Any iPad 2 users still out there?

[carlvi]

Shoutout to anyone who's still using Safari on the iPad 2, suffering from page reloads, crashes and overall crappy performance - go get Puffin from the app store right away! It definitely brought new life to mine as even basic stuff (like writing this post) was impossible on Safari. Now modern web pages load fairly quick which is impressive with just 512 MB of RAM at hand. There's a free version and a paid one - I went for the paid one just to get rid of the ads but I'm fairly sure the free one runs at the same speeds as the paid upgrade. Chrome also runs fine if you're into the Google cloud integration thing -- anything is better than safari on this device imho. It's a shame, really, since Safari is otherwise my favorite browser of all time in terms of both UI and performance on both OS X and iOS. I guess the iOS 9 version of Safari just wasn't properly tuned for A5 devices.

If anyone has similiar experiences with 3rd party apps that help breathe some new life into these old 32-bit devices - please feel free to share! I truly believe that devices such as iPad 2/3/4 and iPhone 4S/5/5S can remain useful for quite some time, provided the appropriate tweaks are applied by the user
[doublepost=1514566459][/doublepost]I forgot to mention in my original post that removing all widgets from NC also seems to help with performance - I've now updated the original post to include that tip as well.

 

[Indigovalley]

I use mine to watch SlingTV--works like a champ for that. Its a little heavy though so I use a tablet stand to hold it LOL...

 

[Beachguy]

I still have my iPad 2 and 3, both bought brand new a number of years ago. I recently "replaced" my 3 with a new iPad 2017 because of some breakage on the screen and a broken home button (broken button, but still functional.) The iPad 2 is still pristine, like it is brand new. I use my new one daily, and the others I keep in reserve. I'm going to pop out the iPad 2 and try your suggestions. I do not consider either old iPad to be retired or no longer useful.

 

[Neodym]

I sweat now as my ipad says: 200 GB storage-But it also states that i have Available stirage of 185 ! Then it keeps telling me im low on storage!?

To me it sounds like you accidentally activated Apple cloud storage, where 200GB was/is one available tier (costing a monthly fee).

The "low on storage" message could mean that the local storage on your iPad is running low, i.e. (too) many apps, videos, pictures ... etc. installed the device itself.

Cloud storage can not be used for (active) apps, but is intended for backups, pictures, music etc. So by adjusting your settings to keep e.g. pictures and music in the cloud, you may be able to free space locally on your device and get rid of the message.

Keep in mind, however, that you need a proper (i.e. sufficiently fast and stable) internet connection to then access those pictures and music in the cloud.

 

[skeleton11223]

There are people like you who understand that older hardware won’t run newer versions of software optimally and do something about it and there are others who just come here to moan and kick off various conspiracy theories about Apple.

2008 pc's run Windows 10 fine which is from 2015.
Guess what Microsoft does. Instead of making the OS heavier and unable to run on anything more than 5 years they continue to make it lighter or only make it slightly heavier. Windows 8 is lighter than 7, vista, and 10, but 10 is still lighter than 7 and vista, and 7 is lighter than vista. Vista was released in 2007, 2015 software is lighter.
Oh yeah, and if the performance is bad on Windows, there are options to increase performance and you can kill unnecessary processes that you don't use.
[doublepost=1516060340][/doublepost]6.1.3 ipsw is being signed for every ipad 2 except the mid 2012 models, if you don't like ios 6, just downgrade to it and OTA upgrade to IOS 8.4.1 because IPS 6 can't upgrade directly to IOS 9.

 

[ajcgn]

Thanks for the thread OP, I will have to give your suggestions a try.
At least with my early 2011 Macbook Pro I was able to wake it up with some RAM and an SSD

 

[digitalcuriosity]

I bought a 2 skipped the 3 now have a 4, was not happy when Apple stopped supporting my 2 and bought two Android tablets both Samsungs and they have kept them supported.
I was thinking about getting a iPad Pro but might not get it, for my use the 4 is fine and i really like just connecting my Samsung tablets to my computer to transfer files.
Sure i know apple is protecting us by making use use iTunes, but protection from who?
Apple IMHO has always been all about sucking as much money from people and nothing they do changes my mind about that item.

 

[jav6454]

Not me, but my mom still uses hers. For all intents and purposes it does what she needs.

 

[JaySoul]

My mum was using her iPad 2 daily up until 4 months ago. It had started to slow down but still gave many years of sterling service.

I've still got an iPad 3. No need to update it as yet!

 

[rui no onna]

No, you're just a brainwashed iSheep.
2008 pc's run Windows 10 fine which is from 2015.
Guess what Microsoft does. Instead of making the OS heavier and unable to run on anything more than 5 years they continue to make it lighter or only make it slightly heavier. Windows 8 is lighter than 7, vista, and 10, but 10 is still lighter than 7 and vista, and 7 is lighter than vista. Vista was released in 2007, 2015 software is lighter.
Oh yeah, and if the performance is bad on Windows, there are options to increase performance and you can kill unnecessary processes that you don't use.

It should be noted that the iPad 2 has around Pentium II/III level performance.

It wasn't until the A8X/A9 (iPad Air 2, 2017 iPad) that it's able to match Core 2 Duo E8400. That's when CPU actually became "good enough" to easily handle typical tasks. And really, with a Core 2 Duo, the best performance upgrade one can make is an SSD.

