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Repurposing Old Usable Cell Phones?

Posted by Cliff on from the destined-for-a-landfill-somewhere dept.

zentogo wonders: "As I stroll through the local recycle shops in my little Japanese City, I see boxes of used KEITAI-- Japanese Cell Phones. Most of them only a two or three years old, with more technology and features than any affordable phone in the USA, and they actually work! See, Japanese people cycle to new technology, especially phones, very quickly, and it is almost impossible for them not to. Take my own personal example: after one year with the telecom KDDI, I was given a free phone. It had more features than my previous one, and was much lighter, so when I was offered the deal I changed on the spot! So I wonder, what can be done with all these old phones? Can they be recycled for parts or even software? Can they be adapted to another type of technology? It would seem to be a big waste of decent hardware if something interesting couldn't be done with them."

87 comments

  1. Use? by Murphy+Murph · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They could all be used as alarmclocks!

    --
    I dub thee... Sir Phobos, Knight of Mars, Beater of Ass.
  2. Old phones by OAB_X · · Score: 3, Informative

    Sometimes you can get them unlocked at a kiosk in the mall, but otherwise take time to your local waste transfer station, and they will dispose of it for you in a way that the lead/mercury/other heavy metals dosnt leak into the environment. Its like spray paint cans, you dont put them in household garbage.

    1. Re:Old phones by sakusha · · Score: 1, Interesting
      ...take time (sic) to your local waste transfer station, and they will dispose of it for you in a way that the lead/mercury/other heavy metals dosnt leak into the environment.

      Permit me to sermonize on my environmentalism pet peeve.

      These heavy metals have already leaked into the environment, they just happened to be encapsulated into a little plastic cel phone instead of being buried deep in the earth. When you throw them away, there IS no "away," there is only "somewhere else." I compare this to people who incinerate trash to dispose of burnable trash, since the smoke is invisible they think they've gotten rid of the trash, but all they've done is put the garbage into the air rather than the landfill, and it becomes an air pollution problem somewhere else, rather than their local dump.
      When you "recycle" your cel phone, it's going to get sent to a recycling dump in China where it becomes China's ecological disaster. Tons of cel phones sit in piles outdoors waiting to be recycled, while the metals leach out into the ground water. But nobody gives a damn because the phones are now someone elses problem.
      The obvious solution is to stop buying crap cel phones that go obsolete so quickly, demand that manufacturers improve features through software and not by planned obsolescence in hardware. Do you REALLY need that 1.2 megapixel camera phone to replace your 1 megapixel camera phone?
    2. Re:Old phones by OAB_X · · Score: 1

      So just because we already have coal power plants that spew greenhouse gasses, the fact that its already there means that we dont need to make any incentive to try and control them?

    3. Re:Old phones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, I just pour my old mercury(I'm a high school chem. teacher -- kids always breaking those fragile thermometers) straight into the well on my property, since it's the easiest. I won't pretend that that "proper" heavy metal disposal process my municipality advocates actually does anything. I won't pretend that going through that process actually gets rid of it, nope, I just throw it straight into my drinking water. Maybe, I should start putting it into my intravenous drip. What's the difference where I put it, because it's still somewhere.

    4. Re:Old phones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We gather up old mercury and various other toxins, and when we backpack into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area each summer, we lug in a bunch of it and dump it in the headwater lakes.

    5. Re:Old phones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please don't do that. If you give it to me I can use it to make baby formula.

  3. emergency 911 by Jjeff1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At least in the US, ANY working cel phone that can get signal can be used to call 911. They are collected by a lot of battered womens shelters and similar places, then distributed to people who otherwise couldn't afford a cel phone to call authorities in an emergency.

    But don't stop there, any elderly or non-mobile person (think wheel-chair) should have a cel in their pocket, all the time. As long as it's charged, they never need worry about not being able to get to a normal phone, which might be impossible in an emergency.

    All my old phones have been donated and put to good use.

    1. Re:emergency 911 by orangesquid · · Score: 1

      I'm told that the 911 operators have a vague idea of your location with a cell phone. Whether this is done through some tiny low-precision GPS, differential GPS, or simple tower telemetry, I don't know, but I would *love* to know if there'd be any way to capture the signal and do something with it.

