News Researchers convert old phones into 'tiny data centers' — deploy one underwater for marine monitoring

[Admin]

A group of researchers from the University of Tartu developed a way to reuse old smartphones as an edge node to process data in real-time.

Researchers convert old phones into 'tiny data centers' — deploy one underwater for marine monitoring : Read more

 

[COLGeek]

Considering that today's smartphones are (physically) robust and fairly capable devices, that the average user doesn't fully take advantage of, this makes perfect sense. Well Done! Bravo!!

 

[kanewolf]

You really should update the headline. "Old phones" in the headline is rotary landline phones to me. I couldn't figure out how rotary phones could be waterproof for underwater !!!

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

Thanks to EU pressure it may be about to get a lot easier to keep your non-Samsung or Google Android phone for longer (here's looking at you Motorola): 5 years of security updates starting at the last date of sale. It may also do something that phone companies have long since needed to do: a new model every 2 years instead of every year.

https://www.androidheadlines.com/20...5-years-of-android-updates-to-all-brands.html

 

[kanewolf]

Thanks to EU pressure it may be about to get a lot easier to keep your non-Samsung or Google Android phone for longer (here's looking at you Motorola): 5 years of security updates starting at the last date of sale. It may also do something that phone companies have long since needed to do: a new model every 2 years instead of every year.

https://www.androidheadlines.com/20...5-years-of-android-updates-to-all-brands.html

You will have to get two replacement batteries to last five years...

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

You will have to get two replacement batteries to last five years...

$200 at the most.

 

[kanewolf]

$200 at the most.

And should be $20 because phones should have user replacable batteries. A heat gun should not be REQUIRED to change a battery.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

And should be $20 because phones should have user replacable batteries. A heat gun should not be REQUIRED to change a battery.

EU directives on user-replaceable batteries using no special tools come into effect in 2027, and it's unlikely they will modify the designs just for the EU so those should come back into play, though sadly likely not in the form of quick swap batteries, like we had a decade ago because of IP-68 designs, and probably still at least $50, but being able to do it with basic tools will go far, and provide a use for phones to run always connected to AC with the battery removed.

 

[Notton]

When they say custom software, I assume they mean a app?
Rooting/installing updated android on non-major brands is an ordeal or impossible.

 

[bit_user]

Considering that today's smartphones are (physically) robust and fairly capable devices, that the average user doesn't fully take advantage of, this makes perfect sense. Well Done! Bravo!!

Without ECC memory, phones would never be suitable for most datacenter applications. One of my phones (Google Nexus 5X, so not some off-brand cheapy phone) would get in a weird state and I'd periodically have to power-cycle it every few days. This started to happen a bit after only 2 years of light-duty use. Also, its storage was dog slow, which raises another concern about how much useful life those NAND chips have left, by the time the phone no longer has value on the second-hand/refurb market.

It's also quite interesting that the examples they gave are not actually "datacenter" applications, but instead more like IoT. The devices typically used for such applications are often much lower-end than even a 3-5 year old smartphone. In many IoT use cases, you couldn't afford the power budget of a smartphone.

 

[kyzarvs]

You will have to get two replacement batteries to last five years...

My Xperia is... almost 7 years old I think now?

I've used the smart (read slow) battery-care charging feature on it from day one. Does it have less capacity now? For sure. Does it still last 30+ hours of my normal use? Also sure.

 

[DieMitchell]

My Xperia is... almost 7 years old I think now?

I've used the smart (read slow) battery-care charging feature on it from day one. Does it have less capacity now? For sure. Does it still last 30+ hours of my normal use? Also sure.

define "my normal use"
because i highly doubt that has a lot of SOT

 

[bit_user]

My Xperia is... almost 7 years old I think now?

I've used the smart (read slow) battery-care charging feature on it from day one. Does it have less capacity now? For sure. Does it still last 30+ hours of my normal use? Also sure.

I kept my last phone 6 years, but I had to replace the battery twice. Overall, I've gotten 2-3 years per battery and the phones I use now have an "80%" charging feature, which is supposed to prolong battery life. Also, I've heard that you shouldn't run down the battery all the way, and don't let the phone get too hot (e.g. leave it sitting in the sun). I think lithium batteries don't like even to be above 85 degrees (Fahrenheit) or so.

 

[kyzarvs]

define "my normal use"
because i highly doubt that has a lot of SOT

Normal use - some browsing, a lot of hotspotting, some bluetooth, some spotify etc etc.

When I got it, it would just about squeeze 48 hours, now if I forget to charge it overnight it's on about 35% in the morning, say flat by lunchtime - around 30 hours as I initially wrote. I've always used battery care and I think it's done me really well.

I still have the previous Xperia Z5C in the garage as a Spotify-only device. Battery is pretty good on that still too... Take the effort to take care of these things and they do last a lot better...

 

[Krieger-San]

When they say custom software, I assume they mean a app?
Rooting/installing updated android on non-major brands is an ordeal or impossible.

Somewhat; there's been a project to 'dual-boot' Samsung phones for about a year or so now, if you can reduce the partition size of the primary OS.
In the secondary partition you can run just about anything, but it can't support secure boot as far as I know.

Here's a link to the project on XDA:

[MOD] Dualboot for any Samsung

Easly dualboot all of your favourite samsung devices /* * Your warranty is now void. *The risk of hardbricking is minimum, as so far no device hard-bricked and it is safe to use *I am not responsible for bricked devices, dead SD cards, *...

xdaforums.com

 

[pug_s]

I don't see any videos of how these phonese are run as 'tiny datacenters.'