4 ms·

right, but apple will turn your phone into a brick with an update because they stop caring about older models long before they officially drop support.

by jheriko 13y ago

gcb0 13y ago
True. they list 3Gs as supported. I can barely use my test 3GS with the latest ios6.. i go for a coffee everytime i open the browser. i bet with ios7 i would be able to go brew a fresh one.
- Samuel_Michon 13y ago
  Apple is damned if they do and damned if they don’t. If Apple decides a device is too slow to run a new major version of the OS, the decision will be condemned by people like u/jheriko. If Apple does let a 4 year old model run the new major release, people like u/gcb0 will complain that it’s slow. Meanwhile, a three year old phone (iPhone 4) can run iOS 7 and run it well, albeit without fancy animations and parallax effect. I don’t know of any three year old Android phones that run Android 4.4.
  - jheriko 13y ago
    (i am not a fan of android at all and much prefer ios) its trivial to solve. test the os update on old devices and don't push os updates to old phones if it destroys the user experience. i'm not going to condemn them for not ruining my user experience... my issue is the fact that they change their tools and processes to make it impossible to support e.g. iPhone 1 if you want to. My app will run lovely on an iPhone 1 or 3G, but I can not make a version that runs on these phones as well as an iPhone 5. This is a choice, not a technical constraint or avoiding maintenance costs - I'm very sure its /more/ expensive to do this than not. i'm fairly sure that its part of their strategy to encourage you to use the latest devices. lots of apple consumers seem to be aware that 'apple don't give a crap about you if you use their old stuff' - i've heard this opinion unprovoked from very un-tech-savvy types much more often than once. if you work with the apple tech much yourself its an obvious recurring theme - they all but explicitly tell you not to support old devices and then do make it actually impossible beyond a certain point. this is just not the case for android or even windows or any other platform/os except for perhaps games consoles which are special - if i want i can make an app run across all android versions and have one entry in google play and supporting old versions of windows is trivial work usually. apple have the worst ecosystem for this by miles and miles - nobody else comes close ...and actually old android phones do run 4.4 - you have to put it there manually perhaps, but this is at least possible. it actually has performance benefits on older phones too... which is how it should be. the fact that each ios release is significantly slower isn't down to new features or niceness its programmer sloppiness.
  - rplnt 13y ago
    Disclaimer: I think both platforms are shit in their own way. I prefer Android, though I actively hate it every day. > I don’t know of any three year old Android phones that run Android 4.4. I don't know either (not saying there aren't any). But the (lack of) support isn't Android vs. iOS. It's Apple vs Samsung vs Motorola vs Sony vs ... For example i own Goog, err.. Motorola phone about as old as iPhone 4 and the most recent version it runs is 2.2 (AKA unusable crap). I use 2.3 via CM and there are 4.x builds available. On the other hand, Sony phones from 2011 (perhaps only some) received update to 4.1. This is just two manufacturers, out of many.
robmcm 13y ago
Do you have any proof of this. Normally the old handsets get updates missing the more performance intensive features in order to keep them speedy. Perhaps you are just noticing the difference between a phone with a processor 1/4th the power of the latest model.
- jheriko 13y ago
  try the last available os version on a 3G or 3GS. there is also the general phenomenon of people being afraid to update (wrongly) their iPhone 4 or 4S based on their previous experiences with a 1, 3G or 3GS EDIT: also see other testimonials in this page of comments...
  - robmcm 13y ago
    I know people say things like this, but how much of it is true and how much is perception. For example on an old phone the chances are you are still using the latest versions of apps, which are now coded for faster models. So trying them on your 3GS means they use more memory, crash more and slow down the OS. Taking a vanilla install I don't think you would see much difference in common tasks.
    - jheriko 13y ago
      you are right, almost certainly a lot of it is perception based on the poor quality of apps in a legacy environment. some of it is certainly OS features though. the framerate on animations can be quite poor - like slideshow poor - when launching an app, swiping at notifications or bringing up the status bar. the onscreen keyboard on the 3G is something i remember as being particularly terrible from when I had access to such a device... it would lose input entirely in some situations. some of this is probably also apps in the background, but its also the OS management of those apps... ultimately though i think the real thing is that apple don't test in real world usage cases (like you describe) - or have a very low quality bar on what is acceptable on older devices. if the way most users use their OS makes it slow then it just is the OS developers fault imo... EDIT: i would point out that as an app developer its definitely not the speed of the hardware - its the difference between os versions that i see - nothing else changed.
300bps 13y ago
I've had three iPhones: 3G, 4, 4s. With my 3G, 18 months into owning it I upgraded it to the last iOS (4 if I recall correctly) and the phone became unusable. Every time the phone rang, I would be swiping to answer the call and it would not respond in time before the call would go to voicemail. Every other function on the phone was also slowed down to the point of not being realistically usable.
- shinratdr 13y ago
  The issue with the 3G is well known and hasn't really repeated itself. If Android fans get to tout community support as a positive then why not us too? Install whited00r, and your issue is solved.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]

right, but apple will turn your phone into a brick with an update because they stop caring about older models long before they officially drop support.

by jheriko 13y ago

right, but apple will turn your phone into a brick with an update because they stop caring about older models long before they officially drop support.

gcb0 13y ago

True. they list 3Gs as supported. I can barely use my test 3GS with the latest ios6.. i go for a coffee everytime i open the browser. i bet with ios7 i would be able to go brew a fresh one.

