All iPads Still finding a lot of use for my old iPads, please keep yours out of the landfill.

[DouglasCarroll]

Hi Everyone,

Nothing special just a quick observation of mine.

I find it interesting how useful older iPads still are in spite of them being massively out of date. For example, in my kitchen I have an old iPad 3rd generation running version 9.3.5 of the iPad OS. The iPad lives in my kitchen in an Apple iPad Dock (Model A1381) with the audio out attached into my Apple iPod Hi-Fi speaker and the power to the wall to keep the iPad charged. This setup gets used every single day for streaming Pandora and other compatible audio apps to the speaker. I also have recipes stored on the iPad for cooking and I occasionally use it for reading materials I've stored on it from various places and sources. In other words this thing is great and extremely useful for me. The best part is I got the iPad and the iPad dock free when I found them discarded in a recycle bin. Shockingly the battery still also holds a great charge and I've never had any issue when I un-dock it for reading....the battery seems to just go and go. Anyways I really find it disturbing when I see article on all of the e-waste in the world and especially how it's dumped in developing parts of the world and it's really something to be able to usefully continue the life of my older "obsolete" electronics and not have to really compromise what I use them for for as long as possible.

Anyways, just my 2 cents about this subject.

Thanks everyone.

 

[sparksd]

Hi Everyone,

Nothing special just a quick observation of mine.

I find it interesting how useful older iPads still are in spite of them being massively out of date. For example, in my kitchen I have an old iPad 3rd generation running version 9.3.5 of the iPad OS. The iPad lives in my kitchen in an Apple iPad Dock (Model A1381) with the audio out attached into my Apple iPod Hi-Fi speaker and the power to the wall to keep the iPad charged. This setup gets used every single day for streaming Pandora and other compatible audio apps to the speaker. I also have recipes stored on the iPad for cooking and I occasionally use it for reading materials I've stored on it from various places and sources. In other words this thing is great and extremely useful for me. The best part is I got the iPad and the iPad dock free when I found them discarded in a recycle bin. Shockingly the battery still also holds a great charge and I've never had any issue when I un-dock it for reading....the battery seems to just go and go. Anyways I really find it disturbing when I see article on all of the e-waste in the world and especially how it's dumped in developing parts of the world and it's really something to be able to usefully continue the life of my older "obsolete" electronics and not have to really compromise what I use them for for as long as possible.

Anyways, just my 2 cents about this subject.

Thanks everyone.

It is worth noting that a lot of cities have excellent electronic recycling facilities.

 

[DouglasCarroll]

It is worth noting that a lot of cities have excellent electronic recycling facilities.

Yes, I live in one of the cities with "excellent recycling facilities", however go ahead and AFTER you watch this we'll talk......

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[cupcakes2000]

Just take care if you keep the device connected to the internet with such an out of date OS. Shame on Apple for not keeping up support of perfectly usable devices, or not allowing the devices to have another OS installed on it.

 

[eyoungren]

Hi Everyone,

Nothing special just a quick observation of mine.

I find it interesting how useful older iPads still are in spite of them being massively out of date. For example, in my kitchen I have an old iPad 3rd generation running version 9.3.5 of the iPad OS. The iPad lives in my kitchen in an Apple iPad Dock (Model A1381) with the audio out attached into my Apple iPod Hi-Fi speaker and the power to the wall to keep the iPad charged. This setup gets used every single day for streaming Pandora and other compatible audio apps to the speaker. I also have recipes stored on the iPad for cooking and I occasionally use it for reading materials I've stored on it from various places and sources. In other words this thing is great and extremely useful for me. The best part is I got the iPad and the iPad dock free when I found them discarded in a recycle bin. Shockingly the battery still also holds a great charge and I've never had any issue when I un-dock it for reading....the battery seems to just go and go. Anyways I really find it disturbing when I see article on all of the e-waste in the world and especially how it's dumped in developing parts of the world and it's really something to be able to usefully continue the life of my older "obsolete" electronics and not have to really compromise what I use them for for as long as possible.

Anyways, just my 2 cents about this subject.

Thanks everyone.

Still using two iPad 6th gens. My wife has hers and I have mine.

Late last year I bought an iPad 7th gen for my son and my daughter, so yeah - they have newer iPads than my wife and I.

All four iPads in the house have cellular. Once we update, my 6th gen will go back into the car for maps and music streaming. Previously, that was the job of my iPad Air 2 (long since sold on).

 

[eyoungren]

It is worth noting that a lot of cities have excellent electronic recycling facilities.

I live in Phoenix, AZ, which is not a small city. The city offers ONE hazmat/electronics recycling pickup per year. You have to schedule it in advance, tell them specifically what you are recycling and make sure it's outside on the day of pickup. That's all fine. But one per year is ALL you get.

