Technologies
Spring Cleaning Pro Tip: Recycle Tech and Gadgets You Don’t Use Anymore
Cleaning out the clutter in your home? Here’s what to do instead of throwing your old gadgets away.
Thinking of spring cleaning? Whether you’re finally cleaning up the junk drawer or upgrading your tech, don’t condemn your old device to your in-home gadget graveyard — or worse, the garbage. We all hang onto outdated tech for our own reasons, but there are also multiple ways to repurpose old devices for your smart home, using them as security cameras and more.
Whatever the tech, when it’s finally time to say goodbye, there’s a right way to dispose of your old gadgets — and there are a lot of wrong ways. We’ll show you which is which.
What to do before you get rid of a device
When you’re finished with a gadget, make sure it’s also finished with you. Make sure to back up anything you want off the device — photos, videos, songs — and then perform a factory reset. Here are a few CNET articles to help clarify the finer points of wiping a device:
- How to Wipe Your Phone or Tablet Before You Sell It
- The Best Way to Completely Wipe Your Android Device
- What to Do With Your iPhone or Android Phone Before Donating It
- How to Reset and Clean My Laptop to Give to Someone Else?
Here are the best places here in the US to recycle, repurpose or give new life to your old technology.
How to recycle smartphones
Smartphone Recycling lets you print a free FedEx shipping label or request a recycling kit. Ship your old smartphone and you might even get paid, depending on the device’s condition and age. Smartphone Recycling accepts devices in bulk, so you have to ship a minimum of 10. Depending on how long you’ve been hoarding phones, you might meet this quota on your own. If not, check with friends and family and make it a group effort.
If you succumbed to the siren song of the newest gadget, even if your current device wasn’t on its last leg, we’re not here to judge.
Woot/Screenshot by CNETWhat you can recycle: Smartphone Recycling accepts smartphones, cell phones, MacBooks, tablets, iPhones, iPads, iPods and Apple Watches, as well as batteries attached or installed in devices.
Best Buy
Best Buy accepts a wide range of tech products and generally takes three items per house per day. Specifics may vary depending on where you live, but you can check with the state-specific recycling information dropdown menu on the site.
Best Buy also offers a haul-away option for larger appliances like TVs, dishwashers, freezers, microwaves, treadmills and exercise bikes. If you’ve ordered a new product, Best Buy will take away your old one for recycling. There’s also a stand-alone haul-away option that costs $200. You can have two large items hauled away as well as an unlimited number of smaller items, with some exceptions.
What you can recycle: Best Buy can take TVs, cables and chargers, media players, projectors, laptops, hard drives, webcams, cellphones, calculators, radios, landlines, headsets, vacuums, fans, ink and toner cartridges, alarm clocks, speaker systems, e-readers, video game consoles, memory cards, camcorders, digital cameras, GPS devices and more.
If you don’t want to recycle your tablet, there are places to donate technology.
AmazonStaples
Office supply store Staples also offers free recycling options for old technology. Staples accepts up to seven items per customer per day. The company also has various haul-away options, driver pickup and pallet pickup, as well as prepaid address labels available.
What you can recycle: Staples can recycle accessories, adapters, cables, computers, cordless and mobile phones, digital cameras, laptops, routers, tablets, webcams, ink and toner and other office tech items.
Home Depot
Home Depot has an explainer on its website about how to safely dispose of dead batteries, old paint, electronics and other items, as well as tips for upcycling and repurposing. According to RecycleStuff.org, the services are drop-off only for residential customers.
What you can recycle: According to RecycleStuff.org, Home Depot accepts household alkaline batteries (AA, AAA, C, D, 9V), lithium-ion batteries, nickel-cadmium batteries, rechargeable household batteries, cell phones and LED light bulbs.
US Environmental Protection Agency
The EPA doesn’t handle recycling and drop-offs the same way other businesses do, but it does have a handy guide that makes it easier to get the information you need. The EPA’s directory breaks down donation and recycling by electronic device, company name, logo and any additional details.
What you can recycle: Again, the EPA’s directory links you out to specific companies and their policies, but according to the list, you can recycle and donate mobile devices, PCs and TVs as well as imaging equipment and supplies.
Electronics Take-Back Coalition
Like the EPA, Electronics Take-Back Coalition makes it easy to find manufacturer take-back programs in the US. You can browse over 25 companies’ take-back program summaries, including Acer, Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Panasonic, Sony and more.
The Electronics Take-back Coalition doesn’t handle the recycling, but it can direct you to the proper resource for your needs.
