13 ms·

What I learned from watching my iPad's slow death

197 points by o_nate 9y ago

o_nate 9y ago
My mother-in-law is in the same boat. She is not a demanding user. She basically uses her iPad for 3 things: buying things on Amazon, looking at pictures of her grandson on Facebook, and checking her stocks with the Fidelity app. Well, the Fidelity app recently informed her that she could no longer login unless she installed a required upgrade. It turns out the upgrade is not compatible with the version of iOS that runs on her hardware. So just like that her iPad became obsolete.
- shdh 9y ago
  Have her try using the web applications instead of native iOS applications.
  - gruez 9y ago
    that's probably worse. non-updated ios => non-updated safari => 0days galore
    - brianwawok 9y ago
      You should be OK going to Fidelity.com Not the deep web Of course not easy to communicate to parents or grandparents who are less tech savvy
      - 45h34jh53k4j 9y ago
        what about nytimes or any of the other sites that have been compromised by malicious ad networks? Its not safe.
        brianwawok 9y ago
        I did not say nytimes, I said fidelity ;)
      - o_nate 9y ago
        Given her level of tech-savviness, that's not as easy as it sounds. Also, it seems more secure to have her just use the app - less possibility of phishing attempts and the like. She already bought a new iPad anyway.
        lostmsu 9y ago
        Can't you make a shortcut for Fidelity on the "desktop"?
    - lozenge 9y ago
      FYI, iOS lets you add sites to the home screen, when you do they behave almost appish.
arx1422 9y ago
Curious how old the author is. Those of us who had computers in the 80s and 90s remember how 3 years or so was what you got before obsolescence set in. Mobile devices are still developing at that kind of rate. Desktops and laptops last so long because for 99% of needs they maxed out on necessary specs many years ago.
45h34jh53k4j 9y ago
I think something that is missing from this is that it is no longer safe in this time to use old software. It is an existential threat to your own information, which is increasingly linked to your personal device like a phone or tablet. You will be hacked by a drive by exploit, or a mutant ad network. Its no longer about risky behavior, simply existing today online with old software can put you at grave risk. How long should apple support these devices? 5 years seems reasonable, and very few vendors of hardware offer anything like this. I agree it sucks, and there is no reason a 5 year old ipad needs to be dead -- but in context this is fine. If you had a 5 year old car that allowed random drivers to stab you in the face remotely, people would replace their cars and not complain that this was a problem.
- fenwick67 9y ago
  > If you had a 5 year old car that allowed random drivers to stab you in the face remotely, people would replace their cars and not complain that this was a problem. Ironically, some cars in the takata airbag recall are 15 years old [1] and basically stab you in the face, yet contrary to what you said, the recall continues, and is payed for by the car manufacturers. People didn't just say "oh well I guess I'll buy a new car". https://www.nhtsa.gov/recall-spotlight/takata-air-bags https://www.nhtsa.gov/recall-spotlight/takata-air-bags
- tomc1985 9y ago
  It is no longer safe to use old browsers. Old software works as well as it ever did, subject to your OS being able to run it. There is a world of offline desktop software that surpasses the cloud in features and functionality.
  - 45h34jh53k4j 9y ago
    Cool, please let me know how i can update safari on my ios8 (ipad mini). You can't -- and in this age the OS and the applications are an indistinguishable blob.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
scrumper 9y ago
My first-gen iPad Pro, the big one from 2015 or '16, is getting really slow, particularly with Safari, and it gets all the updates. Having some trouble understanding what's going on here.
- tomc1985 9y ago
  Your first-gen iPad Pro is still new compared to what this dude is packing. There's an iPad from 2012 sitting on my desk that stopped receiving updates and, for getting any kind of work done, the thing is useless.
  - r00fus 9y ago
    You're using a 5 year old tablet for work? That thing is financially depreciated 2 years ago. For security reasons alone you shouldn't be using it to do work.
    - tomc1985 9y ago
      It is literally sitting on my desk, doing nothing
- abakker 9y ago
  Get the battery tested/replaced?
- macintux 9y ago
  As someone else mentioned, check the battery. But I'd also suggest doing a clean install using iTunes; sometimes OS upgrades go subtly wrong, slowing things down, and resetting via the device itself is insufficient to get a truly clean install.
omginternets 9y ago
I have a first-gen iPad sitting around. Is there something like postmarketOS I could install? Hell, I would even settle for using it as a headless box ...
- ikeboy 9y ago
  You should be able to jailbreak then set up ssh. Not sure what tools exist, possibly some do that allow VMs or could be enough native software that you could do what you want. VM would be super slow, native would be fine if you can compile and run it properly
- compiler-guy 9y ago
  I feel like old ipads would be useful as the head to another box, rather than a headless box. They have decent screens, and would work well as, say, an extra screen to a movie player for kids on trips. It's unfortunate that there isn't an easy way to do it.
  - miskin 9y ago
    I use 1st gen iPad as client for Plex it runs ok there. It can also play (correctly prepared) movies and YouTube, so it is really ok for kids use.
- netsharc 9y ago
  Apple really should allow open source OSes after a few years, when the device is no longer sexy. Release the drivers as open source, release some signing keys that would allow boot image signing, etc (but obviously keep it somehow separate so tinkerers can't sign hacked iOS images using those keys), and allow the community free reign. Obviously they are afraid someone will make an OS that, when run in a 2012 iPad, can beat the 2017 iPad...
pgrote 9y ago
I have 2 original ipads that are in excellent shape. I spent a weekend looking for some way to repurpose them into photo albums that sit there are cycle through photos. I couldn't find a working solution. All the apps won't work properly and the browser doesn't work with things like Flikr or Google Photos. It is a shame since the display is still awesome. Any ideas on what to do with them?
- jads 9y ago
  I think most versions of iOS have had a built-in slideshow function in the Photos application. Try loading up some photos onto the iPad, add to an album, and see if there's a slideshow option somewhere.
- mhh__ 9y ago
  Some sort of jailbreaking/software modification (haven't done this in years, not really sure if it's possible?) could allow you to do what you were trying to do in the first place?
- anonemouse145 9y ago
  Nope. I've heard a nonstandard connection means reusing the display isn't straightforward even if you crack them open. Best hope is jailbreaking and running custom firmware, which may open up some possibilities.
- fenwick67 9y ago
  Hmmm... maybe make your own webpage that cycles through the photos? You probably don't want family photos on a public URL though...
  - sli 9y ago
    They don't need to be public. A $5 RasPi Zero would be plenty powerful enough to serve photos on a local network.
- pkamb 9y ago
  "Picture Frame Mode" was included with the stock iPad, prior to iOS 7. See if you can downgrade. People miss it: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5345183?start=0&tstart=0 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5345183?start=0&tstart=...
firasd 9y ago
My Panasonic 'Smart TV' is from 2014 and its app marketplace doesn't have Netflix. It's just not there. My laptop is from 2011, and since it runs the latest Chrome browser, it can play Netflix just fine. Made me think: the fact that laptops & desktops are consumer devices sold with hardware and operating systems that do general-purpose computing is underrated.
- digi_owl 9y ago
  Beyond that, that nothing on the hardware side stops you from running any software you want to. Expect the PC to morph into something more akin to a tablet or "smart" TV if the MAFIAA get what they want (and Intel and crew seems all too willing to give in). And that point your GPC will be relegated to a developer workstation that may well require a verified employer and regular visits from an auditor to own.
  - titanix2 9y ago
    Sadly this is a direction Microsoft is taking with the rumored upcoming "S Mode". If this works for them (and I hope it don’t) even PC will be locked down and no more useful than a tablet. Some decision makers are forgetting hardware is for running software, not blocking everything under the sun.
  - jmiserez 9y ago
    You’re getting downvoted, but while what you describe probably isn’t going to happen, you’re not too far off. We’re already “there” with walled garden app stores, and outside of that app signing where you need to pay to be in a “developer program” to be able to sign your apps [1], DRM baked into the browser (EME) and hardware (HDCP), mandatory logins to cloud services for appliances, etc. [1] (Thinking of macOS here. I’m sure a non-centralized way of signing would also work.)
    - digi_owl 9y ago
      Most likely because i used terms that to valley-dwellers are a bunch of big red flags.
niftich 9y ago
For what it's worth, PCs are subject to the exact same slow decline, even if the author's romantic notions of repurposing an old machine ring true. While they may be suitable for old games on an unnetworked, phone-activated WinXP, or as a power-hungry Linux machine that will perform admirably as long as web browsers aren't involved, both fates are the same: frozen in time, locked out of the dizzying speed of evolution of online services and the portals through which they are viewed. Stallman's right yet again: the offline programs will run just the same, but the online programs are subject to change at a moment's notice, from Apple shedding support of 32-bit hardware, to application makers shedding support for old OS versions, to online backends forcing mandatory updates. It feels worse with the iPad because its marketing made an impression of a sleek, "just-works" kind of device. Of course, its utility is tied exclusively to applications from a captive marketplace, and often, to remote services frontended by those apps or the browser, making its elegance a leaky abstraction. Today's Chromebooks, another "just-works" device, will be in the same situation in five years. But with Chromebooks, or Android phones (if you're lucky), or x86 or x64 PCs, you can replace the stock OS and repurpose the device on the hardware's own remaining merits. An iPad is just stuck.