      --
      --TheOrangeSquid Is it any wonder things seem so awry? We swim in a sea of confusion and don't have to think to survive
    2. Re:emergency 911 by rwoodford · · Score: 1

      The carrier I work for (TDMA/GSM technology) uses triangulation to determine your approximate location. The 911 operators have the address and the GPS coordiates of the nearest tower and can tell the sector your are calling from.

      There may be one or two carriers that use GPS enabled handsets, I'm not sure. Anybody know?

    3. Re:emergency 911 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Doesn't Japan use CDMA? Those phones won't in most places in North America, where the networks are either TDMA or GSM.

    4. Re:emergency 911 by Badfysh · · Score: 1
      I don't know about the US but in the UK anybody can track a mobile phone via subscription based service. It seems to work by noting which cell your phone is connected to at any given time.

      Trace A Mobile

      --

      I was conned by an old man in a cloak. It turns out those *were* the droids I was looking for.

    5. Re:emergency 911 by Cuthalion · · Score: 1

      SprintPCS and Verizon Wireless both use CDMA, though it's a different frequency range than Japan's CDMA.

      --
      Trees can't go dancing
      So do them a big favor
      Pretend dancing stinks!
    6. Re:emergency 911 by Smitty825 · · Score: 1

      It seems that the CDMA providers in the US (Verizon/Sprint/etc) use GPS* to determine the location of a 911 call, while the GSM carriers (Cingular/T-Mobile/etc) use triangulation. (I have no idea what iDEN carriers (Nextel) use) *From what I understand about CDMA phones with GPS, is that the raw GPS signals are sent from the phone to the tower to allow the tower (or something further down the line) to do the GPS calculations and that data is sent to the 911 operator

      --

      Doh!
    7. Re:emergency 911 by netsharc · · Score: 1

      They're not quite accurate. An anecdote, a friend of mine loses his phone. He goes to his provider's website and uses the online locator tool. The tool says it's in the middle of a forest. So we go into the forest looking for the phone (luckily it was near a small road). Didn't find it. The next day, he says, "Oh, the phone was in my laundry basket". Looking at the website again we notice the text "Accuracy: 100-200 meters." The forest was about 200 meters from his house. :)

      --
      What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
  4. Send them to the USA! by Shazow · · Score: 2, Funny
    Most of them only a two or three years old, with more technology and features than any affordable phone in the USA. ...
    what can be done with all these old phones?
    ... And we wonder why it takes 2-3 years before technology gets from Japan to North America. :P

    - shazow
  5. A few (obvious) links by Norfair · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.phones4charity.org/
    http://www.actionaidrecycling.org.uk/
    http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_you_can_do/recycle/ph ones.htm
    http://www.recyclingappeal.com/

  6. HW recycling ... by Pegasus · · Score: 1

    Is a bit of a problem. See, if you talk about a general purpose computer that still works, altough a bit slow, it can be put to good use in some dedicated application. Like, i still use my 386 for my home network DNS cache, i still use my old sparc pizzaboxen for my firewall, dns & co stuff, i still use "old" pentiumII for my fileserver, i still use !old athlon xp for my app server.

    But if you have a bunch of keitais, built for some proprietary network with some proprietary hardware without any documentation, it's hard to find any use for them. Unless you find the original maker and convince them to release you the docs (for the sake of the planet or something), it's better to just take care of disposing them in an ecological manner.

    1. Re:HW recycling ... by scythian · · Score: 1

      Boy you must have a helluva power bill using all those old boxes!

      --
      terpmotors.com
    2. Re:HW recycling ... by dougmc · · Score: 1
      To be fair, old desktop box computers typically use less power than modern ones.

      386 cpus use less than 5 watts of power, compared to 70+ watts for modern Athlons or P4s.

      Of course, there's also the rest of the box using power too, so the difference isn't quite that drastic. And it may take 1000 of these 386 boxes to match the performance of one 3 gHz Athlon, and the power used by those 1000 boxes would be higher than the one Athlon box.

    3. Re:HW recycling ... by Pegasus · · Score: 1

      Indeed I have, but I'm trying to keep my alphas and vaxen turned off for the most of the time :)

    4. Re:HW recycling ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >i still use my 386 for my home network DNS cache,
      >i still use "old" pentiumII for my fileserver,
      >i still use !old athlon xp for my app server.

      Does it cost you $10 extra electricity per month per machine?

      That would buy you one low end dell/compaq/hp each year which could do the three tasks.

