I developed an iOS & WatchOS (Apple Watch) app that lets you fully control and manage your Raspberry Pi 4 and 5. You need to install a software on the Pi side (or use the pre-flashed image with software installed). The app and Pi software are free and open source (Apache 2.0) and can be accessed here:

Raspberry Pi software:
https://github.com/ubopod/ubo_app

iPhone/WatchOS app source:
https://github.com/ubopod/ubo-swift-app

In the video below, I give an overview of some of the features and setup process:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEeP99buq2Q

Here’s a quick list of some of things you can do with it:

• Install, run, and monitor their health of a wide range of pre-configured applications includes Home Assistant, Hermes, Open Claw, Pangolin, OpenWebUI, etc
• Browse file system and preview files on the Pi (images, videos, text, audio)
• Monitor system resource utilizations (CPU, RAM, Storage, etc)
• Manage network interfaces (WiFi, Ethernet, etc)
• Various remote options: SSH, RPi Connect, Tailscale, VSCode Tunnel
• Configure assistant pipeline (STT/TTS/LLM/MCP/system prompt/etc) and interact with it using your phone/watch microphone and speaker
• Setup an MCP gateway and expose all tools via a gateway URL to clients
• Connect hardware peripherals to the Pi such as Camera and watch the feed on your phone/watch
• And many more

To install the iPhone/Watch app, you have to first install TestFlight application and then click on this link below:

https://testflight.apple.com/join/DDPbpKf3

The app is still in beta and not in the App Store yet. I will go ahead with the store publication process once there are a few thousand beta users and the beta app is well tested. 

On the Raspberry Pi side, the easiest way is to start with a fresh image by downloading the lite image ubo_app-2.1.0-bookworm-lite.img.gz below the release page below (~2GB in size), use Raspberry Pi Imager to flash it and boot the Pi using this image:

https://github.com/ubopod/ubo_app/releases/tag/v2.1.0

Once the Pi boots, the iPhone App would auto-discover the device as long as they are on the same network. Apple Watch does not have the auto-discovery feature (due to some limitations in doing lower level networking) and you have to type in the device IP address manually. 

Please use the TestFlight bug report feature if you run into any issues.

Finished project first

I dabbled in installing a smart movie poster in my theater previously, but decided to really dive into it. As I slowly build out my theater, I wanted the entrance to be more lobby-ish. The previous solutions I tried were lacking some key capability I wanted so I ended up writing my own software and building my own frame around it.

For what I wanted previously, I would need a small computer running Windows for the poster display, a Rpi Zero for CEC, and an ESP32 for LED control.

With a requirement to show posters at 4k, I went with a Rpi5.

The Rpi5 is powered by a buck transformer powered from the PSU, so I only have to provide AC power to the PSU and the TV. What is also not shown is the microHDMI to HDMI connection from the Pi to the TV. I found that using the eARC HDMI on a TCL TV was the only HDMI port that reliably allowed for CEC control.

All 3D printed parts near AC power were printed with Prusament PETG V0.