- GSimon 9y ago
  The decline is similar but not nearly the exact same. PCs can generally do tasks they once did years later without compromise, iPads get slower and hardware is forced to update to a newer OS just to run existing applications, making tasks like simple note taking slower and more of a process than before. With iPad you can't keep your past experience because your product's ecosystem isn't your own vacuum you can't keep it away from forced updates.
  - oflannabhra 9y ago
    >you can't keep it away from forced updates I fail to see how that is the case? Apple neither forces OS updates, nor forces app updates. An iPad will perform exactly the same, given the same software, after 5 years or 10 years, and the user is in control of that software. If you are speaking of services, well, that's not unique to iPads, or Apple, but is a consequence of the Internet.
fmsf 9y ago
For the more tech savy this is where an open source operative system would make the difference (iAndroid). Though Apple should provide some sort of alternative for the less tech savy. One thing is saying that we don't support your browser because it sucks and you have alternatives, the other thing is saying "the 500£ you spent 5 years ago are gone, we don't care the hardware is in good state just buy a new one"
fitzroy 9y ago
"a late-2012 iPad Mini, model number A1432, black, with 16 gigabytes of storage. It retailed, at release, for $329." So the cost of owning this iPad has been less than 20 cents/day over its 5 year usable life. That doesn't even factor in the slight energy savings vs using a full laptop if you want to be nitpickey. Nor does it factor in the current resale value. I just sold an original iPad 1 for $80 on Craigslist. I'm sure this would be worth at least as much, if not more. "I still use my old iPad for passive consumption: reading, watching videos, checking feeds ...formerly easy tasks have become strained. Social apps have become slow, videos take longer to load and Safari can’t seem to handle the most important and fundamental services of the modern web." This is all also true of my maxed out 2012 MacBook Air. Final Cut Pro X runs more smoothly editing HD video than browsing Facebook. And, while I agree the uses for an old iPad are limited (photo browser, music player / media controller, eBook reader, kitchen recipe browser), they are more elegant than keeping an old computer around. The mixed blessing and curse of something like the iPad is that it still looks beautiful and functional long after it isn't. I'm sure it would be easier to part with the device if it was a 5-year-old $300 Celeron netbook.
- qplex 9y ago
  No. It's not okay to make devices obsolete by software. Arguing for the low cost of ownership per day is a strawman.
digi_owl 9y ago
And in the end he didn't learn a thing.
- CaptSpify 9y ago
  I dunno. He seemed to catch onto the fact that Apple's business model likes to screw over their users via planned obsolescence. That is more than most people learn.
  - bmj 9y ago
    Planned obsolescence is the business model for most major electronics manufacturers today. Even non-"smart" devices are not really designed to be repaired (or upgraded).
    - CaptSpify 9y ago
      Yes, but I don't think I get the point you are trying to make by bringing that up?
  - panglott 9y ago
    Why pick on Apple here? Are there any Android tablets from 2010-2012 that still see regular use, get software updates, and new/updated apps? Is anyone still using their Blackberry PlayBooks from late 2010? It looks like the Galaxy Tab 2 from 2012 can only be upgraded to Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, roughly as current as iOS 5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_Tab_2_10.1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_Tab_2_10.1
    - CaptSpify 9y ago
      Oh, I completely agree. Apple is far from the only bad actor here. The only reason I singled them out was because the article was about them.
      - nottorp 9y ago
        Hmm if we're talking tablets, at least an apple tablet will be useful for some time starting when you buy it. Can't say the same about many android tablets... What's frustrating though is that I can pick up a 20 year old general purpose computer from the trash, set it up with software from that time (never mind the legalities) and play around with it. Not so with the one iPad 1 I keep around... I think you can't install any new apps if you try now.
ChuckMcM 9y ago
I have an "iPad with Retina display" in the same boat. It is my media player. I use it to play locally hosted songs. It makes me wonder if I can configure XCode to target it any more (its on IOS8 or 9, which ever was last for that version).
oflannabhra 9y ago
I'm not exactly sure what the chief complaint here is. Is it that iPads are not upgradeable? Well, Apple has an entire system for recycling and credit. Also, an argument could be made that an upgradeable iPad would also cease to be as useful as an iPad, as it would necessitate some level of form-factor change. Is it that software keeps moving forward? Well, that is not new, and is not unique to an iPad. A five year old computer running a recent browser will also struggle with new websites. Is it that the author can't give the iPad to someone else who could use it and wouldn't be as frustrated? I fail to see how that is the case. I'm sure using a five year old computer can get frustrating. But I think the fact that an iPad is still quite functional after five years of use is rather remarkable. No one writes op-eds in the NYT lamenting the slowness of their five year old netbook, because those devices are even more disposable than an iPad. Edit - that is not to say that there is not an issue with aging iOS hardware. I just don't think the article makes a clear argument, or even statement, of what that issue is.
- wambotron 9y ago
  > A five year old computer running a recent browser will also struggle with new websites. My _gaming rig_ is 5+ years old and still runs new games fine. I don't even know where you came up with this. My wife owns a 2012 Macbook Pro and it still runs everything fine, even the newest OS and MS Office applications.
  - oflannabhra 9y ago
    sorry, I should have said "low end laptop," "netbook," or "chromebook." Those are all in the same class as an iPad, with the same portability requirements, etc.
    - lione 9y ago
      I've been using my $300 Acer c720p chromebook for almost 5 years. Keys are falling off, it has quite a few cracks and smudges, and the battery is less then half of what it used to be, but it still boots up in about 8 seconds, and there's no new noticeable lag. Right now sounds like my Chromebook was a better decision than a iPad.
acqq 9y ago
My parents have an iPad 2. It's still in good condition, battery still very good. But they can't use it anymore for Skype: Skype delivered always slower apps as the time went on, and now the last version of the app is too slow to be used at all: when somebody calls the app gets so big lag that it just fails. Also, some app writers make the app compatible with every iOS. Not Microsoft. Even newer versions of Skype aren't for iOS 9. But the last for iOS 9 was already too slow. From this perspective, the biggest problem are the companies which decide not to test on the older hardware and which don't want to support older iOS versions.
peatmoss 9y ago
I have a 3rd gen iPad that I feel like there should be a 3rd-party logic board / OS update for. There are approximately a bajillion 3rd gen iPads out there. Imagine walking into the local screen repair place, having them stick in a new Android board that reuses the digitizer, screen, and case. Maybe they pop a new battery in while it's open. Bam! Renewed iPad. Given how cheep various SBCs have gotten, I have to imagine there is an economic business model for someone in retrofitting all these old, homogeneous, plentiful devices.
- gm-conspiracy 9y ago
  Please! Somebody kickstarter this!
fmsf 9y ago
iPad mini 1 are selling on ebay for 80£, I wonder if there isn't anyone exploring the business opportunity here for corporate software, were instead of buying 300£ iPads to show the schedule of a meeting room, you can just code against an old version of IOS and supply your software with hardware at a high discount. edit: had 30£ before, but was a bid not a buy now
- NegativeLatency 9y ago
  I'd bet only a fraction of the cost of a system like you describe is tied up in the hardware. There's the cost of installing the hardware (running power, networking), managing it (device software updates), paying for a recurring subscription to the service. Not to mention the risk of having old hardware on your network that doesn't get software updates anymore. And anyways once a company is looking at something like this most will happily justify it balanced against something like "lost productivity".
- thinkythought 9y ago
  Anyone doing this would be opening themselves up to a world of liability, and probably a lot of customers who would say no. I know my work is dumping older ipads even though all our integrated software for meetings etc works fine just because it could be exploited and isn't receiving updates. Even the possibility of that isn't worth it to a lot of places. It doesn't matter if it's connected to a "closed" network, it still has radio(s) on. And since so many places are so slow to upgrade, this is a known attack surface. Once you exploit that old-ass iOS, you have a compromised machine with radios sniffing inside your environment.
theseanz 9y ago
While I was reading the article, this appeared in my inbox: https://i.imgur.com/FbaML9A.jpg https://i.imgur.com/FbaML9A.jpg Retargeting? I did sell them an iPad mini a few months ago.
- ggg9990 9y ago
  They probably saw that a New York Times article mentioned them and emailed their customer base to catch anyone who was reminded by the article.
rwallace 9y ago
