Whats a first gen ipad good for?

[menace]

We've got a couple laying around here that work fine but are just too old/slow for the family (I know..first world problems...)  Anyways, has anyone seen any cool re-purposing for one besides the obvious 10" bartop build?

[Malenko]

I'll take one to play clash of clans!

[pbj]

Expand this line of questioning to first generation Kindle Fires.  I got mine rooted and Android installed but have had zero success getting it to work with an external keyboard or gamepad.

[Howard_Casto]

Take it and load it up with game manuals, maps, ect....

People tend to forget that the primary use for a tablet was supposed to be for reading stuff.  Regardless of specs they are all still good for that. 

[RayB]

minicade

[pbj]

minicade

lurk moar, noob.

[wp34]

My first Gen still plays Pinball Arcade just fine. I'd like to make a little mini cabinet for it. Something simple that allows me to use buttons.

[wp34]

Take it and load it up with game manuals, maps, ect....

People tend to forget that the primary use for a tablet was supposed to be for reading stuff.  Regardless of specs they are all still good for that.

I use mine for this as well.  Works very well.

[ark_ader]

Door Stop.

[eds1275]

get some jukebox software on it and load it up!

[abkaz]

We have an old tablet on the coffee table in our living room. It has a nice dock that holds it upright and keeps it charged. The screen is always on and it's our info-center for things like:

• the family calendar
• family lists and notes (groceries, etc...) using a google keep account that is synced to our personal phones
• weather info
• skype
• TV / media control (using a chromecast & xbmc)
• music control for the home audio system
• Telephone / voicemail: We ported our rarely-used landline to a google voice number so voicemails appear on the tablet and we can also make/receive calls
• security camera viewer
• Google now / Siri general info requests
• Sprinkler control (using opensprinkler)
• Home control (lights, garage door, etc...)

[yotsuya]

We have an old tablet on the coffee table in our living room. It has a nice dock that holds it upright and keeps it charged. The screen is always on and it's our info-center for things like:

• the family calendar
• family lists and notes (groceries, etc...) using a google keep account that is synced to our personal phones
• weather info
• skype
• TV / media control (using a chromecast & xbmc)
• music control for the home audio system
• Telephone / voicemail: We ported our rarely-used landline to a google voice number so voicemails appear on the tablet and we can also make/receive calls
• security camera viewer
• Google now / Siri general info requests
• Sprinkler control (using opensprinkler)
• Home control (lights, garage door, etc...)

I wish I could give you rep for this.

[abkaz]

I wish I could give you rep for this.

Thanks - I guess that's how I always envisioned that phones and tablets should be used.

If anyone is going to do something like this, we found that if you're going to use a tablet for something like this Android tablets work the best - mostly because of the on screen widgets. They're cheap too. With the widgets you don't have to touch the tablet at all to start an app to see the weather, missed messages, calendar agenda, etc... they're all on screen all the time. And the screen is almost 100% customizable. Apple tablets can do most of the same things, but you have to launch/switch apps too often and that doesn't work as well for an information center. (not intending to start and apple vs google war... I've owned both)

[Howard_Casto]

There's not really a war to be had.  Anyone who's used both can probably come to this conclusion......  Apple typically makes a better tablet (now if it's worth the price tag is a different debate) but the android OS lets you actually use a tablet better. 

I always recommend android myself simply because any tablet you buy is almost instantly obsolete.... they are worse than computers, and you can get a decent android tablet on any budget. 

[BorgDog]

hmm, I wonder if my 8" winbook tablet would work good for this as well.  the live tiles are somewhat like widgets, and windows can do pretty much anything, just not necessarily best at the touch (which is the one thing about the winbook I don't like, the touch response/accuracy).

[menace]

Thanks for the feedback--I like the home automation/central brain idea--I have seen them in luxury houses as a thermostat/sonos sound control unit and thought it was a pretty neat look (even if it is entirely 1 percenter'ish...)  May have to delve into this further..I'm sure there are tons of wireless things that can be controlled this way.