    5. Re:HW recycling ... by WebCrapper · · Score: 1

      I can totally agree with this. In my office at the moment, I have a PII 466 and 2 PII 500's running different things on my network. Granted, they're not THAT old by my (poor) standards, but I don't mind keeping some of the old boxes around just to have network storage, a print server with a firewall, DNS, etc... Heck, one of the 500's was fished out of a dumpster a few weeks ago - a new powersupply got me a "new" computer for $20.

  7. Post about them on slashdot! by Mike1024 · · Score: 1

    How about using them to... make slashdotters cry about how low-tech thier shit is, and how much great stuff the can't use?

    That done, though, I'm not sure of what to do with them....

    Michael

    --
    "Goodness me, how unlike the FBI to abuse the trust of the American public." -- The Onion
  8. "Alternative" uses... by Saeed+al-Sahaf · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's my understanding that old cell phones are in high demand in places like Iraq, for, um, "alternative" uses. I suppose you don't *have* to use them to detonate bombs, the remote control aspect is intriguing to me.

    --
    "Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
    1. Re:"Alternative" uses... by jnik · · Score: 1
      It's my understanding that old cell phones are in high demand in places like Iraq, for, um, "alternative" uses.

      Also less "alternative" uses, like troops calling home.

    2. Re:"Alternative" uses... by jnik · · Score: 1

      (yes, yes, not directly for that purpose, but thought it was an important/relevant link)

  9. we have used engines here by zogger · · Score: 1

    I've seen several dealers here in the US selling still pretty new but used Japanese vehicle engines, I think because in Japan they have a mileage limit to what can still be used legally on the road. Someone may correct me on that if not true about the Japanese laws. Seems like with those phones maybe you can set up an assembly line of sorts, unlock them, then ship them and sell them for cheap in the US or elsewheres? I don't know the applicable laws or anything on that though, or what the differences in frequencies are etc. Seems though if it's still a good working electronic do-dad,and still fairly new feature wise, there's some sort of a market for do-dads at discounted prices. But the displays, the OS and apps inside, does it default to japanese language with no changing it, or can it be modified easily or what? That's a concern as well. It might be more trouble and hassle than it's worth in that regard.

    1. Re:we have used engines here by JacobO · · Score: 1

      Back home in New Zealand there are huge numbers of used Japanese cars, I understood it was because the taxes or registration paid after a certain age were very much higher. [Both of course have right-hand drive cars which helps.]

      They all come with radios that do not pick up most NZ stations because the frequency ranges are quite different. Also, most that I recall (it's been a while) had annoying "features" like a chime that sounded when going over 100km/h, or whatever number you picked - in one car it couldn't be turned off and it couldn't be adjusted outside a normal speed range. Nothing that some carefully placed wire cutters couldn't handle I suppose, but amusing nonetheless.

      Anyway, if someone knows about the engines/cars - please let us know!

    2. Re:we have used engines here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      OK, let me get this straight for you.
      As it turned out, every car have to go through regular mandantory inspections in Japan. Turned out, when you buy a new car, the first inspection comes on the third year. Thereafter, every other year, until it hits 11th year (so at this point, you have gone through 3, 5, 7, and 9th year inspection). From thereon, the inspection is every year. Because of the inspection, the value of the used car drops very quickly compared to the US car market.
      Now, the inspection is set such that a lot stricter than any other car inspections I have seen in the US. So, basically, there is no customizing of your car (legally, anyway). It's not unusual for many car freaks to take whatever the customized parts out before they take their cars to the inspection, as they would not pass otherwise (and put them back after they got back from the inspection). I am guessing the parts you are talking about may come from parts that have been taken off for the inspection. I can imagine those people may be buying newer and better parts after the inspection, not worried about 2-3 year-old-parts.

      Now, as with this guys used phones, well, for the most part, you can't use any of those phones in the US. Majority of cell phones in Japan are PDC system (Personal Digital Cellular). They operate completely different system, so they will not work outside of Japan. Newer cell phones in Japan are FOMA system, which is also Japan only system.
      There are some CDMA in use in Japan, but the frequency used in Japan is different (800 MHz/1.5 GHz), so you will not be able to use them (there are a few models that can do US frequencies). Lately, Vodafone in Japan (used to be J-Phone) started GSM phones that actually work elsewhere in the world, but the penetration is still low.
      As with the OS and what not goes, usually, you cannot default that to English: you are stuck in Japanese for the most part.