The author mentioned repurposing old computers for non-frontline work. Can't you do that with old tablets? Load a bunch of PDFs, pictures or whatever into internal storage, take the tablet offline, use it like a bookshelf in the form factor of a single book?
- terminalcommand 9y ago
  That's basically what I'm doing. But even for pdf browsing it feels sluggish. I mainly use my ipad as a third screen, placed on a dock to read through pdf books/documents. It feels more natural to read on it compared to the computer screens. Old ipads can definitely be repurposed as book readers, mp3 players (without spotify) or movie players (with older movie formats) Maybe I should do a clean install.
hollander 9y ago
I have a 1st generation iPod Touch, still working as music player in an old JBL dock. It's just for that, and that is enough for me. An old iPad like the one described here is nothing more or less than an old laptop that's getting too slow. So what has changed? Nothing much except excellent quality hardware. That hardware can still be used by the way, to display videos, play (old) games. Great toys for little kids?
- robocat 9y ago
  > old JBL dock FYI the old iPhone/iPod docks can easily be upgraded to bluetooth for about $10 by buying a bluetooth adapter (powered by the dock, so apparently a few docks don't work).
ddebernardy 9y ago
iPads age better if you disable javascript st some point. -- Sent from a 1st gen iPad.
neolefty 9y ago
Will an iPad from today last longer or less long? If the hardware is stabilizing, maybe they'll have more longevity (due to easier iOS compatibility)?
- larkost 9y ago
  The hardware is not really stabilizing, if anything the rate of change in CPU and GPU has been accelerating. Those two things are probably the largest contributers to the treadmill of obsolescence. Apple has tried to keep the connectors standard, but Lightning will eventually go away. But since they have not moved to USB-C yet (on the iPad side), there is a chance that they will skip that and we will have Lightning until the next major change (probably to USB).
mixmastamyk 9y ago
Our iPad2 is now useless, mostly because the old models were severely memory constrained. If the mic still worked we could use it for calls however.
- notanote 9y ago
  What I did for my iPad2 was to disable js on safari, which makes a big part of the web fast and usable again, in combination with reader mode. I had Brave istalled for using websites more interactively, and for sites like youtube. It has adblocking without any hardware requirements. If Brave still supports ios 9, you could try that. It will still lag, and certain apps were simply unusable for me (protonmail), but I increased its useful lifespan this way.
  - netsharc 9y ago
    Some services (like Opera Mini) basically rendered web pages server-side (including Javascript), and served them to low-end phones. I wonder if one can just make the iPad a dumb display/input device, using a PC on the local network to handle all the logic...
petraeus 9y ago
its called planned obsolescence
Decabytes 9y ago
Ipads where never meant to be computers. I mean just look at the new Ipad commerical with the little girl. This is made worse by the fact that it's completely locked down. You have no way to fiddle with it. If Ios was free software people could develop for the ipad so it could continue to do the things people expect of it, but it's not.
fumar 9y ago
After all these years, I finally picked up an iPad. It is an iPad Pro 10.5 with the smart keyboard. I like the device, its fast and has good utility for photo editing, like Affinity photo. Should I expect the device to slow down with each iOS update? Does the whole OS slow down or is it specific apps? Is this article accurate? What is the average lifespan of iOS devices, given hardware is taken care of? This is my first iOS device. Edit: Has there been a change in how older devices are impacted? For example, iPads before iPad Air are more likely to be impacted by updates. Any iOS device after the A7 chip is now less likely to be impacted.
- callalex 9y ago
  This advice is a bit late since you already made your purchase, but if you want your hardware to survive more software updates, usually getting the “S” or “tock” versions of things has been more future proof.
  - wilsonnb 9y ago
    The iPad Pro 10.5" is more or less the "tock" version of the original iPad Pro 9.7", so the OP should be good for a while.
- oflannabhra 9y ago
  I don't know what Apple's iOS feature roadmap is, but I'd say there isn't really a rule of thumb you can apply. My iPhone 6 struggled mightily with iOS 11 (even with an upgraded battery). It is the only time I have regretted an upgrade (since iOS 3) across 3 devices. On the other hand, Apple has steadily expanded the number of years they provide updates for their hardware, up to about 5 years now.
- panglott 9y ago
  Most of what this article is talking about is people who are using iPads that are 6-8 years old. Those first iPads were very limited in their hardware, such as the amount of memory.
- huebnerob 9y ago
cocktailpeanuts 9y ago
One of my biggest fear nowadays is I will someday mistakenly press "OK" to the annoying "Update to iOS 11" popup without thinking, and my iPad will be practically bricked. My iPad is a relatively recent iPad mini which I bought a couple of years ago, but I know from my iPhone 6, I know upgrading to iOS 11 will slow down everything, for example each app taking about 10 seconds to launch--including Apple's own apps like Mail.app and Messages app. Is there a way to completely block that upgrade to iOS 11 popup so I don't make the mistake?
- thinkythought 9y ago
  As someone who tested this extensively, it really needs to be treated like a major OS upgrade on a computer. Back up important info(pictures, etc) without using icloud, do a full format(DFU restore), and reinstall from scratch. I have an iphone 6 and 6s here that are still flying along great on ios 11. And i had previously had so many problems with the 6S that i thought this upgrade really was awful. It took until 11.1 or so to truly be ok, but the performance increase from doing a true "clean install" like i would with windows or OSX was really night and day.
  - cocktailpeanuts 9y ago
    You mean you have an iPhone 6 and it's working fine on iOS 11 with a clean install? That's a good news then, maybe I should reset everything and reinstall to see if that works.
    - thinkythought 9y ago
      Yep, it's my backup/testing device. It actually runs surprisingly great, i'd say it's still a better experience than an equivalent-aged android phone honestly, even like a nexus 6
      - tbrock 9y ago
        Bingo. You think that’s bad? Try running an android tablet from 5-6 years ago.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
LocalH 9y ago
The main issue with this is that Apple doesn't allow downgrading of iOS. Thus, one might be able to maintain a device on an older version of iOS that is most suited to it, but if anything happens that requires a restore, then that device is effectively dead in the water. It seems to me that at the very least, Apple should backport relevant security fixes at least one major version, if not two (for example, a bug found in iOS 11 should also be patched in iOS 10, should it be present), and they should sign the last revision of one or two major versions back, so that these things aren't thrown out en masse.
- mrep 9y ago
  This part is so ridiculous! The new version of IOS broke some of my apps so I went to submit feedback on those apps that Apple broke their app with their new OS and it turns out that providing feedback in the app store is also now broken! I literally cannot do anything now because I cannot downgrade my OS nor can I tell the developers that Apple broke their app with the new OS version.
hzhou321 9y ago
What did the author learned?
Symbiote 9y ago
I took a broken hard drive to the electronics recycling bin in the basement last month. It's not often emptied, as it takes a long time to get even half-full. Inside was a Macbook Air, a 2012 iPad, an iPod Touch, two 8GB iPods and an iPod Shuffle. All except the Macbook are in full working order, but the iPad and iPod Touch were frustratingly slow to use.
IronWolve 9y ago
I've been using my nexus 7 2012 model, and work commissioned a bunch, so I ended up with 4 of them. So I hit xda, grabbed slim OS 4.4.4 and lineage 7.1, both run fine. Gave my extras to my kids, runs youtube at 720 fine, browse fine. Only had to buy 2 batteries for 12 bux each. We had an old Ipad gen 1 that because totally useless with apples market. Doesn't appear Apple handles older versions like the Google market, showing files that are supported by your version. Kinda sad.
- coldtea 9y ago
  Not sure what you mean. iPads command better resale prices. iPads are usually faster than the competition (CPU/GPU wise for the money for equivalent high end models) iPads usually get more OS updates than Android tablets get (tons of which are left with the same OS that they came out with).
  - izacus 9y ago
    iPads also lose app support significantly faster if you don't upgrade to slower newer version of iOS - app developers drop support significantly faster than they do on Android.
scarface74 9y ago
As a counterpoint. My first generation iPad released in 2010 can still be used to watch Netflix, Hulu, Plex, and a few other services. Spotify works as does iBooks, Google Drive (reading PDFs), Mail, Calendar, etc. I reset it last year and redownloaded old versions of all the third party apps mentioned above. Now Safari on the other hand, crashes constantly. I do have the newest non-Pro iPad and of course it performs better.
GeekyBear 9y ago
What we've seen in the tablet space over the last decade is a yearly boost in hardware specs that has not been seen for some time in the PC marketplace. Consider that the original iPad only had 256 megabytes of RAM and a single core ARM Cortex A8 CPU while the current entry level iPad has 2 Gigabytes of RAM and a dual core Apple Twister CPU. If you go back to the days when PCs still saw that sort of repeated yearly performance advances and try to run Windows Vista on a machine built to run Windows 95, you're going to run into the exact same sorts of problems.
cdelsolar 9y ago
I bought a refurbished PC in 2007 for around $400 and I recently put Linux on it and gave it to my mom. It's definitely fast enough for her to check email, watch the occasional Youtube video, and surf Amazon/Craigslist/etc.
cyberferret 9y ago
