I just paid for Elon Musk’s X/Twitter annual subscription using cryptocurrency.
Payment from China can be quite difficult, so when I saw that crypto payment was available, I decided to try it. Surprisingly, it actually worked.
I had used platforms like OKX before, so I already had an account. I bought around 70 USDT with 500 RMB, but it still wasn’t enough. Then I opened two futures trades and somehow doubled it, making a bit over 100 USDT.
After that, I immediately used the crypto to buy the annual X subscription.
For people in China who cannot pay through normal methods, crypto payment might be worth trying for subscriptions.
Friendly reminder though: stay away from futures trading.
I had already lost over 100 USDT before and quit. If it wasn’t because crypto could be used for this payment, I definitely would not have touched futures again.
I turned an old iPad 3 into a PC monitoring dashboard + custom app launcher.
No hardware modification, no disassembly, no jailbreak, and no system tweaking needed.
The idea is very simple: I used Codex to build a small web app, then opened it on the iPad in a browser. Just like that, the iPad became a touchscreen control panel.
Right now it can display PC status such as CPU/GPU load, disk usage, memory usage, system volume, Codex usage, and more. It can also launch my frequently used websites, apps, folders, and scripts with one tap — for example ChatGPT, Codex, Gemini, Topaz, WeChat, QQ, VPN tools, etc.
The actual experience is much better than I expected. The cost is low, there is zero hardware modification, and it does not damage the device at all. Old tablets, old phones, and other touchscreen devices can all be reused in this way.
A little background: I found this iPad 3 by accident while browsing Xianyu, a Chinese second-hand marketplace. Someone local was selling a brand-new, unopened old iPad. I have always liked Apple’s earlier industrial design, so I bought it out of curiosity for a little over 300 RMB. At first, I mainly used it as a color PDF reader.
Later, because I did not use it for a long time, the battery drained completely and it would not turn on. It sat unused for quite a while. Recently, after several attempts, I finally managed to revive it. Then I spent a few hours using Codex to build this small web app and turned the iPad directly into a desktop control console.
So far, it works really well. It can also support many other functions: video playback, a small home-theater-style control panel, remote control for the PC from the tablet, and more. I have already tested these features and they work.
The cost is also very low. This kind of old iPad usually sells for only a few dozen to around 100 RMB on Xianyu, and even a brand-new unopened one is only around 300 RMB. It feels great to repurpose it like this.
Since I just finished the first version, I would also love to hear more ideas from others.