Other Ways You Can Use Your Old Smartphone Without Throwing It Away

 Other Ways You Can Use Your Old Smartphone Without Throwing It Away

When you buy a brand new smartphone, what do you actually do with the old one?

There are many things you can do with your old smartphone instead of throwing it away. Apart from giving it to someone if we don't want to sell it, here are great ideas you can try with your old smartphone without throwing it away.

1. Create an Untraceable Phone

As it is now, hackers can easily trace back all the data from your phone back to you. If you have an old smartphone, you can turn it into a "ghost phone" that will be completely untraceable.

A ghost phone has a lot of benefits. For example, it will keep your identity secure on online dating sites or if you're selling something online.

Here's how to do it:

• Install one of the apps that provide a temporary phone number. Check Here for examples
• Add a secure VPN service that encrypts all data going out of your phone. For example, CyberGhost and ExpressVPN.
• Create a new Google or Apple account from the phone. Don't sign in with your existing account on the app stores. Similarly, create new accounts for any app you want to use.
• Don't buy any app or service. Online transactions leave a money trail.
• This is a handy gadget to have with you. Any time you want to take a data-sensitive online action, it'll keep you more secure than your everyday phone.

2. Turn Your phone Into a Security Camera

Instead of spending good money to buy a bunch of security cameras, why not just use old smartphones? They work brilliantly, and it's easy too.

Here's how to do this:

• You can use popular apps such as Wardencam, if your old smartphone is an android device.
• Download the app and sign in with your Gmail account.
• Put your phone where you want it, and you can watch all the action on another phone or computer

3. Use It As A Universal Remote Control

This is one of the most popular ways to reuse an old smartphone. You'll be able to control almost anything in your smart home such as TV, decoder, AC, etc.

You need to check whether your Android phone has an infrared (IR) blaster. This will let it connect to TVs, air conditioners, and other devices that normally use a remote control. Most Xiaomi phones like Redmi comes with IR blaster. Sadly, no iPhones have an IR blaster in them.

If the phone has an IR blaster, just grab one of the best remote apps that we recommended. All Xiaomi Phones that comes with IR blaster, already have a system remote app installed, so there will be no need for 3rd party apps.

If the phone doesn't have an IR blaster, you'll need to add IR connectivity. You can do that by adding IR blaster to the phone with a third-party accessory.

4. Use It As A Portable Gaming Device

If your old smartphone has a lot of internal memory, you can turn it into a portable gaming device for yourself your kids.

Instead of making use of your new phone for business and pleasure (gaming), your old smartphone can help you with the gaming part.

This is perhaps the simplest way to repurpose an old smartphone, and your kids will love you for it. Given the amazing games released on Android and iOS these days, it's also a cheaper option than buying a PlayStation Portable or Nintendo DS.

5. Turn It Into A Mobile Cinema

As long as your old smartphone has a screen large enough to watch movies and internal storage to contain lots of movies, you can turn it into a mobile cinema.

Most people don't like watching movies with their phone, they prefer watching it on TV or making use of their laptops. This helps them keep their phone storage free from filling up with movies and also they can watch movies without being interrupted by calls or messages.

You can put your main phone on airplane mode while watching movie with the old phone. 

This is a very good way to reuse your old smartphone.

6. Leave It Permanently In Your Car

A lot of people overlook the simplest use for an old smartphone. Grab a car phone holder, a double-port car charger, and fix your phone in place permanently.

You can use your old smartphone as GPS Navigator when driving to places you've never been before.

It means you don't need to waste your regular phone's battery or data on GPS and turn-by-turn directions.

Similarly, you don't even need to spend a ridiculous amount of money for an awesome car stereo with Bluetooth and internet radio. Just buy one of the best Bluetooth speakers and play music from your car phone.

ALSO READ: Learn How To Convert Video To MP3 With Xender

Keeping hold of old devices and finding new uses for them is better for the environment than throwing them into the wastebin. Most smartphone companies advises not to throw away your device, they should be recycled instead. 

If you can't find a new home for the phone, find a new use instead. The same goes for other technology gadgets you have around the house.

4 Interesting New Features Of MIUI12 Update For Xiaomi Redmi 8

 

It's no longer a new thing that Xiaomi has rolled out MIUI 12 updates for all models of her smartphones including the Global version. Though, not everyone has received this updates nor installed them.

