3 ms·

Realistically, and I know this answer isn't popular (or even a true answer to your question) but: recycle them and don't waste your time. Not sure if they can b

Realistically, and I know this answer isn't popular (or even a true answer to your question) but: recycle them and don't waste your time. Not sure if they can be used as trade-ins with Apple anymore but could always put them towards something newer.

smoldesu 5y ago
This really makes me sad. I'd like to live in a world where burned-out iPads could be used as digital calendars or drawing tablets or something of that ilk. We see people revel in the functionality of old Macs/PCs all the time here on Hacker News, it's pretty harrowing to realize that our reality is one where making these systems usable again is seen as a "waste of time", and that feeling of joy derived from finding older technology that still has a place in the world has all but dried up.
- yuppie_scum 5y ago
  Well, they are recyclable these days
- TillE 5y ago
  The iPad 3 is an early adopter device, the first of the retina iPads. It was always pretty slow, and it has not aged well. If you have a project idea for it, sure, you can probably still build stuff for it with XCode. It's not a brick. But it's a lousy consumer device.
- Klonoar 5y ago
  I dunno, I'm increasingly coming around to the opinion that old technology that can't be used well anymore just doesn't have a place outside of a museum. Apple's recycling efforts are actually pretty good and so for their ecosystem I'm less bothered about ditching old devices and moving on with my life. e.g, this: >We see people revel in the functionality of old Macs/PCs all the time To me isn't something worth revel'ing in, it just feels like waxing nostalgic. But I understand that I'm in the minority here and people legitimately like this stuff (and people like old cars and such, so hey, I get it), but it's not for me.
- boxingrock 5y ago
  especially since the raspberry pi just turned 10 years old and you can still get security updates for the original models because it's just linux.
- ThatPlayer 5y ago
  To me the issue is that Apple's browser is outdated and missing modern features. On top of that, I can't just put new apps on it because it's no longer supported on the App Store, and I'm not going to pay for a developer license (and a Mac) just to run whatever I want on it. For example one of the uses I'd like to do would be to repurpose it as a smart home display with my Home Assistant setup. Problem is the web interface uses features that the browser doesn't support. The suggestions on HA forums is to run a better browser remotely and use the iPad as a dumb display: https://community.home-assistant.io/t/options-for-lovelace-on-older-ipad-ios-9-3-5/ https://community.home-assistant.io/t/options-for-lovelace-o... This is why I'm for the bills to force Apple to allow 'sideloading'. Even with jailbreaking, I haven't seen an effort to make an alternative browser engine run on iOS, and my device is further hampered by it being an older 32-bit processor that Apple no longer support. Even if those laws do pass, I doubt they'd update my old iPad. What I'll probably end up doing instead is ripping the display out and hooking it up to a HDMI controller board, and then connecting a Raspberry Pi to that.
  - tannhaeuser 5y ago
    > I can't just put new apps on it because it's no longer supported on the App Store Even if it hasn't support for running the up-to-date App Store app (hanging at about the point where a payment method is configured), I found out that if you have another iDevice, you can use that for purchasing and then the app appears in the purchased apps tab on the old iOS device, from where you can download it. Provided the app is supported on iOS 9 and/or the developer hasn't deliberately removed old versions. That's how I've installed the occasional kid game or adventure game on my almost ten years old iPad mini (1!). That genre had seen a renaissance around 2012-2015, and some review comments on the app store even claim apps from that time run better on older iPads. iPad 2 is better even, actually has had a really decent run with updates for six years or so, with the latest updates only from last year (iOS 12? with metal support), so should be good for years to come. The battery on my old iPad mini still goes strong with at least 8 hours, too; the display is no match to current devices, though.
MrWiffles 5y ago
Honestly you’re right to point this out. And it’s because you’re right - and the reasons behind that - that I’m gradually working to abandon the Apple ecosystem entirely over the next year or two. It doesn’t make sense for Apple’s shareholders to allow for past-useful technology to continue being used when their business model relies on new hardware sales, and they can just force you into buying a new machine. Because hey, what else you gonna do? What are your alternatives, realistically? No access to older OS versions, no access to older App Store releases even if you could, and they won’t allow you to use any other App Store either. You could try to jailbreak the device and see if you can find an alternative App Store (i think there used to be one called Cydia? Not sure if it still exists), but that’s a hell of a lot of work.
- fingerlocks 5y ago
  Which of these complaints don’t apply to Android? You can’t install newer android apps compiled for higher min OS targets on older platforms. If you can find an older app binary on iOS, it can be reprovisioned and installed as well. Not quite as seamless as Android, but still doable. It really only takes ~15 minutes to jailbreak and most of that spent waiting for the device to reboot.
  - MrWiffles 5y ago
    > Which of these complaints don’t apply to Android 1. You can get older versions of Android ROMs from literally thousands of places. If Apple stops providing a version of iOS and you don't have one otherwise, and your device is borked, you're screwed. 2. Stock Android may not have been released by the manufacturer for your device, but that doesn't mean you can't get those new APIs from a different ROM available via the community. 3. Android doesn't prevent you from installing from anywhere NOT the official Google Play store by default. You can disable this without violating whatever internal security measures exist within Android just to get your own freedom back. Not so with iOS. You have no idea how jailbreaking that device will hinder security going forward. 4. Jailbreaking shouldn't be necessary in the first place. There is NO good reason for Apple to keep users away from installing whatever the hell hey want. IT'S THEIR DEVICE, THEY BOUGHT THE DAMN THING. They? Wait, I mean, I. I bought the damn thing. (And don't even try the whole "oh apple checks the security of app store blah blah blah" - we all know that's a load of crap and easy to bypass. But in the name of that security theater, loads of legitimate small time developers get their submissions rejected and accounts deleted in a daily basis, and for what? This is providing zero utility to the end user whatsoever.) To be clear, I'm in NO way saying Android is better. Quite the opposite. Google wasted no time turning that entire platform into a raging dumpster fire from hell. And the number of people who've been victimized via the Google Play store is dramatically and demonstrably higher than that of the Apple App Store. But letting these guys have control for any reason is the wrong answer, full stop. The end user needs to have the tools, sophistication, knowledge, and most importantly *POWER* to secure their own device. Neither monopoly gives people either one right now, and that's an abysmal sin. > Quick note as well: When I wrote the above, I was thinking from the perspective of MacOS and general computing. I don't consider smart phones to be actual computers at all. More like overpriced toys that are usually far more trouble than they're worth (IMO). I wasn't even thinking of iPhone vs. Android until your comment.

