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Researchers surprised by the brain benefits of cannabis usage in adults over 40

https://nypost.com/2026/02/07/health/cannabis-may-benefit-aging-brains-study-finds/
1•SirLJ•47s ago•0 comments

Peter Thiel warns the Antichrist, apocalypse linked to the 'end of modernity'

https://fortune.com/2026/02/04/peter-thiel-antichrist-greta-thunberg-end-of-modernity-billionaires/
1•randycupertino•1m ago•1 comments

USS Preble Used Helios Laser to Zap Four Drones in Expanding Testing

https://www.twz.com/sea/uss-preble-used-helios-laser-to-zap-four-drones-in-expanding-testing
1•breve•6m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Animated beach scene, made with CSS

https://ahmed-machine.github.io/beach-scene/
1•ahmedoo•7m ago•0 comments

An update on unredacting select Epstein files – DBC12.pdf liberated

https://neosmart.net/blog/efta00400459-has-been-cracked-dbc12-pdf-liberated/
1•ks2048•7m ago•0 comments

Was going to share my work

1•hiddenarchitect•11m ago•0 comments

Pitchfork: A devilishly good process manager for developers

https://pitchfork.jdx.dev/
1•ahamez•11m ago•0 comments

You Are Here

https://brooker.co.za/blog/2026/02/07/you-are-here.html
3•mltvc•15m ago•0 comments

Why social apps need to become proactive, not reactive

https://www.heyflare.app/blog/from-reactive-to-proactive-how-ai-agents-will-reshape-social-apps
1•JoanMDuarte•16m ago•1 comments

How patient are AI scrapers, anyway? – Random Thoughts

https://lars.ingebrigtsen.no/2026/02/07/how-patient-are-ai-scrapers-anyway/
1•samtrack2019•16m ago•0 comments

Vouch: A contributor trust management system

https://github.com/mitchellh/vouch
1•SchwKatze•16m ago•0 comments

I built a terminal monitoring app and custom firmware for a clock with Claude

https://duggan.ie/posts/i-built-a-terminal-monitoring-app-and-custom-firmware-for-a-desktop-clock...
1•duggan•17m ago•0 comments

Tiny C Compiler

https://bellard.org/tcc/
1•guerrilla•19m ago•0 comments

Y Combinator Founder Organizes 'March for Billionaires'

https://mlq.ai/news/ai-startup-founder-organizes-march-for-billionaires-protest-against-californi...
1•hidden80•19m ago•1 comments

Ask HN: Need feedback on the idea I'm working on

1•Yogender78•20m ago•0 comments

OpenClaw Addresses Security Risks

https://thebiggish.com/news/openclaw-s-security-flaws-expose-enterprise-risk-22-of-deployments-un...
1•vedantnair•20m ago•0 comments

Apple finalizes Gemini / Siri deal

https://www.engadget.com/ai/apple-reportedly-plans-to-reveal-its-gemini-powered-siri-in-february-...
1•vedantnair•21m ago•0 comments

Italy Railways Sabotaged

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czr4rx04xjpo
3•vedantnair•21m ago•0 comments

Emacs-tramp-RPC: high-performance TRAMP back end using MsgPack-RPC

https://github.com/ArthurHeymans/emacs-tramp-rpc
1•fanf2•22m ago•0 comments

Nintendo Wii Themed Portfolio

https://akiraux.vercel.app/
2•s4074433•27m ago•2 comments

"There must be something like the opposite of suicide "

https://post.substack.com/p/there-must-be-something-like-the
1•rbanffy•29m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: Why doesn't Netflix add a “Theater Mode” that recreates the worst parts?

2•amichail•30m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Engineering Perception with Combinatorial Memetics

1•alan_sass•36m ago•2 comments

Show HN: Steam Daily – A Wordle-like daily puzzle game for Steam fans

https://steamdaily.xyz
1•itshellboy•38m ago•0 comments

The Anthropic Hive Mind

https://steve-yegge.medium.com/the-anthropic-hive-mind-d01f768f3d7b
1•spenvo•38m ago•0 comments

Just Started Using AmpCode

https://intelligenttools.co/blog/ampcode-multi-agent-production
1•BojanTomic•39m ago•0 comments

LLM as an Engineer vs. a Founder?

1•dm03514•40m ago•0 comments

Crosstalk inside cells helps pathogens evade drugs, study finds

https://phys.org/news/2026-01-crosstalk-cells-pathogens-evade-drugs.html
2•PaulHoule•41m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Design system generator (mood to CSS in <1 second)

https://huesly.app
1•egeuysall•41m ago•1 comments

Show HN: 26/02/26 – 5 songs in a day

https://playingwith.variousbits.net/saturday
1•dmje•42m ago•0 comments
Open in hackernews

What do people usually do with spare Android phones? Any practical use cases?

