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iPad Receiving an iPad 1, what to use it for?

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Original poster
Dec 16, 2011
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So my grandmother got an iPad 4, and she's going to let me have her iPad 1. Of course I'd rather have a Mini or an iPad 4 or something newer, but hey, it's still a free iPad.

Of course the iPad 1 is super dated and can only run iOS 5, so is there any major worth behind one?

If Keynote and Pages run on iOS 5, I was thinking that it could be pretty useful for something like that. Light web browsing and probably things like Netflix or YouTube probably wouldn't look too bad on it either.

I've also never had an iPad, so I'm clueless as to what all you can do with jailbreaking. Obviously since iOS 6 or 7 won't be on the iPad 1, surely I can regain features through jailbreaking.

Also one concern is apps. For the most part, every app requires iOS 5 right? Or have most apps been capped at iOS 6?

I know this is, at this point, "ancient" technology, but surely an old iPad can be useful?
 
It can run all apps cause apps now a days need ios 4 or over
 
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As far as i know, many apps still work on iOS 4-point-something, so I think you wouldn't have to worry because it doesn't run iOS 6.
 
We've got one, in fact it's our only iPad. There are plenty of available apps for it, but we mainly use it as an information source (Safari, IMDB, Wikipedia, Calendar, Contacts) as we have computers for creative uses.

IMHO the major limitation isn't the iOS version but that it has a slow processor and limited RAM. But it's fine for our use.
 
Was just loading the 5 yr free apps promotions onto the spare ipad 1 and noticed that several of them required iOS 6. Also hadn't used it for a while and was irritated by how slow it was compared to our ipad 3! But the kids don't seem to mind... Free is free, enjoy!
 
Drawing, taking notes, most simple games, a gigantic remote for an Apple TV, a remote to control your iTunes library, reading books, a Kitchen wall mounted "TV", photo frame, home video monitoring, there are a ton of things you can still do, only if you can access apps that support iOS 5.
 
I see some people on the train still using iPad for reading and light gaming. I wish I could keep my iPad 1 but I had to sell it because I need FaceTime to chat with relay service provider for outgoing calls. :apple:
 
I still use an iPad 1 daily. It still works well for just about everything you can use a tablet for. It can definitely be slow at times and apps crash more than they used to, but it's still useable.

I'd like to upgrade, but it works well enough that I can't justify spending the money when the original still works pretty good.
 
As far as jailbreaking goes, since you can't go higher than 5.1.1, yes, it's jailbreakable if you want to go that route. Functional tweaks to improve the ipad experience are available, though there certainly aren't as many as there are for the iPhone. There's enough to justify doing it, at least for me--starting with RetinaPad, which doubles iPhone only apps without the ugly pixelization. Check out the jailbreak section of the forum for details if you need them.

My iPad 1 still runs fine, and my husband still uses his for both work and play; as others said, it's a bit slow and more prone to memory crashes. Don't overload it, and it will mostly handle light duty non-memory intensive stuff pretty well.
 
All standalone apps work fine but third party apps crash, especially facebook and that is even when you close every other app.

Be prepared for unexpected crashes if you are using downloaded apps, will be frustrating few people enough to start thinking about committing suicide (but actually won't be).
 
Not sure why FB doesn't work on your iPad 1. Works great on mine. In fact, my iPad 1 (which my wife uses now) runs great on most apps. There are a few that are kind of slow, but for the most part it does everything my wife needs it to do including playing some games like Candy Crush.
 
wolfpackfan said:
Not sure why FB doesn't work on your iPad 1. Works great on mine. In fact, my iPad 1 (which my wife uses now) runs great on most apps. There are a few that are kind of slow, but for the most part it does everything my wife needs it to do including playing some games like Candy Crush.
Click to expand...

Facebook tends to release a laggy app (as seen by iTunes reviews).
 
The iPad 1 is perfectly usable. It's faster than the ipod touch 4G although have no iOS6 support (it's very weird). If you follow this tips you will get a better experience (in terms of perfomance, battery life..)

- Configure it as a new device, (don't restore from backup).
- Install only the apps that you truly use. The performance is very proportional to the number of apps installed.
- Try to do not fill to much the memory of the device (keep at least 2gb free)
- Configure the email accounts that you truly use and/or configure in "manual" mode retrieving for emails in the accounts that aren't main for you
- Activate only the important notifications for apps, the same with location services.
- Disable bluetooth.
- Disable services that you don't need, like photo streaming.
- If you have iTunes Match, i recommend you disabling it and only enabling when you need a song that is not in your library.

I hope this helps! and enjoy your new iPad. Not everyday you can get one for free ;)
 
I imagine you'll probably be able to do everything on it. I guess you'll probably experience lag on more intensive code heavy apps though.
 
wolfpackfan said:
Not sure why FB doesn't work on your iPad 1. Works great on mine. In fact, my iPad 1 (which my wife uses now) runs great on most apps. There are a few that are kind of slow, but for the most part it does everything my wife needs it to do including playing some games like Candy Crush.
Click to expand...

Facebook crashes unpredictably, it is a known problem for iOS devices running with 256mb memory (i.e. iPhone 3GS and iPad) and you can see that when you do google search it is a very well known problem.
 
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