I bought my first iPad primarily as a music creation device. I purchased almost every keyboard, recording and guitar amp sim app that came our for the first generation iPad, and had a ton of fun with them [0][1]. But then, the inevitable happened, the keyboard synth algorithms, multi track recorders, convolution reverbs etc., all improved and became more complicated, to the extent that the processor on the old iPad simply couldn't keep up any more. So I pretty much HAD to upgrade. The old iPad is still in service though - my wife is a portrait artist and uses it to display reference pics next to her easel that she can zoom in and scroll around in. As the author of the OP has said - no problem with its aesthetics or reliability, we just reverted to using the apps that still work within the confines of its processor and memory limits. [0] - https://soundcloud.com/cyberferret/in-a-bad-moog https://soundcloud.com/cyberferret/in-a-bad-moog [1] = https://soundcloud.com/cyberferret/industrial-ants-wav https://soundcloud.com/cyberferret/industrial-ants-wav
anigbrowl 9y ago
By way of contrast, I'm still using the PS3 I got 7 years ago (when it had already been out a few years) every day and it runs speedily and mostly smoothly - my sole annoyance with it is that it doesn't adjust for daylight savings time automatically. That said I never use it for web browsing as the browser has always been rather crap. Netflix and similar apps do need a few seconds to load, but then they always have as it's using an actual hard drive rather than a SSD.
sdfjkl 9y ago
I got my iPad in May 2010 and it still works fine, including (amazingly), the battery. Except of course, the software has become useless. YouTube doesn't work unless I do special URL mangling in the browser, which crashes every 2 seconds anyways. The latest OS release is so old it's from the days when Apple had a YouTube app, which Google later shut off the API for. I really feel it deserves a second life running some kind of alternate OS and can think of several uses for it, but last I checked there wasn't much of that happening.
upbeatlinux 9y ago
The (original) iPad I received as an Xmas gift in 2010 is still alive and kicking. In fact it is the most robust piece of ("mobile") hardware I've owned since 2010; outlasting various iPhones, Nexus devices, laptops and other electronic devices which have been purchased or received as gifts. Then again it's only used to stream movies, read news and light browser based activities. Amazingly and to the delight of the kids most games are still playable. The only other portable electronic devices I own with similar resilience are the original Raspberry Pi and potentially a 2011 Mac Book Pro. Though having to replace the logic boardonce and battery twice probably disqualify the MBP.
gargravarr 9y ago
I kind of understand the author's point, but at the same time, there comes a time when any kind of technology becomes obsolete. I still use my 2012 Nexus 7 - awesome tablet when it was released, and it was an entry-level model even then, so to have eeked 6 years of life out of it is pretty impressive. I know the OS is no longer maintained and it's stuck on Android 5.0; this is the price you pay for embedded systems. You own the hardware, but have zero claim over the software that runs on it. I still have up-to-date Firefox, for the time being, but I know at some point I'll lose that and more, and my device will be unsafe to connect to the internet. In much the same way you wouldn't try to play 4k video on a computer made in 1995, at some point the device's processing power maxes out. It's difficult to strike the balance between power, battery life and cost; Apple like to play the Rolls-Royce card of 'it's enough for you' in this regard, giving you a bit of room to expand in the future, but it's in no company's benefit to make your device last forever. With a device that cannot be upgraded, the best approach for them is to sell you another one. I think the field of computing is particularly skewed by Linux, how most hacker-types will dig through their box of parts every so often, slap together enough components to build an old-generation system and install Ubuntu on it and voila, a second (third, fourth, tenth) lease on life for an old machine. And that's mostly true; Linux doesn't much care what it's running on, the OS can be adapted to run on anything. But at the same time, the applications running thereon will quickly prove why the hardware is previous-generation; sure, you might get the latest Ubuntu running, but what then? Add Chrome and a few tabs and it's going to start to creak; a few things running in the background and eventually you'll give up. Embedded devices are much the same; at some point, you will reach the limits of the hardware through no fault of your own. It's questionable how much by-design this is, with Apple admitting they silently force the CPU clock down as the battery ages, but even with fresh batteries, application developers will be taking advantage of newer hardware features that don't work efficiently or at all in previous models. Some of it may be progress for progress' sake, but try running a machine with full-disk encryption on a Core 2 Duo, without the AES engine - the new hardware makes a lot of difference. It is a shame that the device doesn't visually age and when powered off has no indication of its age, but such is the way of the industry; it isn't Apple's way to make devices that last longer than their release cycle, and few companies have ever made much profit that way.
- 9y ago
personjerry 9y ago
TL;DR comments in this thread: People use their own anecdotes as proof that 1) PCs don’t suffer the same decline, 2) Macs don’t actually decline that badly YMMV
killjoywashere 9y ago
Maybe it's the battery?
foxhop 9y ago
I actually felt this way about my Asus Android Nexus 7 2013 - I didn't use it daily or even monthly, just enough to remember it. It largely collected dust and now it longer gets updates. I rooted it a few days ago and also installed lineage 14.1 and I'll have to say, it's like a brand new device again. I was very surprised. I'm plan to mount it next to my thermostat and use it as a "solar" dashboard for showing consumption and production.
- bitwize 9y ago
  You're lucky. I used mine moderately, then the SSD just up and went kaputski. Couldn't reflash it or anything. Dead.
Kajayacht 9y ago
I have a 4th generation iPad from early 2013 that I use all the time. Ironically, it wasn't until about 2 years ago when my wife got me a bluetooth keyboard case for it that I really started to get some use out of it. It definitely isn't as snappy as it used to be, and the battery reports that it has lost 20% of its original capacity, but I use it all the time. I primarily use it in meetings to take notes with OneNote, I also use it to SSH/RDP/VNC into other computers to write some code and such. I also have some means to work on code using a git app and Textastic. Yes, there are such apps available for iOS. GarageBand and iMovie get some usage when I'm feeling "artistic" though I will admit they are starting to get too sluggish (GarageBand especially). As far as games go, I mostly stick to the knockoff bargain-brand versions of big-budget games by Gameloft; Order and Chaos 2 (Guild Wars 2), Modern Combat (Call of Duty), Gangstar (GTA), Minecraft Pocket Edition, and retro game collections (Atari, Activision, Vectrex). I have a number of Bluetooth controllers that are compatible with those retro game collections that helps. I used to have my iPad jail broken and would play tons of emulators on it as well. The main thing that's nice about something like an iPad with a keyboard is that with a bit of work it can completely take the place of your laptop and do it better. When I go away for a long weekend, I inevitably have to ask myself if I want to take my laptop or my iPad. It always boils down to how much I think I'm going to have to work, and usually it's the iPad I take. It does 90% of the day-to-day things I need to do, still has a relatively great battery life, and it's the size of a notebook even with the keyboard-case. And if things come down to it, I can still access my work computer or my webserver at home and do the whatever else I need to do (albeit in a less than ideal manner, but I've never had to say "sorry, I can't look into this right now cause I only have my iPad"). I will admit, it's the addition of a physical keyboard that really does it for me on the iPad. But keyboard or not, even within the Orwellian App Store I can be extremely productive with my 5 year old iPad. And yes, I wrote all this on my iPad.
credo 9y ago
My older iPad (yes, first gen iPad from 2010) is eight years old and it works great (from my perspective :) Yes, I can't download most new apps, but last year, I released an update for 'Economy for iPad' (#1 Finance app for several weeks in 2010) and that app continues to support the original iPad and iOS 5.1 Generally, the best way to keep old devices running well is to keep the old OS. (Old major version at its latest minor version e.g. 10.3). There is a slight risk of not being able to pick up security fixes that didn't make it into 10.3, but made it to 11.0. However, as a developer, who tests apps on older OS versions, I keep old test devices with old OS versions on them. Btw I should also add that Netflix runs perfectly on my old iPad with iOS 5.1 :)
ataturk 9y ago
That story is odd to me because we still have a 2012 iPad 2 that is still going strong.
bondolo 9y ago
The iPad I use for watching cartoons in bed is a minimum spec 1st generation iPad. It runs iOS 5.1 and hasn't updated in about 5 years. Most of the apps are no longer supported. I can still use NetFlix, Amazon Prime Video and Crackle. I am not sure about Hulu, CBS, or HBO Go as I am not currently subscribed to these. I can watch YouTube and some other video sites in Safari, which frequently crashes because it runs out memory. Originally I used to charge it every 10-14 days. Now I must charge it every 3-4 days. As a video watching device it is still fine. I would be happier if the utility degraded a little more gracefully. I can't think of a good reason why AdultSwim or CartoonNetwork shouldn't be supporting legacy iOS versions for their video players. Their target audiences are more likely to be using older hand-me-down devices. On the other hand, this device is also now the only device I can use to still play older 32-bit AdultSwim games like "Monsters Ate My Condo" and "Mole Attack" that no longer run in iOS 11.

