Recycle those old tablets and give them new life

I am a tech hoarder and old technology hardly ever leaves my house. After a device has served its purpose or has been replaced by an upgraded version it gets tossed into boxes or on a shelf in my workroom for the off chance I might need it again. By the way, that only happens about 10% of the time.

Then every three or four years it all gets cleaned out and I start all over. It is a cycle many tech hoarders know and understand.

Whether you are a Windows, Android or iOS type we all eventually end up with an old tablet or two amongst our tech stockpiles so I wanted to look at some options for putting those devices back to use.

In my opinion there are two main ways to get some use out of those old devices.

The first is to install it in your kitchen, garage, shed, etc. as an option to stream music, movies, TV, read recipes, or view other web/network based data from that location.

There are multiple options for mounts that can be attached to a cabinet, wall or be used to stand on a counter or shelf. You can see a sampling of those options with a quick search on Amazon. One that caught my eye is the CTA Digital 2-in-1 Kitchen Mount/Stand which fits tablets from 7 to 12 inches. What is handy about this specific device is that it can be used both as a mount and a stand to give you multiple options for setting things up in these locations. It even comes with two mounting bases so you can use the stand in more than one location on a wall.

Of course some devices, such as the Surface tablets, have a built in kickstand that does not require the investment of a mount/stand to put it in many of these locations. Don’t forget there also needs to be a power source nearby unless you plan on recharging the tablet in another location when it runs out of battery power.

If you are simply going to use the device as a secondary means to access the Internet for streaming data, web browsing, etc. then there is not much work required because you will be using the former daily driver tablet in its intended manner.

So how would you re-purpose a tablet that has seen its better days?

For me I think another great use for an old tablet is to give it a new lease on life as a digital photo frame.

Check out how I turned my original Surface into an HD Digital Photo Frame for our family.

But, wait...there's probably more so be sure to follow me on Twitter and Google+.