Then for fun, I will have it turn evil 1 day of the year and try and kill us all like all those great movies from the 80's LOL

[abkaz]

The nice thing is it's no longer a 1 percenter'ish thing to have anymore. Most of the the things on ours are free (skype, lists, calendars, weather, etc...). Music is cheap (a $20 bluetooth receiver attached to an existing sound system + free Google Music cloud storage  + Spotify, Pandora, etc...). The TV/video stuff is cheap too ($90 Nexus Player acts as a chromecast and runs XBMC, Netflix, Hulu, etc... can also run emulators). So it's maybe $120 to get a ton of functionality out of an old tablet.

The home automation stuff is the most expensive and it's certainly not necessary: sprinkler controller ($100 - $150), heating cooling ($100 - $250), lighting control ($40 / switch or $15 / bulb), security cams ($250 for an HD 4 pack), and the controller runs on a raspberry pi with a zwave dongle. So there's maybe $700 - $800 tied up there.

It's easy to pick up another galaxy tab (7" for $90, or 10" for $130) and clone all the functionality to it when we want a controller in another room. Plus all of that can be copied to your phone as well. iPads would work too, but you'd lose all the convenience of the widgets and the built - in IR blaster.

[dkersten]

There is some cool stuff you can do with automation for pretty cheap these days.  I used to do it professionally back in the 90's, and let me tell you, it was expensive.  Nowadays you can do 10 times more for 100 times less.  I set up some $50,000 home automation systems back then that turned on and off some lights and closed curtains or opened the electric screen for a projector (and of course controlled the house music and televisions).

In recent years, I played around with home automation in my own house and I use my zwave front door lock regularly.  I can set codes for each kid, get texts when they come home, and unlock or lock the door from my phone from anywhere.  I have a cam in the living room too, although it is more to discourage the kids from doing things they aren't supposed to do while I am travelling than anything else.  Since I already have a programmable thermostat that does everything I need, there is no need for a zwave thermostat since the house is already warm/cool when I need it anyway.  I don't have a security system so there is no need for any of that.  I will likely play with some lighting in the future though.  I did add some wifi controlled lighting to my deck/firepit area, but I haven't tied that into my zwave controller, so I need to run a separate app to run that.

I started with a zwave dongle but it just didn't want to work with my other stuff well, so I moved to a Vera controller.  A little more money than a pi with a zwave dongle but it actually works nicely without much fuss to set it up and there is a TON of custom apps for it.

My parents recently built a winter home in Phoenix and went all out with the automation.  The coolest part is the full lighting control outside that also controls the waterfall, fountains, and hot tub.  Funny thing is they have an ipad 2 running it all because they aren't tech saavy enough to put the apps on their latest ipads/phones. 

[yotsuya]

I've thought about automation briefly, but I really don't see a need for it in my life. I guess the TV remote is really all I need.

[jdbailey1206]

I have a home automated system.  And if she doesn't listen I give her a black eye.   

[Mary_Baker]

I came across an article on this very subject a couple of days ago! It very rightly said that 'old' is definitely not the same as 'obsolete'. It read thus: 'Has the original iPad really outlived its usefulness? Absolutely not. There are still a plethora of uses for the iPad, including the sacrifice play. At the very least, you can usually trade in an old iPad - even the first gen model - for savings on a new one. Even if you've got a newer iPad at home, keeping the original may be a better idea than getting rid of it - especially if your household has more than one computer user or you have tech-savvy friends.'

And that's exactly what we have done at home. The first gen iPad was found lying forgotten in a relatively obsolete corner of the house and the husband decided it could be used by our daughter for general stuff. So now it's hers (as she proudly proclaims), and does all sorts of things with it - playing pet games like these, listening to her favorite songs, or randomly tapping around on it and drawing stuff. And so it's come in pretty handy for us.

[edekoning]

I just got rid off (=recycled) a 1G iPad and a 2G or 4G (cant remember) iPod touch. Both were collecting dust for far too long.

The iPad stopped working properly after the last supported iOS upgrade -> unbearably slow, safari crashing all the time. Apparently it is a known issue, and the advice is to not upgrade. Note that Apple does not allow downgrading to older iOS versions  . All the apps we cared about were given mandatory updates, that were not supported on 1G iPads, due to missing front facing camera non-sense  .

