Did you just preorder a new iPhone? Planning to upgrade in the near future? Give some thought to how you can make the best use of that old device you’re leaving behind.
You could sell your device as an independent seller on Amazon, but the easier path is to let Amazon sell it for you. You can use Amazon’s trade-in service to get an estimate based on your iPhone’s capacity, finish, and condition. Amazon gives you a mailing label, you send in the phone, then Amazon gives you a gift card for the prearranged amount. The company sells the phone to some stranger for a profit, and you’re left with a chunk of change to spend on toilet paper, AA batteries, and Men’s Pocky. Prices change often, but right now Amazon will give you about $200 for a 16GB iPhone 6S in good condition. A 6S Plus fetches around $260. Less money than Craigslist, but none of the hassle.
It often makes sense to keep your old phone on hand as a back-up device for a short while. Maybe your new phone is a lemon, or you get so excited about the new phone that you immediately drop it and break it. So maybe don’t sell your old iPhone right away and instead keep it in a drawer. Hold out for about three months to see how your phone is working. If everything checks out, then trade the old one for some cash.
That latest Apple TV remote is kinda not great, huh? In the App Store, there is an Apple TV Remote app that can be download on your device, turning your old iPhone into a fancy touchscreen remote. Using the keyboard to search for shows is an immediate step up. If you have an older version of the Apple TV, you also don’t have the ability to use Siri with it. The app adds the Siri functionality—just speak into your phone to find shows and issue commands via voice. If you do this, register the fingerprints of everyone in your house so anyone can unlock it.
Mount your old phone to the wall and leave the Sonos app open all the time. Or just load it with music and sign in to all your streaming accounts, then throw music to AirPlay, Bluetooth, or Sonos speakers in your home. Again, if you do this, register the fingerprints of everyone in your house.
Even with the advancement of cameras on Apple devices, last year’s phone can still produce quality pictures and videos. Your extra phone could easily be repurposed solely as a video camera. Trick it out with accessories like a nice mic, some quality glass lenses, a battery pack, and a fancy stabilizing mount
like the DJI Osmo. Leave it set up all the time for an easy grab-and-go rig for shooting high res videos of skateboard tricks, or even just for doing Facebook Live streams of your friends’ bands.
What do kids like to do nowadays? Not play with toys or go run around outside, but to play with phones! Your old iPhone can be an easy, harmless way to entertain children. Not only can they use it for games, but they can also read and draw on it. You can disable Wi-Fi and the App Store if you want, and you can turn on parental restrictions if you’re that kind of person. But you can preload it with games, music, or videos—and the camera still works, so your children can make their own movies. Phones control many toys these days. The calculator is great for homework too. Make sure to take out the SIM card before the child uses the phone, and have a very serious discussion with them about the 911 calling function if you leave it unrestricted.
Music is probably the biggest space guzzler on iPhones. So now that you have a new iPhone for all your apps, your old iPhone suddenly has all the space in the world. Use it as an iPod and dump all of your iTunes music onto it. This will eliminate the need to drop another $200 to get an iPod Touch just for tunes.
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