is there anything much useful I can do with an iPad 1? (not picture frame)
I have an iPad 1. I barely used it when it was given to me and then it more or less sat unused apart from the occasional booting to see if it still works every few years.
I'm fairly sure it would still work today though I haven't tried for about 3 years. Trouble is, it never got much use because when I got it from my Mum in 2012 it was already becoming obsolete and after about a year I couldn't do basic web browsing because almost every site just crashed whatever browser I ran, none of the apps in the app store would work anymore and the bookshelf app (think that's what it was called. Came with the tablet) I tried to use to make it basically an e-reader device stopped working. There were many similar issue I forget the specifics about but basically amounted to the hardware working fine but being mostly unusable even for old software.
I wondered if there were any good ways to make use of or generally rehabilitate this device. I had hoped there'd be a lot Linux options for something like this but it looks like the earliest model anyone made.any progress with was iPad 2.
I would note that, because it's so old and out of support for everything, anything you got running on it would be full of security vulnerabilities.
Like, do not connect this to a network you care about kind of vulnerable.
I'd frankly just find a way to recycle it safely and learn to do that earlier with devices you're not using, so others can use them instead of just sitting in a closet. (It's not like I'm not guilty of the same thing.)
Anything with any computing power an internet connection can be a target. It will likely become a part of a bot net used to ddos, spam, or crack passwords.
In addition, it'll give hackers access to any accounts you're logged in to, such as apple ID, email bank etc, so it could be further used to steal your identity or money.
Because it's so old and full of vulnerabilities, it makes it an easy target. If it gets hacked, it'll most likely be automatic process, without any intervention from the hacker, and there may be no signs that the device is infected.
Devices that are no longer supported and kept up to date with security updates contain known, but unpatched, vulnerabilities. Some of them are software based, but some are a function of the hardware itself. Connect these to a network, manage to do something that gets them compromised, and you've given bad actors a foothold on your network.
Because most networks, especially home networks, tend to be configured in a way that trusts local network traffic more than external traffic, such a foothold can further compromise your systems. Very few people have the resources, or technical know-how to properly segregate potentially dangerous or vulnerable devices on a network.
I have a first gen ipad air and we use it as "the music ipad" for my kids. If you can't get Spotify running, then you could fill it with mp3s and use it that way. If you don't have kids, you could have it hooked to a bluetooth speaker in the kitchen where it could double up as a e-cookbook or notepad for shopping lists which could then easily be emailed to yourself for when you go out to do a shop
This is the kind of thing I was thinking of, it's entirely within it's capabilities when new. The frustrating thing is though that I'm not really sure how I'd actually do it now. I doubt I'd be able to get the Gmail app on there and it'd be a bit of a pain to plug it in to the computer to transfer files to it every time. Although maybe that's not too onerous. I wonder I iTunes will still talk to it.
This is why I was wondering if there was something that could be done to breath some life in to it. I take what many of the responses have to say about it being really just too old, but the thing is, I'd like it to at least be useful for the things it used to be useful for in it's day I find it frustrating that it's artificially locked out of most of that, like the stupid e-reader app not working anymore when theoretically all it needs to do is facilitate payment and receipt of a file and then display text for me to read.
I kind of hoped there might be some means of putting a new OS on there that is light weight and would allow to do all the things it used to be able to do.
Of course the software is a problem, but its hardware is the same as an iPhone 4. It has 256MB working memory. Most browsers take up that kind of ram four-fold to just have a window open. Although I do agree that any and all devices should have the freedom to run whatever software you want, even Linux would be having a hard time on a 800mhz processor with so little ram for anything other than basic terminal work.
i use my ipad1 with soma.fm . I installed it like 2 years ago, so maybe you still could get the app from the store.
When you asked to enter the verify code on the app-store you have to type in your password an then the verification code.
See this old thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7392317
That's the root of most of the problems yes. Of course there's the very limited hardware to contend with. I can't do much about webpages being simply too big for the amount of RAM, but then again I like to think if I could run something more lightweight it could maybe squeeze a little more performance out of her. I know I could maybe jailbreak, but what to do then I'm not sure.
Like for example, would being able to run a later iOS help things or is it capped around v5.0 out of necessity more than just planned obsolescence?
I don't think jailbreaking would allow you to upgrade your operating system, but you could download/install apps yourself instead of using the app store. That would allow you to use older apps that meet your system specs.
Actually, that's a good point, someone did mention this Home Assistant thing once before. That could be interesting. Trouble is I'm yet to find a Linux project that's supposed to work on iPads quite this old. Makes sense, but it's a shame. I think I'd have just about the ability and patience to install OS and roll with the punches when it inevitably requires some kind of finessing and fixing, but k definitely don't have the ability to personally figure out how to make a kernel or distro that would work on this hardware. I'm guessing it's not an iOS app or if it was, one that work on such on old iOS
I have an old iPad (not as old as yours but still at least 8-9 years old) that I use pretty much exclusively as a pdf reader. There are also some library apps that work with it but I don’t trust it too much on network so it’s mostly pdfs.