Use an old iPad or tablet as the family wall

An iPad that is too slow for games is still a perfectly good family calendar. Stood on the bench or stuck to the fridge, it shows the week, tonight's dinner and the shopping list, and stays out of the way. Here is how to set one up so it stays awake and stays on the wall.

Which iPads and tablets work

Anything that can still open a modern web page in Safari or Chrome. The wall is a web page, so there is no app to be too old for. If the tablet can show kitchenboard.app at all, it can show the wall; the quickest test is to open it and see.

Step 1: open the wall

Open Safari (or Chrome on Android) and go to kitchenboard.app/tv. A six-letter code appears. On your phone, in Kitchenboard, open Settings, then Screens, and type the code. The tablet becomes your wall.

Step 2: keep it awake and on the page

iPad: in Settings, Display and Brightness, set Auto-Lock to Never. Then turn on Guided Access (Settings, Accessibility) and start it with a triple-click of the side or home button while the wall is open. Guided Access keeps the iPad on that one page so a curious toddler cannot wander off into your email.

Android: set the screen timeout to its longest value, or install a kiosk app (search the Play Store for "kiosk browser") and set the start page to the wall.

Step 3: power and a stand

Keep it plugged in; an always-on screen drains a battery in an afternoon. A cheap stand with a cable channel, or a wall mount with a hidden lead, keeps the bench tidy. If the tablet must live on the fridge, a magnetic case and a short cable to a plug behind the fridge works well.

Portrait or landscape?

Landscape shows the most at a glance: today, the week and the list side by side. Portrait works too, with the week and lists stacked under today.

What it is not

The tablet on the wall is a display, not a control panel. Nobody needs to sign in on it and it never shows a password. Adding and ticking things off happens from each person's own phone, which is where the family actually is.

Prefer a bigger screen? A spare TV with a Fire TV Stick is the other cheap option.