Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple TV Go: iPad Pro Modded Into Portable tvOS Device

HobeSoundDarryl said:
No criticism intended at all. Sorry if you took it that way.

Both of your replies seem to take what he’s doing with his stuff negatively. It’s his stuff. He can do what he wants with it. It brings no harm or pain to others… and it’s no longer Apples property for them to have any say too.

If you want “he's a nut job”-type responses, I personally don’t see much point either. Maybe he wants the attention he’s getting? People will do about anything for attention. Try a search for “stupid people tricks” and similar on YouTube. That well is an endless gusher of ‘what’s the point” and ‘nut job”, etc. 15 minutes of fame may be the entire prize here.

Hardware hacks have long been a thing… with perhaps most met with “what’s the point?” and “this is stupid” and all variants of that kind of response. Years ago, many faulted the insanity of the guy hardware hacking an iPhone with USB-C replacing Lightning. Now they all come that way. That guy then showed that AirPods could also be hardware hacked to embrace USB-C. Now THEY are coming that way too. Why does the ridicule moderate when it’s Apple making the change instead of “some guy” beating them to it? Where’s the “Apple is a nut job” when they adopt the “crazy/useless/pointless” we ridiculed when others had gone there first?

For what seemed like about 4+ years, there was near universal disdain/contempt around here for phablets when Apple clung to 4" as "perfection" and 3.5" as former "perfection" before that. Words like "abomination" were commonplace with thousands of posts of "what's the point?" and "who wants", etc. And then Apple went there and its as if none of us ever wrote a negative word about phablet sizes.

This “nut job” (or not) has at least won a few minutes of fame (or infamy) among Apple people. And perhaps there is some other benefit to it through his own lens. Good for him. I see no articles about tens of millions of people doing nothing different/special than intended by Apple with Apple hardware. Hallelujah! That would be some boring threads!

If- like the “pointless” USB-C hack in iPhone- this leads to Apple making Front Row 2 to bring the AppleTV interface to iDevices & Macs, I suspect that would be welcome with overwhelmingly open arms. Do I expect that to come from this? No. Do I think iPhone went USB-C because that guy showed how readily it could be done? No. But again, some people hack for fun and 15 minutes of fame or attention. Good for them.

There's probably no logical benefit/rationale to this hack to make it superior to using iPad as a regular iPad. If everything needs a logical basis, a lot of what entertains/intrigues us would likely not come to be. And there's rarely 15 minutes of fame in fully complying with the as is.
Click to expand...
Wow, you really locked on the throw-away answer option of nut-job. That was a fringe possible and completely valid answer to the question “but why?” Still a completely valid question btw. Some here, me included seek the knowledge of what purpose this serves. The answer can be no purpose at all, but the question is seeking knowledge. I assumed in my head that there was some functionality that the Apple TV serves that the iPad can’t simply replicate making this mod necessary. That may not be the case, but if it is, I would like to learn the answer. This had no obvious answer to that question so I and others asked it. The lightning to usb conversion you mentioned has an obvious utility. It reduces the number of charging cables needed in day to day life. Even though I prefer the lightning connector as it is a superior design, it just lacks the ubiquity and functionality of usb-c, I can see the advantage of the conversion. This kludge, though technically interesting, seems to not add much of if any functionality or utility to the iPad. Hence the question: “but why?” It’s not dismissive. I respect the ability of someone to do this, just would like to know if I’m missing some utility it adds to the original iPad. Or if it was just to see if I can do it, that’s fine too. Still would like to know the answer. Also, since you said “it’s his stuff, he can do with it what he wants” it seems you missed my post saying essentially that long before your comment even though I mentioned that in a subsequent comment. Anyway, stop trying to police how people ask questions here. It hampers the exchange of knowledge.
 
  • Like
Reactions: wbeasley
Inspired by this, I strapped a Mac Pro with a UPS to the back of my 13” iPad, ran the HDMI in through an adapter, connected the Magic Keyboard via Bluetooth, and called it a Mac Pro Touch ‘n’ Go.
 
  • Like
  • Haha
Reactions: wbeasley, TheNewLou and Elusi
I hope this is the future of iPad. Run MacOS by connecting the magic keyboard. Run tvOS by connecting to a TV (or choose default of MacOS etc). iPadOS when standalone.

The ultimate flex device, and the laptop of the future, essentially. Pair with Apple Vision Pro for even more features like multiple displays side-by-side, etc etc.

People asking "Why?" or saying this mod is pointless are missing this aspect of the future of iPad.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: wbeasley
tothemoonsands said:
I hope this is the future of iPad. Run MacOS by connecting the magic keyboard. Run tvOS by connecting to a TV (or choose default of MacOS etc). iPadOS when standalone.

The ultimate flex device, and the laptop of the future, essentially. Pair with Apple Vision Pro for even more features like multiple displays side-by-side, etc etc.

People asking "Why?" or saying this mod is pointless are missing this aspect of the future of iPad.
Click to expand...
That’s actually a pretty heat idea. That said the iPad is just a display… It’s not running tvOS. My understanding from quickly looking at the article about the mod (unless I missed something) is the only real mod is making the AppleTV powered by USB-C. The rest is external cables and adapters.
 
