Ask HN: Best ways to use old iPad as dashboard

8 pointsultrastable4y ago11 comments

I've wall-mounted an ancient Ipad & I I'd like to use it as a dashbord: world clock, calendar + appts, tasks (ideally from Things.app), etc - all the better if it's easily extensible. Any recommendations? It's too slow to use for Yam/AirDisplay & the like. Thanks!

11 comments

smt884y ago

I tried to do this with a webpage, but Safari wasn't stable enough on an old iPad. It would crash every few hours.

I'd suggest a native app instead, whether you write it or find someone else's.

schwartzworld4y ago

You could probably do a full page refresh every so often which would fix your memory leak issues: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Location/re...

speedgoose4y ago

That's a bit strange. Maybe the webpage had a memory leak.

smt884y ago

I'm sure it did, but it's hard to debug because of the depth and complexity of the stack (webpage code, rendering engine, browser, various OS layers).

darekkay4y ago

I've created a dashboard project [0], which you can open in any (modern) browser. Unfortunately, it's currently missing some major widgets. It's open-source, so contributions are welcome :)

[0] https://dashboard.darekkay.com

albertyw4y ago

I set up an old iPad Air to show https://www.codemancer.com/ for the last two years. It's got a clock, weather, and appointments and is readable from across the room. I've also run into crashes from Safari, which I resolved by automatically refreshing the page once an hour.

schwartzworld4y ago

I would think a web page would be the simplest. Spin up a node JS or whatever server on your home network and serve up whatever you want.

ultrastableOP4y ago

this is above my pay grade techinically speaking - don't suppose you know of a guide to this sort of thing?

cpach4y ago

Don’t know about any complete guide. But tinkering with HTML and CSS can get you a long way.

See e.g. https://www.zeitverschiebung.net/en/clock-widget for how to embed a clock widget on a web page.

schwartzworld4y ago

There's a lot of guides, and a lot of approaches to making a dynamic page like this. Do you have any programming experience? What languages?

runjake4y ago

I just set the iPad up in kiosk mode and refresh a webpage every x minutes.

I don't have Safari crashing issues like the other commenter.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

11 comments

smt884y ago

I tried to do this with a webpage, but Safari wasn't stable enough on an old iPad. It would crash every few hours.

I'd suggest a native app instead, whether you write it or find someone else's.

schwartzworld4y ago

You could probably do a full page refresh every so often which would fix your memory leak issues: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Location/re...

speedgoose4y ago

That's a bit strange. Maybe the webpage had a memory leak.

smt884y ago

I'm sure it did, but it's hard to debug because of the depth and complexity of the stack (webpage code, rendering engine, browser, various OS layers).

darekkay4y ago

I've created a dashboard project [0], which you can open in any (modern) browser. Unfortunately, it's currently missing some major widgets. It's open-source, so contributions are welcome :)

[0] https://dashboard.darekkay.com

albertyw4y ago

schwartzworld4y ago

I would think a web page would be the simplest. Spin up a node JS or whatever server on your home network and serve up whatever you want.

ultrastableOP4y ago

this is above my pay grade techinically speaking - don't suppose you know of a guide to this sort of thing?

cpach4y ago

Don’t know about any complete guide. But tinkering with HTML and CSS can get you a long way.

See e.g. https://www.zeitverschiebung.net/en/clock-widget for how to embed a clock widget on a web page.

schwartzworld4y ago

There's a lot of guides, and a lot of approaches to making a dynamic page like this. Do you have any programming experience? What languages?

runjake4y ago

I just set the iPad up in kiosk mode and refresh a webpage every x minutes.

I don't have Safari crashing issues like the other commenter.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse