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Are you serious? iOS upgrades give you the entire OS experience and upgraded app support with a few flashy features missing. Compare that to Android where the

Are you serious? iOS upgrades give you the entire OS experience and upgraded app support with a few flashy features missing. Compare that to Android where the best case is invisible security updates and guess which causes upgrade anxiety? I'm an Android developer for a living but I use iPhones because the Android ecosystem is currently optimized for generating e-waste. SoC manufacturers generally don't make enough money to want to do more than the bare minimum, so unless you're Google making billions off a hundred other angles you don't do OS updates for more than a few years and maybe pay lip service with security upgrades.

esteth 4y ago
He's serious. The new multitasking workflow which is the major feature of iPadOS 16 is not available on non-M1 iPads, for example
- BoorishBears 4y ago
  You mean Stage Manager??? That's a truly terrible example... First off it's not "the major feature of iPadOS 16, it's one call out of many _many_ features: https://www.apple.com/ipados/ipados-16-preview/ https://www.apple.com/ipados/ipados-16-preview/ Second, _massively increasing multitasking capabilities_ is being given to the models that have _a massively upgraded SoC_ there's nothing artificial about that limitation. Older iPads cannot not hold 4 arbitrary apps in memory, try it yourself if you want. For anything but the most basic set of apps you'll find something evicted by the time you loop back... Third, "the" major point of an OS upgrade if any is being on the latest development target. Ask Android devs still targeting versions of Android from 2015 about that...
fauigerzigerk 4y ago
>iOS upgrades give you the entire OS experience and upgraded app support with a few flashy features missing. As you know, Google updates apps and cloud features on a continuous basis while Apple holds back most new features until they release a new OS version. If you look through the list of iPad OS 16 features for instance, you'll see that almost all of them are in fact new apps, app features and sharing/cloud features that Android users would be getting anyway [1]. Of the very few actual OS features, the most substantial one by far is Stage Manager, which is only supported on M1 iPads as esteth has said. This isn't just "a few flashy features". I'm a bit unlucky with my iPad purchases because this is the second time I'm missing out on the most important new OS features on a new-ish iPad. Granted, nothing of the sort ever happened to me on iPhone. I'm rather happy with Apple's iOS update policy. [1] https://www.apple.com/uk/ipados/ipados-16-preview/ https://www.apple.com/uk/ipados/ipados-16-preview/
- BoorishBears 4y ago
  Stage Manager will straight up not work on non-M1 iPads. You cannot keep 4 major apps in memory without seeing an eviction. Also your comparison doesn't make sense, you're comparing iOS built-in apps to Android 3rd party apps by Google... AOSP's built-in photos and emails apps have barely been updated in the last decade. All in all if you think iPadOS is letting you down, Android upgrades are a circus that Google refuses to rein in.
  - fauigerzigerk 4y ago
    >you're comparing iOS built-in apps to Android 3rd party apps by Google I'm not comparing them, I'm putting them aside for this comparison, because Apple links a lot of regular apps to the release cycle of the OS while Google doesn't do that. That's a separate issue that isn't relevant for the point I was making. I'm only talking about features that would have to be part of the OS on iOS as well as on Android. There are very few new features of that sort in iPad OS 16. I'm not getting most of them. I understand that this may be down to hardware capabilities. But Apple does have some wiggle room when it comes to deciding how to implement any new features and how much work to put into making them less resource intensive.
    - BoorishBears 4y ago
      I honestly don't know what point you're making. You realize the Gmail app is not the equivalent of the iOS Mail app right? That would be the AOSP email app which only gets updates when Android OS gets updates...
      - fauigerzigerk 4y ago
        >I honestly don't know what point you're making. My point is that I didn't get the most important new iPad OS features on my new-ish iPad. Apple simply didn't implement those features in a way that makes them work on relatively recent devices. >You realize the Gmail app is not the equivalent of the iOS Mail app right? Yes, but the differences are not relevant to the debate. I'm talking about OS features only, and I'm disregarding regular apps that just happen to get distributed along with the OS for business reasons.

esteth 4y ago

He's serious. The new multitasking workflow which is the major feature of iPadOS 16 is not available on non-M1 iPads, for example

BoorishBears 4y ago
You mean Stage Manager??? That's a truly terrible example... First off it's not "the major feature of iPadOS 16, it's one call out of many _many_ features: https://www.apple.com/ipados/ipados-16-preview/ https://www.apple.com/ipados/ipados-16-preview/ Second, _massively increasing multitasking capabilities_ is being given to the models that have _a massively upgraded SoC_ there's nothing artificial about that limitation. Older iPads cannot not hold 4 arbitrary apps in memory, try it yourself if you want. For anything but the most basic set of apps you'll find something evicted by the time you loop back... Third, "the" major point of an OS upgrade if any is being on the latest development target. Ask Android devs still targeting versions of Android from 2015 about that...

fauigerzigerk 4y ago

>iOS upgrades give you the entire OS experience and upgraded app support with a few flashy features missing. As you know, Google updates apps and cloud features on a continuous basis while Apple holds back most new features until they release a new OS version. If you look through the list of iPad OS 16 features for instance, you'll see that almost all of them are in fact new apps, app features and sharing/cloud features that Android users would be getting anyway [1]. Of the very few actual OS features, the most substantial one by far is Stage Manager, which is only supported on M1 iPads as esteth has said. This isn't just "a few flashy features". I'm a bit unlucky with my iPad purchases because this is the second time I'm missing out on the most important new OS features on a new-ish iPad. Granted, nothing of the sort ever happened to me on iPhone. I'm rather happy with Apple's iOS update policy. [1] https://www.apple.com/uk/ipados/ipados-16-preview/ https://www.apple.com/uk/ipados/ipados-16-preview/

BoorishBears 4y ago
Stage Manager will straight up not work on non-M1 iPads. You cannot keep 4 major apps in memory without seeing an eviction. Also your comparison doesn't make sense, you're comparing iOS built-in apps to Android 3rd party apps by Google... AOSP's built-in photos and emails apps have barely been updated in the last decade. All in all if you think iPadOS is letting you down, Android upgrades are a circus that Google refuses to rein in.
- fauigerzigerk 4y ago
  >you're comparing iOS built-in apps to Android 3rd party apps by Google I'm not comparing them, I'm putting them aside for this comparison, because Apple links a lot of regular apps to the release cycle of the OS while Google doesn't do that. That's a separate issue that isn't relevant for the point I was making. I'm only talking about features that would have to be part of the OS on iOS as well as on Android. There are very few new features of that sort in iPad OS 16. I'm not getting most of them. I understand that this may be down to hardware capabilities. But Apple does have some wiggle room when it comes to deciding how to implement any new features and how much work to put into making them less resource intensive.
  - BoorishBears 4y ago
    I honestly don't know what point you're making. You realize the Gmail app is not the equivalent of the iOS Mail app right? That would be the AOSP email app which only gets updates when Android OS gets updates...
    - fauigerzigerk 4y ago
      >I honestly don't know what point you're making. My point is that I didn't get the most important new iPad OS features on my new-ish iPad. Apple simply didn't implement those features in a way that makes them work on relatively recent devices. >You realize the Gmail app is not the equivalent of the iOS Mail app right? Yes, but the differences are not relevant to the debate. I'm talking about OS features only, and I'm disregarding regular apps that just happen to get distributed along with the OS for business reasons.