▲prmoustache7 hours ago
[-] Usually I replace a smartphone because it has some hardware fault that makes it unusable and it is hard to repair or the cost of repair vs capability is not very favorable.
Even if I was replacing smartphone before they died, I would probably sell them anyway. Do people really have various phones in working order waiting in a drawer?
Usually I replace my phone when the battery is almost dead and a full charge doesn't last more than a few hours. At that point the phone is usable but not good enough to sell. I usually keep it as an emergency backup phone
reply▲prmoustache3 hours ago
[-] For some reason I tend to break screens way before the battery dies usually. I am not afraid to replace a battery or even a screen if phone is not totally out of date. Having said that there seems to always be a point when they start acting semi eratically or stop booting.
I had a totally outdated and probably insecure Samsung S6 edge 2 years ago that started rebooting randomly. I think that prior to that it was so old I could only install stuff from f-droid and aurora because roots certs installed on that old android version were too old for playstore to work. Too bad as you can't easily find smartphones in similar sizes anymore.
Knocking on wood my pixel 6a still going strong after 2 years.
You might as well buy a new battery then
Did that for 20 € for my Oppo Find X3 Pro at my closest tech store and saved me from buying a brand new phone
NeuroWinter6 hours ago
[-] I will upgrade when my device is many generations out of date. So no one really wants to buy one and I will then buy not the latest but a generation or two “out of date” so it’s cheaper. So I have a heap of phones over the years that no one wants. Not even me.
reply▲mannykannot2 hours ago
[-] I take my previous phone kayaking. Once I have downloaded the appropriate maps over wifi, I can use it for navigation, logging and photography without being worried by the prospect of dropping it in the water.
reply▲I never sell anything, everything finds a new life.
I got a Sony Xperia Compact from maybe 2016. I use it as a bicycle navigator / recorder. Recently it stopped reading SIMs, probably rusty contacts, but all I need is wifi to update OSMAnd and send me the tracks I recorded.
I also have a very old tablet, maybe 2014. My SO uses it to view movies with VLC and TV via TVHeadend.
Oh wow, although I submitted it some days ago, I somehow got on the front page! Thanks for that!
Also as a note: this platform is nowhere near finished! I had this idea in my mind for a long time that I wanted to reuse my old phones and tablets as displays in my home. I also know that finding the right apps for these old platforms is a challenge in itself, that's why I went the route of creating an ES5 (that nobody writes anymore!) web app that most of these devices still support. The client's whole purpose is to display canvas and media files that the server dictates on-demand via websocket, while keeping a synchronized clock.
On Instagram I always saw these very cool widgets like retro clocks, split-flip boards, YouTube subscriber counters that I felt urged to buy. But I thought to myself that the old phones I already have could also do the same.
I am a long-time software engineer myself, but could never take the time to validate whether my ideas work. So I thought, why not try it out with Codex. After long prompting, supervising and correcting, I got a very usable solution that I now pleasantly use myself at home.
reply▲You can also vibe-code your widget if you want! You are not restricted to use the built-in ones. Just copy the "Canvas Widget Guide" you find under "Left Sidebar > Create > Smart Widget > Tutorial" and copy that article in ChatGPT or Claude while describing what your widget should display.
Then paste the code to "Create > Smart Widget > Edit the Code" in the Widget Details. (this flow should be more intuitive...)
You are able to send JSON data to your widget via an API.
It's all just canvas and old Javascript code!
darkwater53 minutes ago
[-] Gotta get a lot of downvotes here but I don't care, I stand by my opinions: this is the best example that not all vibe-coded apps are "slop". If you have enough experience (or are smart enough to speed-run experience), good ideas, good attention to details and decent taste you can totally vibe-code cool things that are worth sharing. This true/false dichotomic attitude towards apps you see here from many HNers where "written by hand: good/vibe-coded: bad no matter what" really rubs me the wrong way.
reply▲rippeltippel5 hours ago
[-] Very nice project, thank you for sharing it on HN!
May I ask why login is required, and how are emails/passwords stored?
reply▲An account is necessary to couple your devices to your wall. And auth is implemented via Better-Auth. I stopped Codex immediately when he tried to implement the login stuff from scratch. :)
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