5 Ways to Repurpose Your Old iPad
03/12/2012
by
Jason M. Atwood (he/him)
Some simple ideas for what to do with your old iPad when you are looking to upgrade.
With every release of a new Apple product comes the age old question, “I want to upgrade, but what do I do with my old one?” Ask no more, as here are five ways to repurpose your old iPad and free up some mental space to buy the new one.
1. Donate It
Sure you could just go to Ebay and sell the thing, but what about using the power of tech to do some good? Gazelle is a great website for recycling your old tech gear, but did you know they can also take the technology and donate the proceeds to a charity? Raise money for your local school or charity using Gazelle for Good.
2. Expand It
While the iPad’s almost 10” screen isn’t a great main monitor it can be turned into an amazing second monitor. Screen sharing applications like Air Display allow you to turn the iPad into a fully functioning second display. Drop your chat window or notes over there and give yourself a little more room to work or play.
3. Control It
Apple first released the Remote app to control the Apple TV and other companies like Tivo, DirecTV and Time Warner have piled on with applications that can control your entertainment center devices. These applications connect up via Wifi and act as giant touch screen remote some with amazing abilities like managing your recorded shows. Give your old iPad a new life in the living room or den as the most powerful remote ever (certainly not the most expensive).
4. Child Proof It
If you want to keep that old iPad in the family, think about giving it to a child. There are a ton of educational games and books for the iPad and nothing can make a car ride go faster. You will want to lock down the content though before handing it over to little sticky hands, so head over to Settings -> General -> Restrictions where you can set a password and control everything from content ratings to the use of the camera. You might also want to consider setting it up on a new iTunes account to keep things like Game Center separate. For the older kids you can set up an automatic iTunes allowance to control the spending.
5. Collaborate It
With all the great drawing, sketch and conferencing applications made for the iPad creating an office iPad could be boost overall productivity. Think of it as a mobile whiteboard or Web Conferencing device that anyone in the office can use. Give it a home in the conference room and watch the collaboration happen as colleagues share ideas or research ideas together. As with the last suggestion, you are going to want to lock down the settings before sending it into the wild.
If you have other ideas on repurposing iPads feel free to hit me up on Twitter @JasonMAtwood
