What else can an old tablet do? I replaced the two dust-gathering units with electronic photo frames and smart control screens, and the third option was to be discouraged

During

National Day cleaning, I dug out two tablets in a drawer: an iPad mini 2, the same one I mentioned earlier about when old devices were WiFi slowing down. It's a 2013 machine with iOS 12; and a Xiaomi Pad 4, bought in 2018 with a 10.1-inch screen, for online classes for my kids. When I got busy with schoolwork, I ended up lying under the coffee table for two years. At that time, the two units together cost nearly 5,000 yuan, and I just couldn't bring myself to throw them away. I spent a whole weekend finding jobs for them, tried out three positions, two were installed on the wall, and one was honestly returned to the drawer. Record the process and pitfalls.

first get a basic check—the two tablets have a huge gap in their foundations

don't think 'they're all old tablets.' When it comes time to upgrade, the two machines can do completely different tasks. There's only one dividing line: can the system still have the current App?

Xiaomi Pad 4 runs Android at around 8 points, and the official update has been inactive for many years. Many new apps in the app store also show incompatibility issues. But Android has an advantage: you can install the APK directly. Apps like photo frames and launchers have very low system requirements, and the ones I picked later all run on the tablet 4.

iPad mini 2 is in trouble. The iOS 12 threshold keeps most mainstream apps at bay—the new Mi Home version can't be installed, the old version crashes, and in the end, only Safari and the built-in clock can work stably. So before I even started, I had a hunch: this machine could only do "what web pages can do," and it really proved true.

By the way, both of these phones have LCD screens. I'll mention this later when discussing the pitfalls of screen burn-in—it's their inherent advantage of being able to stay on and on.

first position: the entryway electronic photo frame, where 40,000 photos are placed in rotation by himself

all my home photos are on the NAS, and I've been saving up automatic backups on my phone for four years—over 46,000 photos, 186GB. I've written about backup route before. Photos lying on the hard drive are as if they weren't taken at all, and you can only flip through them twice a year. The wall in the entrance hall has always been empty, and buying a large-screen digital photo frame often costs four or five hundred yuan, and it only reads SD cards—isn't the Xiaomi Pad 4 just a ready-made big screen?

plan is simple. There are plenty of photo frame apps on Android, but when I pick, I only recognize two words: WebDAV or SMB. It can attach to NAS's album directory, auto-carrot photos, and when you back up new photos, they can play automatically—no need to move files. The local album-only system is completely discarded; 186GB is neither fit in a tablet nor is meaningful. After hanging it up, I set the carousel interval to 10 seconds, added a transition effect, lowered brightness to 30%, and automatically turned off the screen from 10 PM to 6 AM—a photo frame that stays on when no one is watching is just a waste.

effect was better than I expected. When elders come to the house and see photos of themselves strolling in the park in the entryway, it's much more intuitive than flipping through your phone's album; The child frequently searches for their own photos on it, forcing the whole family to rummage through the NAS inventory. This screen is now the most prominent "home appliance" in the home.

second position: smart control screen in the living room, saving hundreds of yuan in screen costs

I have over forty smart devices at home, and I've calculated of the network expenses, but there's always been a bit of a bit of awkwardness: control is entirely on my phone, and to turn on a light when entering the door, I have to take out my phone, unlock it, and find an app. Xiaomi's own smart home screen costs several hundred yuan, basically a customized Android screen—so why not make one myself?

Xiaomi Pad 4 runs the Mijia app within the home ecosystem, so once installed, it's a large-screen console with all the devices displayed in one screen. The real step is to "turn it into a dedicated screen" in three steps:

Step

: In the developer options, enable "Keep Awake" to keep the screen on while charging—this is the prerequisite for the screen to stay on. Step two: Use the system's built-in "Screen Fix" feature to pin the Mi Home app to the front end. Elderly or children at home can't exit the app even if they press randomly; pressing the back button only prompts you to long press the task key to unbind it. Step three: set the brightness to around 20% and hang it by the living room wall to avoid glare at night.

