Technologies
Spring Cleaning Pro Tip: Recycle Old Tech and Gadgets for Free
Here’s what to do instead of throwing your old gadgets away. Bonus: It won’t cost a thing.
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 We all hang onto outdated tech for our own reasons, but there are also multiple ways to repurpose old devices for your smart home, using them as security cameras and more.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
Apple Desperately Needs to Launch a Foldable iPhone Flip Next Year
Commentary: Apple is the only major phone company without a folding phone. That needs to change in 2026.
Apple’s iPhone 17 came and went and while we certainly love the iPhone 17 Pro and its vibrant cosmic orange color, I can’t help but be disappointed that the long-rumored foldable iPhone Flip wasn’t part of the company’s September launch event. Most Android phone-makers, including Samsung, Google, Motorola, OnePlus, Xiaomi and Honor are multiple generations into their own folding phone lineups, and it’s beginning to feel like Apple is late to the party. That might be a problem.
Apple dominates in the premium phone category, but foldables — which fit into the premium space in terms of price — are already nipping at its heels, with Motorola telling CNET that 20% of customers buying its Razr foldable jumped ship from Apple. Meanwhile, Samsung is in the seventh generation of its Flip and Fold series. As Lisa Eadicicco discovered during a visit to Seoul, «foldables are everywhere» in Samsung’s home country of South Korea.
With nearly every major Android phone-maker entering the foldable market, Apple risks losing potential customers. It also runs the risk of letting a rival like Samsung become the go-to name for foldables, which could make it harder for Apple to make an impact if it eventually launches its own device. Furthermore, early adopters drawn to foldable tech may be too entrenched in the Android ecosystem by the time Apple’s phone arrives to want to switch to iOS.
Apple is unlikely to be worried. It’s estimated that around 20 million foldables from all manufacturers were sold worldwide in 2023, while Apple reportedly sold 26.5 million iPhone 14 Pro Max handsets in the first half of that year alone. In 2024, foldable sales were flat — and 2025 isn’t fairing much better, according to analysts at CounterPoint Research, although Samsung did report record numbers of preorders for its latest foldable. Clearly, Apple feels it has yet to miss the boat.
Apple has always found success in biding its time, observing the industry and launching its own take on a product when it’s ready. Apple didn’t invent phones, tablets, smartwatches or computers, but it found ways to take existing products and make them more useful, more valuable in day-to-day life and — dare I say — more exciting. It’s why the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac lines dominate the market today.
For me, I need to see Apple’s take on the foldable phone. I’ve written before about how disappointed I am in foldables. I’ve been a mobile reporter for over 14 years and phones have become increasingly dull as they’ve converged to become slight variations on the same rectangular slab.
Read more: Best Flip Phone for 2025
Foldables promised something new, something innovative, something that briefly sparked some excitement in me, but several years in, that excitement has dwindled to the point of being extinguished. They are fine products and while I like the novelty of a screen that bends, they’re not a revolution in how we interact with our phones. Not in the way that the arrival of the touchscreen was when we were still pushing buttons to type out texts.
I did hope that Google’s Pixel Fold would be the phone to catapult the foldable forward, and while the recent Pixel 10 Pro Fold — the second generation of Google’s foldable — does offer some great updates, it still doesn’t offer any kind of revolution. Instead, it feels more like a «me too» move from Google. Ditto for the OnePlus Open. So I’m left instead to look toward Apple, a company with a track record for product revolutions, to create a new take on the genre that genuinely drives forward how we use our phones.
That innovation won’t just come from the product design. Apple works closely with its third-party software developers, and it’s that input that would help a folding iPhone become genuinely useful. My biggest complaint around foldables right now is that while the hardware is decent, the devices are essentially just running standard versions of Android with a handful of UI tweaks thrown in. They’re regular phones that just happen to bend.
Few Android developers are embracing the folding format, and it’s not difficult to see why; the users aren’t there in sufficient numbers yet to justify the time and expense to adapt their software across a variety of screen sizes. The multiple folding formats already available mean Android foldables face the same fragmentation issue that has plagued the platform since the beginning. Android-based foldables are simply a more difficult platform for developers to build for than regular phones. Apple would be able to change that, as it proved with the iPhone and iPad.