Those that haven't gotten theirs will receive it in the coming months, while some users must have received theirs but have failed to download and install the updates due to different personal reasons.

ALSO READ: Redmi 8 Vs Tecno Camon 12 (Full Comparison)

Incase you haven't updated your xiaomi redmi 8 device to the latest version and you are wondering what exactly is the new updates coming with. Well, below are the new features that accompanies miui12 on redmi 8

MIUI V12.0.1.0.QCNMIXM

MIUI V12.0 New Features

1. Control center

New: Swipe down from the upper left corner to open Notifications shade and from the upper right corner to open Control center

New: When Notification shade is open, swipe down from the upper right orner to open Control center

Optimization: Control center layout in landscape mode

2. Dark mode

Optimization: Brightness and color improvements for wallpapers in Dark mode

3. System

Fix: Home screen went black and started flashing after unlocking in some cases

4. Status bar, Notification shade

New: Screen lights up with an animation now

New: Status bar color gradient animation

Aren't these new features awesome? I suggest you waste no time and Update to MIUI 12.

Join us on Telegram to get faster and more updates and release dates

How To Easily Check Your MTN Phone Number

 How To Easily Check Your MTN Phone Number

Most times when we buy new SIM card and haven't stored the number in our head, we find it difficult to call out the phone number especially when it's needed during form registration or other uses. Also, we might want to check the phone number of a particular person without having to flash your phone with his number.

In this post, I'll be showing you how to easily get any MTN phone number using some particular codes. There will no need for you to go about with your mtn SIM pack or call MTN customer care service just to get your number.

Codes To Check MTN Number

To check your mtn number, just dial *663# and your phone number will popup on the screen of your mobile phone.

Another way to check it is by dialing the ussd code *123*1*1#.

If the above code is not going due to errors, you can use the step by step method.

Dial *123# from your phone dailer,

Select 1 from the options, which is "Account information"

Then select 1 again which is "My number" and your number will display on the screen and you will also receive an SMS immediately that contains your number.

For Androids, you can simply go to settings, then select Dual SIM settings and you will see your number.

SEE ALSO: How To Extend Expiry Date For MTN Data Subscription

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MIUI 12 Feature Introduces Paper Mode in Reading Mode 3.0 For Mi Phones

MIUI 12 Feature Introduces Paper Mode in Reading Mode 3.0

 With the fast growing dependency on our smartphones, many of us find it more convenient to have and read all information on our phones. We spend quite a lot of time in front of our smartphone screens surfing net, reading news, e-books and more! And the more time we give to our phones, the issues of eye strain and headache arises more frequently. Fortunately on our Mi phones we have the Reading Mode which makes the colors of our display warmer allowing our eyes to relax.

And today we are going to talk about Reading mode 3.0 that will make you love reading again. You can adjust the color temperature to suit your eyes, or even add paper-like texture to backgrounds that feel like you're reading a physical book! It's basically an enhanced reading mode which would make reading more pleasant by optimizing the device screen. Let's see how it works:

How to access Enhanced Reading Mode 3.0:

• -Navigate to Settings >> Display
• -Click on Reading mode - Enable it
• As soon as you enable it, you would find a list of customizable options

The first option is the Classic mode: which switches the screen display to warmer colors to reduce the amount of light.

The second option is the Paper Mode : Which switches the display to warmer colors and add a paper-like textured overlay to reduce eye screen. I really like it a lot and use it especially while reading e-books or journals. This gives me an eye-soothing reading experience while doing a long-time reading. It's a must use while using phone at night time as well.

Another interesting feature is the ability to adjust color temperature of the display. You can do it for both Classic and paper Mode. But for paper mode there is something extra - you can reduce or increase the texture presence on the screen by adjusting it on the slider.

There are total 3 options - Full colors, Light colors, and Black and white to make certain changes in color temperature in the paper Mode. While there would be a yellow overlay in the Full colors option, the Light colors option would enable faded on-screen colors. and the 'Black and white' option, on the other hand, would bring a monochromatic effect.

