Repurposing Old Tablets and Smart Devices

While I'm on the subject of iPods, I thought I'd share a few tips on repurposing old smart tech. I have a ton of older devices; tablets, e-readers, mobile devices, you name it, I have it, and I find they can come in handy around the house. You can trade them in when you're upgrading, but you're usually lucky to get 20 bucks for them, and if they're in reasonable shape, that's a bad deal.

 You're much better served repurposing them to play a role in your IoT (Internet of Things), or "smart house". Old iPads and tablets are a great addition to your kitchen or family room and can serve as calendars, notepads, cookbooks, security camera monitors, music players, or all of the above. My old iPad Air is still in great condition and is an invaluable addition to our kitchen counter. Look up a recipe, quickly respond to a text, check your calendar while you're on the phone and add or update an appointment, you can even see who's creepin' 'round your back door. So many uses. You can mount them on a wall, or just use them in a free-standing cradle, there are a plethora of tablet mounts and cradles on the market, something for every situation.

Same with old mobile phones or iPod Touch devices, they make fantastic smart remotes for your TV's and entertainment centers. My iPod Touch is the primary controller for my Man Town A/V setup. It has my provider's app on it which has a Cable TV remote function, interactive program guide and access to my DVR library. It also has an Apple TV remote app, my iTunes library, and it connects to my A/V receiver via Bluetooth, so my complete music library is always available through my big boy stereo. Plus, it's got a keypad and Siri, which makes searching the guide grids a piece of cake. It also has internet access via Wi-Fi so I can keep track of news and scores. Forget those pricey universal remotes, this puppy does it all. Pro tip: you can also use old mobile phones for the same purpose as long as they have Wi-Fi. Just cuz they no longer have dial tone does not make them useless; they'll still upgrade and be capable of downloading apps via Wi-Fi.

Old iPods or MP3 players can be useful as well, paired with non-smart music systems. I have a Sony HD table radio and a Bose Wave that are both still excellent sounding devices, but both lack any smart features. Rather than upgrade them and trash a perfectly good music system, I use my old 3rd gen nano with them. From an aesthetic and haptic point of view, the 3rd gen Nano, or iPod fatty, as I call it, is my favorite iPod; what it lacks in functionality it more than makes up for in rizz. It's got that old school click wheel and iconic early iPod chrome backplate, it's a sexy little beast. Unfortunately, it no longer holds a charge for sh!t, but it works just fine nestled in a 30-pin dock, which both radios have. It expands the radios functionality, and it's a design statement; it says, "Music lives here". It also says, "We're old", but meh, I could care less. I wear that like a badge of honor.

Anyways, the possibilities are endless, you're limited only by your imagination. Plus, you're keeping it green by keeping things out of our ever-growing electronic waste piles, or the land fill. Double bonus.

So, repurpose those old devices when you can, old tech needs love too.

VAIO CW Series Notebook PC

The Sony VAIO VPCCW21FX/W is a sweet little mid-priced laptop chock full of both processing power and bells and whistles.



When shopping for a laptop, it’s very hard find one that’s a good performer and has all of the features that you want without spending a ton of cash. There are lots of lower end systems out there at great prices ($360 to $599), but they don’t have a lot of features or horsepower. There’s also a great selection of top of the line systems ($899 and up), but the midrange systems always force you to make trade offs. This one has a better processor and more memory and disk space, but no video card. That one has a serviceable processor, less memory and disk space, but it’s got a video card, stereo Bluetooth and a webcam. I don’t know about you, but I want it all, and I don’t want to pay a premium for it, so I’m constantly comparing and contrasting them looking for the best value for my buck.

The Sony VPCCW21FX/W has all that and a side of fries. It sports an Intel i3 quad core processor (2.13GHz), 4GB of DDR3 RAM (with room for 8GB), a 500GB hard drive, an NVIDIA GeForce graphics card with 256MB of dedicated video RAM, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OS, a 14” HD quality widescreen, A2DP Bluetooth, Wireless b/g/n, Gigabit Ethernet port, CD/DVD player/burner, Multimedia card reader, ExpressCard /34 media slot, high quality webcam with motion and face tracking technology, HDMI and VGA video outputs, IEEE 1394 firewire input and 3 USB 2.0 inputs.

It’s truly in the portable category, weighing in at a scant 5.3 lbs, and it’s truly in the midrange system category, with a price that weighs in at between $809-$849 (Best Buy had it for $809 last week).

The only 2 drawbacks to this system are the less than stellar audio (decent but tiny speakers) and the choice of colors (Blue or Ice White are the only colors available off the shelves in the retail stores), but both are things that I can live with.

As I said, there are plenty of systems out there that offer more, but as an all around standout performer at a great price point, this VAIO is the pick of the litter.

Sony XDR-S10HDiP HD Radio With Dock

This is a great HD table radio with a built in iPod dock, and perhaps the best iPod accessory I’ve come across yet.

I was looking for a replacement for the iHome iH5 that’s been our kitchen radio for the last couple of years. It still worked fine, but since it didn’t support charging on my 2nd gen Touch, and didn’t have a proper insert for supporting it (I hate it when your iPod is all wimbley-wombley in the dock, I always get a vision of snapping the dock connector off while pressing the iPod’s buttons.), I decided to replace it with a nice table radio.

I had made up my mind to go with a radio sans dock, because I was sick of getting accessories that became obsolete every time I upgraded my iPod. I have a universal dock, and I figured I’d just plug it in when I needed it. Then I saw the Sony XDR-S10HDiP HD Radio with dock, and fell in love.

It’s a great sounding AM, FM, HD radio with an integrated iPod dock that supports the new iPhone 3g, Touch 2nd gen and Nano 4th gen charging requirements (as well as all previous models), and it supports Apple’s universal dock adapters, so it will stick with you through all of them changes.

HD radio is fantastic, and free, and most of the Boston area stations are now streaming multicasts, giving you a plethora of crisp, clean, CD quality listening choices. Check out what’s currently available here. My favorite so far is WZLX’s Radio Mojo Blues Channel, but there are so many choices that for the first time ever I filled all 20 presets, and longed for more. Thank goodness it’s also got a scan feature!

Because digital radio can carry information as well as music, the radio gives you station, artist and song information in the display, and allows you to do iTunes tagging. Tagging is a cool feature that lets you “tag” a song you’re listening to by hitting the tag button on the top of the radio while it’s lit. The next time you dock your iPod, the radio transfers all the stored tags to it. When you sync, iTunes uses the information in the digital tags to retrieve the songs for you. How cool is that? It even comes with a full sized remote, so you can tag from the comfort of your chair.

Besides having all the bells and whistles you could ever want, this radio has excellent sound quality, and the clarity of the HD signal makes it all the better. Plus it’s a real looker, but you don’t have to take my word for it. Bring your iPod into an Apple retailer and plug it in for a test drive.

Note: You’ll probably need to use the supplied FM dipole and AM loop antennas for best reception, but it’s worth it. Although you don’t get static on digital radio, it will drop the link intermittently if you’re below 2 bars on the signal strength meter. Get creative; I have the dipole cleverly woven up the back of the baker’s rack it sits on.