What you can recycle: Depending on the company, you can find places to turn in iPhones, iPads, smartphones, monitors, computers, printers, keyboards, mice, DVD and VHS players, cameras, TVs and more.
Your laptop can be recycled, donated or repurposed. We’ll tell you where to look.
Josh Goldman/CNETEcoATM
EcoATM gives you a price estimate for your old phone that you can lock in on the mobile app using your old device’s IMEI number. EcoATM will ask a few questions about your device like brand, model, memory, carrier and condition before generating a quote. From there, you can visit one of the organization’s kiosks, located at stores like Kroger, Walmart and Dollar General.
What you can recycle: EcoATM can help with iPhones, Samsung smartphones, tablets and MP3 players, Google Pixel phones, LG phones and tablets, Motorola phones and ZTE phones. You can also recycle chargers and cellular accessories like cases, but you won’t be paid for them.
Earth911
Earth911 lets you search by device and ZIP code to find appropriate nearby locations to turn in old phones. When you visit the organization’s website, click Where to Recycle at the top of the page to get started. Earth911 works with well-known businesses like Lowe’s and Target, as well as local waste and recycling centers.
What you can recycle: Earth911 helps you find locations to recycle, but it will also note the materials the location accepts, whether it allows drop-off or pickup for residential or businesses, as well as any additional information.
Recycling for Charities
Recycling for Charities accepts technology donations, but gives a percentage of the device’s value to the charity of your choosing. Scroll through a directory of charities, select one, enter the required information and click donate. Charities receive anywhere between 25 cents and $100 from your items.
What you can recycle: Wireless cell phones and corresponding batteries, iPhones, wireless pagers, digital cameras, iPods, PDAs and Palm Pilots.
Call2Recycle
Call2Recycle is a battery-focused recycling program. The organization offers drop-off options at locations like Home Depot, Lowe’s and Staples, as well as shipment boxes for batteries and cell phones. Drop-offs are free, but recycling kits and shipment boxes cost between $45 and $115, depending on the size.
What you can recycle: Rechargeable batteries like Nickel Cadmium, Nickel Metal Hydride, Lithium Ion, Nickel Zinc and Small Sealed Lead Acid weighing up to 11 pounds. Call2Recycle also accepts single-use batteries like AA, AAA, 9V, C, D and button cell batteries weighing up to 11 pounds. The organization also accepts cell phones and their corresponding batteries regardless of size, make, model or age.
For more information, check out five things you can recycle (and five things you can’t) and the right way to recycle plastic and the dos and don’ts of recycling metal cans.
Technologies
Pope Francis’ Funeral: How to Stream Live or Watch the Replay
Here’s how to stream the pope’s funeral very early Saturday, and what you can expect to see during the service.
After a week of global mourning for Pope Francis, who died on Monday at age 88, the pope’s funeral will be celebrated on Saturday . Francis’ funeral will be held Saturday at 10 a.m. local time at St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City (which is very, very early if you’re tuning in from the US or Canada), and he will be laid to rest at the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome.
The Vatican will be livestreaming the papal funeral and procession, though not the burial, on its YouTube channel as it happens. The funeral will also be televised live on CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox, as well as on streaming services like Disney Plus, Hulu, Peacock and Paramount Plus. Due to the time difference, it seems likely that many interested North American viewers will catch it when it’s replayed later on Saturday. Numerous networks will rebroadcast the service later that day.
If you choose to stay up, or get up early, here’s when the live broadcast of the pope’s funeral will air in your time zone in the continental US on April 26:
- ET: 4 a.m.
- CT: 3 a.m.
- MT: 2 a.m.
- PT: 1 a.m.
The papacy of Pope Francis was notable for the progressive reforms he brought to the Roman Catholic Church. He appointed more than half of the current College of Cardinals and attempted to foster more positive attitudes toward members of the LGBT community and migrants worldwide.
What to expect from the funeral
The funeral will follow many rituals, though not all traditional protocols will be followed. Most popes are buried in St. Peter’s Basilica or its grottoes, but the AP reports Francis chose the St. Mary Major Basilica to reflect his veneration of an icon of the Virgin Mary that is located there, the Salus Populi Romani (Salvation of the People of Rome).
His funeral will be less elaborate than those of other popes per his own wishes. Francis simplified papal funeral rites last year, permitting his burial outside the Vatican, and emphasizing his role as a bishop rather than as pope (the pope is also the Bishop of Rome).
Previous popes were buried in three coffins: one of cypress, one of lead and one of oak. Francis requested to be buried in a single wooden, zinc-lined coffin and not to be placed in an elevated bier as other popes were.