      So, I doubt if there is anything you can do with all of those used phones, unfortunately...

    3. Re:we have used engines here by zogger · · Score: 1

      OK on the phones understood. The engines here I have seen for sale numerous places all seem to have around 30,000 miles on them. These are complete engines, block, head, etc. and allegedly are imported just like that, not pulls from cars imported here. That mileage claim could very well be a big fat lie, who knows, I've just seen them for sale like that, never bought one myself. Thanks for the reality on the Japnese inspection system, it certainly explains it a lot better.

    4. Re:we have used engines here by really? · · Score: 1

      Having spent a "few" years in Japan let me assure you that an engine from a six or seven year old car that ALREADY has 30.000 miles on it is not too common. That would be from a well used car, and that's not that common in Japan.

      --

      "Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead." A. Huxley
    5. Re:we have used engines here by really? · · Score: 1

      No extra registration for older cars. But, after a car is ten years old it has to get inspected every year, rather than every two years, as it's normal with a newer car. (This might have changed recently, I can't remember.)
      Radio ... only AM should be affected, unless FM in New Zealand is in a totally different range. Japanese radios generally have a much wider FM scanning range, and scan in .1 MHz steps. This makes it possible for me to use my little portable radio to tune in FM in Canada/US as well as in Europe. AM band could be affected if NZ is set up to allow stations at 10 kHz steps, as opposed to the Japanese 9 - some radios allow you to change the steps, but none of them, as far as I know, are car radios.
      Chime ... no longer the case in the last ten years or so. As an aside, I used to challenge my Japanese friends at who could keep the chime on the longest on some treacherous mountain roads. I am happy to say that I always won. Although, perhaps is more telling of my level of sanity, or lack thereof, than of my driving skills.

      --

      "Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead." A. Huxley
    6. Re:we have used engines here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The engines are due to a combination of the used car inspection and emissions laws. Keeping an 10+ year old car on the road is economic suicide in Japan. The US market eats the parts from Japans used car market. Generally they are good low mile engines, but a pain in the ass to switch all the US emission gear onto them - sometimes requires machine work to install sensor holes that aren't present on the Jap engines.

  10. Here's a good use: by Rob_Bryerton · · Score: 1

    I carry an extra (old) cell phone with me. That way, when I get really pissed off while talking on the phone, I can throw the *old* one at the wall, and still have a working phone!

  11. Sweden's idea... and mine... by ivi · · Score: 1


    When Sweden switched to a new cel.tel. system,
    their old phones were given to wheelchair users,
    who could use them as 2-way communicators,
    a bit like (high-reliability versions of) CB sets.

    My idea (for using bits, only, from old analog
    cel.tel's - in this case, mobile units) was to
    use the handset as a handset for mobile Amateur
    Radio gear, eg, when used in noisy locations.

  12. Doorstop by AtariAmarok · · Score: 1

    I think they might make good doorstops. However, nothing beats the "Timex Sinclair 1000" ZX-81, with that nice wedge shape, perfect for a doorstop.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  13. Unlock & eBay by Dragoon412 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Seriously, a lot of phones in Japan have the capability to work in the US with Cingular and T-Mobile (not so much Spring, Nextel, or Verizon).

    Seriously - get these phones unlocked, and eBay them to Americans.

    I just spent $500 on a brand new Sony Ericsson S710a that isn't even available in this part of the country yet. It's got all sorts of cool features, including a 1.3 MP camera (pretty damned nice, for a phone). But I still can't help but to feel like an ass for spending the money knowing that, for instance, Samsung has a phone of nearly identical size out in South Korea with a 3MP camera and significantly more memory.

    Second-hand phones in the Asian market are still better than cutting edge in the US. Given that most high-end phones can work with the majority of service providers in the world, I'm amazed there isn't a sort of cottage industry around, selling second-hand phones to the US market for discount prices.

    Believe me - take a look at sites like Howard Forums - there are a lot of cell phone/gadget enthusiasts out there that would be plenty happy to not have to buy the overpriced, under-performing phones marketed in the US.

  14. Recycling software by SidV · · Score: 1

    "Can they be recycled for parts or even software?"

    Is the enviornmental impact of creating new software such a problem? Does it use more raw materials than re-using old software?

