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HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED
what to do with that old cell phone that's collecting dust in the back
of your junk drawer? Well, let me tell you about a revelation I had
recently regarding my “retired” Samsung Galaxy J7.
A few months ago, I dropped my US Cellular service in favor of Consumer
Cellular (saving about $20/month—same coverage and data plan.) But I did
have to buy a new phone, 'cuz my old Samsung J7 wasn't compatible with
this new service.
Off to Target I headed. A new Samsung A02 (nice big screen and good
sound) set me back about $100; and when I got back home, into the junk
drawer went my old Samsung J7.
BLUETOOTH SPEAKER
So, forget the phone story for a second. A month later, I came across a
great bargain ($50 off) on a Bluetooth speaker—a refurbished Bose
Soundlink Flex that I found on eBay (if you don't know what a Bluetooth
speaker is, it's a portable, wireless speaker that you can place
anywhere up to 30 or 40 feet from your sound source.)
So I purchased this wonderful little Bose speaker . . . but then I got
to wondering, "How do I play my iTunes library of 4,000 songs on it when
the songs are all on my desktop computer?!"
Most people seemed to be playing their music from their cell phones not their desktops . . . hmmmmm.
RECRUIT THE OLD PHONE
I got it! I'll resurrect my old “retired” Samsung J7—by turning it into a music player . . . and a video player . . . and voice recorder!
If you think about it, these cell phones do a lot more than just make
phone calls—in fact placing phone calls probably ranks towards the
bottom of their most-common uses.
After all, these mini supercomputers have more power than the
computers the astronauts took to the moon! They can also function
as cameras, music players, video cameras, internet browsers, GPS units,
movie players—they're little multifunction Swiss Army knives!
SETTING UP THE OLD PHONE
So after retrieving the Samsung J7 from the junk drawer, I powered it up
and downloaded a free app called Musicolet from the Google Play Store
(yes, the old phone still had a 75% charge and connected right away to
the internet via my WiFi—don't need a phone service to do that!)
Next I went to my desktop computer, plugged a microSD card into a USB
port, created 3 folders on the card: Music, Podcasts and Videos and then
copied all the respective music, podcasts and video files from the
computer to each corresponding folder on the card.
Finally, I installed the microSD card into my phone and away we go!
PHONE APPS (THEY'RE ALL FREE!)
For music/podcast playback, I use the Musicolet app; and for
videos/photos, I use a great little app called VLC (also free from the
Google Play Store.)
Finally, I downloaded another free app called URecorder which I use
to record voice memos and also archive important phone messages.
A REPURPOSED PHONE LIVES AGAIN!
So, there you have it—my Samsung Galaxy J7 has been given a new lease on
life, and I'm enjoying my music library more than ever through my Bose
speaker. Who knew that an old cell phone would come in so handy!
If you have an old phone lying around, I encourage you to give it a
second look. You might be surprised at what all you can do with it!
Much better than collecting dust in your junk drawer! | 
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