I only bought the iPod as a remote for my Sonos system, as that was cheaper than Sonos' own remote  . And yet again an update was required at some point that no longer supported my iPod.

[Malenko]

Note that Apple does not allow downgrading to older iOS versions 

Its easy enough to downgrade iOS versions. I hate Apple and I know how to do it

[edekoning]

I don't know how it is now, but a few years ago this was not officially possible. This was at the time that you needed iTunes to upgrade. Anyway I looked online for a way to do it, and there were guides, but I just could not be bothered anymore.

[pbj]

It's a huge pain in the ass and you've got to hack the things 6 ways to Sunday the last time I did it on a 3GS.

I've got a drawer full of old Apple products.  :-P

[Malenko]

I've got a drawer full of old Apple products.  :-P

$20 for an old ipad?

[pbj]

My wife gets weirdly possessive of her old Apple stuff.  So I've got a Macbook, iPad 1, and iPhone 5 we're not allowed to do anything with.  3GS or iPhone 4 and we can talk.

[yotsuya]

My wife gets weirdly possessive of her old Apple stuff.  So I've got a Macbook, iPad 1, and iPhone 5 we're not allowed to do anything with.  3GS or iPhone 4 and we can talk.

Wow, PBJ is using the "wife said no" excuse. How ironic.

[pbj]

Yes, I'm not going to sell my wife's stuff that she doesn't want me to sell.  Thanks for taking a ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- on another thread, yotsuya.

[yotsuya]

Yes, I'm not going to sell my wife's stuff that she doesn't want me to sell.  Thanks for taking a ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- on another thread, yotsuya.

Oh, sorry for stealing your trademark move, Jimmy.

[yotsuya]

Back on topic while Jimbo looks for his sense of humor under my pile of ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---....

I'm replacing the Gen 1 ipad I use with one of those new $50 Kindle Fires. My G1 iPad won't play YouTube videos and most apps, and I pretty much use it for reading eBooks, PDFs, and this site. I want to use the new Fire to watch stuff from my Plex server as well as the aforementioned stuff.

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah... man those things are cheap for what you get. 

My only concerns are:

Can you hack them to accept a normal version of android?
Will they accept usb/Bluetooth accessories?  I'd like to throw a gps dongle in there and maybe an fm tuner and they'd make a great carputer. 

[yotsuya]

Yeah... man those things are cheap for what you get. 

My only concerns are:

Can you hack them to accept a normal version of android?
Will they accept usb/Bluetooth accessories?  I'd like to throw a gps dongle in there and maybe an fm tuner and they'd make a great carputer.

The $50 Kindles? I dunno yet, I'll mess with it once I get it. I know it has an MicroSD port that can take up to 128 GB.

[pbj]

I've got one of those Kindles pre-ordered, too.  Got the 'kids' version so there's no ads and that sweet, sweet unconditional warranty.

[knave]

I've got one of those Kindles pre-ordered, too.  Got the 'kids' version so there's no ads and that sweet, sweet unconditional warranty.

Wow, I didn't know about the warranty on the kids version. It costs $50 more though...You can buy a replacement tablet for that much. Not sure it is worth it. 

Thanks for the heads up though.

EDIT: I just ordered one. FYI the two year protection plan is $15 (I didn't add it though)

Also back on topic...I would think that a 1st gen ipad would make a good interface for a jukebox?

[Howard_Casto]

You would think so, but the amount of "true" jukebox software out there is pretty low.  Even on android.... there are media players but jukes and juke remotes.... not really.   

I suppose someone could write a really good pc side juke program and use a html interface for remote controls.... but the fact that sd media is so big now... it kind of defeats the purpose of the jukebox itself as you can store everything right on the tablet.

[nitrogen_widget]

someone gave me an older ipod touch.
nothing on the app store works with it so it basically only does what a freshly restored ipod touch can do.
Play music you load on it or play music off your PC with itunes.

I think I need jailbreak it to make it useful?

It's a speedy little device.
Much faster than the single core 4" android tablets I have.
But, i can still load software from the store on to those.