will have tons of space to work with. Then, you can use it to shoot and edit videos, pictures, and more!
Since your old iPhone is no longer your daily driver, you won’t have to worry about damaging it or putting it through too much use, and also won’t have to worry about clogging your storage with too many photos and videos.
3. Give It To Your Kids
Many parents buy their young children expensive tablets or other touchscreen devices to occupy themselves. Why not save yourself a buck and give them your old smartphone? It won’t have a cellular signal, so all it is essentially is a tiny tablet, perfect for children to consume content with.
If you are worried about your children’s safety, you can even download apps that allow you to set parental controls, blocking content that you don’t want your kids to access.
4. Make It A Permanent Fixture In Your Car
Many modern cars these days are built with a central dashboard computing system included. Still, the majority of folks are driving cars that were made before these systems became commonplace within vehicles.
You can address that by turning your old iPhone into a dedicated computer for your older car. All you need is a quality dashboard mount, and you are good to go. Once installed, your phone will perform about as well as any other dashboard computing system, as you will have access not only to your music, but to GPS-based maps as well.
5. Turn It Into An Advanced Flash Drive
Is one of your computing devices running out of space? Worry no more, as your old iPhone can assist you. Just download this app, which allows you to transfer files to your old smartphone over WiFi.
This is a great way to put your old phone to good use, especially if you had a model with a lot of storage. Since you no longer need to use it as a daily driver, you can basically delete everything you had on it previously and use that free space to back up images, save documents, store movies, and archive music.
Since you can transfer files over WiFi, you can even send files to your new iPhone from your old one, and vice versa. If you are an owner of the 16GB iPhone 6, that fact alone might make it worth keeping your old device around.
What did you do with your old iPhone? Did you sell it, or find a creative way to get a few more years of use out of it? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below!
Featured photo credit: iPhone4S/ Matthew Pearce via flickr.com