Samuel_Michon 13y ago
Apple is damned if they do and damned if they don’t. If Apple decides a device is too slow to run a new major version of the OS, the decision will be condemned by people like u/jheriko. If Apple does let a 4 year old model run the new major release, people like u/gcb0 will complain that it’s slow. Meanwhile, a three year old phone (iPhone 4) can run iOS 7 and run it well, albeit without fancy animations and parallax effect. I don’t know of any three year old Android phones that run Android 4.4.
- jheriko 13y ago
  (i am not a fan of android at all and much prefer ios) its trivial to solve. test the os update on old devices and don't push os updates to old phones if it destroys the user experience. i'm not going to condemn them for not ruining my user experience... my issue is the fact that they change their tools and processes to make it impossible to support e.g. iPhone 1 if you want to. My app will run lovely on an iPhone 1 or 3G, but I can not make a version that runs on these phones as well as an iPhone 5. This is a choice, not a technical constraint or avoiding maintenance costs - I'm very sure its /more/ expensive to do this than not. i'm fairly sure that its part of their strategy to encourage you to use the latest devices. lots of apple consumers seem to be aware that 'apple don't give a crap about you if you use their old stuff' - i've heard this opinion unprovoked from very un-tech-savvy types much more often than once. if you work with the apple tech much yourself its an obvious recurring theme - they all but explicitly tell you not to support old devices and then do make it actually impossible beyond a certain point. this is just not the case for android or even windows or any other platform/os except for perhaps games consoles which are special - if i want i can make an app run across all android versions and have one entry in google play and supporting old versions of windows is trivial work usually. apple have the worst ecosystem for this by miles and miles - nobody else comes close ...and actually old android phones do run 4.4 - you have to put it there manually perhaps, but this is at least possible. it actually has performance benefits on older phones too... which is how it should be. the fact that each ios release is significantly slower isn't down to new features or niceness its programmer sloppiness.
- rplnt 13y ago
  Disclaimer: I think both platforms are shit in their own way. I prefer Android, though I actively hate it every day. > I don’t know of any three year old Android phones that run Android 4.4. I don't know either (not saying there aren't any). But the (lack of) support isn't Android vs. iOS. It's Apple vs Samsung vs Motorola vs Sony vs ... For example i own Goog, err.. Motorola phone about as old as iPhone 4 and the most recent version it runs is 2.2 (AKA unusable crap). I use 2.3 via CM and there are 4.x builds available. On the other hand, Sony phones from 2011 (perhaps only some) received update to 4.1. This is just two manufacturers, out of many.

robmcm 13y ago

Do you have any proof of this. Normally the old handsets get updates missing the more performance intensive features in order to keep them speedy. Perhaps you are just noticing the difference between a phone with a processor 1/4th the power of the latest model.

jheriko 13y ago
try the last available os version on a 3G or 3GS. there is also the general phenomenon of people being afraid to update (wrongly) their iPhone 4 or 4S based on their previous experiences with a 1, 3G or 3GS EDIT: also see other testimonials in this page of comments...
- robmcm 13y ago
  I know people say things like this, but how much of it is true and how much is perception. For example on an old phone the chances are you are still using the latest versions of apps, which are now coded for faster models. So trying them on your 3GS means they use more memory, crash more and slow down the OS. Taking a vanilla install I don't think you would see much difference in common tasks.
  - jheriko 13y ago
    you are right, almost certainly a lot of it is perception based on the poor quality of apps in a legacy environment. some of it is certainly OS features though. the framerate on animations can be quite poor - like slideshow poor - when launching an app, swiping at notifications or bringing up the status bar. the onscreen keyboard on the 3G is something i remember as being particularly terrible from when I had access to such a device... it would lose input entirely in some situations. some of this is probably also apps in the background, but its also the OS management of those apps... ultimately though i think the real thing is that apple don't test in real world usage cases (like you describe) - or have a very low quality bar on what is acceptable on older devices. if the way most users use their OS makes it slow then it just is the OS developers fault imo... EDIT: i would point out that as an app developer its definitely not the speed of the hardware - its the difference between os versions that i see - nothing else changed.

300bps 13y ago

I've had three iPhones: 3G, 4, 4s. With my 3G, 18 months into owning it I upgraded it to the last iOS (4 if I recall correctly) and the phone became unusable. Every time the phone rang, I would be swiping to answer the call and it would not respond in time before the call would go to voicemail. Every other function on the phone was also slowed down to the point of not being realistically usable.

shinratdr 13y ago
The issue with the 3G is well known and hasn't really repeated itself. If Android fans get to tout community support as a positive then why not us too? Install whited00r, and your issue is solved.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]