Raspberry Pi 4, the computer big like a hand. Its latest verison it offers respectable performance. 4 GB of ram in the top version, the operating system is loaded on the SD card, a variant of Debian for ARM Raspbian. Well the CPU is just an ARM, which allows you to have low energy need and to power it directly by connecting it to the iPad’s USB Type-C port.
After the necessary configurations on the Raspberry, iPad identifies it as an ethernet device (I will dedicate a post on how to enable this thing). I decided to take a device of this type as it allows me to develop software in python and beyond, without sacrificing performance.
With iSH, of which I spoke to you in a previous article, I feel quite comfortable, but not having the complete network functions made me lean over for the small electronic raspberry. In addition, the device has a GPIO interface that you can take advantage of for electronics experiments. For example, I am experiencing the start of the cooling fan, which is necessary if you intensively use it, when the CPU reaches the temperature I set.
The installation of the OS is very simple, Raspbian is obviously the most optimized, you can also find other alternatives on the net. On Amazon you can take the naked Raspberry, or just the board, or there are ready-to-assemble kits, all under € 100.
I have to say that with the use of only iPad and a Raspberry I don’t feel the need, at least for me, to have a traditional computer.