You have set up your new Mac and everything is great. The problem: your old device is still on your desk and wait for you to decide what you can do with it.
You have options. You could reset and sell your old Mac – they tend to hold on to part of their value at least. But it may be worth more for you in the house, assuming that you can think of something that has to do with it. We recently told you about use for your old iPhone or iPad. Here, in the same spirit, are things that you might use your old Mac for.
Smart -TVs are great when they work, but it is usually easier to view things in a browser. I constantly notice that with my smart TV, I fiddle with doing something that would last five seconds on a real computer with a browser. My solution: connect a real computer to your TV and use it. Your old Mac can be perfect for this, assuming that it is a laptop or a Mac Mini. You probably only need an HDMI cable (you may need a Thunderbolt -Adapter if you don’t have a HDMI port).
This setup is very nice if you get a wireless mouse and keyboard – you can operate everything from the sofa. And, as an added bonus, Each Mac can be used as an AirPlay receiver. This means that you can share the screen and the audio of your iPhone or iPad on your TV. This is very useful if your Smart TV does not offer AirPlay.
There is one Mac type that does not work well for this: the iMac. Connecting what is essentially a screen on another screen will be at its best awkward, but you can simply use your very old iMac as a streaming -TV for a guest room or another room where you might want something in the background .
Retro gaming
We talked about changing an old Wii into the ultimate retro gaming device, and that works fairly well. Do you know what is even easier? OpenEmu (set the best emulation software on a Mac. There is also RetroarchIf you prefer. You can add ROMs of dozens of systems and then connect a controller to your Mac. Then you can just lean back and play. I think this works best if your Mac is connected to a TV, so it actually works like a game console.
Home server
Whether you want to share a few files on your local network, which you have access to your computer or a private -mail server from an iPhone or iPad, an old Mac can ensure a reasonably good server. This applies in particular to the Mac Mini, which you can easily adjust in a cupboard or drawer. Just put the Mac, open the System settings and go to General> Share. From there you can share the sharing of files, media parts and more. You can even switch on SSH access, if you know what that is (if you don’t, you’re not worried about it). In principle you can quickly turn your Mac into a feasible home server.
Time Machine -Back -Up
Speaking of network shares: You can back up your new Mac to your old with Time Machine. It is a great way to make a backup of your new Mac without having to remember to regularly connect the back -up drive. Just make a shared folder specifically for the back -up on your old Mac and pointed machine on it. I have tried many alternative ways to backups from Runtime Machine over the network, including a Raspberry Pi, but no work and a backup of a real Mac. If you do run as a server, it is worth considering.
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