Any chance 9 will be usable on iPad (3rd Gen.)?

[darkgoob]

I am still on iOS 6 on my iPad Retina (3rd Gen. "The New iPad). It runs smoothly and I just stay off public WiFi and avoid doing security-critical stuff with it. Mainly, I use it for posting here and reddit, reading forums, playing music apps from Korg and Moog, and photography-related stuff. My battery still lasts longer than my GF's Air 2 lasts, even though my old iPad is like 3 years old now LOL.

But there are some music apps and app updates I cannot use due to iOS 6 incompatibility. I avoided 7 and 8 due to lag issues. I read somewhere that 9 is supposed to run better on older devices. Will my iPad work as well as it now does if I upgrade? A little bit more lag might be OK but I've heard 8 makes this device basically unusable. Thoughts?

 

[hovscorpion12]

iOS 9 Will be available for the iPad 3. All Apple products supported in iOS 8, will receive support for iOS 9. (iPad 2,iPad 3,iPad 4,iPad mini,iPad Mini 2, iPad Mini 3, iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5S, iPhone 5C, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus)

 

[newellj]

"Supposed to" and "is" are two different things (as you know). I am generally very pro-update but in your case I would not update to the public version until you've read a good deal of user reports after it's released.

 

[ajcgn]

my iPad 3 ran well on iOS 7, but I stupidly upgraded it to iOS 8 and it's been terrible ever since.

my wife's iPad 2 still runs fine on iOS 7, but it sucks looking at the non retina screen (fortunately my wife doesn't care)

I've read that iOS 9 will make the iPad 3 run marginally better than iOS 8, but I will wait for feedback this time before upgrading. But in the meantime, here's hoping that iOS 9 will help my iPad 3.

 

[campyguy]

I've got an LTE iPad 3 with B5 loaded and, aside from some app incompatibilities, I'm surprised at how well/nicely the Beta is running on my old iPad. Some of the apps that are crashing on it are crashing on other iOS 9 devices, so there's nothing special there with these old tanks. B5 is much quicker to launch than B3/B4, however, I'm finding B5 is about as pleasant to use as any OS that's been on it aside from 6.1.3. I've got it playing music right now in my background ("Radio" in the Music app) over my UL VZW LTE, with the new HQ-over-cellular option on and it's not skipped a beat in a heavily-congested area. I've used several Adobe CC apps & Pixelmator with a Pencil and Wacom Creative 2 stylus and Word (the latter with a Logitech K811 keyboard) with no issues. I'm impressed so far. I wish I'd left my iPad 3 on 6.1.3 or 7.1.x but it's too late for me - but, yes, I'd upgrade to iOS 9 when the .01 update comes out and be happy with it. iOS 9 beats the pants hard off of iOS 8 on these iPad tanks.

FWIW, I have an LTE iPad Air on 8.4 to compare it with and I can't wait until I get iOS 9 on it, but it's my work tool. Both iPads are nice to use on Comcast Extreme 150, but I don't bog down my network with my iOS devices because I have an alternative. I have added my incompatible apps to the Wiki list.

 

[stevemiller]

my iPad 3 is on the public beta. a5 based devices have been disappointing on anything above ios6, and for me at least the ios9 beta has continued the downwards performance trend. it bothers me to no end that a perfectly useable piece of hardware has been reduced to something i don't really enjoy using anymore because of non-reversible software updates.

 

[rdy0329]

b5 on iPad Mini 1 and running smoothly (same a5 as iPad 3). Go for it, the additional app compatibility and security would beat some speed trade offs.

 

[joejoejoe]

my iPad 3 ran well on iOS 7, but I stupidly upgraded it to iOS 8 and it's been terrible ever since.

my wife's iPad 2 still runs fine on iOS 7, but it sucks looking at the non retina screen (fortunately my wife doesn't care)

I've read that iOS 9 will make the iPad 3 run marginally better than iOS 8, but I will wait for feedback this time before upgrading. But in the meantime, here's hoping that iOS 9 will help my iPad 3.

agreed, I too made the terrible decision to update to iOS 8 on my iPad 3. Now it's unusable.

 

[alp00]

My ipad 3 is still on ios 7.12 and it works well. I remember when I upgraded from ios 6 I noticed it slow a bit , not too much, it improved with 7.1 not quite ios 6 speed but not bad.
I notice with the updates that ios 8 has security fixes, so I really want to upgrade but I am worried about the usability ( because of lag, and slowing my devices down), and I'm not interested in the extra features.
I also have an iphone 4s on ios 7 , same issues there. I might as well wait for ios 9 and see what the response is.

