Looking for an iPad 1 Guru to help me with a situation

My sister gave my little six-year-old angel an old iPad that looks like new and "was" in excellent operating condition --- prior to Itunes screwing it up.

The iPad = A1219 1st Gen. (I think they call it iPad 1)

When we got it, it had version 4.2.1 and was very useful for our portable photo album purposes.
However,being a modern-day six-year-old, she wanted some games on it.

I know absolutely nothing about Apple, iPads, nor iTunes.

As it was, I could manage to add and subtract photos from it; also, I could view all the photos in Explorer.

Someone told us that we would need iTunes and an Apple ID to load games on it; so ignorant me installed iTunes.
Right off the bat, iTunes told me that it was vital and life-threatening if I did not install a more recent update --- I had no idea that "update" meant irreversibly replacing the entire O/S.

With v4.2.1 forever gone and 5.1.1 in it's place (5.1.1 is as far as this iPad can go), I lost about 90% of it's usefulness for our needs.
It will no longer let me see anything in Explorer.
It will not allow me to add or remove images; the 1816 that were already in there are all we are able to view.

I searched out some 5.1.1 compatible games, yet iTunes will always throw an error when I try to load them.

I installed iFunbox; with iFunbox, I can manipulate the images almost as easily as in Explorer; I can rename, move from folder to folder, copy from computer and vice-versa.....; HOWEVER, none of these changes in iFunbox ever reflect on the iPad.

Then, about five hours after signing up for the Apple ID, when I connect, iTunes immediately pops up a warning "iTunes will no longer sync this iPad"

I tried it on three different machines, all with the same warning.

I wish I had of never even heard of Apple and iTunes = nothing but a money pit.
Within minutes, with a single un-educated click, they made a very useful iPad into something to toss in the sink-hole.

Before this episode, and countless hours of searching for a solution, I found out about "JailBreaking"
Specific information about this jailbreaking is elusive and what I do find is way over my head.

She is about in a panic; she was so happy to have her own iPad and now it is about useless.

My old antique Kindle is light years ahead of this iPad so far as usefulness.
I have always been able to see and manipulate anything in it using plain old Explorer.
I never had to join any silly group and connect to some silly site to fight through trying to do things that fail in the end.

My question is, is there a jailbreak that will allow me to use this iPad in the same manner as the Kindle, doing my photo operations in good old Explorer ?

Thanks for reading and all help is appreciated.

Im not entirely that familiar with Apple devices, but I have been lead to believe that the iPad has to be switched on and unlocked before it can be seen by another computer.

A quick search of the Web threw up this result, which confirms what I just said:
I can no longer see an iPad in Windows Explorer | Apple iPad Forums

townsbg said:

iOS 5 is too old for new apps and quite possibly it might not even be allowed to access the app store. It also sounds like recent versions of iTunes might not even support your model. Try iTunes 10.6.3.

Thanks
Will this older version of iTunes have the apps that are more compatible with the old iPad; or, will it display the same apps as the more recent versions ?

townsbg said:

Try iTunes 10.6.3.

I have this downloaded and it says it is a DMG file that opens with Windows Shell Commo.....
I am unfamiliar with such a file and don't know what to do with it.


Thanks for reading and all help is appreciated.

townsbg said:

Sorry. That is the Mac version. Try iTunes 9.2.1

Thanks. Do you have any idea about what year that version would have been released ?