    1. Re:Recycling software by aminorex · · Score: 1

      Yeah, flipping bits increases entropy in the universe. Destroying or creating a bit requires a lot of energy. That's why a "rotate" instruction is always preferred over a "shift" instruction. Besides which, they tend to fill up the bit bucket, and you'll have to empty out /dev/null sooner.

      By the way, anyone in the market for some used inodes? I have some spare ones from an old Macintosh, and if you swap the bytes they can be used on Windows too.

      --
      -I like my women like I like my tea: green-
  15. Post about them [spying] on slashdot! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "That done, though, I'm not sure of what to do with them...."

    Make a cellular scanner.

  16. This is why open source is necessary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Immagine if you could write code for these phones with a freely available SDK.

    Immagine if the circuit board had a place where you could solder on a couple of tiny 3-wire RS-232 connectors, and you could carve away enough of the shell to get access to them. (Of course, many of these phones have a USB connector already.)

    These phones have more processing power and more RAM than my first computer.

    Instead, we ship them to China to be smelted for lead and pollute the communist's precious bodily fluids. (Not a bad thing, but definitely not getting the most bang for the buck.)

    When that company posted a project to build an open source video card here on slashdot, all you wienies derided it.

    Here's an example of someone who gets it:
    http://www.azpower.com/mylinux/

  17. Are there old cellphones that don't interfere? by antdude · · Score: 1

    I wear old bone conduction hearing aids (since 1990s -- don't remember the exact year). I notice a lot of the newer cellular phone models and other wireless (even WAPs!!) interfere with my hearing aids (buzzing sounds and microphone audio loss).

    The OLD analog cellphones did not have this problem and I could use it. However, they don't exist anymore. All phones are like digital and I am unable to use them due to interferences.

    Do these old phones still exist and still work (service available)? I don't use telephones very often due to my speech and hearing impediments, but it would be nice to have a small phone to carry and the service is low cost.

    Thank you in advance. :)

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    1. Re:Are there old cellphones that don't interfere? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are handfree devices for use with hearing aids that just have a loop that goes over your ear - I assume it induces signal in the hearing aid. They are available for most major cell phones.

    2. Re:Are there old cellphones that don't interfere? by magefile · · Score: 1

      I use a BTE (not bone conduction) and have had similar problems. Motorola has never worked for me, but Kyocera produces a low-quality but tolerable signal, and LG phones have great sound quality (using my T-coil, also known as an induction loop - not sure if you have that).

    3. Re:Are there old cellphones that don't interfere? by eobanb · · Score: 1

      Yes. I have a Motorola MicroTAC, which was one of the first flip phones, and it uses AMPS. It pumps out several watts, and as there's almost nothing else around on the same frequency, it's one of the clearest phones I've used. It's also a tank compared to current phones, but it isn't so large as to be unwieldy. This is what it looks like, and it's a perfectly, 100% usable phone, although I need to get a new battery for it.

      --

      Take off every sig. For great justice.

    4. Re:Are there old cellphones that don't interfere? by antdude · · Score: 1

      I don't use the loop since my ears are too small and weak to handle one. I would have to hold the cellular phone headset like a real telephone.

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  18. Off topic, but pet peeve by antifoidulus · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Why do people insisit on pretending to be cool by inserting random Japanese words in English conversations? Yes, the Japanese word for cellular phone is "Keitai Denwa", I should know, I worked for KDDI for 6 months. But you know what, I use the word "Keitai Denwa" only when I am speaking JAPANESE to people who understand JAPANESE. I don't need to pretend I am so cool by inserting the words into English conversations.
    And why does it only happen with the Japanese language, why not other ones:
    So Je am sitting ici in meiguo but I am moving to Deutschland. Demo I no hablas Deutsch.
    Doesn't seem so cool after all.....

    --
    Monstar L
    1. Re:Off topic, but pet peeve by MemoryAid · · Score: 1

      Mod parent Informative. Je thought Keitai was a brand name of keitai, uh, I mean cell phone.

      --
      Language students: Don't try to learn English here. This ain't it.
    2. Re:Off topic, but pet peeve by tverbeek · · Score: 1
      In some situations, using the Japanese (or whatever foreign language) term makes sense, because the foreign version of the thing in question is different from the domestic. For example, people say "manga" or "bande dessinée" (the Japanese and French terms for comics) because Japanese comics and European comics are traditionally different from the North American kind. If Japanese cell phones are different enough from the American variety, then maybe it's worthwhile.