 

[campyguy]

agreed, I too made the terrible decision to update to iOS 8 on my iPad 3. Now it's unusable.

Which is mostly why I had no qualms about installing iOS 9 on mine!

 

[stevemiller]

Which is mostly why I had no qualms about installing iOS 9 on mine!

That was my logic as well. The device is pretty much a curiosity at this point.

 

[nutmac]

iPad 3 on iOS 9 DP 5 is significantly faster and more usable than iOS 7 to 8. It is still slower than iOS 6, IMO, but a huge improvement for those on iOS 7 and 8.

 

[darkgoob]

my iPad 3 is on the public beta. a5 based devices have been disappointing on anything above ios6, and for me at least the ios9 beta has continued the downwards performance trend. it bothers me to no end that a perfectly useable piece of hardware has been reduced to something i don't really enjoy using anymore because of non-reversible software updates.

Yeah. Not sure why the don't allow installing old OS's... Why do the care, anyway?

 

[crashoverride77]

my iPad 3 is on the public beta. a5 based devices have been disappointing on anything above ios6, and for me at least the ios9 beta has continued the downwards performance trend. it bothers me to no end that a perfectly useable piece of hardware has been reduced to something i don't really enjoy using anymore because of non-reversible software updates.

To iOS defence the iPad 3 is the worst ipad Apple ever made. It was way too underpowered for the retina screen when it came out, so 3-4 years later that's what you gonna get when software gets more complicated etc.
That's why they released the iPad 4 just 6 months after it, it was that bad.

 

[stevemiller]

To iOS defence the iPad 3 is the worst ipad Apple ever made. It was way too underpowered for the retina screen when it came out, so 3-4 years later that's what you gonna get when software gets more complicated etc.
That's why they released the iPad 4 just 6 months after it, it was that bad.

I get this to a point. but the cpu/gpu *can* drive the screen just fine as evidenced by its shipping OS. And for the most part it still does. Most of the slowdowns are things like keyboard responsiveness and webpage loading, which seem to get more resource hungry every release (the web I somewhat expect since it's constantly evolving).

I don't expect it to be a powerhouse of multitasking or productivity like an air 2, just for it to be able to do the basic stuff it used to in a way that isn't so awful that you want to throw it out a window, which has been the case for me since ios7.

 

[crashoverride77]

I get this to a point. but the cpu/gpu *can* drive the screen just fine as evidenced by its shipping OS. And for the most part it still does. Most of the slowdowns are things like keyboard responsiveness and webpage loading, which seem to get more resource hungry every release (the web I somewhat expect since it's constantly evolving).

I don't expect it to be a powerhouse of multitasking or productivity like an air 2, just for it to be able to do the basic stuff it used to in a way that isn't so awful that you want to throw it out a window, which has been the case for me since ios7.

I do agree completly with you, my mum has an iPad 3 and it's so laggy, especially the keyboard that it drives me nuts.
However I do distinctly remember that even on release with iOS 5 or 6 people complained that it was too slow etc. Not saying that's an excuse to make it even slower with iOS 7-8.
The iPad 3 is probably the worst device to run iOS 7-8, even worse than an iPad 2.
If I would own any iPad at the moment that I would seek to immediately replace it would be the iPad 3. It just sucks

 

[adrianlondon]

I have an iPad mini (1st gen) and it ran fine with iOS6, ok with iOS7, sluggish with iOS8 and fine with iOS9 (latest public beta). I like iOS9.

 

[crashoverride77]

Yeah. Not sure why the don't allow installing old OS's... Why do the care, anyway?

A variety of reasons, too long to put in a list.
App support and security is one of them. Not saying it's necessarily the right way tho

 

[campyguy]

I have one more bit of info to offer about my experience with my iPad 3, keeping in mind that I almost always use my LTE connection and not my much zippier 150/25 cable connection. FWIW, I'm currently streaming Led Zep's remastered Presence album (in the Music App with the HQ quality option enabled) through my old Yamaha studio monitors and it sounds utterly brilliant!

I failed to mention earlier that I have not "disabled" any of the interface elements in the "stock" B5, or resorted to tweaks in the Accessibility Settings section.

I used Pixelmator, Adobe Draw/Sketch/Line, and Paper over the weekend and I can't believe my iPad 3 has been rejuvenated - I thought I'd be resorting to making it a really big iPod Touch, but Apple's making my iPad 3 a usable tool again. FWIW, B5 is great whereas B3/B4 blew big, brown, hairy chunks. Gestures work fairly well, buttons respond quickly.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Apple's "app slicing" does to optimize apps better for this tank of a tablet!

