ScreenWall – Turn old phones into synced widgets for your space • Hacker News Board

Re: ScreenWall – Turn old phones into synced widgets for your space

#51

Post by prmoustache » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 10:09 AM UTC

Group_B wrote: post #46

prmoustache wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some reason I tend to break screens way before the battery dies usually. I am not afraid to replace a battery or even a screen if phone is not totally out of date. Having said that there seems to always be a point when they start acting semi eratically or stop booting. I had a totally outdated and probably insecure Samsung S6 edge 2 years ago that started rebooting randomly. I think that prior to that it was so o…

wow, never thought of root certs being a point of failure

That is a common issue on old hardware. You have to be wary because some like android devices get their truststore updated regularly but it doesn't stay in rom so if you do a complete device reset you get back to the original ones that are now useless to connect to app stores and uodate servers.

Re: ScreenWall – Turn old phones into synced widgets for your space

#52

Post by lopis » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 11:11 AM UTC

gonzalohm wrote: post #36

crefiz wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might as well buy a new battery then Did that for 20 € for my Oppo Find X3 Pro at my closest tech store and saved me from buying a brand new phone

I damaged the screen of my pixel trying to open it to replace the battery. It was literally booby trapped to self destroy when trying to repair it

So happy being able to buy a Fairphone. Have replaced the screen once, the battery twice, and the back twice too. Fairphone 4 on the its 5th year. I want to upgrade but this thing is really resilient.

Re: ScreenWall – Turn old phones into synced widgets for your space

#53

Post by anonymous344 » Thu, Jul 23, 2026, 7:32 PM UTC

so old phones stays' their screen on forever and does not pause the browser ?

Re: ScreenWall – Turn old phones into synced widgets for your space

#54

Post by brasscupcakes » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 3:52 AM UTC

prmoustache wrote: post #4

Usually I replace a smartphone because it has some hardware fault that makes it unusable and it is hard to repair or the cost of repair vs capability is not very favorable. Even if I was replacing smartphone before they died, I would probably sell them anyway. Do people really have various phones in working order waiting in a drawer?

I have four old androids and one old iphone. I tend to like global dual sim phone brands that often have poorer North American connectivity -- plus they aren't whitekisted by AT&T --and I live in the states, so people aren't exactly clamoring to buy them.