Ask HN: Best Uses for Old iPads? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Best Uses for Old iPads?

27 pointsevo_926 comments

Wondering what is the best use of an old iPad? Like a gen 1 & gen 2 iPad Mini, and a similar age full iPad... https://ipadlinux.org/ ?

Other options, better options?

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You can turn it into a digital photo display.

Put it in an IKEA Ribba 30x21cm frame: https://www.ikea.com/nl/nl/p/ribba-fotolijst-zwart-60378396/. It's deep enough to accommodate the iPad and cable, so that they're hidden if the frame is stood up on a table or shelf.

Remove the plastic protection of the frame, and have a framing shop cut the mount to exactly the right size. Use double-sided tape or some other adhesive to fix the glass to the back of the mount.

It can play slideshow from a Photos album via iCloud.

It would be nice to have an elegant way to reach the front button, a problem I haven't yet solved to my satisfaction.

> It would be nice to have an elegant way to reach the front button, a problem I haven't yet solved to my satisfaction.

Drilling a paperclip-sized hole into the frame over the home button?

Turn on the virtual home button in accessibility, it’s called assistive touch

I have used an old ipad as a streaming deck using UpDeck. Very useful for recording. I use it for training videos for our product and it's really handy for moving between OBS screen layouts (switch your recording headshot from left to right etc)

https://8up.uk/

Be aware of the following: Unfortunately, if you want to use the new iOS advanced data protection feature of iOS 16.2, ALL your devices must be at 16.2 or higher. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212520

Meaning, if you are using your very old iPad that can’t be upgraded, you won’t be able to use advanced data protection on your primary, up to date devices. Eg, in my case, I am sadly retiring these old devices that I was just using for ebook purposes.

Why not use a different apple account/id?

Ipad 1 running IOS 5.1. It is on the wall near of the front door showing the gate entrance of my house. Software used: IP Cam viewer.

Ipad 2 running IOS 7.4. It is on the wall in the kitchen used for show recipes online and/or in ebooks. Software used: Safari and DVR Reader

Iphone 4 running IOS 7.1.2. Pluged on a speakers system connected to a NAS by wifi. Software used: FileXplorer

Iphone 5 running IOS 7.4. Used as GPS in a bike. Software used: TOMTOM maps updated to 2021/Q1

I wonder if it runs a current Spotify to make a Music Console out of it.

Apple did release iOS 12.5.6 in August 2022 to patch a webkit vulnerability, so it might still be safe to use a Webbrowser on it for some time.

Someone without any video-call and media-watching devices might get much more value out of an old ipad than finding a quirky use in the house.

I would make sure the battery is healthy though.

Add 20 bucks, some work... and you may get a nice tiny monitor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7KKEXS0huA

https://www.ebay.fr/itm/153588266295?var=453608366546

Nice! I have an iPad Air that won't boot - wonder if something like this will work

Wall-mounted weather forecast thing?

If you do flight simulation, iPads can be good glass-cockpit displays.

SkyElite, Air Manager, Touch Portal, MSFS Mobile Companion App, Simionic g1000 (has synth vision) and many, many others. Lots can be streamed from the host pc to a web server and accessed via iPad if there isn’t a native app.

I use my old Mini as a teleprompter for when I make videos.

I used velcro to put mine on the wall and use it to show my google calendar. Painfully slow, but I can't update the OS or install apps so I'm limited to Safari

My 2nd gen iPod is perched on the back of my stove. Sometimes to show a recipe, sometimes for a Facetime call, often for watching a movie while I make dinner.

Dedicated https://www.dartconnect.com/ scorepad.

A NTP synchronized digital clock with battery backup and NTP failover to 3G. Just install a clock app. It‘s also a great alarm.

I give old iPhones and iPads to my family that can't afford them. They will continue using it for another few years.

Really need to replace the OS with something flexible like FreeBSD or Linux, then the possibility becomes limitless.

A home assistant dashboard.

By home assistant, do you mean Home Assistant? That requires iOS 10 at least; my iPad 3 doesn't work: https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/frontend/browsers#ios

I have an old iPad taped to the wall to run home assistant as well. I run a vnc client on the iPad which connects to a Firefox docker container on my nas rendering the full HA front end (jlesage/firefox). Works decently well, including touch. I set resolution to native iPad so output is real clear.

ebook reader.

cocaine

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