Tablet 4 climbed up from under the coffee table and became a fixed control console in the living room. When you come home after work, just tap the light and turn on all the curtain lights at once; Setting on 'Leaving Home' mode when going out is much faster than I grabbed my phone. In my opinion, this is the most cost-effective position in old tablet renovation—replacing finished products costing a few hundred yuan at zero cost.

the third position: bedside surveillance screen, iPad mini 2 folds at the first step

one iPad mini 2 left. I originally planned a bedside surveillance screen: it displays real-time footage from the home camera, allowing you to see all the movements in the child's room and clock at the same time. This idea itself is flawless. When I upgraded my old phone to a surveillance camera , I thought about it. Combining the data collection and display end would make a custom security system.

result, the first step was stuck: the latest iOS monitoring app required at least iOS 13, while mini 2 stopped at 12. Going for the web version? The web versions of each camera have either been shut down long ago or only provide playback without live streaming. I spent the whole night trying to install the old app, and it crashed as soon as I installed the old app. The RTSP address for Safari's direct camera connection was even more hopeless—Safari in iOS 12 didn't even recognize many new certificates.

the last thing it does is: plug it into the bedside charging rack and act as a big clock that stays on all night, and open a clock webpage in Safari, which is just barely enough. If you call it a 'position,' it's a bit of a stretch—a 20-yuan electronic clock can do even better. So my conclusion is straightforward: an iPad with an outdated system, aside from what the web can do, basically doesn't have it for other positions, so don't expect too much . Right now, it's basically 'editing backups'—if you need a lightweight device to handle it in an emergency,

Before

the wall, three pitfalls should be dealt with

old tablet is kept on power and hung on the wall for a long time, which is a different matter from using a tablet regularly. There are three pitfalls I have anticipated and researched beforehand, so don't skip these steps.

first is the battery. lithium batteries being plugged in for long periods or heating up at full voltage are the number one cause of swelling. These two old machines are eight years old and thirteen years old, so the batteries are already old. The old system didn't have the new 80% charge limit (the iPad's charging limit was only available in the new version). My method is simple but effective: plug in a smart socket, the frame screen cuts power at 10 PM and powers on at 6 AM, leaving you with a complete power cut for eight hours a day; The control panel was set to have a power outage from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. Also, just like with old phones, I touch the frame every two or three weeks. If edges lift, it softens, or the screen pops up. Any sign of this will immediately stop working , and the battery won't budge any longer.

second is screen burn-in. Why do I dare to keep these two cars on steadily?" Because both are LCD screens, and when LCDs display static images for long periods, they only leave a recoverable afterimage, which disappears after a short pause. If your old tablet has an OLED screen, be extra cautious: lower brightness, set the status bar to auto-hide, and keep the carousel interval short so pixels don't always stick to the same image. If you want to use a new tablet as a permanent screen, prioritize choosing an LCD—this is the hard truth.

Third is power supply and heat dissipation. the length of the charging cable is the radius of the screen's position. First, measure the distance from the wall socket to the mounting point before buying the extension cable; Use the original charger or a genuine 5V2A output; don't settle for 9.9 yuan. For cooling, don't stick the tablet against the wall; leave a gap at the back. In summer, the wall gets hot and doesn't hang it properly.

electricity bill, I tested the metering socket I before: a tablet with 30% brightness and carousel photos, reading just over 2 watts, about 0.05 kWh for a day and night, less than 1.5 yuan per month. There's no need to worry about this account.

take the sitting, and here's the order

Not every old tablet is worth saving, so let's be clear first:

follow this step: first fully charge the tablet and let it sit for half a day to confirm it won't drain or heat up; Install apps and try out positions—do whatever you can; Then buy a stand and smart socket, just a few yuan worth of money; Hang it on the wall, and during the first week, check the battery level and heat a bit more; Only when everything is stable can it truly be considered 'reemployment.' I've already mastered old devices—old routers, old optical modems, old set-top boxes, old phones. I've written how to modify old optical modems and of old set-top boxes. The tablet is the most worry-free—no need to disassemble or flash the device, just pick the right position.