 

[eyoungren]

Just take care if you keep the device connected to the internet with such an out of date OS. Shame on Apple for not keeping up support of perfectly usable devices, or not allowing the devices to have another OS installed on it.

All iPads in our house have cellular. 99% of their use is to either play video, stream music or other lesser uses that do not rely on connections to any network. They fall into a fourth or even fifth/sixth category of devices being used. There are four people in my family. Two of us use laptop/desktop computers as the primary device and two use iPhones.

Also, no one is in the habit of visiting sketchy websites or responding to unsolicited emails/text messages. So, I think your advice is appropriate if you're using an iPad as a primary device but not in the way we are using them.

 

[sparksd]

I live in Phoenix, AZ, which is not a small city. The city offers ONE hazmat/electronics recycling pickup per year. You have to schedule it in advance, tell them specifically what you are recycling and make sure it's outside on the day of pickup. That's all fine. But one per year is ALL you get.

Here in Seattle, we have a number of good private electronic recyclers.

 

[01cowherd]

I live in Phoenix, AZ, which is not a small city. The city offers ONE hazmat/electronics recycling pickup per year. You have to schedule it in advance, tell them specifically what you are recycling and make sure it's outside on the day of pickup. That's all fine. But one per year is ALL you get.

Municipal electronics recycling is like that. If you need to recycle something, I’d suggest going to Best Buy, which offers free recycling for most electronics (in-store drop off). Apple stores also do free recycling for Apple products, if one is nearby.

 

[CharlesShaw]

Apple stores also do free recycling for Apple products, if one is nearby.

Apple will also provide a free shipping label to recycle their devices.

 

[cupcakes2000]

I live in Phoenix, AZ, which is not a small city. The city offers ONE hazmat/electronics recycling pickup per year. You have to schedule it in advance, tell them specifically what you are recycling and make sure it's outside on the day of pickup. That's all fine. But one per year is ALL you get.

You can surely just take it somewhere rather than relying on a pickup?

Also, no one is in the habit of visiting sketchy websites or responding to unsolicited emails/text messages. So, I think your advice is appropriate if you're using an iPad as a primary device but not in the way we are using them.

That doesn’t matter. If you’re connected and you have a non security updates os then you are at risk via many other means

 

[eyoungren]

You can surely just take it somewhere rather than relying on a pickup?

Sure. If I had something I wanted to take. OTOH, I had an old LG tablet that the battery had swollen on and caused the screen to separate from the case. My understanding is that Best Buy won't take stuff like that. So, I burned my one per year with the city last year in order to get rid of that thing.

That doesn’t matter. If you’re connected and you have a non security updates os then you are at risk via many other means

At risk for what?

There is nothing on the iPads in my house that is financially or personally sensitive. They aren't used for those things. And three of the four are mostly idle all day, with my wife's iPad frequently shut down because she never uses it.

 

[cupcakes2000]

At risk for what?

That is something you can easily research yourself and judge as to whether or not you take any given risks. It’s obviously a factor or else there wouldn’t be ‘urgent security fixes’ for current operating systems. Anyway, I was merely pointing out the fact to others who may not be aware but may want to know that there are risks attached.

 

[cupcakes2000]

Sure. If I had something I wanted to take. OTOH, I had an old LG tablet that the battery had swollen on and caused the screen to separate from the case. My understanding is that Best Buy won't take stuff like that. So, I burned my one per year with the city last year in order to get rid of that thing.

I don’t know. Where I live there are deposit bins everywhere - even in supermarkets - where you can deposit unwanted electronics for recycling. I guess it depends on where you live.

 

[Parowdy]

Still using two iPad 6th gens. My wife has hers and I have mine.

Late last year I bought an iPad 7th gen for my son and my daughter, so yeah - they have newer iPads than my wife and I.

All four iPads in the house have cellular. Once we update, my 6th gen will go back into the car for maps and music streaming. Previously, that was the job of my iPad Air 2 (long since sold on).

What reason did you have not to hand down your order ones? Just curious.

 

[eyoungren]

What reason did you have not to hand down your order ones? Just curious.

Uh…not having new ones to replace them.

If I gave my son my iPad I would have no iPad. If I gave my daughter my wife's iPad, my wife would have no iPad. She probably would have been okay with that since she does not really use hers…but still that'd have been a hard ask.

My kids have iPads now (where they did not before) because my son needed an iPad for one of his classes. He used mine for a couple weeks, but I wanted him to have his own and I wanted it to at least run iPadOS 18. That meant, at minimum a 7th gen iPad. Because I got him one, it was only fair to get his sister one. Both were purchased inexpensively from eBay.