  • Like
Reactions: HobeSoundDarryl
Treq said:
Wow, you really locked on the throw-away answer option of nut-job. That was a fringe possible and completely valid answer to the question “but why?” Still a completely valid question btw. Some here, me included seek the knowledge of what purpose this serves. The answer can be no purpose at all, but the question is seeking knowledge. I assumed in my head that there was some functionality that the Apple TV serves that the iPad can’t simply replicate making this mod necessary. That may not be the case, but if it is, I would like to learn the answer. This had no obvious answer to that question so I and others asked it. The lightning to usb conversion you mentioned has an obvious utility. It reduces the number of charging cables needed in day to day life. Even though I prefer the lightning connector as it is a superior design, it just lacks the ubiquity and functionality of usb-c, I can see the advantage of the conversion. This kludge, though technically interesting, seems to not add much of if any functionality or utility to the iPad. Hence the question: “but why?” It’s not dismissive. I respect the ability of someone to do this, just would like to know if I’m missing some utility it adds to the original iPad. Or if it was just to see if I can do it, that’s fine too. Still would like to know the answer. Also, since you said “it’s his stuff, he can do with it what he wants” it seems you missed my post saying essentially that long before your comment even though I mentioned that in a subsequent comment. Anyway, stop trying to police how people ask questions here. It hampers the exchange of knowledge.
Click to expand...

I'm not policing anyone- just trying to contribute to a conversation. Sorry you are reading my attempts at contributing to this conversation in these very negative ways.

Directly to your question: only the creator of this "Frankenstein" knows the absolute answer. The rest of us- myself included- can only speculate.
 
Except for the part about changing the aluminum Magic Keyboard’s keys, this is a “bonkers” level waste of time and ludicrously stupid.

If Apple would offer the option of black or white keys on the aluminum Magic Keyboard, I’d buy a new iPad Pro AND a new Magic Keyboard (I already have the older model of both). The designed the gorgeous Apple TV remote and I don’t understand why the design team somehow missed that when designing the aluminum MK.
 
Takeo said:
That’s actually a pretty heat idea. That said the iPad is just a display… It’s not running tvOS. My understanding from quickly looking at the article about the mod (unless I missed something) is the only real mod is making the AppleTV powered by USB-C. The rest is external cables and adapters.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, I guess I’m just blindly hoping someone from Apple sees it and helps spur the all-in-one OS switching sooner than later.

Running tvOS on an iPad doesn’t seem like it wouldn’t cannibalize Apple TV sales, and at some point Apple has to realize it’s possible to run MacOS on an iPad without cannibalizing MacBook Pros.
 
roland.g said:
I refuse to watch TV of any kind on an iPad or iPhone with the exception of streaming sports so that I can play the audio through a speaker and have something to glance at for replays in the garage. If I want to watch movies or shows I have big screens for that.
Click to expand...
Which choice on your part has what, precisely, to do with the original post/article?
 
G5isAlive said:
and your point is? seriously has the world gotten so boring that we can't see the fun in anything?

you don't do anything crazy, or silly, just for the fun of it? really?

Seems to me you are asking for the equivalent of being an a square white room with no windows because its more practical than a hookah bar to riff of your strange analogy.
Click to expand...
By making this personal, you have definitely advanced the conversation in meaningful ways. You should absolutely change your handle to "IMCharming." 🙃
 
  • Haha
Reactions: G5isAlive
Is this so that apple can announce at WWDC that the iPad Pro will be able to be controlled by an Apple TV remote with iPadOS 18?
 
dork said:
I already have an iPad that I use exclusively as a TV - I just run all the apps on it (Apple TV +, Hulu, Netflix, Max, etc etc). I do not for the life of me understand why someone would undertake such a clunky workaround to accomplish something that an iPad can already do without any modifications at all.
Click to expand...
Or I can just slide my Apple Vision Pro into my tote bag for much smaller portable size if he loves his tv experience that much
 
  • Like
Reactions: dork
jvchappy said:
... but why?
Click to expand...
What I was thinking. Why turn a $1000.00 device that does so much into a $129.00 device that watches TV?
why.gif
Scratch Head.gif
 
Wow... I didn't know that there is a USB-C circuit board available. Perfect for a Power-over-Ethernet adapter that can power my AppleTV4 directly from the network. :cool:
 
All I really need is for all my devices to be able to access my home sharing library as fast and smooth as all my Apple TVs do! like seriously, why my m4 iPad Pro takes ages to load and play from my library but it takes my iPad almost 45 minutes to do so????
 
This is a pretty interesting project.

Now if only people would start modding iPad Pros into Mac tablets, that would really get the party going. 😩
 
  • Love
Reactions: bondr006
I guess the one advantage to this is to be able to control the video using the remote which would be handy. Like someone else said I miss the days when we had Front Row on Macs. I watch a lot of movies with my MacBook Pro plugged into the TV and it would be nice to use an Apple TV remote with that (if it had support within VLC), however the functionality would be lacking so it’s better just to either have a wireless keyboard and mouse or a remote app like remoteMouse on your iPhone.
 
So instead of just clicking the angry response every time someone asks why would you do that, it might be better to explain your reasoning? Shirasaki, over to you...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back