 

[stevemiller]

I have one more bit of info to offer about my experience with my iPad 3, keeping in mind that I almost always use my LTE connection and not my much zippier 150/25 cable connection. FWIW, I'm currently streaming Led Zep's remastered Presence album (in the Music App with the HQ quality option enabled) through my old Yamaha studio monitors and it sounds utterly brilliant!

I failed to mention earlier that I have not "disabled" any of the interface elements in the "stock" B5, or resorted to tweaks in the Accessibility Settings section.

I used Pixelmator, Adobe Draw/Sketch/Line, and Paper over the weekend and I can't believe my iPad 3 has been rejuvenated - I thought I'd be resorting to making it a really big iPod Touch, but Apple's making my iPad 3 a usable tool again. FWIW, B5 is great whereas B3/B4 blew big, brown, hairy chunks. Gestures work fairly well, buttons respond quickly.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Apple's "app slicing" does to optimize apps better for this tank of a tablet!

I think I'm on the latest beta on my iPad 3, but I've noticed my 4s is stuck on public beta 1 (help?), so I've kinda lost track of things.

Anyway, are you a fresh install? Also do you have iCloud set up on the iPad? I've noticed turning off iCloud seems to speed things up a bit, although I don't think I've quite experienced the rejuvenation you have.

 

[campyguy]

I think I'm on the latest beta on my iPad 3, but I've noticed my 4s is stuck on public beta 1 (help?), so I've kinda lost track of things.

Anyway, are you a fresh install? Also do you have iCloud set up on the iPad? I've noticed turning off iCloud seems to speed things up a bit, although I don't think I've quite experienced the rejuvenation you have.

I can only help on the iPad 3 as I don't have any iP4 handsets any longer (we're on VZW, and we've gone in on LTE-capable handsets...).

As to to my 3, I let my dev account lapse as it was renewing in the summer, before the finalized OSes drop, so I'm holding off for my renewal until then. That written, I performed a clean install of B2 while my account was still active and the newer betas are OTA updates - Apple's still pushing them, which is good for me! (and 10.11 updates are still coming to my Mac). IMHO, you'd know if you were on the newest beta (DP 5, for my devices) as it's head-and-shoulders better than B3/B4 for responsiveness and compatibility, but it still has a ways to go for completeness. There's an app I like, but it's going to be discontinued soon - MSN Food & Drink - it (and the other MSN apps) would crash under B1-4, but runs under B5 after launching it and getting past the "notifications" prompts that remain on the screen after the app has been minimized, and I'm assuming it's just a programming tweak; the MSN apps aren't the only apps that behave like this.

I have noticed some slowness in some Apple apps, like the two Store apps, however, I've noticed the same lagging on my Air/iPhones/Macs recently no matter the time of day. I'm aware of some major DNS problems here in the US of late with Comcast and TW, but not with CenturyLink fiber (which we have at one of my offices) - the DNS problems could be contributing to Apple's slowness of downloads and app refreshes, IMO.

As to iCloud, I use it for only checking my personal calendaring and email. I have NOT "upgraded" to the new iCloud Drive - I "skip" the prompts for setting up or logging in on the initial splash screens, and enter in my credentials in the Settings app. More on my rationale with this at a future date, as I have to run to get to a meeting! Cheers!

 

[stevemiller]

As to iCloud, I use it for only checking my personal calendaring and email. I have NOT "upgraded" to the new iCloud Drive - I "skip" the prompts for setting up or logging in on the initial splash screens, and enter in my credentials in the Settings app. More on my rationale with this at a future date, as I have to run to get to a meeting! Cheers!

Thanks for all your thoughts! I haven't done a full fresh install on my iPad since going to 7 or 8 I can't remember. I'll read through your stuff and see if I can get mine working a little more smoothly. Honestly I'd settle for my iPad being a decent web browser, messages app, and YouTube/Netflix viewer!

 

[GregE240]

My experience was initially a huge concern as for the first time ever, I actually had to downgrade from Beta2 to 8. The Mail app in particular- which I live in on my iPad - was unusable.

Undeterred, upon the release of Beta 3 I took someone's advice and DFU / clean install. From then on its been pretty darn good. The battery is good as is the performance, surprisingly so. If they can dial out the debug then I'll happily chuck a GM on it.