Ten ways to rebirth your old Android device.
Don’t let that old tablet or phone prop up your coffee table. There’s plenty your old Android tech can do. Darren Yates explains.
According to research analyst firm Deloitte, one billion smartphones were purchased in 2015 — as upgrades (tinyurl.com/zbgc4yv, PDF). Think about it for a sec — that’s not first-time buyers; that’s people buying replacement phones. That means one billion smartphones being cast aside, one billion smartphones languishing in kitchen drawers, holding up shelves and left in the back of taxis. Enough, we say! Too many smartphones are retired long before their use-by date and there’s still plenty they can be doing around your home. Here’s ten ways your old Android device can earn its keep.
GAIN ROOT ACCESS
If this device is no longer your frontline choice, have some fun with it and learn more about Android by gaining root access. Root access can allow you to update your version of Android OS (where available), take full control of the device and perform new functions like turning it into a wireless file server.
Most Android devices can be ‘rooted’; those that can’t typically have what’s known as a ‘locked bootloader’ that stops it loading custom recovery ROMs such as ClockworkMod Recovery (CWMR) and TeamWin Recovery Project (TWRP).
There are usually multiple ways to root most devices, but one-step root applications like Kingo ROOT ( www.kingoapp.com) are most popular. However, you must be aware that there’s a remote possibility rooting your Android device may ‘ brick’ it, causing it to fail permanently. Our tip is make sure any rooting app of choice has a history of success with your device make and model before trying it — that way, you’re more likely to win.
If your device is out of warranty, there’s probably not much point telling you that rooting your device voids those warranties (it does, nevertheless).
FLASH A NEW OS
One reason to gain root access is to update the version of Android OS your device is running. My Galaxy S3 phone is a perfect example — it arrived with Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and despite Samsung losing interest in it after releasing an Android 4.3/Jelly Bean update, it now happily runs the custom ‘Resurrection Remix’ release of Android 6.0.1/Marshmallow.
It must be said, few devices will find that level of upgrade possible, but it’s worth checking out websites like XDA Developers ( www.xda-developers.com) and community ROM projects such as CyanogenMod to see if there’s a newer OS release for your device. You might be lucky and find a factory OS update you’ve forgotten to install.
The key, however, is making sure any update is for your specific device, down to the exact model number. Each Android device has a different combination of hardware and your upgrade ROM must have all the correct drivers for each component in your device for those components to work. Clearly, install the wrong ROM and you’re an odds-on favourite of bricking your device, so researching what’s available carefully beforehand is vital. Again, if you’re worried about warranties, probably best to give this a miss.
NETFLIX/CHROMECAST REMOTE
Netflix has revolutionised the way we watch television and Google’s Chromecast has brought TV smarts to any display device with a spare HDMI port. Now provided your Android device has at least Android 4.0.3 and working Wi-Fi, it could be a great option for use as a Netflix/Chromecast remote.
The Chromecast dongle has its own CPU and internal hardware, but allows you to use your Android phone as a Wi-Fi remote for selecting movies or videos to play. If your device has at least Android 4.2/Jelly Bean and supports the functionality, chances are good you can even throw or ‘cast’ your device screen to the Chromecast dongle and display it on your TV. The delay or ‘latency’ may be too much for effective big-screen gameplay on the original Chromecast, but for viewing photos or general apps, it can work well. The new Chromecast 2 device sells for around $59 at most major retailers and the Google Cast app is free on Google Play.
USB MICROSCOPE
Any device launched with Android 4.0 as standard should have a USB-OTG port, the dual-direction microUSB connection. Now you probably know you can grab a USB-OTG adapter cable and plug in a wide array of storage devices into your device. But you can also try a low-cost USB microscope, some of which sell online for under $20.
At this price, you typically get a 30fps VGA (640 x 480-pixel) camera with up to 500x magnifier, enough to zoom in on the subpixel structure of your smartphone display panel (a task we’ve used this technique for on numerous occasions).
But for it to work, your Android device needs to have Universal Video Camera (UVC) drivers built into the Android kernel, something we’ve found in most devices we’ve tested. But you also need the right USB cam software — we recommend trying CameraFi, DashCam by droidPerception and UsbWebCamera, all free on Google Play. Strangely, we found different combinations of microscope and Android device required a different camera app to work correctly. But the end results were impressive, particularly for a $20 spend.
WIRELESS FILE SERVER
Take a look under the bonnet of a typical network-attached storage (NAS) box and you’ll find a CPU similar to what’s inside many smartphones and tablets — a dual- or quad-core ARM Cortex A-series SoC. While any NAS box will beat a smartphone for installed storage, your smartphone or tablet counters by including Wi-Fi, possibly up to 802.11n grade, and many support microSD expandable storage up to at least 32GB.
If you can gain root access, install the apps SambaDroid and Paragon NTFS from Google Play and you’ll turn your phone into a very compact wireless file server, fast enough to stream video files. Sure, 32GB of storage isn’t much, but throw in an externally powered USB hard drive, connect it up via USB-OTG to your Android device and you can have a multi-terabyte wireless file server ready to roll.
The only drawback is that using USB-OTG as a USB Host port prevents external power charging up the Android device battery, so this works best with Android tablets having a separate, dedicated DC power input,
aside from USB-OTG. SambaDroid also works best with Android 4.4 devices and older.
