FOR THE TABLET IN YOUR DRAWER
DeckPad turns any retired tablet into a wireless button deck for your Mac — launch apps, run Shortcuts, open your sites, from a plain browser. Even Safari from 2015. No app to install. No cloud. Just Wi-Fi.
WHY THIS EXISTS
Too slow for apps, too good for the drawer. One evening it got a browser page pointed at a little server on a Mac — and became the best desk gadget in the house. DeckPad is that evening, productized: the moment an obsolete screen earns its place on your desk again.
Your Mac shows a short URL. Type it into the old tablet's browser — that's the whole install.
A six-digit code pairs the tablet to your Mac. It works only on your Wi-Fi, only with your say-so.
Apps launch. Shortcuts run. Sites open. The drawer tablet has a job again.
This is the real DeckPad client — same code your tablet runs. Tap the tiles, swipe the pages, change the skin.
The deck watches your Mac: your most recent apps appear in a live row, pushed the instant you switch. Tap one on the tablet and it comes to the front on the Mac. Old iPad, meet mission control.
Verified on a 2012 iPad mini running iOS 9. Also happy: newer iPads, Android tablets, Kindle Fire, an old phone propped on a stand, the spare laptop.
Plain HTTP on your LAN, by design — self-signed certificates break the very devices DeckPad exists to revive.Read the full security write-up →
$19.90 once
Lifetime license · every update included · unlimited tablets · no subscription, no account
30-day money-back guarantee, no questions asked
Get DeckPadRequires macOS 13+. Your deck device just needs a browser.
No. Everything is on your local network. (Website icons fetch once from the internet, then cache.)
Anything with a browser. iOS 9+ Safari verified on real 2012 hardware; Android and Fire tablets work in Chrome and Silk.
The server accepts only paired devices, executes only your own configured actions, and rejects foreign-host requests. See the security section above.
Never. $19.90 once, updates included.
30 days, no questions, through the checkout provider.
Direct download only — the sandbox would break the Shortcuts and app-scanning features. The DMG is signed and notarized by Apple's notary service.
Works great too — old hardware is the party trick, not a requirement.