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Why iOS 6 Just Turned Your iPad 1G Into a Paperweight

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Re: Why iOS 6 Just Turned Your iPad 1G Into a Paperweight

#21

Post by numbsafari »

wesley wrote: post #4
panda_person wrote: post #3

The moral of the story is to simply not update older Apple devices. My brand new 4th gen iTouch was slow and buggy a year ago running iOS 5 right out of the box-I don't see why people think its worth the risk updating.

did you read the story? 1st generation ipads can't update. So new apps are not available to them.

You are over generalizing. That's only true if "new apps" only support iOS6. "new apps" that choose to support iOS5 will update and download just fine.

The vast majority of apps will still run on iOS5, and likely will for at least a few more updates (based on the developer's decision).

Running the latest and greatest software usually means running the latest and greatest hardware. That's what the Apple platform is geared towards. Software developers are incentivized to keep their apps running on the latest OS, and customers are incentivized to run the latest hardware. For people who care about that, this is a good platform choice.

If you want to use the same phone for 5 years, pick a different platform. Granted, you probably won't have the latest and greatest of anything. Not the latest and greatest hardware (your choice) and likely not the latest and greatest software (because what developer thinks they'll make money off of you?). Perhaps you are okay with that. It's probably a cheaper route.

The cheapest option doesn't always provide the most value. The most expensive option doesn't always either. The question is, for the price you are going to pay, are you going to get the best value. That equation is different for everyone and no platform can possibly make it work for everyone either.

I own a SPARCstation 5. It's got a whopping 95MB of RAM in it and a cool 25MHz processor (I think). It runs lots of software just fine, but I don't expect it to run the latest FPS.

Maybe you own an iPad1. It's got a whopping 256MB of RAM. That's not even 3x the amount of RAM my SS5 had. You should be amazed it did all the stuff it did, and continues to do.

You shouldn't expect it to run the latest and greatest OS, though.

Re: Why iOS 6 Just Turned Your iPad 1G Into a Paperweight

#22

Post by pat2man »

What a sad an incomplete list. Lets add a few:

•Use it as a digital photo frame.

•Use it as an eBook reader. The Kindle app works just fine.

•Use it as a media player, stream music to your stereo.

•Use it as a remote control for your Apple TV, etc.

The amazing thing about the iPad is that unlike a computer it doesn't take up a huge amount of space. You can have an old one lying around and still use it for years. I would never use an obsolete laptop due to the clunky size but an iPad as a portable screen can be useful for years.

Re: Why iOS 6 Just Turned Your iPad 1G Into a Paperweight

#23

Post by hnriot »

This is no different than any other first gen product. How many people are still using their first generation digital camera either. You buy the first generation of a brand new product and you have to expect to be replacing it soon enough. That's the nature of the early adopter product life cycle.

The simplest solution is to restore an iPad backup from when it worked well (using time machine) and just be happy with it and not update. Sure new apps won't necessarily work, but you have what you were happy with.

Re: Why iOS 6 Just Turned Your iPad 1G Into a Paperweight

#24

Post by w0utert »

fr0sty wrote: post #17
sneak wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The big reveal of the article is that iOS6 is _not_ supported at all (and indeed won't install) on the iPad 1. He goes on to say that as apps are updated to require version >= 6, your iPad 1 stuck at 5.x will become useless. I think his conclusion is bullshit (e.g. I can still word process on a 286 just as well as I could the day I got it - brick it is not). Did you even read TFA?

> "Did you even read TFA?" Yes. Did you miss this? >"If you update an app to an iOS 6 version in iTunes on your computer and then try to sync your iPad 1, the old version of the app will just get removed from your iPad 1. The home screen on my iPod Touch 1G is pretty barren."

Then don't sync your iOS 6 applications to your 1st-gen iPad, it only takes one checkbox in iTunes, which isn't even enabled by default. Problem solved.

Re: Why iOS 6 Just Turned Your iPad 1G Into a Paperweight

#25

Post by panda_person »

numbsafari wrote: post #21
wesley wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

did you read the story? 1st generation ipads can't update. So new apps are not available to them.

You are over generalizing. That's only true if "new apps" only support iOS6. "new apps" that choose to support iOS5 will update and download just fine. The vast majority of apps will still run on iOS5, and likely will for at least a few more updates (based on the developer's decision). Running the latest and greatest software usually means running the latest and greatest hardware. That's what the Apple platform is ge…

My 4th gen iTouch with 256MB RAM simply runs too buggy and slow to enjoy iOS 5

Re: Why iOS 6 Just Turned Your iPad 1G Into a Paperweight

#28

Post by aelaguiz »

Honestly I'm happy to know that when I receive an update to my experience it wasn't neutered out of a desire to maintain backwards compatibility with windows 3.1...I mean iPad 1G.

The backwards compatibility forever mindset may still be necessary in business but I see no reason it should continue to stand in consumer. It can be corrupted though - as long as the reasons are actual and not artificial in order to drum up profits I don't see a reasonable amount of deprecation to be harmful.

Re: Why iOS 6 Just Turned Your iPad 1G Into a Paperweight

#29

Post by sirn »

I'm kinda surprised that Apple is breaking the 3 years software support pattern with iPad 1 (Jan 2010) and iOS 6 (Sep 2012); even when they dropped PPC, they still support PPC until Snow Leopard released in 2009, 3 years after the final PPC Mac in 2006, or the original iPhone (June 2007) and iOS 4 (June 2010).

As an iPad 1 owner, I do feel a little disappointed, although I don't really feel I miss anything. Most apps is still working like before, it's not that the device is suddenly turned into paperweight overnight. 2 years 8 months is already a long time in technology field.

Re: Why iOS 6 Just Turned Your iPad 1G Into a Paperweight

#30

Post by numbsafari »

panda_person wrote: post #25
numbsafari wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are over generalizing. That's only true if "new apps" only support iOS6. "new apps" that choose to support iOS5 will update and download just fine. The vast majority of apps will still run on iOS5, and likely will for at least a few more updates (based on the developer's decision). Running the latest and greatest software usually means running the latest and greatest hardware. That's what the Apple platform is ge…

My 4th gen iTouch with 256MB RAM simply runs too buggy and slow to enjoy iOS 5

My SS5 with 95MB of RAM simply runs to buggy and slow to enjoy GNOME.
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