Good use for secondary iPhone?

[jent]

I have the iPhone 4 and absolutely love it. I was wondering if anyone had a good recommendation for interesting/fun/productive uses for a secondary iPhone, as I have some classmates who are upgrading from iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS handsets to the iPhone 4, and have offered to sell me their old model for cheap.

So far here is what I've come up with. Throw in your own ideas and let's make a good topic out of this!

• Use it as an across-the-room alarm clock so that I can't actually hit snooze.
• Leave it in my car to track it if it's ever stolen (I have MobileMe), occasionally charging it with a car charger.
• Keep it in my photographer bag with a GPS coordinate logging app so that I can geotag my photos (do you need a data plan for this, or will this work anywhere?).
• Plug it into a power outlet, connect it to my home wifi, and buy an app that will let me remotely check out the video feed on-demand from my primary iPhone (or a public computer) at any time. There could also be push notifications sent if it detects major movement. Is there such an app?
• Use it with the Air Display app as a touch-sensitive palette chooser with graphics applications.

Please comment on my ideas (tell me why a certain idea wouldn't work, what apps I would need to buy, et cetera) and suggest your own!

Finally, a quick question: could an iPhone be used with an AT&T pay-as-you-go plan? This would be a great way to ensure that my international friends could be in touch with anyone they want when they visit the country for short vacations, without worry about paying roaming fees or unlocking their phones.

 

[philipb91]

the point of having an iphone is to have an all in ONE device

i never understood anyone who wanted to have more than 1. one is perfect lol


but idk man, if i had an iphone and HAD to have a secondary device i'd get something different. or invest in an ipad

 

[jent]

the point of having an iphone is to have an all in ONE device

i never understood anyone who wanted to have more than 1. one is perfect lol


but idk man, if i had an iphone and HAD to have a secondary device i'd get something different. or invest in an ipad

Let me put it this way. I'm not spending a ton of cash for the heck of it. I already have an iPhone 4, iPod touch, and iPad. I use them all and love them. At least one of my friends has an iPhone 3GS sitting in his drawer and would give it to me for thirty bucks. At that point, it's definitely worth it in my mind to get a small portable GPS, a wifi-enabled security camera, a backup alarm clock, et cetera. It could do a bunch of things that are cool, that either supplement my iPhone 4, or do things I would never use it for because my iPhone 4 is always on me.

 

[philipb91]

Let me put it this way. I'm not spending a ton of cash for the heck of it. I already have an iPhone 4, iPod touch, and iPad. I use them all and love them. At least one of my friends has an iPhone 3GS sitting in his drawer and would give it to me for thirty bucks. At that point, it's definitely worth it in my mind to get a small portable GPS, a wifi-enabled security camera, a backup alarm clock, et cetera. It could do a bunch of things that are cool, that either supplement my iPhone 4, or do things I would never use it for because my iPhone 4 is always on me.

buy it for 30 and sell it for 250 +

easy decision

 

[walie]

extra cash or paperweight

 

[pyroza]

Sell it on ebay/craigslist. Should be able to get at least $200 for a 3GS

 

[iceterminal]

I used my old 3G to my father in law and let him use it as an iPod Touch. He loves it and the price was right.

 

[bobfitz14]

• Use it as an across-the-room alarm clock so that I can't actually hit snooze.

hahah my friend at college does this with his Blackberry. he turns an alarm clock on near his bed then puts an alarm on his BB and puts it across the room so he has to get up to shut it off. i didn't know how common people actually do shut alarms off while semi-asleep and pretend it didn't happen...

 

[TheyCallMeSaint]

Aw come on people, this actually pretty interesting and the best advice you can give is to sell it? Man, some people are all about the monies.

Let's see...

• Install 4.3 on it (as soon as it comes out), JB the 4.3 (asap), install Apache onto it, and use the Wireless Hotspot feature, to create a portable server/website/host.
• Development purposes if part of the Dev Program

I dunno, man, can't think of much else right now, but sounds interesting.

 

[tophat1]

Are you going to put it on a service plan? If not, a few of your ideas won't work

 

[kuebby]

Porn! Porn! Porn!

Just kidding, I can't really think of any better ideas than the ones already listed.

 

[InsanelyApple]

Try to install Android on it! Or whatever it doesn't matter.

 

[jent]

Are you going to put it on a service plan? If not, a few of your ideas won't work

Which ones? The only one I can think of that requires a data plan is the tracking device idea.

 

[iKoopa]

Heh heh. That's funny. I was thinking about this because after the iPhone 5 comes out, if I don't choose to sell this iPhone 4, here's what I would do.

Seeing how the iPhone 4 might even to be better than the iPod Touch 5 of this year, (at least I see it this way,) For one, the battery is greater, and since it's not having cellular data, it's REALLY going to be better. Use it for whatever. Lots of people seem to have a problem with their phone dying on them. That's because of extended usage, calling, and games. Games being the biggest factor of turning the "phone" into something else. If you have a secondary iPhone, you can use that for your music, your gaming, your this, your that, and you can ACTUALLY use your primary iPHONE, as a phone. Calling, texting, data.

For me, I've seen substantial difference from using my iPhone for EVERYTHING, and using my iPod Touch to alleviate some workload from the iPhone. (The reason I have both is because I actually had the iPod Touch first.) So I decided to test battery life, when I actually used my iPhone as a phone, and nothing else, I had 16* hours of usage, and 5 days of standby before it hit 20%. Lots of texts, a couple of calls on Edge. Checking Facebook here and there (via wifi, since it uses less power than 3G, and is faster if I'm at home), etc.

Edit: 16*= At some point on the 5th day, the phone was increasing in usage even in standyby for a couple of hours. So realistically, it might've been 12 hours of usage.

Okay let's just wrap it up.
You alleviate heavy usage from your primary phone, and can actually use it for what it's supposed to do, instead of using it more like a toy. That's the thing. If you're not doing heavy business, (E-Mail and specifically calls all day), and your phone is just about dead before you get home, you are using it like a toy. (But that's just my opinion.)
But if you happen to have an iPod, or in this case, an extra iPhone. Use the extra phone as the toy, and your main phone for what it's "primarily" made to do, and then look at your usage numbers.

It all depends on how you use it. On average I'll use 10% a day for using, and then it might lose 3-7% sitting in standby.

 

[Reach9]

an expensive paper weight?