About Schedule, all of you must have known about it since it was a part of the reading mode already. You can schedule a time to turn it on and off. You can choose to turn on Reading mode every day at sunset by selecting the Good night’s read option. If using Good night’s read, the display will revert at sunrise to its initial brightness.

To manually customize the time, select Custom period.

Reading mode can be extremely useful while reading eBooks, browsing social media pages, chatting with friends, reading the news, etc. Overall the paper Mode is an absolutely nice add-on to an already cool and useful feature. Please note, currently this feature is only available for limited number of devices for both Global and China ROM. I have tested the feature on both the ROMs. And it's working great! More devices might be getting it in future! What do you think about this feature?

Why Airpods And Other Earbuds Are Bad For Your Hearing

 Why Airpods And Other Earbuds Are Bad For Your Hearing

AirPods are wireless Bluetooth earbuds created by Apple. They were first released on December 13, 2016, with a 2nd generation released in 2019. They are Apple's lower-end wireless earbuds, sold alongside the premium AirPods Pro. Within two years, they became Apple's most popular accessory, turning into a critical success and viral sensation.

AirPods are everywhere — even though they’re pretty awful at what they do.

This style of earbud, which rests next to your ear canal but not quite inside it, offers practically zero noise isolation. In other words, AirPods, by far the most popular wireless earbuds, do a poor job overpowering noise like chattering colleagues or teens on the subway. The natural response is to turn the volume louder to compensate — which can quickly turn dangerous for your hearing.

Headphones, in and of themselves, are not a risk. You could listen all day at a low-to-middle volume without health worries. It’s only once you start listening to loud volumes for sustained periods of time that they can start damaging your ears.

And the type of headphones that are the most likely to cause hearing problems are these earbuds. A 2007 study found that adults turn up their music louder when they’re wearing earbuds than over-the-ear headphones. It also discovered that users wearing earbuds were more likely to turn up their volume to compensate for background noise (in this case, street noise and “multi-talker babble”) than people wearing over-the-ear headphones. A further study, from 2011, expanded on that research, finding that teens wearing earbuds turn their volume up to overcome background noise, some to harmful levels, more than those wearing noise-isolating, over-the-ear headphones.

Brian Fligor, an audiologist who has studied the impact of earbuds on hearing damage, says that people typically listen to their earbuds about 13 decibels higher than the background noise. If you’re wearing headphones or earbuds in a school classroom, where the background noise usually runs at about 60 decibels, and you turn your music up to 73 decibels to compensate, that should be fine for most people’s ears. But if you’re in a noisy coffee shop, where background noise is usually about 70 decibels, or on an airplane, where the noise typically reaches 80 decibels, things get dicey. “When the background noise induces [people] to listen 13 decibels louder than the background and the background is 70 decibels, now we’re talking about potential to do damage,” he says.

Public transportation is “the number one time and place for you to be exposed,” says Fligor. Noise level on subway platforms and inside trains is 94 decibels, and 20 percent of those spaces exceed 100. Add 13 decibels from turning up your earbuds, and we’re at anywhere from 107 to 113 decibels, yet people can only safely be exposed to 100-plus decibels for 15 minutes a day.

You can see the problem.

It’s likely that earbuds are contributing to widespread hearing damage among younger people. According to the American Osteopathic Association, approximately one in five teens today suffer some form of hearing damage, a rate that’s 30 percent higher than it was 20 years ago. The World Health Organization estimates that over “1 billion young people” are at risk of hearing loss, primarily from listening to music on headphones or earbuds.

ALSO READ: Get 100% Cash Back When You Pay Your TV Subscription With Jumia Pay

Adults, meanwhile, have experienced a leveling out in hearing loss — but societal factors indicate that that rate should have gone down, not stayed the same. “We’ve outsourced a lot of our manufacturing jobs and that’s where a lot of noise-induced hearing loss was coming from,” Fligor says. Disregarding hearing loss among those serving in the military, which is on the increase, people are generally much healthier than they were in past decades, and therefore, “our rate of hearing loss should be going down, and we know that it’s not,” says Fligor.

It’s a whole lot cheaper to protect your hearing than it is to try to remediate your hearing,” says Fligor. “Hearing is outrageously precious. People take it for granted, they lose it, and then you can’t get it back.”

Dear readers, what do you think about this?