 

[2ilent8cho]

No, you're just a brainwashed iSheep.
2008 pc's run Windows 10 fine which is from 2015.
Guess what Microsoft does. Instead of making the OS heavier and unable to run on anything more than 5 years they continue to make it lighter or only make it slightly heavier. Windows 8 is lighter than 7, vista, and 10, but 10 is still lighter than 7 and vista, and 7 is lighter than vista. Vista was released in 2007, 2015 software is lighter.
Oh yeah, and if the performance is bad on Windows, there are options to increase performance and you can kill unnecessary processes that you don't use.
[doublepost=1516060340][/doublepost]6.1.3 ipsw is being signed for every ipad 2 except the mid 2012 models, if you don't like ios 6, just downgrade to it and OTA upgrade to IOS 8.4.1 because IPS 6 can't upgrade directly to IOS 9.

Except your view does not work, or are you to young to remember the hell of XP to Vista? When Windows became such a bloat? Even devices that shipped with Vista compatible stickers were struggling and ran it very badly. We went from machines that would fly with 512MB RAM to suddenly needing 2GB just to run normally.

or the move from Windows 2000 to Windows XP when the same machine ran much slower because of bloat again (but no where near as bad as XP to Vista). So no, Microsoft don't always make things lighter.

 

[rui no onna]

Except your view does not work, or are you to young to remember the hell of XP to Vista? When Windows became such a bloat? Even devices that shipped with Vista compatible stickers were struggling and ran it very badly. We went from machines that would fly with 512MB RAM to suddenly needing 2GB just to run normally.

or the move from Windows 2000 to Windows XP when the same machine ran much slower because of bloat again (but no where near as bad as XP to Vista). So no, Microsoft don't always make things lighter.

Something I'd like to point out, even on XP, machines didn't really fly with just 512MB RAM. You do need at least ~1-2GB.

That said, yes, Vista was such a huge resource hog. 4GB should have been the minimum for machines that came pre-installed with Vista.

 

[sevecc]

Any way for iPad 2 (mid 2012) to downgrade to 6.1.3 ?

 

[skeleton11223]

Something I'd like to point out, even on XP, machines didn't really fly with just 512MB RAM. You do need at least ~1-2GB.

That said, yes, Vista was such a huge resource hog. 4GB should have been the minimum for machines that came pre-installed with Vista.

xp did fly with 512mb, just not with SP3.

 

[rui no onna]

xp did fly with 512mb, just not with SP3.

I had a Dell Inspiron B120 with 512MB RAM running XP SP2 (when I got it) and fly, it did not. Granted, that could be the fault of the Celeron M 360. All my desktop XP builds had 2-4GB RAM.

 

[CrystalQuest76]

I still own 2 iPad 2s. Don't use them but they still connect to the internet just fine, and perfect for watching Youtube or using the music app.

If you don't use the fully functional devices, pass them on to someone in your family or friends. If you are affiliated to a religious organization, pass it on to someone there that can't afford a device. Because of its age and lack of security make sure that the person you pass it on to does knows not to perform financial transactions that could be compromised.
A fully functional device is a horrible thing to waste.
I have passed on my iPad 3 to family members that have no need to do anything but consume media. The iPad 3 is a great device and if taken care of continues to perform as well now as the day it was bought. It even holds a long charge that meets user needs.

 

[iapplelove]

If you don't use the fully functional devices, pass them on to someone in your family or friends. If you are affiliated to a religious organization, pass it on to someone there that can't afford a device. Because of its age and lack of security make sure that the person you pass it on to does knows not to perform financial transactions that could be compromised.
A fully functional device is a horrible thing to waste.
I have passed on my iPad 3 to family members that have no need to do anything but consume media. The iPad 3 is a great device and if taken care of continues to perform as well now as the day it was bought. It even holds a long charge that meets user needs.

Well said, and yes I have given them away to my family members. All they do is stream YouTube and listen to music. Perfect

 

[JMac82]

I have two original iPad mini's. Same as iPad2... mine I kept on iOS 7... runs great, no issues other than the newer apps that wont install. But it's mainly a Netflix device now, so big whoop.

My wife, however... she did all the iOS updates she could.. iOS 9 I think it has.. kinda boggy and slow to use, but still usABLE, surprisingly.

We actually find the 16GB of storage to be more limiting than their CPU/RAM and screen resolutions.

 

[s15119]

We placed our iPad 2 in the kitchen. It serves as a clock, a timer and occasionally to check recipes. It works fine for that. Netflix and other things work ok.

 

[Jc1925]

Hey

I know this post is nearly a year old by now and nobody is likely to see my reply, but I thought I'd reply anyway. Only a couple days ago I purchased an iPad 2 from eBay and I love it. Yes it is on iOS 9.3.5 but I've still been able to download some of the latest versions of apps such as Amazon, YouTube and temple run!

I'm even using the iPad 2 now to reply to your thread. Not even a week ago I was using a first generation iPad which I had bought only for my iTunes videos and movies but it couldn't even handle that, plus the second I plugged the iPad one into my computer and opened up iTunes on my PC, the iPad shut off and wouldn't come back to life. The iPad one was also only able to get up to iOS 5.1.1

The iPad 2 has surprised me, even in this day and age where there's iOS 12. iOS 9 still runs perfectly and especially on the iPad compared to iPhone 4S's I've seen on iOS 9. I thought most apps would've needed at least iOS 10, but as mentioned previously I've been able to get the latest versions of apps such as Amazon and YouTube.

Some apps like Google Maps I had to download older versions of but I'll be honest and say they're not much different! It had given me the iOS 9 version of google Maps instead.

The iPad one couldn't even load any video streaming websites and neither the pre installed YouTube app or the YouTube from the App Store worked! It would download but it would come up with unable to connect when you tried opening it.

Overall, I love it. It's great and I never thought I'd be saying that about an apple product as old as this one, but I've been pleasantly surprised. It isn't actually much different than the newer models, software wise.

 

[pbateman]

Use it for youtube daily for kid.