8 ms·

I held off upgrading to iOS 8 for a long time out of fear that my iPhone 5 would slow to a halt; when it had to be replaced for an expanding battery I got it ba

by ics 11y ago

I held off upgrading to iOS 8 for a long time out of fear that my iPhone 5 would slow to a halt; when it had to be replaced for an expanding battery I got it back with the upgrade and was pleasantly surprised at how well it performed. I took the jump with iOS 9 and now experience almost the same as in your link. I rarely have more than 3 apps open at a time, no media (photos, music, ...) stored, and all optional effects disabled. I wish they had some internal incentive for keeping old stuff working like new; it used to be a source of pride to own an Apple device that was several years old and still looked and worked like a new product. The iPhone 5 and unibody MacBook Pro are both examples of products that I've owned for years but continue to impress.

walterbell 11y ago
We need a law mandating security updates which are decoupled from new features. Alternately, an OS vendor who makes this a point of competitive differentiation. Unfortunately, MS is forcing new features alongside security fixes, and Android devices have a poor track record of timely security updates. So we are left with Apple, whose iOS9 effectively destroyed the performant usability of older devices.
- danudey 11y ago
  On the other hand, at least you can get those updates on your older iOS devices. Most Android devices have never seen updates at all, and of the ones who have, most of them will never see more than a few minor updates above what they came with.
  - oneeyedpigeon 11y ago
    I'd rather have a machine that works but is no longer receiving updates than one that is effectively bricked. At the very worst, if you're paranoid, you can just use the device for non-critical tasks. That's better than not being able to use it for anything, which is what happens to your iPad if you get unlucky and upgrade it beyond the point of no return.
    - walterbell 11y ago
      iOS9 was a bait-and-switch because it was advertised as the release that would (a) support older devices, (b) prioritize stability over features, and (c) receive extensive public beta testing. Then iOS9 delivered ... much worse performance regressions than iOS7->iOS8, regressions so bad that a new device needed to be purchased.
tdkl 11y ago
My suspicion is that it has to do something with Metal being used instead of OpenGL for system apps in iOS 9 [1]. The result is severe framedrops when scrolling lists in apps and rendering overlays as on video. [1] http://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new/ http://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new/ The behaviour seen on linked videos have been the same since first Beta 1 in June 2015, but wasn't taken seriously in online discussions as "being a beta" and was thought it will be taken care of in the future.

by ics 11y ago

walterbell 11y ago

We need a law mandating security updates which are decoupled from new features. Alternately, an OS vendor who makes this a point of competitive differentiation. Unfortunately, MS is forcing new features alongside security fixes, and Android devices have a poor track record of timely security updates. So we are left with Apple, whose iOS9 effectively destroyed the performant usability of older devices.

danudey 11y ago
On the other hand, at least you can get those updates on your older iOS devices. Most Android devices have never seen updates at all, and of the ones who have, most of them will never see more than a few minor updates above what they came with.
- oneeyedpigeon 11y ago
  I'd rather have a machine that works but is no longer receiving updates than one that is effectively bricked. At the very worst, if you're paranoid, you can just use the device for non-critical tasks. That's better than not being able to use it for anything, which is what happens to your iPad if you get unlucky and upgrade it beyond the point of no return.
  - walterbell 11y ago
    iOS9 was a bait-and-switch because it was advertised as the release that would (a) support older devices, (b) prioritize stability over features, and (c) receive extensive public beta testing. Then iOS9 delivered ... much worse performance regressions than iOS7->iOS8, regressions so bad that a new device needed to be purchased.

tdkl 11y ago

My suspicion is that it has to do something with Metal being used instead of OpenGL for system apps in iOS 9 [1]. The result is severe framedrops when scrolling lists in apps and rendering overlays as on video. [1] http://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new/ http://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new/ The behaviour seen on linked videos have been the same since first Beta 1 in June 2015, but wasn't taken seriously in online discussions as "being a beta" and was thought it will be taken care of in the future.