smoldesu 5y ago

This really makes me sad. I'd like to live in a world where burned-out iPads could be used as digital calendars or drawing tablets or something of that ilk. We see people revel in the functionality of old Macs/PCs all the time here on Hacker News, it's pretty harrowing to realize that our reality is one where making these systems usable again is seen as a "waste of time", and that feeling of joy derived from finding older technology that still has a place in the world has all but dried up.

yuppie_scum 5y ago
Well, they are recyclable these days
TillE 5y ago
The iPad 3 is an early adopter device, the first of the retina iPads. It was always pretty slow, and it has not aged well. If you have a project idea for it, sure, you can probably still build stuff for it with XCode. It's not a brick. But it's a lousy consumer device.
Klonoar 5y ago
I dunno, I'm increasingly coming around to the opinion that old technology that can't be used well anymore just doesn't have a place outside of a museum. Apple's recycling efforts are actually pretty good and so for their ecosystem I'm less bothered about ditching old devices and moving on with my life. e.g, this: >We see people revel in the functionality of old Macs/PCs all the time To me isn't something worth revel'ing in, it just feels like waxing nostalgic. But I understand that I'm in the minority here and people legitimately like this stuff (and people like old cars and such, so hey, I get it), but it's not for me.
boxingrock 5y ago
especially since the raspberry pi just turned 10 years old and you can still get security updates for the original models because it's just linux.
ThatPlayer 5y ago
To me the issue is that Apple's browser is outdated and missing modern features. On top of that, I can't just put new apps on it because it's no longer supported on the App Store, and I'm not going to pay for a developer license (and a Mac) just to run whatever I want on it. For example one of the uses I'd like to do would be to repurpose it as a smart home display with my Home Assistant setup. Problem is the web interface uses features that the browser doesn't support. The suggestions on HA forums is to run a better browser remotely and use the iPad as a dumb display: https://community.home-assistant.io/t/options-for-lovelace-on-older-ipad-ios-9-3-5/ https://community.home-assistant.io/t/options-for-lovelace-o... This is why I'm for the bills to force Apple to allow 'sideloading'. Even with jailbreaking, I haven't seen an effort to make an alternative browser engine run on iOS, and my device is further hampered by it being an older 32-bit processor that Apple no longer support. Even if those laws do pass, I doubt they'd update my old iPad. What I'll probably end up doing instead is ripping the display out and hooking it up to a HDMI controller board, and then connecting a Raspberry Pi to that.
- tannhaeuser 5y ago
  > I can't just put new apps on it because it's no longer supported on the App Store Even if it hasn't support for running the up-to-date App Store app (hanging at about the point where a payment method is configured), I found out that if you have another iDevice, you can use that for purchasing and then the app appears in the purchased apps tab on the old iOS device, from where you can download it. Provided the app is supported on iOS 9 and/or the developer hasn't deliberately removed old versions. That's how I've installed the occasional kid game or adventure game on my almost ten years old iPad mini (1!). That genre had seen a renaissance around 2012-2015, and some review comments on the app store even claim apps from that time run better on older iPads. iPad 2 is better even, actually has had a really decent run with updates for six years or so, with the latest updates only from last year (iOS 12? with metal support), so should be good for years to come. The battery on my old iPad mini still goes strong with at least 8 hours, too; the display is no match to current devices, though.