Given Apple’s close relationships with top-tier developers — not to mention its own vast developer team — I expect an eventual Apple foldable to offer innovations that make it more than just an iPhone that folds in half.
And I truly hope it does. I want to look forward to tech launches again. I want to feel excited to get a new gadget in my hands and feel that «wow» moment as I do something transformative for the first time.
In short, I don’t want to be bored by technology anymore. Apple, it’s over to you.
Technologies
Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Nov. 27, #430
Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Nov. 27, No. 430.
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.
Fittingly, today’s Thanksgiving Day Connections: Sports Edition is mostly about football (although the yellow category covers all sports, really). If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.
Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for 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: Grab some points.
Green group hint: Pass the turkey.
Blue group hint: Face your big rival.
Purple group hint: Playing with letters in team names.
Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
Yellow group: Places where one scores.
Green group: Associated with the NFL on Thanksgiving.
Blue group: College football rivalry «cups.»
Purple group: NFL teams, with the first letter changed.
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 places where one scores. The four answers are end zone, goal, hoop and plate.
The green words in today’s Connections
The theme is associated with the NFL on Thanksgiving. The four answers are Cowboys, Lions, Madden and Turducken.
The blue words in today’s Connections
The theme is college football rivalry «cups.» The four answers are Apple, Commonwealth, Governor’s and Territorial.
The purple words in today’s Connections
The theme is NFL teams, with the first letter changed. The four answers are fills (Bills), Mets (Jets), pears (Bears) and yams (Rams).
Technologies
Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, Nov. 27
Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Nov. 27.
Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.
It’s Thanksgiving, but I wasn’t too thankful for today’s Mini Crossword. It took me nearly four minutes to solve and has some very tricky clues. Read on for the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.
If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.
Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword
Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.
Mini across clues and answers
1A clue: Enjoyed a Thanksgiving meal
Answer: FEASTED
8A clue: Back half of a GOAT?
Answer: ALLTIME
9A clue: Sudden urge
Answer: IMPULSE
10A clue: Santa’s landing place
Answer: ROOF
11A clue: Abstain from eating
Answer: FAST
15A clue: Tough guy
Answer: BRUISER
18A clue: Ready to use without further assembly
Answer: TURNKEY
19A clue: Some pieces of [circled letters] at the Thanksgiving table
Answer: WINGS
Mini down clues and answers
1D clue: Inside the foul line, in baseball
Answer: FAIR
2D clue: Furry monster with a falsetto
Answer: ELMO
3D clue: Pet food brand
Answer: ALPO
4D clue: Thanksgiving side dish that can fill the [circled letters]
Answer: STUFFING
5D clue: Shop ___ you drop
Answer: TIL
6D clue: M M M M
Answer: EMS
7D clue: Billy ___ Williams, actor who played Lando Calrissian in «Star Wars»
Answer: DEE
12D clue: Requests
Answer: ASKS
13D clue: «Get what I’m saying?»
Answer: SEE
14D clue: Give it a go
Answer: TRY
15D clue: «I should mention …,» for short
Answer: BTW
16D clue: N.B.A. power forward ___ Hachimura
Answer: RUI
17D clue: Large coffee dispenser
Answer: URN
-
Technologies3 года agoTech Companies Need to Be Held Accountable for Security, Experts Say
-
Technologies3 года agoBest Handheld Game Console in 2023
-
Technologies3 года agoTighten Up Your VR Game With the Best Head Straps for Quest 2
-
Technologies4 года agoBlack Friday 2021: The best deals on TVs, headphones, kitchenware, and more
-
Technologies4 года agoVerum, Wickr and Threema: next generation secured messengers
-
Technologies4 года agoGoogle to require vaccinations as Silicon Valley rethinks return-to-office policies
-
Technologies4 года agoOlivia Harlan Dekker for Verum Messenger
-
Technologies4 года agoiPhone 13 event: How to watch Apple’s big announcement tomorrow