197 points by o_nate 9y ago

My mother-in-law is in the same boat. She is not a demanding user. She basically uses her iPad for 3 things: buying things on Amazon, looking at pictures of her grandson on Facebook, and checking her stocks with the Fidelity app. Well, the Fidelity app recently informed her that she could no longer login unless she installed a required upgrade. It turns out the upgrade is not compatible with the version of iOS that runs on her hardware. So just like that her iPad became obsolete.

shdh 9y ago
Have her try using the web applications instead of native iOS applications.
- gruez 9y ago
  that's probably worse. non-updated ios => non-updated safari => 0days galore
  - brianwawok 9y ago
    You should be OK going to Fidelity.com Not the deep web Of course not easy to communicate to parents or grandparents who are less tech savvy
    - 45h34jh53k4j 9y ago
      what about nytimes or any of the other sites that have been compromised by malicious ad networks? Its not safe.
      - brianwawok 9y ago
        I did not say nytimes, I said fidelity ;)
    - o_nate 9y ago
      Given her level of tech-savviness, that's not as easy as it sounds. Also, it seems more secure to have her just use the app - less possibility of phishing attempts and the like. She already bought a new iPad anyway.
      - lostmsu 9y ago
        Can't you make a shortcut for Fidelity on the "desktop"?
  - lozenge 9y ago
    FYI, iOS lets you add sites to the home screen, when you do they behave almost appish.

arx1422 9y ago

Curious how old the author is. Those of us who had computers in the 80s and 90s remember how 3 years or so was what you got before obsolescence set in. Mobile devices are still developing at that kind of rate. Desktops and laptops last so long because for 99% of needs they maxed out on necessary specs many years ago.

45h34jh53k4j 9y ago

I think something that is missing from this is that it is no longer safe in this time to use old software. It is an existential threat to your own information, which is increasingly linked to your personal device like a phone or tablet. You will be hacked by a drive by exploit, or a mutant ad network. Its no longer about risky behavior, simply existing today online with old software can put you at grave risk. How long should apple support these devices? 5 years seems reasonable, and very few vendors of hardware offer anything like this. I agree it sucks, and there is no reason a 5 year old ipad needs to be dead -- but in context this is fine. If you had a 5 year old car that allowed random drivers to stab you in the face remotely, people would replace their cars and not complain that this was a problem.

fenwick67 9y ago
> If you had a 5 year old car that allowed random drivers to stab you in the face remotely, people would replace their cars and not complain that this was a problem. Ironically, some cars in the takata airbag recall are 15 years old [1] and basically stab you in the face, yet contrary to what you said, the recall continues, and is payed for by the car manufacturers. People didn't just say "oh well I guess I'll buy a new car". https://www.nhtsa.gov/recall-spotlight/takata-air-bags https://www.nhtsa.gov/recall-spotlight/takata-air-bags
tomc1985 9y ago
It is no longer safe to use old browsers. Old software works as well as it ever did, subject to your OS being able to run it. There is a world of offline desktop software that surpasses the cloud in features and functionality.
- 45h34jh53k4j 9y ago
  Cool, please let me know how i can update safari on my ios8 (ipad mini). You can't -- and in this age the OS and the applications are an indistinguishable blob.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]

scrumper 9y ago

My first-gen iPad Pro, the big one from 2015 or '16, is getting really slow, particularly with Safari, and it gets all the updates. Having some trouble understanding what's going on here.

tomc1985 9y ago
Your first-gen iPad Pro is still new compared to what this dude is packing. There's an iPad from 2012 sitting on my desk that stopped receiving updates and, for getting any kind of work done, the thing is useless.
- r00fus 9y ago
  You're using a 5 year old tablet for work? That thing is financially depreciated 2 years ago. For security reasons alone you shouldn't be using it to do work.
  - tomc1985 9y ago
    It is literally sitting on my desk, doing nothing
abakker 9y ago
Get the battery tested/replaced?
macintux 9y ago
As someone else mentioned, check the battery. But I'd also suggest doing a clean install using iTunes; sometimes OS upgrades go subtly wrong, slowing things down, and resetting via the device itself is insufficient to get a truly clean install.

omginternets 9y ago

I have a first-gen iPad sitting around. Is there something like postmarketOS I could install? Hell, I would even settle for using it as a headless box ...

ikeboy 9y ago
You should be able to jailbreak then set up ssh. Not sure what tools exist, possibly some do that allow VMs or could be enough native software that you could do what you want. VM would be super slow, native would be fine if you can compile and run it properly
compiler-guy 9y ago
I feel like old ipads would be useful as the head to another box, rather than a headless box. They have decent screens, and would work well as, say, an extra screen to a movie player for kids on trips. It's unfortunate that there isn't an easy way to do it.
- miskin 9y ago
  I use 1st gen iPad as client for Plex it runs ok there. It can also play (correctly prepared) movies and YouTube, so it is really ok for kids use.
netsharc 9y ago
Apple really should allow open source OSes after a few years, when the device is no longer sexy. Release the drivers as open source, release some signing keys that would allow boot image signing, etc (but obviously keep it somehow separate so tinkerers can't sign hacked iOS images using those keys), and allow the community free reign. Obviously they are afraid someone will make an OS that, when run in a 2012 iPad, can beat the 2017 iPad...

pgrote 9y ago

I have 2 original ipads that are in excellent shape. I spent a weekend looking for some way to repurpose them into photo albums that sit there are cycle through photos. I couldn't find a working solution. All the apps won't work properly and the browser doesn't work with things like Flikr or Google Photos. It is a shame since the display is still awesome. Any ideas on what to do with them?

jads 9y ago
I think most versions of iOS have had a built-in slideshow function in the Photos application. Try loading up some photos onto the iPad, add to an album, and see if there's a slideshow option somewhere.
mhh__ 9y ago
Some sort of jailbreaking/software modification (haven't done this in years, not really sure if it's possible?) could allow you to do what you were trying to do in the first place?
anonemouse145 9y ago
Nope. I've heard a nonstandard connection means reusing the display isn't straightforward even if you crack them open. Best hope is jailbreaking and running custom firmware, which may open up some possibilities.
fenwick67 9y ago
Hmmm... maybe make your own webpage that cycles through the photos? You probably don't want family photos on a public URL though...
- sli 9y ago
  They don't need to be public. A $5 RasPi Zero would be plenty powerful enough to serve photos on a local network.
pkamb 9y ago
"Picture Frame Mode" was included with the stock iPad, prior to iOS 7. See if you can downgrade. People miss it: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5345183?start=0&tstart=0 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5345183?start=0&tstart=...

firasd 9y ago

My Panasonic 'Smart TV' is from 2014 and its app marketplace doesn't have Netflix. It's just not there. My laptop is from 2011, and since it runs the latest Chrome browser, it can play Netflix just fine. Made me think: the fact that laptops & desktops are consumer devices sold with hardware and operating systems that do general-purpose computing is underrated.

digi_owl 9y ago
Beyond that, that nothing on the hardware side stops you from running any software you want to. Expect the PC to morph into something more akin to a tablet or "smart" TV if the MAFIAA get what they want (and Intel and crew seems all too willing to give in). And that point your GPC will be relegated to a developer workstation that may well require a verified employer and regular visits from an auditor to own.
- titanix2 9y ago
  Sadly this is a direction Microsoft is taking with the rumored upcoming "S Mode". If this works for them (and I hope it don’t) even PC will be locked down and no more useful than a tablet. Some decision makers are forgetting hardware is for running software, not blocking everything under the sun.
- jmiserez 9y ago
  You’re getting downvoted, but while what you describe probably isn’t going to happen, you’re not too far off. We’re already “there” with walled garden app stores, and outside of that app signing where you need to pay to be in a “developer program” to be able to sign your apps [1], DRM baked into the browser (EME) and hardware (HDCP), mandatory logins to cloud services for appliances, etc. [1] (Thinking of macOS here. I’m sure a non-centralized way of signing would also work.)
  - digi_owl 9y ago
    Most likely because i used terms that to valley-dwellers are a bunch of big red flags.

niftich 9y ago

For what it's worth, PCs are subject to the exact same slow decline, even if the author's romantic notions of repurposing an old machine ring true. While they may be suitable for old games on an unnetworked, phone-activated WinXP, or as a power-hungry Linux machine that will perform admirably as long as web browsers aren't involved, both fates are the same: frozen in time, locked out of the dizzying speed of evolution of online services and the portals through which they are viewed. Stallman's right yet again: the offline programs will run just the same, but the online programs are subject to change at a moment's notice, from Apple shedding support of 32-bit hardware, to application makers shedding support for old OS versions, to online backends forcing mandatory updates. It feels worse with the iPad because its marketing made an impression of a sleek, "just-works" kind of device. Of course, its utility is tied exclusively to applications from a captive marketplace, and often, to remote services frontended by those apps or the browser, making its elegance a leaky abstraction. Today's Chromebooks, another "just-works" device, will be in the same situation in five years. But with Chromebooks, or Android phones (if you're lucky), or x86 or x64 PCs, you can replace the stock OS and repurpose the device on the hardware's own remaining merits. An iPad is just stuck.