      Yeah, there's bit of showing-off involved in saying "anime" instead of "Japanese animation", but it also carries the same amount of information in fewer syllables, so it's not without practical justifications. And I don't think it's a Bad Thing for people to learn a little of another language.

      --
      http://alternatives.rzero.com/
    3. Re:Off topic, but pet peeve by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Why do people insisit on pretending to be cool by inserting random Japanese words in English conversations?

      Yeah! CNN and FOX thought they were so cool when they called the tidal wave that hit Asia a tsunami.

      Oh, wait...

    4. Re:Off topic, but pet peeve by dedazo · · Score: 0, Offtopic
      You sir have not watched Iron Chef.

      Aside from the kook in the Palomino jacket, it's a great insight into Japanese culture. It makes you kewl.

      For example, while at the pub chugging a few pints and talking about how much Chelsea suxx0rz this year, exult "nomimasen deshita, you old fruit!" as if you were saying "you dumbass, that wanker goalie should be shot". It has great effect on the women as well. Engrish is "teh sexy", as they say.

      No need to thank me now, I gotta get back to work.

      kaida arigato!

      --
      Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
    5. Re:Off topic, but pet peeve by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tsumanis are not tidal waves.

    6. Re:Off topic, but pet peeve by antifoidulus · · Score: 1

      I lived in Japan, what better insight into Japanese culture do I need? I really don't need to say random Japanese phrases to people who don't speak Japanese. I know people here thinks it makes you look cool, but to me it's just plain stupid. I don't need it to pick up women either.....

      --
      Monstar L
    7. Re:Off topic, but pet peeve by antifoidulus · · Score: 1

      But that is the thing, Japanese cell phones(much to the chagrin of /. fanboys I'm sure) are not unlike American cell phones. They have a few more gadgets and faster network speed(if you cough over the dough of course) but that is pretty much it. You still talk on them, you still can use them to send messages. There is no justification for calling them Keitai if speaking in English.
      I agree that people should learn foriegn languages, but much like my absurd example(Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, French, German and Spanish all rolled into 2 sentences) inserting random foriegn words in English conversation WHEN there is an English equivalent(There are Japanese loanwords into English, like kendo for example)is just plain dumb, and IMO is just an example of someone trying to sound cooler than they actually are.

      --
      Monstar L
    8. Re:Off topic, but pet peeve by torpor · · Score: 1

      The reason 'its stupid' is because nobody else speaks it, as you point out. But, you know, it would be cool if you could speak another language, generally, in any country in the world, and people would understand.

      The world citizen needs to be multi-lingual. Thus, encouraging other languages, in other languages, is worth the effort.

      So it cheeses you off? It cheeses me off, daily, das den Deutschen sprichst viel besser English als ich kann in Deutsch .. so it'd be nice to hear Americans encouraging each other to use other language...

      --
      ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
    9. Re:Off topic, but pet peeve by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What an idea. Excuse me for lunch, I'm going to eat some pain.

      You see, "pain" is French for bread, so I'm being multicultural here. As anyone will clearly tell I'm inserting a French word for your enlightenment, and my statement is totally unambiguous.

    10. Re:Off topic, but pet peeve by antifoidulus · · Score: 1

      No, it would NOT be stupid if the whole thing was in Japanese/German/whatever. If you would have actually READ the comment you would see that I think it is a GOOD idea for people to learn foriegn languages. I am relatively proficient in japanese and I am learning Chinese. HOWEVER inserting random words of a language into a conversation where you are primarily speaking another language bothers me. And it seems to happen overwhelmingly(though not exclusively) with Japanese.

      --
      Monstar L
    11. Re:Off topic, but pet peeve by Pseudonym · · Score: 1

      I would have thought that slashdotters of all people should know the difference between seismic activity and tidal forces.

      --
      sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
    12. Re:Off topic, but pet peeve by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Learn Spanish; it's the only language most Americans will ever have any hope of attaining significant proficiency at, because it's the only one that most of them have any opportunity to speak on a regular basis.

  19. Incompatible standards by Spudley · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Can they be adapted to another type of technology?

    Probably not: they're not going to be wanted in Japan, and they're not going to be compatible anywhere else. Which just begs the same old question: Why do we insist on always making so many incompatible standards to do the same thing???

