Buying a smartphone to use as a camera/mp3 player??

[ohiofarmer 3,156]

  I was wondering if anyone has a smartphone that is no longer in service as a camera or to play music?

 

 I am thinking of getting one at Kroger for 40 bucks and using it as a shop phone to keep pictures of project dis-assembly so I do not lose place of where the parts go.

 

 Even if i have to activate the phone on a no-contract plan to make some of the features work, I wonder if the features would still work after the airtime minutes were used? If i could use the camera to take pictures without activating the phone, I would definitely buy one. Playing music would be a plus, but not that necessary.

 

I have heard of people using old phones no longer in service like this, so it seems like a good way to go.

[nylyon-(Admin) 7,114]

I have an old Motorola Droid which I use for the Torque App. I can use wifi, and do everything except make a call with it.

[rmaynard 14,865]

I have a Motorola G3 that is on the Verizon network, and I only activate it during the Wheel Horse Show since my regular carrier, AT&T does not work well at the fairgrounds. Having said that, even though it is not activated for 11 months out of the year, it still takes pictures, stores them on the phone, and connects to my Wi-Fi, allowing me to take and store pictures.

The stored pictures go directly to my Google cloud storage for my other phone.

[ohiofarmer 3,156]

 That sounds pretty good. The main reason i don't want a smartphone is that I treat my little flip phone very rough and i can dig it out of my pocket quickly. I would break a smart phone in a week. The pictures i post here on the forum are from my phone, but the screen size makes it impractical for use in the shop.

 

 Just another thought... is there a way to use a inactivated phone as a GPS, or is the GPS function based on cell towers and not satellite? If you guys use old phones for other uses, then I am all ears and would love to hear about it.  If I could download apps from the internet, it would be awesome.

[rmaynard 14,865]

I use Google Maps for navigation. If I am going to take a trip and I know that Wi-Fi and data are not going to be available, I download the trip info via WiFi before setting out. Then as you travel, the GPS will access the offline info that you have stored in the phone to assist you with your navigation.

[N3PUY 1,031]

I have an "LG" phone that I use as a tablet.   It takes pictures, plays music, everything a tablet does.  And when connected to home WiFi it surfs the internet.  Does everything except act like a phone.  

[roadapples 6,981]

I have a Trac phone smart phone. Does a lot more than I am smart enough to use. Got it mainly for the camera. I have to buy a 60 min. card every 90 days and get double minutes. About $21 or $7 a month. I've got over 2000 min. because I hardly ever use it for anything but pictures and 

[RandyLittrell 3,827]

I have a Kyocera Duraforce smart phone that is very durable. It is made to military specs for dust and vibration. It is waterproof to 6 feet for 30 min. I work in a bodyshop and drop in the concrete every single day. No breakage! 

 

 

 

 

Randy

[ohiofarmer 3,156]

  I just bought a phone at Kroger for 29 bucks that has a decent 5MP camera and also I was able to get Google Maps and weather.. Because i was not activated yet, the Google maps asked if i wanted to use GPS as a position finder. Of course i did...  I just positioned it near my home Wi-Fi to load the Google Maps app. If I can get it to use GPS, it would be very awesome.

  The very annoying thing it does is try to Find a browser every time you start it up [after powering it off]  brfore you can activate the camera and other apps [it assumes that you want to talk on it over the air and that you want to buy a phone plan at every start-up]

 

 So it is either leave it on all the time or wait ten minutes or so to find out I am not interested in using it as a telephone before being able to use the camera or anything else. Kroger's cheapest smart phone plan is $25 per  month. BTW, i did have Red Square on already by using Google.

Edited August 8, 2017 by ohiofarmer

[rmaynard 14,865]

Go to Consumer Cellular. No commitment, and minimum monthly charge is $10.00. I am on a plan that allows me 1500 minutes of talk, unlimited text, and 1.5 GB of data per month. I pay $40 per month plus tax. You can use your own phone, buy one of theirs. The prices for Android Smartphones start at $25.00, and iPhones start at $160.00.

 

I've been using them for about 10 years

Edited August 10, 2017 by rmaynard

[ohiofarmer 3,156]

On 8/7/2017 at 11:55 PM, ohiofarmer said:

  I just bought a phone at Kroger for 29 bucks that has a decent 5MP camera and also I was able to get Google Maps and weather.. Because i was not activated yet, the Google maps asked if i wanted to use GPS as a position finder. Of course i did...  I just positioned it near my home Wi-Fi to load the Google Maps app. If I can get it to use GPS, it would be very awesome.

  The very annoying thing it does is try to Find a browser every time you start it up [after powering it off]  brfore you can activate the camera and other apps [it assumes that you want to talk on it over the air and that you want to buy a phone plan at every start-up]

 

 So it is either leave it on all the time or wait ten minutes or so to find out I am not interested in using it as a telephone before being able to use the camera or anything else. Kroger's cheapest smart phone plan is $25 per  month. BTW, i did have Red Square on already by using Google.

So an update....

I am keeping this thing even if all i use it for is a shop camera. It is super easy to use and it has a 4X zoom. the screen is large enough to take pictures of dis-assembly and use them later and quickly zoom in on the details  I probably can even add notes to the piccs. Now the phone is easy to start as all I have to do is click the thing on and use a 4 digit code.  Maybe the thing finally learned that I am not interested in activating it for telephone service and just gave up.

 

BTW, Kroger has a 14 day return privilege in case you are a cautious shopper like me

 

I am hoping to be able to load a map program that uses GPS and is not GoogleMaps. i suspect that the included Google Maps app is somehow triggering the phone to keep asking me to activate it. My wife uses Google Maps and it is pretty creepy all the other things it does to her phone because it keeps sending stuff to our gmail account

 

 i use a tough ;military grade flip phone and although the outside screen is dead and the larger inside main screen is a bit compromised, my wife's retired flip phone [a twin of mine] can always be recalled to active duty. There is another one lost in the barn somewhere in a lumber pile. It was cheaper to replace the phone than to look for it at the time. Verizon quit giving phones away with their contracts, so i will run on what i have and continue to beat them to death in my pocket.I like my old phone as it has great battery life and a good flashlight

Edited August 14, 2017 by ohiofarmer