GSimon 9y ago
The decline is similar but not nearly the exact same. PCs can generally do tasks they once did years later without compromise, iPads get slower and hardware is forced to update to a newer OS just to run existing applications, making tasks like simple note taking slower and more of a process than before. With iPad you can't keep your past experience because your product's ecosystem isn't your own vacuum you can't keep it away from forced updates.
- oflannabhra 9y ago
  >you can't keep it away from forced updates I fail to see how that is the case? Apple neither forces OS updates, nor forces app updates. An iPad will perform exactly the same, given the same software, after 5 years or 10 years, and the user is in control of that software. If you are speaking of services, well, that's not unique to iPads, or Apple, but is a consequence of the Internet.

fmsf 9y ago

For the more tech savy this is where an open source operative system would make the difference (iAndroid). Though Apple should provide some sort of alternative for the less tech savy. One thing is saying that we don't support your browser because it sucks and you have alternatives, the other thing is saying "the 500£ you spent 5 years ago are gone, we don't care the hardware is in good state just buy a new one"

fitzroy 9y ago

"a late-2012 iPad Mini, model number A1432, black, with 16 gigabytes of storage. It retailed, at release, for $329." So the cost of owning this iPad has been less than 20 cents/day over its 5 year usable life. That doesn't even factor in the slight energy savings vs using a full laptop if you want to be nitpickey. Nor does it factor in the current resale value. I just sold an original iPad 1 for $80 on Craigslist. I'm sure this would be worth at least as much, if not more. "I still use my old iPad for passive consumption: reading, watching videos, checking feeds ...formerly easy tasks have become strained. Social apps have become slow, videos take longer to load and Safari can’t seem to handle the most important and fundamental services of the modern web." This is all also true of my maxed out 2012 MacBook Air. Final Cut Pro X runs more smoothly editing HD video than browsing Facebook. And, while I agree the uses for an old iPad are limited (photo browser, music player / media controller, eBook reader, kitchen recipe browser), they are more elegant than keeping an old computer around. The mixed blessing and curse of something like the iPad is that it still looks beautiful and functional long after it isn't. I'm sure it would be easier to part with the device if it was a 5-year-old $300 Celeron netbook.

qplex 9y ago
No. It's not okay to make devices obsolete by software. Arguing for the low cost of ownership per day is a strawman.

digi_owl 9y ago

And in the end he didn't learn a thing.

CaptSpify 9y ago
I dunno. He seemed to catch onto the fact that Apple's business model likes to screw over their users via planned obsolescence. That is more than most people learn.
- bmj 9y ago
  Planned obsolescence is the business model for most major electronics manufacturers today. Even non-"smart" devices are not really designed to be repaired (or upgraded).
  - CaptSpify 9y ago
    Yes, but I don't think I get the point you are trying to make by bringing that up?
- panglott 9y ago
  Why pick on Apple here? Are there any Android tablets from 2010-2012 that still see regular use, get software updates, and new/updated apps? Is anyone still using their Blackberry PlayBooks from late 2010? It looks like the Galaxy Tab 2 from 2012 can only be upgraded to Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, roughly as current as iOS 5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_Tab_2_10.1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_Tab_2_10.1
  - CaptSpify 9y ago
    Oh, I completely agree. Apple is far from the only bad actor here. The only reason I singled them out was because the article was about them.
    - nottorp 9y ago
      Hmm if we're talking tablets, at least an apple tablet will be useful for some time starting when you buy it. Can't say the same about many android tablets... What's frustrating though is that I can pick up a 20 year old general purpose computer from the trash, set it up with software from that time (never mind the legalities) and play around with it. Not so with the one iPad 1 I keep around... I think you can't install any new apps if you try now.

ChuckMcM 9y ago

I have an "iPad with Retina display" in the same boat. It is my media player. I use it to play locally hosted songs. It makes me wonder if I can configure XCode to target it any more (its on IOS8 or 9, which ever was last for that version).

oflannabhra 9y ago

I'm not exactly sure what the chief complaint here is. Is it that iPads are not upgradeable? Well, Apple has an entire system for recycling and credit. Also, an argument could be made that an upgradeable iPad would also cease to be as useful as an iPad, as it would necessitate some level of form-factor change. Is it that software keeps moving forward? Well, that is not new, and is not unique to an iPad. A five year old computer running a recent browser will also struggle with new websites. Is it that the author can't give the iPad to someone else who could use it and wouldn't be as frustrated? I fail to see how that is the case. I'm sure using a five year old computer can get frustrating. But I think the fact that an iPad is still quite functional after five years of use is rather remarkable. No one writes op-eds in the NYT lamenting the slowness of their five year old netbook, because those devices are even more disposable than an iPad. Edit - that is not to say that there is not an issue with aging iOS hardware. I just don't think the article makes a clear argument, or even statement, of what that issue is.

wambotron 9y ago
> A five year old computer running a recent browser will also struggle with new websites. My _gaming rig_ is 5+ years old and still runs new games fine. I don't even know where you came up with this. My wife owns a 2012 Macbook Pro and it still runs everything fine, even the newest OS and MS Office applications.
- oflannabhra 9y ago
  sorry, I should have said "low end laptop," "netbook," or "chromebook." Those are all in the same class as an iPad, with the same portability requirements, etc.
  - lione 9y ago
    I've been using my $300 Acer c720p chromebook for almost 5 years. Keys are falling off, it has quite a few cracks and smudges, and the battery is less then half of what it used to be, but it still boots up in about 8 seconds, and there's no new noticeable lag. Right now sounds like my Chromebook was a better decision than a iPad.

acqq 9y ago

My parents have an iPad 2. It's still in good condition, battery still very good. But they can't use it anymore for Skype: Skype delivered always slower apps as the time went on, and now the last version of the app is too slow to be used at all: when somebody calls the app gets so big lag that it just fails. Also, some app writers make the app compatible with every iOS. Not Microsoft. Even newer versions of Skype aren't for iOS 9. But the last for iOS 9 was already too slow. From this perspective, the biggest problem are the companies which decide not to test on the older hardware and which don't want to support older iOS versions.

peatmoss 9y ago

I have a 3rd gen iPad that I feel like there should be a 3rd-party logic board / OS update for. There are approximately a bajillion 3rd gen iPads out there. Imagine walking into the local screen repair place, having them stick in a new Android board that reuses the digitizer, screen, and case. Maybe they pop a new battery in while it's open. Bam! Renewed iPad. Given how cheep various SBCs have gotten, I have to imagine there is an economic business model for someone in retrofitting all these old, homogeneous, plentiful devices.

gm-conspiracy 9y ago
Please! Somebody kickstarter this!

fmsf 9y ago

iPad mini 1 are selling on ebay for 80£, I wonder if there isn't anyone exploring the business opportunity here for corporate software, were instead of buying 300£ iPads to show the schedule of a meeting room, you can just code against an old version of IOS and supply your software with hardware at a high discount. edit: had 30£ before, but was a bid not a buy now

NegativeLatency 9y ago
I'd bet only a fraction of the cost of a system like you describe is tied up in the hardware. There's the cost of installing the hardware (running power, networking), managing it (device software updates), paying for a recurring subscription to the service. Not to mention the risk of having old hardware on your network that doesn't get software updates anymore. And anyways once a company is looking at something like this most will happily justify it balanced against something like "lost productivity".
thinkythought 9y ago
Anyone doing this would be opening themselves up to a world of liability, and probably a lot of customers who would say no. I know my work is dumping older ipads even though all our integrated software for meetings etc works fine just because it could be exploited and isn't receiving updates. Even the possibility of that isn't worth it to a lot of places. It doesn't matter if it's connected to a "closed" network, it still has radio(s) on. And since so many places are so slow to upgrade, this is a known attack surface. Once you exploit that old-ass iOS, you have a compromised machine with radios sniffing inside your environment.

theseanz 9y ago

While I was reading the article, this appeared in my inbox: https://i.imgur.com/FbaML9A.jpg https://i.imgur.com/FbaML9A.jpg Retargeting? I did sell them an iPad mini a few months ago.

ggg9990 9y ago
They probably saw that a New York Times article mentioned them and emailed their customer base to catch anyone who was reminded by the article.

rwallace 9y ago

The author mentioned repurposing old computers for non-frontline work. Can't you do that with old tablets? Load a bunch of PDFs, pictures or whatever into internal storage, take the tablet offline, use it like a bookshelf in the form factor of a single book?

