E-waste (Electronic waste) has become one of the most common problems across the world where disposing of your old device can become a headache. Most people exchange their old devices when they buy a new one.

Another option to deal with e-waste is to send your device to a trusted recycling centre. There are several companies that offer the option of recycling the old devices that you no longer need or use.

Well, there’s another option and a very practical one too. You can use your old devices like smartphones, monitors, TVs, etc to cater for some other needs. For instance, you can use your smartphone as a security camera or baby monitor. Or, you can use your laptop as the entertainment system or install Chrome OS Flex to give it a new life.

Getting confused? Let us explain.

Smartphones: Can be used as a security camera, smart home hubs, webcams
Smartphones today are no less than a small PC. They can do almost everything a laptop can do and in some cases, they can do a little more. For instance, if you have an old smartphone lying around your house, you can install security camera apps and use them as the security camera for your home or baby monitor.

Another good use of the old smartphone can be as a webcam for your PC. There are several apps available that allow you to use the smartphone as a webcam wired or wirelessly.

Then, if you are heavily invested in a smart home setup, then you make your old phone act as a hub by connecting all the smart home devices with it and grant permission to yourself and other family members.

Laptops: Can be used as a Chromebook, server, media centre, etc
Old laptops, especially Windows laptops tend to show their age after 4 or 5 years of use. Also, old laptops aren’t that great at offering a good value as a second-hand device. So, in that case, you can install the ChromeOS Flex operating system and convert your laptop into a Chromebook.

Chrome OS is a lightweight operating system designed to run on minimum system resources. For instance, a laptop with MediaTek chipset, 4GB RAM and 64GB storage run much smoother than a similar specced Windows laptop.

Alternatively, you can convert your laptop into a media centre or server machine for local file transfer or use Plex to watch content directly from your PC on the television.

Tablets: Can be used as a smart home hub, laptops’ secondary screen, footage monitor
Tablets are also versatile devices. They can be used as smart home hubs just like smartphones. Alternatively, you can use them as the secondary monitor for your laptop to get extra screen estate.

Also, if you’ve smart security cameras installed at your home, you can use a tablet as the footage monitor.

FacebookTwitterLinkedin