18•AndroidShare•1mo ago
I’ve been thinking about practical ways people reuse spare or unused Android devices instead of letting them sit in a drawer.

I’ve seen cases where phones are used for testing, monitoring, background tasks, or other always-online purposes after a one-time setup. No user interaction, just keeping the device connected and running.

Curious what real-world use cases others have actually found useful. Are there setups that worked well long-term, or things to avoid?

Not trying to promote anything here — genuinely interested in how people approach this.

Comments

bell-cot•1mo ago
Suggestion: https://www.androidauthority.com/where-to-donate-old-cell-ph...
markus_zhang•1mo ago
I have a $180 spare Android phone. I slapped PagerDuty on it to serve as my on-call phone. I also installed WhatsApp and Signal on it as I don't want to keep them on my primary phone (less distract).
markus_zhang•1mo ago
I don't know why you got downvoted so I could not reply your question. Here is my reply:

> Out of curiosity, have you found any downsides with that setup long-term? Battery health or missed notifications, for example?

Yeah, it is inconvenient to bring two phones. That's definitely a downside. Battery health is fine. I never missed any notifications so far.

AndroidShare•1mo ago
Thanks for clarifying, that’s helpful. Battery health was exactly what I was curious about, since long-term standby usage can sometimes degrade older cells faster than active daily use. Good to hear notifications have been reliable so far. Have you noticed any differences over time in idle drain or thermal behavior when the device stays online continuously?
elbci•1mo ago
I use a non-smart, non-internet phone but I do have a android phone in the car to make the multimedia/maps/whatever work properly - more and more stuff assumes you have a modern spyware device
eimrine•1mo ago
You have bought a spyware car and complain that it wants to befriend with your spyware phone? That's a lot of spyware and a lot of complains.
KomoD•1mo ago
> I’ve been thinking about practical ways people reuse spare or unused Android devices instead of letting them sit in a drawer.

I sell them or give to family.

> Not trying to promote anything here — genuinely interested in how people approach this.

Adding this makes me think you do want to promote something.

Bridged7756•1mo ago
You can turn one into a server.

I used to keep one as a sort of backup internet connection, since there are "unlimited 4 hours of internet" prepaid plans, like $1, here that work pretty well when used as an access point if your home internet's down for whatever reason.

Nowadays I just sell them

sandreas•1mo ago
Since I opted out of Google via GrapheneOS, I use one of my old phones in my car just to navigate.

Another phone is an audiobook listening device for my kids (they choose and I play).

Of course I also have a dedicated dev phone.

eth0up•1mo ago
I do:

    Secondary camera (with OpenCam) *oss

    Security camera (various software)

    Alarm clock with custom audio files (tibetan bells make a very unobtrusive wakeup sound)

    Guitar tuner & general audio                      recorder

    Mp3 player while working in harsh environments 
And it stays simless, in airplane mode, after a nice adb session where I uninstall just about everything I can. I could easily live without it, but I'm often glad to have it.
randomnumber314•1mo ago
Are you plugging them in for permanent use? Or are you using them as mobile security cameras?
eth0up•1mo ago
Around house. When in use, I piwer it with an old nook charger which I think is gentler on the battery.

I can always find a purpose for an old phone. But nothing on the Internet, unless it still gets updates.

estimator7292•1mo ago
If you're into HomeAssistant, you can turn one into something akin to an Echo Show, complete with local voice assistant.

Just yesterday I learned the Echo Show 5 can be pwned so I dug mine out, put LineageOS on it, and now it's a satellite for my HA server. Her name is Janet now.

tim-tday•1mo ago
Mine is bricked forever because google non consensually entered me into 2fa using a dead email address. Which is good because I needed a reason to never trust those fuckers again.
netfortius•1mo ago
I always wondered if they'd be of any use as multimedia server, with local content deliver and an USB device hanging out of it, for unused libraries...
villgax•1mo ago
I just want a LineageOS fork that is just some retro game emilator in proper kiosk mode or makes two phones work togther somehow as a big tablet or screen and keyboard combo
hnburnsy•1mo ago
Put most of your apps on the spare phone, only put apps needed to leave the house on your primary phone. This helps with battery life, storage, and privacy.
araes•1mo ago
Boring answer. Your first case - testing for app development, web development, display variations, device feature variations.

A little bit of @hnburnsy's answer, with segmented logins and emails separated by phones with layered restoration so it's difficult to accidentally get bricked by having one system get malware, system faults, or other failures. Two-Factor Auth also gets separated around between devices.

bjourne•1mo ago
Could be cool to use one as a speedometer or pedometer. But the accelerometers are probably not good enough.
moomoo11•1mo ago
Use it as storage lol
1vuio0pswjnm7•4w ago
Experimentation