Delighted by an old iPad Mini

I recently received a hand-me-down iPad Mini 2. In the past, I have been very frustrated by iPads. The interface is not intuitive for multi-tasking, file transfer is a pain, apps have limited functionality, and the ergonomics are completely wrong for any serious work.

But I'm not doing any of that with this Mini. Instead, I use it for browsing Gemini and a handful of WWW sites.

The Elaho app on iOS is a terrific Gemini browser. Don't get me wrong, I love bombadillo on my Mac, but Elaho feels like it was made for this Mini. It is snappy and looks great. The Mini is also a great size for reading. It's less cramped than my phone, and not cumbersome and uncomfortable like larger tablets.

I think the lesson learned here is to expect less from the iPad experience. Using an iPad for serious work is a world of hurt. But using this old Mini as an "e-reader" for Gemini has been delightful.

eaplmx

In 2012 I had a Samsung Tab (2 of 7" perhaps?), and I enjoyed it a lot, until it self destroyed. Luckily Apple devices last longer, except for the updates.

Now our phones are bigger, like 5 inches, and I don't feel the need of using a Tablet. To watch movies we have the smart TV and to read I moved all the books to the Kindle to avoid watching traditional screens that much.

That being said, Gemini is cool, has been a nice Hobbie in 2021, although I think I'll consume it offline on the Kindle or similar, let's see!

tatterdemalion

I had a 2012 Nexus 7 tablet (7"), and it was just big enough to read comics on. My 5" phone is just too small to read comics on, and my Kobo Clara HD (6" eInk) is too black-and-white to read color comics on. Oh well.

I would quite like a Gemini browser for the ebook reader. There are ePub exporters, but those aren't *quite* the same. Though, to be fair, I haven't given them a reasonable shot. I wonder if I should learn Lua and write one as a KOReader plugin so that it's more integrated...

canaryjacket

I remember my 2012 Nexus 7 fondly. At one point, I had it running an early version of Plasma Mobile. It would be great to have a modern version of that.

Keep us posted if you find a better solution for reading Gemini on the ebook reader :)

tetris

I just wish these companies had licenses that would force them to release their sources after X many years, so that people can repurpose these "old" (but still usable) devices.

Take a kindle for example; an e-ink device that runs linux, has wifi, can survive a whole month without charge and displays whatever you want... but its hard to repurposed them for any of that because Amazon makes it extremely difficult to get into the device... just so that people will buy new kindles....

canaryjacket

I agree, this Mini is stuck on iOS 12 and it's usefulness will diminish as Apple and third-party developers move on to newer, shinier things.

eaplmx

Yep, it's sad to watch the lifetime of some devices and even planned obsolescence.

I was looking to jailbreak my Kindle and it updated a few months ago, damn, forgot to keep the Airplane mode. Lastly we are lazy and prefer to buy a newer device since it's 'easy' to spend more money 💵

canaryjacket

I have a Kindle and it's a great little device but it has terrible latency and it's not nearly as "fun" as an iPad. Maybe that's a good thing, but I can't help but feel that it needs a better software stack. In particular, I wish it supported ePub.

tatterdemalion

You may be able to install KOReader on it, which supports ePubs...

KOReader: installation on Kindle devices