5 Ways To Put Your Obsolete iPhone 4 To Good Use

Now that iOS 8 is out, your iPhone 4 is effectively obsolete in terms of OS. Where the iPhone 4 will not be receiving an OS update, it also doesn’t support some major features from iOS 6 and iOS 7 such as Siri and the ability to take panoramas. Additionally, the phone didn’t handle the iOS 7 update all too well; it slowed the phone down and it wasn’t until Apple issued an update with a performance fix for the iPhone 4 that things improved. So, if you still have an iPhone 4 that you used or if you have one lying around unused, what can you do with it now that substantially faster devices are available? Here are five suggested uses that might let you use it as something more than a seriously expensive paperweight.

Games

We know the iPhone 4 is old, we know it doesn’t have Siri, and we know it’s slow running iOS 7 but that doesn’t mean the hardware the device is carrying is completely hopeless. It is more than capable of running games which we all know consume substantial battery and space. You would think twice before taking your phone out and playing a Candy Crush marathon because you can’t afford to expend that battery while you’re on the go. You can dedicate the iPhone to gaming and take the device on long trips to entertain yourself or kids that might be travelling with you. The iPhone 4 can run games like Candy Crush to Infinity Blade easily. Other amazing titles like Dots, Letterpress, Tall Chess, Badland, and Sword Sworcery run fluidly on it.

Your Social Media Phone

If you’re exceptionally active on social media, sharing what you had for lunch on Instagram, tweeting something you just overheard, or simply checking in to your favorite spot on Foursquare and/or Facebook, then consider using your old iPhone 4 as your dedicated social media phone. It’ll be easier for you to take a break from it as well by just putting the old phone away. You can also exclusively use it to make Skype calls or Facetime calls and save the battery on your main phone.

Camera & Photography… For Kids

If you decide to upgrade to an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, you re highly unlikely to want to use an iPhone 4 to capture important or even mundane moments. That leaves you with a phone and its 5MP fully functional camera. Give it to the kids in your family. Kids are taking to phones at a younger age now so giving them a device with a functioning and reasonably good camera, along with the ability to support lots of great photo editing apps makes plenty of sense.

Your Music Stash

Apple has abolished the 32GB model so if you’re buying an iPhone 6/6 Plus, you will have to pay for more storage. If you want to make do with a 16GB device, or a 64GB device with the knowledge that games will be larger, and there will be more powerful apps for the more powerful devices you might consider using the iPhone 4 as an iPod (now extinct). Keep you music library on the device and use it to listen to music on the go. You won’t worry about battery life or about handling the phone like it’s made of glass (which is it but you get what I mean).

Jailbreak & Experimentation

I recently came in possession of an iPhone 3G. It was an ancient device and breathing a new life into it was a great experience. Take your iPhone 4 with the knowledge that it no longer has any of your important data and that it is exceptionally hard to brick an iPhone, and try out every crazy thing you ever wanted to try with your phone. Jailbreak it, try out tweaks, experiment. I’d go so far as to suggest you open it up and look around which is something I’ve always wanted to do to an iPhone but haven’t had the nerve to try.

Let us know if you have a good use for an old device? Let us know in the comments.

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Fatima Wahab

Fatima has been writing for AddictiveTips for six years. She began as a junior writer and has been working as the Editor in Chief since 2014. Fatima gets an adrenaline rush from figuring out how technology works, and how to manipulate it. A well-designed app, something that solves a common everyday problem and looks

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