{"id":6573,"date":"2024-02-20T16:07:25","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T16:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/?p=6573"},"modified":"2024-02-20T16:07:26","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T16:07:26","slug":"2-20-2024-transform-an-old-phone-into-an-ipod-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/2024\/02\/20\/2-20-2024-transform-an-old-phone-into-an-ipod-2\/","title":{"rendered":"2\/20\/2024: Transform an old phone into an iPod"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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How I made my own portable music player<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Plus: Debunking the rice myth (again), Wyze’s latest blunder, and Google Photos’ near-duplicate cleaner<\/h3>\n\n\n
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Jared Newman<\/div>
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February 20, 2024<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n
\"An<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Over the weekend, I read a great story from Craig Grannell about how he misses using an iPod<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can probably guess the gist: While smartphones have replaced portable music players (along with a slew of other single-use devices), their do-it-all nature comes at cost. With so many possibilities, it’s hard to stay focused on just one thing, like listening to music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not content to just pine for the past, I decided to do something about it. I conjured an old Android phone, gave it a factory reset, and imbued it with fresh purpose as a dedicated music player. It automatically syncs with my music library, works offline, and loads nothing but a single app for music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s how I did it:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Sign up to read the rest.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Advisorator’s paid subscribers get this week’s full feature story, with all the necessary steps to turn an old phone into a portable music player<\/strong>. Sign up for free trial<\/a>, and I’ll send the full newsletter your way!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

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Need to know<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Wet phone? Avoid rice:<\/strong> It’s official. A new Apple support document<\/a> spotted by Macworld<\/a> specifically discourages users from putting an iPhone in a bag of rice to mitigate water damage. “Doing so could allow small particles of rice to damage your iPhone,” Apple says. (Also: Don’t take a hairdryer to it or stuff cotton into its orifices.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bowl of rice myth has already been busted countless times over the years\u2014I even linked to iFixit’s explainer<\/a> back in 2019<\/a>\u2014but it seems to work because it forces folks to leave their phones alone. That, in fact, is the best thing you can do in a water emergency, though open air works even better. (Also, pretty much every modern iPhone<\/a> and many Android phones can survive a dunk in the pool regardless.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DuckDuckGo password sync:<\/strong> DuckDuckGo’s web browser<\/a> can now sync your passwords and bookmarks across devices, bringing it more in line with other browsers such as Chrome and Firefox (and FLOORP<\/a>). You can set up sync in DuckDuckGo’s Settings menu under Sync & Backup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DuckDuckGo’s browser is still on the bare-bones side, with no extension support, vertical tabs, or ability to set a default search engine besides DuckDuckGo itself. If you don’t care about any of that, it’s the simplest path to a more private internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wyze’s latest security blunder:<\/strong> For the second time in five months, Wyze allowed thousands of users to see content from strangers’ security cameras<\/a>. Most only saw image thumbnails, but in some cases Wyze leaked event videos as well. Another glitch last fall swapped strangers’ feeds into Wyze’s web viewer for some users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the same company that previously exposed millions of users’ personal data<\/a> and decided not to patch a vulnerability<\/a> that could have allowed remote camera access in its first-gen cameras, despite being aware of the problem for three years. If you’ve noticed that I’ve stopped recommending Wyze’s cameras in my deal roundups, this helps explain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tip of the moment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Use Google’s Photo Stacks<\/strong> Google Photos has made it a little easier to manage near-duplicates with a new feature called “Photo Stacks.” Once enabled, it will automatically group similar photos together, so you can compare them and decide which ones are worth keeping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To enable Photo Stacks, tap your profile icon in the Google Photos app, then head to Google Photos Settings > Preferences > Stack similar photos<\/strong>. Enable this setting, and you’ll start seeing a number on some of your photos, indicating that they’re grouped together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While viewing a Photo Stack, you can swipe between each photo or tap the grid icon to view them side-by-side. Swiping up reveals a handy “Keep this, delete rest” option. You can also long-press on any photo in the grid view to select the ones you want to keep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now try this<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Relaxing visuals:<\/strong> Magic Fluids is a free app for iOS<\/a> and Android<\/a> that generates colorful effects under your fingers. Use it whenever you need a minute of mindless visual stimulation. You can pay for extra effects, but the free “Lite” version is just fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bootleg Spotify:<\/strong> Spotube<\/a> is a free alternative Spotify app with no ads or podcasts, and it also supports offline downloads. Though it apparently pulls music from YouTube<\/a> behind the scenes, you can connect a Spotify account to access your library and playlists. The account connection process is a bit tricky on the desktop, though, and mobile support is Android-only<\/a>. (Via Dense Discovery<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Further reading<\/h2>\n\n\n\n