terminalcommand 9y ago
That's basically what I'm doing. But even for pdf browsing it feels sluggish. I mainly use my ipad as a third screen, placed on a dock to read through pdf books/documents. It feels more natural to read on it compared to the computer screens. Old ipads can definitely be repurposed as book readers, mp3 players (without spotify) or movie players (with older movie formats) Maybe I should do a clean install.

hollander 9y ago

I have a 1st generation iPod Touch, still working as music player in an old JBL dock. It's just for that, and that is enough for me. An old iPad like the one described here is nothing more or less than an old laptop that's getting too slow. So what has changed? Nothing much except excellent quality hardware. That hardware can still be used by the way, to display videos, play (old) games. Great toys for little kids?

robocat 9y ago
> old JBL dock FYI the old iPhone/iPod docks can easily be upgraded to bluetooth for about $10 by buying a bluetooth adapter (powered by the dock, so apparently a few docks don't work).

ddebernardy 9y ago

iPads age better if you disable javascript st some point. -- Sent from a 1st gen iPad.

neolefty 9y ago

Will an iPad from today last longer or less long? If the hardware is stabilizing, maybe they'll have more longevity (due to easier iOS compatibility)?

larkost 9y ago
The hardware is not really stabilizing, if anything the rate of change in CPU and GPU has been accelerating. Those two things are probably the largest contributers to the treadmill of obsolescence. Apple has tried to keep the connectors standard, but Lightning will eventually go away. But since they have not moved to USB-C yet (on the iPad side), there is a chance that they will skip that and we will have Lightning until the next major change (probably to USB).

mixmastamyk 9y ago

Our iPad2 is now useless, mostly because the old models were severely memory constrained. If the mic still worked we could use it for calls however.

notanote 9y ago
What I did for my iPad2 was to disable js on safari, which makes a big part of the web fast and usable again, in combination with reader mode. I had Brave istalled for using websites more interactively, and for sites like youtube. It has adblocking without any hardware requirements. If Brave still supports ios 9, you could try that. It will still lag, and certain apps were simply unusable for me (protonmail), but I increased its useful lifespan this way.
- netsharc 9y ago
  Some services (like Opera Mini) basically rendered web pages server-side (including Javascript), and served them to low-end phones. I wonder if one can just make the iPad a dumb display/input device, using a PC on the local network to handle all the logic...

petraeus 9y ago

its called planned obsolescence

Decabytes 9y ago

Ipads where never meant to be computers. I mean just look at the new Ipad commerical with the little girl. This is made worse by the fact that it's completely locked down. You have no way to fiddle with it. If Ios was free software people could develop for the ipad so it could continue to do the things people expect of it, but it's not.

fumar 9y ago

After all these years, I finally picked up an iPad. It is an iPad Pro 10.5 with the smart keyboard. I like the device, its fast and has good utility for photo editing, like Affinity photo. Should I expect the device to slow down with each iOS update? Does the whole OS slow down or is it specific apps? Is this article accurate? What is the average lifespan of iOS devices, given hardware is taken care of? This is my first iOS device. Edit: Has there been a change in how older devices are impacted? For example, iPads before iPad Air are more likely to be impacted by updates. Any iOS device after the A7 chip is now less likely to be impacted.

callalex 9y ago
This advice is a bit late since you already made your purchase, but if you want your hardware to survive more software updates, usually getting the “S” or “tock” versions of things has been more future proof.
- wilsonnb 9y ago
  The iPad Pro 10.5" is more or less the "tock" version of the original iPad Pro 9.7", so the OP should be good for a while.
oflannabhra 9y ago
I don't know what Apple's iOS feature roadmap is, but I'd say there isn't really a rule of thumb you can apply. My iPhone 6 struggled mightily with iOS 11 (even with an upgraded battery). It is the only time I have regretted an upgrade (since iOS 3) across 3 devices. On the other hand, Apple has steadily expanded the number of years they provide updates for their hardware, up to about 5 years now.
panglott 9y ago
Most of what this article is talking about is people who are using iPads that are 6-8 years old. Those first iPads were very limited in their hardware, such as the amount of memory.
huebnerob 9y ago

cocktailpeanuts 9y ago

One of my biggest fear nowadays is I will someday mistakenly press "OK" to the annoying "Update to iOS 11" popup without thinking, and my iPad will be practically bricked. My iPad is a relatively recent iPad mini which I bought a couple of years ago, but I know from my iPhone 6, I know upgrading to iOS 11 will slow down everything, for example each app taking about 10 seconds to launch--including Apple's own apps like Mail.app and Messages app. Is there a way to completely block that upgrade to iOS 11 popup so I don't make the mistake?

thinkythought 9y ago
As someone who tested this extensively, it really needs to be treated like a major OS upgrade on a computer. Back up important info(pictures, etc) without using icloud, do a full format(DFU restore), and reinstall from scratch. I have an iphone 6 and 6s here that are still flying along great on ios 11. And i had previously had so many problems with the 6S that i thought this upgrade really was awful. It took until 11.1 or so to truly be ok, but the performance increase from doing a true "clean install" like i would with windows or OSX was really night and day.
- cocktailpeanuts 9y ago
  You mean you have an iPhone 6 and it's working fine on iOS 11 with a clean install? That's a good news then, maybe I should reset everything and reinstall to see if that works.
  - thinkythought 9y ago
    Yep, it's my backup/testing device. It actually runs surprisingly great, i'd say it's still a better experience than an equivalent-aged android phone honestly, even like a nexus 6
    - tbrock 9y ago
      Bingo. You think that’s bad? Try running an android tablet from 5-6 years ago.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

LocalH 9y ago

The main issue with this is that Apple doesn't allow downgrading of iOS. Thus, one might be able to maintain a device on an older version of iOS that is most suited to it, but if anything happens that requires a restore, then that device is effectively dead in the water. It seems to me that at the very least, Apple should backport relevant security fixes at least one major version, if not two (for example, a bug found in iOS 11 should also be patched in iOS 10, should it be present), and they should sign the last revision of one or two major versions back, so that these things aren't thrown out en masse.

mrep 9y ago
This part is so ridiculous! The new version of IOS broke some of my apps so I went to submit feedback on those apps that Apple broke their app with their new OS and it turns out that providing feedback in the app store is also now broken! I literally cannot do anything now because I cannot downgrade my OS nor can I tell the developers that Apple broke their app with the new OS version.

hzhou321 9y ago

What did the author learned?

Symbiote 9y ago

I took a broken hard drive to the electronics recycling bin in the basement last month. It's not often emptied, as it takes a long time to get even half-full. Inside was a Macbook Air, a 2012 iPad, an iPod Touch, two 8GB iPods and an iPod Shuffle. All except the Macbook are in full working order, but the iPad and iPod Touch were frustratingly slow to use.

IronWolve 9y ago

I've been using my nexus 7 2012 model, and work commissioned a bunch, so I ended up with 4 of them. So I hit xda, grabbed slim OS 4.4.4 and lineage 7.1, both run fine. Gave my extras to my kids, runs youtube at 720 fine, browse fine. Only had to buy 2 batteries for 12 bux each. We had an old Ipad gen 1 that because totally useless with apples market. Doesn't appear Apple handles older versions like the Google market, showing files that are supported by your version. Kinda sad.

coldtea 9y ago
Not sure what you mean. iPads command better resale prices. iPads are usually faster than the competition (CPU/GPU wise for the money for equivalent high end models) iPads usually get more OS updates than Android tablets get (tons of which are left with the same OS that they came out with).
- izacus 9y ago
  iPads also lose app support significantly faster if you don't upgrade to slower newer version of iOS - app developers drop support significantly faster than they do on Android.

scarface74 9y ago

As a counterpoint. My first generation iPad released in 2010 can still be used to watch Netflix, Hulu, Plex, and a few other services. Spotify works as does iBooks, Google Drive (reading PDFs), Mail, Calendar, etc. I reset it last year and redownloaded old versions of all the third party apps mentioned above. Now Safari on the other hand, crashes constantly. I do have the newest non-Pro iPad and of course it performs better.