CD-QUALITY AUDIO RECORDER
The market for portable digital audio recorders has exploded in recent years, with dozens of models from brands like Tascam, Zoom and Marantz. Not surprising really, because many smartphones we’ve tried are terrible at recording audio. Sure, all Android devices can capture audio through the built-in microphone or 3.5mm headset socket, but add in a quality USB sound module, along with the excellent USB Audio Recorder PRO app from Google Play and you can capture genuine CD-quality stereo sound to at least 48kHz/16-bit sample rates.
Google added USB Audio Class drivers as standard, beginning with Android 5.0/Lollipop, but the team behind USB Audio Recorder PRO baked their own UAC code into the app, enabling use on Android devices back to Android 4.0. There’s a compatibility page listing the USB audio devices known to work with the app ( tinyurl. com/ngdz3og), but the key feature here is that audio quality no longer depends on your Android device — it just captures the digital data stream from the USB audio device. That means you can capture high-quality audio from USB microphones, cassette players, guitar audio modules, even turn your LPs into digital audio straight to many Android devices. Again, mileage can vary depending on the Android device.
THERMAL-IMAGING CAMERA
I don’t mind Caterpillar’s new S60 thermal imaging smartphone, a ruggedised design made in conjunction with thermal imaging brand Flir. But it’s not the only way to get thermal imaging onto your smartphone. Flir also created the Flir ONE, a thermal imaging module designed for iOS and Android devices.
It combines a thermal imaging sensor into a microUSB module that sits on the end of your phone and, for under US$250, it’s the cheapest way to get hold of a thermal imaging camera. Unfortunately, it seems to need a decent level of horsepower also — Flir has successfully tested the ONE with Samsung’s Galaxy S5 and S6 phones, the Motorola Nexus 6 and HTC’s ONE M8. But the ASUS Nexus 7, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S 8.4 and 10.5 all produced slow video recording.
Flir is now shipping the ONE to Australia, although we are yet to test one. However, it seems to stretch the capabilities of all but the more recent of Android devices.
A cheaper but still useful add-on for older devices is one of the many low-cost inspection cameras that give you a VGA-resolution standard colour image sensor and built-in LEDs on the end of a long cable. These work on a minimum of Android 4.0 like USB microscopes — via USB-OTG adapter and the collection of apps we mentioned before. It’s possible that not every model will work on every Android device, but with two-metre cable inspection cameras starting from US$5 on eBay, it won’t break the bank to find out.
TURN IT INTO A PC
Yep, this is actually doable and it doesn’t need root access. All you need is an Android 4.2/Jelly Bean device with screencast support, built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, a Chromecast dongle and Bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse. What’s cool about this is the only physical connection you need to your phone is the microUSB cable to the AC power adapter.
Use your phone’s screen casting function to cast the screen to your Chromecast dongle and TV/monitor, then pair your keyboard and mouse to your Android device’s Bluetooth adapter. You now have an Androidpowered computer. I’ve done this with my Galaxy S3 phone and was even able to keep the Wi-Fi Internet connection working at the same time.
Is it practical? That depends on how you work — if you live in the cloud and use Google Docs, it could be a way to shrink down your PC. It certainly would be a quick and easy way to take your computer with you — just grab your phone and you’re gone.
COMPOSITE VIDEO MONITOR
Turning a smartphone or tablet into a video screen? It’s an option we’ve heard some use for first-person view (FPV) video from racing ‘drone’ cameras. Many unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) used in racing feature low-power video camera transmitters for real-time FPV vision. That video is captured via receiver module, fed into a USB video capture device, which can be displayed on an Android screen. The trick is having: a) USB Video Class (UVC) drivers on your Android device; and b) the right video chip in your ‘EasyCap’ branded USB video capture dongle. EasyCap is a generic brand of dongle featuring one of three video processing chips — the STK1160, the UTV007 and the HTV600. The latest dongles we’ve seen use the HTV600, which works with the EasyCap Viewer app on Google Play. But there is another trick — in our testing, we needed video going into the dongle before launching the app, otherwise the app would crash. Once we figured this out, we had smooth 25fps PAL composite video displayed from an old VCR. These dongles are everywhere on eBay and sell for as little as $7. We can’t guarantee it’ll work with every Android device, but it worked with the devices we tested (Acer Aspire A200, Samsung Galaxy S3). There’s no audio support, though.
SELL IT
Recent data from eBay says Australia has $6.4billion worth of unused smartphones lying around in kitchen drawers ( tinyurl.com/j27kdq6). While the online selling site no doubt has incentive for getting us to unload our smartphones, selling a smartphone requires preparation. For one thing, you need to make sure you’re not giving away more than just the phone itself.
We’re assuming you’ll know to back up your contacts, important files, call logs and anything else you want to keep. The most important thing now is making sure your device has no important information left on it someone could use against you — like bank account details and so on.
Today, it’s recommended that the first thing to do if your phone has the option is to encrypt the on-board data — you’ll likely find this under Settings, Security, Encrypt phone. This will make it difficult for anyone to snoop into your history. Once completed, do a factory reset — you’ll find this under ‘Settings > Backup & Reset > Factory data reset’.
Also, don’t forget to remove the SIM card and any removable storage. You should also disable device access to your Google account and uncouple any cloud services you’ve used with it. Think of it as ‘consciously uncoupling’ your life from your phone — although, it is time-consuming and possibly reason why $6.4billion worth of phones lie around in kitchen drawers.