What to do with an old iPad

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Locked-down hardware, ownership, and e‑waste

  • Strong frustration that old iPads are perfectly fine hardware but “functionally useless” because Apple stops OS support and locks bootloaders.
  • Many argue users should be allowed to install alternative OSes once Apple drops support, instead of being funneled into upgrade-or-landfill.
  • Recycling is seen as inferior to reuse; some view Apple’s stance as profit-driven churn, others also blame internal security/lockdown culture.
  • A minority defends Apple’s approach via trade‑ins and recycling, even framing shredding→new iPad as the “unlock” path.

Alternative OSes, Linux, and jailbreaking

  • Desire to run Linux or even macOS on iPads, especially newer M‑series models, but current reality is: locked bootloader + per‑model SoC complexity.
  • Non‑x86 hardware is described as poorly standardized, making general-purpose OS ports hard; efforts like postmarketOS are cited as struggling here.
  • Jailbreaking is seen as the only route, but it’s fragile: version‑specific, semi‑tethered, dependent on shady tools, and often requires an Apple ID some refuse to create.
  • People mention prior work (Linux on iPad, macOS userspace on iPhone), UTM for virtualized OSes, and iSH for userspace Linux, but none solve the base-OS lock.

Practical reuses and limitations

  • Examples of repurposing: self-hosted blog on an iPad 2, Home Assistant / AppDaemon dashboards, AV room controllers, status panels, PDF music scores, and offline video players (e.g., VLC on treadmill).
  • But old Safari and frozen web standards break many modern browser-based dashboards and apps.
  • Some devices are effectively doomed by bulging batteries or broken touchscreens.

Battery behavior, charging bugs, and “spicy pillows”

  • Concern about battery swelling on always‑plugged devices; some mitigate by unplugging or using smart plugs/timers to cycle charge levels.
  • Reports that certain iPads sometimes drain battery even while plugged in under heavy load (e.g., dashboards), possibly due to weak chargers or OS bugs.
  • Others share decade‑old iPads still holding charge well, highlighting very mixed longevity experiences.

Hosting, Cloudflare, and ISP concerns

  • The blog’s iPad server sits behind Cloudflare; outages were due to tunnels or local network, not HN load.
  • Back-of-envelope numbers suggest HN front-page traffic is only a few to ~10 requests/sec, easily handled by simple static setups.
  • Several argue consumer ISPs rarely care about that kind of upstream use, though contracts often technically forbid “servers.”