    If all countries used GSM [for example], it would make re-use of all those old phones so much easier. Plus I wouldn't need to buy a special phone that supports multiple technologies just so I can take it overseas. :-/

    [note - before you all flame me for suggesting GSM, it was just an example. I don't really care which technology we use; just stop with the stupidity of each continent having its own set of standards]

    --
    (Spudley Strikes Again!)
  20. I wonder why by coolcold · · Score: 1

    no body mentioned "Look! A Beowolf cluster of old phones!!!"

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    1. Re:I wonder why by jessecurry · · Score: 1

      my thoughts exactly :D

      --
      Those who know, do not speak. Those who speak, do not know. ~Lao Tzu
  21. obvious by frn123 · · Score: 1

    Why not use them like new phones - like calling people and sending SMSes?

  22. Could everyone just give him a real answer? by JVert · · Score: 5, Funny

    Listen up kid,

    http://www.beowulf.org/

  23. Incompatible [governments] by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "[note - before you all flame me for suggesting GSM, it was just an example. I don't really care which technology we use; just stop with the stupidity of each continent having its own set of standards]"

    Yeah! Like different forms of government. And what's with this stupid steering wheel on the right verses the left?

  24. Funky boxes by Viper168 · · Score: 1


    I've pondered the idea of using a couple of old cell phones I have as tone dialers/boxes (red, blue, etc....).

    Sadly, thinking about it is as far as I've gotten. Might be cool if someone a little more handy with programming for cell phones could do something.

    Speaking purely for geek points of course, as most of these tone boxes don't actually work anymore. Though red boxes do indeed still function here.

  25. Soldiers in Iraq by Geoffreyerffoeg · · Score: 1

    Several organizations are collecting old cell phones to reprogram them and send them to soldiers in Iraq and elsewhere, so that they can call home more easily.

  26. Sell them? by ThatComputerGuy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I was at a mini "tech expo" on campus the other day and talked to some people from Cell for Cash. You go to their site, sign up, and they send you out a prepaid box that you ship the phone back in.

    They say that the more recent phones are reconditioned and resold overseas. If a phone's too old to be of use, their partner (or someone?) recycles it and extracts precious metals, whatever those may be. The guy said it probably wouldn't be much money for my old, bulky Panasonic (if I can find it), but it's better than having it end up in a landfill I suppose.

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
  27. My best guess... by WoTG · · Score: 1

    A lot of places have very high license fees for the right to own a personal vehicle, in the order of thousands of dollars per year. This is for registration or licensing fees, NOT insurance. Also, it is quite common for gas to cost a lot more than it does in North America.

    So, it makes sense that if you are spending a lot of money on fees and other costs, you have the incentive to upgrade vehicles more frequently because the capital cost of a new car doesn't look nearly as large when all the other costs of owning a vehicle are taken into consideration.

  28. Or cameras, or PDA's... by WoTG · · Score: 1

    or paper weights.

  29. if they've had them all these years by dj_virto · · Score: 1

    My dad was using his 10 watt analog bag phone on Cingular here in Texas up until early this year (when he bought the phone they were still GTE).. The reps offered him nice new free phones to get rid of the old one, but they didn't force him to give it up. So I imagine if you can find someone who refuses to upgrade you could potentially start paying their bill. :)

  30. GSM reuse by RomulusNR · · Score: 1

    A GSM phone should in theory work anywhere a GSM network is available. It may need to be unlocked; sometimes there are ways to get this done on your own, sometimes the original or new carrier will help you do it.

    I personally would jump for joy at one of them Linux phonezors... an' if you don' wan' 'em no more... :)

    I suppose, though a phone spouting at me in Japanese isn't exactly the best thing for me, but I'm guessing there's ways to solve that.

    --
    Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.
    1. Re:GSM reuse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I love almost right answers on /.

      There are different frequencies for GSM in Asia, Europe and the US (which now has two to choose from). Many of the high-buck models work with 2, 3, or even all 4 GSM bands, but the cheap ones and most mid-range are tuned to the continent they were sold on.