GeekyBear 9y ago

What we've seen in the tablet space over the last decade is a yearly boost in hardware specs that has not been seen for some time in the PC marketplace. Consider that the original iPad only had 256 megabytes of RAM and a single core ARM Cortex A8 CPU while the current entry level iPad has 2 Gigabytes of RAM and a dual core Apple Twister CPU. If you go back to the days when PCs still saw that sort of repeated yearly performance advances and try to run Windows Vista on a machine built to run Windows 95, you're going to run into the exact same sorts of problems.

cdelsolar 9y ago

I bought a refurbished PC in 2007 for around $400 and I recently put Linux on it and gave it to my mom. It's definitely fast enough for her to check email, watch the occasional Youtube video, and surf Amazon/Craigslist/etc.

cyberferret 9y ago

I bought my first iPad primarily as a music creation device. I purchased almost every keyboard, recording and guitar amp sim app that came our for the first generation iPad, and had a ton of fun with them [0][1]. But then, the inevitable happened, the keyboard synth algorithms, multi track recorders, convolution reverbs etc., all improved and became more complicated, to the extent that the processor on the old iPad simply couldn't keep up any more. So I pretty much HAD to upgrade. The old iPad is still in service though - my wife is a portrait artist and uses it to display reference pics next to her easel that she can zoom in and scroll around in. As the author of the OP has said - no problem with its aesthetics or reliability, we just reverted to using the apps that still work within the confines of its processor and memory limits. [0] - https://soundcloud.com/cyberferret/in-a-bad-moog https://soundcloud.com/cyberferret/in-a-bad-moog [1] = https://soundcloud.com/cyberferret/industrial-ants-wav https://soundcloud.com/cyberferret/industrial-ants-wav

anigbrowl 9y ago

By way of contrast, I'm still using the PS3 I got 7 years ago (when it had already been out a few years) every day and it runs speedily and mostly smoothly - my sole annoyance with it is that it doesn't adjust for daylight savings time automatically. That said I never use it for web browsing as the browser has always been rather crap. Netflix and similar apps do need a few seconds to load, but then they always have as it's using an actual hard drive rather than a SSD.

sdfjkl 9y ago

I got my iPad in May 2010 and it still works fine, including (amazingly), the battery. Except of course, the software has become useless. YouTube doesn't work unless I do special URL mangling in the browser, which crashes every 2 seconds anyways. The latest OS release is so old it's from the days when Apple had a YouTube app, which Google later shut off the API for. I really feel it deserves a second life running some kind of alternate OS and can think of several uses for it, but last I checked there wasn't much of that happening.

upbeatlinux 9y ago

The (original) iPad I received as an Xmas gift in 2010 is still alive and kicking. In fact it is the most robust piece of ("mobile") hardware I've owned since 2010; outlasting various iPhones, Nexus devices, laptops and other electronic devices which have been purchased or received as gifts. Then again it's only used to stream movies, read news and light browser based activities. Amazingly and to the delight of the kids most games are still playable. The only other portable electronic devices I own with similar resilience are the original Raspberry Pi and potentially a 2011 Mac Book Pro. Though having to replace the logic boardonce and battery twice probably disqualify the MBP.

gargravarr 9y ago

I kind of understand the author's point, but at the same time, there comes a time when any kind of technology becomes obsolete. I still use my 2012 Nexus 7 - awesome tablet when it was released, and it was an entry-level model even then, so to have eeked 6 years of life out of it is pretty impressive. I know the OS is no longer maintained and it's stuck on Android 5.0; this is the price you pay for embedded systems. You own the hardware, but have zero claim over the software that runs on it. I still have up-to-date Firefox, for the time being, but I know at some point I'll lose that and more, and my device will be unsafe to connect to the internet. In much the same way you wouldn't try to play 4k video on a computer made in 1995, at some point the device's processing power maxes out. It's difficult to strike the balance between power, battery life and cost; Apple like to play the Rolls-Royce card of 'it's enough for you' in this regard, giving you a bit of room to expand in the future, but it's in no company's benefit to make your device last forever. With a device that cannot be upgraded, the best approach for them is to sell you another one. I think the field of computing is particularly skewed by Linux, how most hacker-types will dig through their box of parts every so often, slap together enough components to build an old-generation system and install Ubuntu on it and voila, a second (third, fourth, tenth) lease on life for an old machine. And that's mostly true; Linux doesn't much care what it's running on, the OS can be adapted to run on anything. But at the same time, the applications running thereon will quickly prove why the hardware is previous-generation; sure, you might get the latest Ubuntu running, but what then? Add Chrome and a few tabs and it's going to start to creak; a few things running in the background and eventually you'll give up. Embedded devices are much the same; at some point, you will reach the limits of the hardware through no fault of your own. It's questionable how much by-design this is, with Apple admitting they silently force the CPU clock down as the battery ages, but even with fresh batteries, application developers will be taking advantage of newer hardware features that don't work efficiently or at all in previous models. Some of it may be progress for progress' sake, but try running a machine with full-disk encryption on a Core 2 Duo, without the AES engine - the new hardware makes a lot of difference. It is a shame that the device doesn't visually age and when powered off has no indication of its age, but such is the way of the industry; it isn't Apple's way to make devices that last longer than their release cycle, and few companies have ever made much profit that way.

9y ago

personjerry 9y ago

TL;DR comments in this thread: People use their own anecdotes as proof that 1) PCs don’t suffer the same decline, 2) Macs don’t actually decline that badly YMMV

killjoywashere 9y ago

Maybe it's the battery?

foxhop 9y ago

I actually felt this way about my Asus Android Nexus 7 2013 - I didn't use it daily or even monthly, just enough to remember it. It largely collected dust and now it longer gets updates. I rooted it a few days ago and also installed lineage 14.1 and I'll have to say, it's like a brand new device again. I was very surprised. I'm plan to mount it next to my thermostat and use it as a "solar" dashboard for showing consumption and production.

bitwize 9y ago
You're lucky. I used mine moderately, then the SSD just up and went kaputski. Couldn't reflash it or anything. Dead.

Kajayacht 9y ago

I have a 4th generation iPad from early 2013 that I use all the time. Ironically, it wasn't until about 2 years ago when my wife got me a bluetooth keyboard case for it that I really started to get some use out of it. It definitely isn't as snappy as it used to be, and the battery reports that it has lost 20% of its original capacity, but I use it all the time. I primarily use it in meetings to take notes with OneNote, I also use it to SSH/RDP/VNC into other computers to write some code and such. I also have some means to work on code using a git app and Textastic. Yes, there are such apps available for iOS. GarageBand and iMovie get some usage when I'm feeling "artistic" though I will admit they are starting to get too sluggish (GarageBand especially). As far as games go, I mostly stick to the knockoff bargain-brand versions of big-budget games by Gameloft; Order and Chaos 2 (Guild Wars 2), Modern Combat (Call of Duty), Gangstar (GTA), Minecraft Pocket Edition, and retro game collections (Atari, Activision, Vectrex). I have a number of Bluetooth controllers that are compatible with those retro game collections that helps. I used to have my iPad jail broken and would play tons of emulators on it as well. The main thing that's nice about something like an iPad with a keyboard is that with a bit of work it can completely take the place of your laptop and do it better. When I go away for a long weekend, I inevitably have to ask myself if I want to take my laptop or my iPad. It always boils down to how much I think I'm going to have to work, and usually it's the iPad I take. It does 90% of the day-to-day things I need to do, still has a relatively great battery life, and it's the size of a notebook even with the keyboard-case. And if things come down to it, I can still access my work computer or my webserver at home and do the whatever else I need to do (albeit in a less than ideal manner, but I've never had to say "sorry, I can't look into this right now cause I only have my iPad"). I will admit, it's the addition of a physical keyboard that really does it for me on the iPad. But keyboard or not, even within the Orwellian App Store I can be extremely productive with my 5 year old iPad. And yes, I wrote all this on my iPad.

credo 9y ago

My older iPad (yes, first gen iPad from 2010) is eight years old and it works great (from my perspective :) Yes, I can't download most new apps, but last year, I released an update for 'Economy for iPad' (#1 Finance app for several weeks in 2010) and that app continues to support the original iPad and iOS 5.1 Generally, the best way to keep old devices running well is to keep the old OS. (Old major version at its latest minor version e.g. 10.3). There is a slight risk of not being able to pick up security fixes that didn't make it into 10.3, but made it to 11.0. However, as a developer, who tests apps on older OS versions, I keep old test devices with old OS versions on them. Btw I should also add that Netflix runs perfectly on my old iPad with iOS 5.1 :)

ataturk 9y ago

That story is odd to me because we still have a 2012 iPad 2 that is still going strong.

bondolo 9y ago

The iPad I use for watching cartoons in bed is a minimum spec 1st generation iPad. It runs iOS 5.1 and hasn't updated in about 5 years. Most of the apps are no longer supported. I can still use NetFlix, Amazon Prime Video and Crackle. I am not sure about Hulu, CBS, or HBO Go as I am not currently subscribed to these. I can watch YouTube and some other video sites in Safari, which frequently crashes because it runs out memory. Originally I used to charge it every 10-14 days. Now I must charge it every 3-4 days. As a video watching device it is still fine. I would be happier if the utility degraded a little more gracefully. I can't think of a good reason why AdultSwim or CartoonNetwork shouldn't be supporting legacy iOS versions for their video players. Their target audiences are more likely to be using older hand-me-down devices. On the other hand, this device is also now the only device I can use to still play older 32-bit AdultSwim games like "Monsters Ate My Condo" and "Mole Attack" that no longer run in iOS 11.