The coffin will be taken from St Peter’s Basilica and placed on a dais in St Peter’s Square, where Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re will lead the service. After the service, the coffin will return to St Peter’s Basilica before it is carried across the River Tiber and to the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major for burial. The ceremony is estimated to end around 2 p.m. local time, or four hours after it begins.
Pope Francis’ funeral Mass will be the first of nine Masses held daily at St. Peter’s until May 4. This is an ancient tradition of the Catholic Church that observes nine days of consecutive mourning. According to Vatican News, a different group of mourners will participate each day, though the Eucharistic celebrations are open to everyone.
Who will attend Pope Francis’ funeral?
Hundreds of people, including world leaders and royals, are expected to attend Pope Francis’ funeral.
US president Donald Trump confirmed on his Truth Social Platform that he and first lady Melania Trump will be at the funeral. This will be Trump’s first foreign trip in his second term. He is expected to have a seat in the third row, though the Vatican has yet to release an official seating chart. It is tradition for the first row of seats to go to Catholic royalty, and the second row to non-Catholic royals.
Prince William, who is attending on behalf of King Charles, will sit in the second row, which is reserved for non-Catholic royals. Former president Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, devout Catholics, will also attend the funeral.
Conclave: What happens next to choose the new pope
After Pope Francis’ funeral, the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church will vote on his successor in an assembly of cardinals known as a conclave.
There are many matters for the cardinals to settle before the conclave begins, but once it does, it can take days or even weeks to conclude. Two-thirds of the cardinals’ votes are required to elect the next pope. The conclave occurs behind closed doors and the vote tally is never made public.
Read more: Where to Watch Conclave, the Vatican Thriller About Electing a New Pope
Look for the white smoke
The ballots are burned after each round, and chemicals are added to the flames to produce black smoke if there’s no majority. When a new pope has been selected, the chemicals will be added to the flames so they produce white smoke. Crowds gather in St. Peter’s Square to watch for the results.
If you’re fascinated by the process, you can watch a dramatized version of the events in 2024 film Conclave.
In the movie, Ralph Fiennes stars as Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, who spearheads the election of the next pope while investigating rumors about potential candidates. The film is based on the 2016 novel by Robert Harris and is completely fictional — though it does represent some of the events of how actual papal conclaves take place. In March, the film won the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay.
You can stream Conclave on Amazon Prime Video, or rent it for $6 on Apple TV, Fandango at Home, YouTube or Google Play Movies.
Technologies
Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for April 26, #685
Hints and answers for Connections for April 26, #685.
Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.
Today’s Connections puzzle features a lot of short words, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. That purple category requires a lot of thinking — probably most people will solve it only by solving the other three and having four words left over. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.
The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.
Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time
Hints for today’s Connections groups
Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.
Yellow group hint: Rainbow.
Green group hint: San Fernando ____.
Blue group hint: Think Robert.
Purple group hint: Mixed-up hue words.
Answers for today’s Connections groups
Yellow group: Tint.
Green group: Valley.
Blue group: Bobs.
Purple group: Color anagrams.
Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words
What are today’s Connections answers?
The yellow words in today’s Connections
The theme is tint. The four answers are color, hue, shade and tone.
The green words in today’s Connections
The theme is valley. The four answers are dale, dell, glen and hollow.
The blue words in today’s Connections
The theme is Bobs. The four answers are Dole, Hope, Marley and Ross.
The purple words in today’s Connections
The theme is color anagrams. The four answers are Dre (red), Gary (gray), genre (green) and lube (blue).
Technologies
Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for April 26, #215
Hints and answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 215, for Saturday, April 26.
Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.
Connections: Sports Edition is tough today. The purple category theme threw me because of one phrase I didn’t know. And let’s hope you’re familiar with college coach surnames. Read on for hints and the answers.
Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.
Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta
Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.
Yellow group hint: Try to achieve.
Green group hint: Move through it.
Blue group hint: Sideline bosses.
Purple group hint: Like a carton.
Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
Yellow group: What one strives for.
Green group: Room to run.
Blue group: College football coaches.
Purple group: Box ____.
Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words
What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?
The yellow words in today’s Connections
The theme is what one strives for. The four answers are aim, goal, objective and target.
The green words in today’s Connections
The theme is room to run. The four answers are gap, hole, opening and space.
The blue words in today’s Connections
The theme is college football coaches. The four answers are Day, Lanning, Smart and Stoops.
The purple words in today’s Connections
The theme is box ____. The four answers are lacrosse, office, score and seat.
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