  31. MOD PARENT FUNNY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I would provide an explanation here, except I feel i'm aiding entropy by typing too many characters :)

  32. perfect for building & hardware hacking by Keruo · · Score: 1

    find model that comes with serial or even usb datacable or has one available at stores, then hook it up to old pc

    there are readymade software for your own sms-gateway

    if the phone has gprs, another use is to remote control the pc over gprs

    perhaps hook few motion detecting web cams and ups to the pc and you have your own wireless security system that can send images of the intruder to online storage

    possibilities are endless

    --
    There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
    1. Re:perfect for building & hardware hacking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Beowolf with GPRS interconnect!

    2. Re:perfect for building & hardware hacking by shawnfarnell · · Score: 1

      (Score:111) by Keruo (771880) 11:11 (#11928255)
      Hmmm>find model that comes with serial or even usb datacable or has one available at stores, then hook it up to old pc, there are readymade software for your own sms-gateway/<Have you done this?/>if the phone has gprs, another use is to remote control the pc over gprs/<yes/>perhaps hook few motion detecting web cams and ups to the pc and you have your own wireless security system that can send images of the intruder to online storage/<ok/>possibilities are endless/<how'bout using the gprs for full-blown web service as a vpn? or maybe as a POP where we could explore the various avenues known as "free service" while remaining well within the bounds of "fair use"... why not? What makes you think we couldn't do it? Anyone want to start researching? The first thing is to understand how the trunks open new connections. There's alot of dark fiber that no one bothers to turn on via non-authorized request. All we would need is to pass the gateway and we would be invisible to all but the admins who are busy explaining to Dilbert's boss why his email doesn't work... Whaddya think, troops? "These aren't the droids you're looking for!!!"

  33. Standards by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 1

    KDDI in Japan uses CDMA2000, just as Sprint and Verizon do.

    As to whether they use CDMA2000 on the same frequency bands, I don't know.

    --
    retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
  34. Connect them to a USB port... by KNicolson · · Score: 1

    ...and pull out the old address books, and sell the info on to your nearest dodgy geezer?

    Seriously, one of my friends in Japan just last week got a phone call on his mobile from someone who had his name but was wanting his address as he said he had a delivery but couldn't read the label, which my pal reckoned was somebody wanting to do some kind of identity fraud.

  35. Old NMT phones were converted to amateur radios by latroM · · Score: 2, Interesting

    See http://oh3tr.ele.tut.fi/english/modifications.html . They need to be reprogrammed and need some hardware hacks but they work. I have an RD58 moppe on my desk which I use to make contacts through local 70cm repeaters. I'm not sure if that is possible for those proprietary phones.

  36. SMS alarms by LarsWestergren · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Some Ericsson and Nokia phones (and others too I'm sure) can be programmed by cable. Get a cheap refillable SIM card (such as Comviq or DJuice if you live in Sweden).

    Hook up a laptop with Linux to the phone. If you have burglar alarms, fire alarm, flooding alarms on your summer house/boat whatever, you can hook them up to your computer. It is fairly trivial to write a script that, if one of the alarms go off, the phone SMSes you, the closest neighbour, your significant other.
    "This is Lars's summer house. At 19.55 2003-03-14 the burglar alarm went off."

    Drawbacks - the system can be a bit fragile. You must find a place for the laptop and all cables. SMSes aren't guaranteed to arrive on time, or indeed at all. You have to check that the systems boots up correctly after a power outage. And you can get a complete intruder system that is smaller and more reliable for not much money. Still, it is pretty cool in a geeky way.

    --

    Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die

  37. Donate the old phones by ectotherm · · Score: 0

    Battered women's shelters will take these phones. They are useful, as they can still dial 911.

    --
    "Nature bats last..."
  38. Something to let you get away from annoying people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Get old cell phone, connect beeper to switch.

    When detained in useless conversation with someone who 'won't let go', make the thing ring, 'take the call' and make your getaway.

  39. Gold Mine. by Hido · · Score: 1

    Do you realise that there is more money to be made in recycling mobile phones then digging in a gold mine?

    By recyling 70000 mobile phones and melting the metals down they are able to extract 1kg of gold. Now when you consider that out of 1 ton of dirt they are only able to extract around 10~50g of gold, at the very least your getting 4 times the amount of gold out of the same weight in mobile phones!

    http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja& u=http://www.angel.ne.jp/~shakai-kana/tiri/yagai/s agami/hake.htm&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.angel .ne.jp/~shakai-kana/tiri/yagai/sagami/hake.htm%26h l%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG

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