This is a summary post to show how I recycle the dumpster dived Samsung phones to make them usable for my own use. Personally I use spare mobile phones as a media player and also as a portable download device. These Samsung phones have their previous owner login account with Google and Samsung. Luckily, the phones do not have any security screen lock enabled so it makes the tasks easier to recycle. There is a Samsung A31 with screen lock and I have not get it to work so far. When you are able to access into the phone, you just have to add your usual Google account into the phone, remove all previous owner accounts linked to the phone and try to use my Google account for Google Play Service mainly. Since these will be used as a media player, I would disable Google services such as Google Mail, Maps, Calendar, Meet, Drive, Contacts, etc whenever I can. This step would improve performance of the by using lesser resources and especially on older or lower spe...
I just dumpster dived a new Lenovo IdeaPad laptop (IdeaPad-3-15IML05) yesterday. I wasn't expecting anything from this new find and I proceed to do the usual: Find the suitable power adaptor (Luckily I got one from a previous find of a Lenovo laptop) Try to power up and see if it works. Try to install Linux Lite 7.6 (Latest version) During the setup of the BIOS to disable secure boot and TPM, I initially thought this laptop has only 2GB RAM but later I found out it actually has 20GB RAM! Wow, this is the highest RAM laptop that I found. The storage is 512GB. Likely a NMVe type since I did not open the case to look at the internals. Image from: Gadget Review As it turns out, there is no issue with the laptop and this laptop would likely be replacing my favourite laptop that I have. The main limitation is it weighs 1.7Kg. However, for an 15.6 inch laptop, the weight is normal but so far the keyboard is pretty smooth for typing and...