MrWiffles 5y ago

Honestly you’re right to point this out. And it’s because you’re right - and the reasons behind that - that I’m gradually working to abandon the Apple ecosystem entirely over the next year or two. It doesn’t make sense for Apple’s shareholders to allow for past-useful technology to continue being used when their business model relies on new hardware sales, and they can just force you into buying a new machine. Because hey, what else you gonna do? What are your alternatives, realistically? No access to older OS versions, no access to older App Store releases even if you could, and they won’t allow you to use any other App Store either. You could try to jailbreak the device and see if you can find an alternative App Store (i think there used to be one called Cydia? Not sure if it still exists), but that’s a hell of a lot of work.

fingerlocks 5y ago
Which of these complaints don’t apply to Android? You can’t install newer android apps compiled for higher min OS targets on older platforms. If you can find an older app binary on iOS, it can be reprovisioned and installed as well. Not quite as seamless as Android, but still doable. It really only takes ~15 minutes to jailbreak and most of that spent waiting for the device to reboot.
- MrWiffles 5y ago
  > Which of these complaints don’t apply to Android 1. You can get older versions of Android ROMs from literally thousands of places. If Apple stops providing a version of iOS and you don't have one otherwise, and your device is borked, you're screwed. 2. Stock Android may not have been released by the manufacturer for your device, but that doesn't mean you can't get those new APIs from a different ROM available via the community. 3. Android doesn't prevent you from installing from anywhere NOT the official Google Play store by default. You can disable this without violating whatever internal security measures exist within Android just to get your own freedom back. Not so with iOS. You have no idea how jailbreaking that device will hinder security going forward. 4. Jailbreaking shouldn't be necessary in the first place. There is NO good reason for Apple to keep users away from installing whatever the hell hey want. IT'S THEIR DEVICE, THEY BOUGHT THE DAMN THING. They? Wait, I mean, I. I bought the damn thing. (And don't even try the whole "oh apple checks the security of app store blah blah blah" - we all know that's a load of crap and easy to bypass. But in the name of that security theater, loads of legitimate small time developers get their submissions rejected and accounts deleted in a daily basis, and for what? This is providing zero utility to the end user whatsoever.) To be clear, I'm in NO way saying Android is better. Quite the opposite. Google wasted no time turning that entire platform into a raging dumpster fire from hell. And the number of people who've been victimized via the Google Play store is dramatically and demonstrably higher than that of the Apple App Store. But letting these guys have control for any reason is the wrong answer, full stop. The end user needs to have the tools, sophistication, knowledge, and most importantly *POWER* to secure their own device. Neither monopoly gives people either one right now, and that's an abysmal sin. > Quick note as well: When I wrote the above, I was thinking from the perspective of MacOS and general computing. I don't consider smart phones to be actual computers at all. More like overpriced toys that are usually far more trouble than they're worth (IMO). I wasn't even thinking of iPhone vs. Android until your comment.