Sell your old electronics already

What to do with old electronics

Plus: Google’s selfie sign-ins, eliminating an iMessage annoyance, and scary movies for scaredy cats

Jared Newman   |   July 28, 2026

Hey there! I’m Jared Newman, a longtime tech journalist, and you’re reading the free edition of Advisorator, my weekly tech advice newsletter. Did someone share this newsletter with you? Sign up to get it every Tuesday.

At my wife’s prodding, we finally cleaned out my office over the weekend.

This was admittedly long overdue, with about half the floor covered in boxes of previously-reviewed gadgets, plus an entire cabinet of my own tech gear. It took an entire afternoon into the evening to go through it all.

While I’m sending back or donating the products that companies gave me for review, my personal gadget collection is fair game to sell. I’m a big proponent of flipping the devices you no longer need, because they’re better off in someone else’s hands than in a closet or a landfill. Over the years I’ve amassed a bunch of ways to get rid of them, usually earning some cash in the process …

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News in brief

Samsung’s new foldables: Samsung is upgrading its line of foldable phones, including a new size that no one’s done yet:

  • Galaxy Z Flip8 ($1,200): A new version of Samsung’s take on the flip phone. It’s slimmer and lighter than the Flip7, and it’s not quite as tall when unfolded.
  • Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra ($2,100): This replaces last year’s Fold7, looking like a regular phone on the outside and unfolding into a small tablet. It has a brighter screen, bigger battery, faster charging, and a better ultrawide camera than the Fold7.
  • Galaxy Z Fold8 ($1,900): This is the new one. The outer screen’s squatter and wider 16:10 aspect ratio used to be normal for phones, but is pretty much unheard of now, and it unfolds to a 4:3 ratio that resembles a tiny iPad.
Left to right: Flip8, Fold8 Ultra, Fold8

Here’s a useful spec comparison. Apple’s rumored foldable will reportedly have a similar format to the new Fold8, so I’m especially curious to see how that feels. I still think foldable phones are awesome, even if the prices remain far from ideal.

Google’s selfie sign-in: Google has started letting users sign into their accounts with a video of themselves instead of a password and two-factor authentication. After setting up a reference video, you’re able to sign in by capturing a new video while turning your head to the side. Google’s pitching it as a backup if other sign-in methods fail.

Even with Google’s strong security record, I still reflexively don’t trust this sort of thing. My fear is that the biometric data may be compromised in some way, or that Google may try to use that data for other reasons. (Google says users may “opt to share it for additional purposes,” without explaining what those purposes are.) I can see this being useful for folks who don’t have a strong handle on their logins, but I’m confident enough in my password management setup to find this unnecessary.

More notable news and reads:

Tip of the week

Fewer (or more) notification dings: You know how the iPhone dings once for a new text message, and then dings again if you don’t immediately tend to it? I can’t stand this, and only recently realized you can stop it from happening:

  • Head to iOS Settings.
  • Head to Apps > Messages > Notifications > Customize Notifications > Repeat Alerts.
  • Change the setting from “Once” to “Never.”

If you actually like the extra dings, the same setting allows you to have up to 10 consecutive alerts for a single notification.

I could actually see the extra alerts being useful for other apps, like smart home sensors or a work chat app like Slack, but no: Double dings are for iMessage only.

Try this app

Screenshot

Scary movies for scaredy cats: WhenJumpScare tells you exactly when to expect the jump scares in more than a thousand movies, so you can mute the volume, look away, or just skip ahead to prevent your heart from leaping out of your chest. There’s also a “Watch along” function that warns you before each scare: Press play while starting the movie on another screen or in another tab, and you’ll hear a little popping sound one minute before each jump scare occurs.

(Via occasional Advisorator guest contributor Jeremy Caplan.)

Spend wisely

This section of the newsletter may include affiliate links, which earn me a commission if you wind up purchasing something.

Some notable deals this morning:

  • TP-Link USB-C hub (1x USB-C, 2x USB-A, SD, MicroSD, 4K HDMI) for $12 with code BESTOFPC.
  • Anker’s tiny 25W charger with 5-foot USB-C cable for $10.
  • Nest Wi-Fi Pro 6E mesh routers for $59 apiece refurbished with code BESTOFPC. (Ends today.)
  • Interested in an iPod knockoff? This MP3 player is on sale for $19 with coupon code TYP4RBN8.
  • Microsoft’s Surface Laptop (13.8-inch LCD, Snapdragon X2 Plus, 512 GB storage, 16 GB RAM) drops to $1,200, $200 less than Amazon.
  • New low for Samsung’s 32-inch 1440p HDR monitor with 180 Hz refresh rate, at $200. More monitor deals here.

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Some stuff I’ve done for Advisorator’s paying members lately:

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That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading!

Until next time,
Jared

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