A new app called ‘Dashboard for your home’ transforms an iPad into a central control panel, combining live camera feeds, weather updates, and calendar functionalities in one customisable interface for Apple Home users.
An old iPad mounted in a central spot can become a useful control panel for a connected home, and “Dashboard for your home” is built around that idea. The app is designed to gather cameras, thermostats, lights, weather and calendar information on one screen, giving Apple Home users a wall-style interface rather than a conventional phone app. It requires iPadOS 17 or later and works with an existing HomeKit setup, while also offering a portrait layout on iPhone for lighter use.
Its strongest feature is camera handling. The app can show live previews from up to four Home cameras at once, with a Premium option that removes that limit. It also adds a one-tap button to switch every feed into live view, plus full-screen camera access and two-way audio where supported. Apple says the Home app itself supports viewing up to four cameras simultaneously, so the app is extending a core Home capability into a more persistent dashboard format.
The wider dashboard is built to reduce menu-hunting. Users can manage multiple thermostats and grouped switches, view a six-day forecast, and see a calendar panel that tracks a shared schedule with upcoming events and countdowns. The latest version also adds a 3D floor plan, letting users place accessories on a mapped layout and tap them in situ. The app can sleep when inactive and wake via touch, the front camera or a HomeKit motion sensor, and it now supports iCloud backup for exporting and importing settings across iPads.
The app is free to download, with Premium priced at $9.99 a year for unlimited cameras and thermostats, plus the floor-plan feature. The developer says it collects no data. The idea is not unique: Apple’s own Home app offers room-based control, while newer third-party dashboard apps such as HomePad, HomeScreen for HomeKit, Halo and Vulpo are also targeting the same need for a cleaner, more permanent smart-home display. But “Dashboard for your home” is notable for combining that wall-panel approach with camera controls, weather and calendar data in one place.
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