 

[nathansz]

Just take care if you keep the device connected to the internet with such an out of date OS. Shame on Apple for not keeping up support of perfectly usable devices, or not allowing the devices to have another OS installed on it.

Take care of what?

Nothing is going to happen

 

[Xand&Roby]

Every single iPad that was in my family is still in use, except a iPad 4th gen who fried the screen manager on motherboard, but I've purchased another one with the same specs for 30€, every day in function as a cam screen for a horses farm.
The least use that I could do of them is a screen extender with apps out of Apple walls, but for now them are still in use as HomeKit remote and other.
Still impossible with old iPhones, that remains waste on tables.
Yet old Apple Watches are more useful than old iPhones, I don't know how is this possible!

 

[GoodWheaties]

Hi Everyone,

Nothing special just a quick observation of mine.

I find it interesting how useful older iPads still are in spite of them being massively out of date. For example, in my kitchen I have an old iPad 3rd generation running version 9.3.5 of the iPad OS. The iPad lives in my kitchen in an Apple iPad Dock (Model A1381) with the audio out attached into my Apple iPod Hi-Fi speaker and the power to the wall to keep the iPad charged. This setup gets used every single day for streaming Pandora and other compatible audio apps to the speaker. I also have recipes stored on the iPad for cooking and I occasionally use it for reading materials I've stored on it from various places and sources. In other words this thing is great and extremely useful for me. The best part is I got the iPad and the iPad dock free when I found them discarded in a recycle bin. Shockingly the battery still also holds a great charge and I've never had any issue when I un-dock it for reading....the battery seems to just go and go. Anyways I really find it disturbing when I see article on all of the e-waste in the world and especially how it's dumped in developing parts of the world and it's really something to be able to usefully continue the life of my older "obsolete" electronics and not have to really compromise what I use them for for as long as possible.

Anyways, just my 2 cents about this subject.

Thanks everyone.

I’ve found old iPads make great travel devices. I use handbrake to make movie files smaller and load as many as I can on them. We have a 1st gen and 3rd gen and they work great. Being slow doesn’t matter when you are only playing video. It’s actually an asset as the battery lasts quite a long time.

Edit: just to be clear these are for kids.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

That is something you can easily research yourself and judge as to whether or not you take any given risks. It’s obviously a factor or else there wouldn’t be ‘urgent security fixes’ for current operating systems. Anyway, I was merely pointing out the fact to others who may not be aware but may want to know that there are risks attached.

So you don’t have an actual source then? There is endless FUD spread about using older iOS/iPadOS/macOS devices but when have they been hacked, and how?

 

[cupcakes2000]

Take care of what?

Nothing is going to happen

So you don’t have an actual source then? There is endless FUD spread about using older iOS/iPadOS/macOS devices but when have they been hacked, and how?

I’m spreading fud for suggesting you should keep your connected devices updated? I guess someone should tell Apple or any other OS maker that they needn’t worry anymore about security patches. Security is a myth and telling anyone otherwise is fud.

 

[Joniz]

Still have all our old ipads around the house, used as wall clocks, shared calendar, recipe finder, take-out menu…er(?), book or comic reader.

Have one on a table in the hallway that displays a calender/clock for people with dementia, which my mother has. Its different in that it spells out every word (no abbreviations for month or day) and says what part of day (my mother has thought that 0300, though being dark outside, was the afternoon).

Got the app from the ios store.

 

[EuroChilli]

I've only ever had (still have) 1 iPad, which was a gift that's hardly ever used, but I do have about 10 phones, on display. Also 2 MacBooks from 2011, the ones that have CD, and we still use one of them to play DVDs on the TV. But both still work.

The oldest phone I have is a Nokia from 1996. I also have a National cassette recorder from 1965 that still works. Then my first ever laptop, a Windows 7 Compaq, died long ago. Basically, all the old electronics I still have can fit in the trunk of a small car.

So no, very little of my old electronics have ended up in landfill as I am a collector of such. The ones I do get rid of are disposed of properly. In Belgium we can take such things to 'the container park' for free, even our old tube TV that weighed 20KG.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

I’m spreading fud for suggesting you should keep your connected devices updated? I guess someone should tell Apple or any other OS maker that they needn’t worry anymore about security patches. Security is a myth and telling anyone otherwise is fud.

Still no source huh?

 

[cupcakes2000]

Still no source huh?

I dont understand what you’re asking me for. A source for what? To tell you that it’s good practice to keep computer OS’ up to date? A source to tell you that there are vulnerabilities in every software, particularly out of date software? A source to tell you that internet connected devices can be hacked? Do I honestly need to prove these facts with some kind of internet article?