Annual recharge time for my drawer of devices
Today I woke up and opened a drawer full of old devices from smartwatches to fitness trackers. Decided it was a good day to plug them in and recharge those tired batteries. Some hold a charge and others not much but I keep an eye on these old things. I don't need batteries exploding until the day I need to recycle them properly.
I haven't found a local place that recycles these small devices properly. My other concern is if any private data can be collected from them that I don't know of. I'm sure it exists, now so with AI. Even the non-technical person can ask AI to create an app to do anything these days.
I spent an hour searching the web for any suggestions on how to still use these devices in 2026 but no luck. Either search is broken or there is no one trying to find new uses for these old watches and fitness trackers. YouTube search is hopeless with results that are the same over and over but with different faces.
It is probably for the best. The less devices I own tracking my health and other data, the better it is in the long run. The old days of cool tech are long gone and everything now is about data collection and selling that data. We make not one penny from it either but corporations with no faces ... unless they are a corrupt American company because they do not hide any longer!