That’s true but this is just 1 release. What do you think will happen in ios 13? Apple will just go back to its old ways yet again. They have just pressed the pause button on planned obsolescence.
There needs to be a permanent solution to this.
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iOS 12 and planned obsolescence
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That’s true but this is just 1 release. What do you think will happen in ios 13? Apple will just go back to its old ways yet again. They have just pressed the pause button on planned obsolescence.
There needs to be a permanent solution to this.
Not everyone trusts the cloud and not all apps info can be backed up so yeah.
Well if the YouTube videos are to be believed there is no difference in the home button response.
In the keynote, I think that Apple were giving the impression that you'd see dramatic speed differences on the 6+,SE, 6 & 5S.
I'm sure in the end we 7 owners will feel it's a little zippier and much smoother overall, but not so it feels like a new phone.
There is no pressing the button on planned obsolescence. Either a company sabotages it’s product line for future sales or it doesnt. There is no middle ground. There is simply no evidence that Apple sabotages its current products for future sales.
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Link please.
Its more of what iOS 11 should have been rather than a revolution tbh. On all YouTube channels I follow, I keep seeing youtubers saying its screaming fast and maybe compared to iOS 11 it is but it isn't at the level of iOS 10 yet. And that's fine as Apple's software quality had cratered in iOS 11 so anything from there seems like an improvement. I am sure by the time we reach iOS 12.3 it should match with iOS 10.
Why are people bothering to reply to this thread? Couldn't you just say "I still stand by what I said last year and the year before and the year before that"? Every year it's the same players taking on the same opponents. We have the usual "Just look at these YouTube videos". We have the same people still not understanding the meaning of words like "proof" and "evidence" and "facts". There are the usual leaps of logic (eg Since A is true, that proves B is true as well). We have the same people making the same assumptions about exactly how Apple can solve everything because they have lots of money. We have the same general misunderstanding about how development works in general. We have the same people who think they're smarter than Apple management and know exactly what needs to be done to correct things and make people happy. You have people with no clue about software development detailing in exquisite detail what Apple's engineers are doing wrong. You have the same people complaining about a loss of milliseconds in some function and the other side who feel it's totally fine if your camera takes 10 seconds to appear. You could go to last year's thread and unless you saw "iOS 11", you might not notice you're in a year old thread.
I'm only seeing one major difference this year and it's fascinating. In the past whenever a new beta was released for a major iOS update, people used the slowness and bugs as "proof" of planned obsolescence. This year some of those same people seem to be using the speed and overall stability as "proof" of planned obsolescence.
I've come to the conclusion that if Apple decided from here on out to simply give everything away until they went bankrupt, some people would twist that into "planned obsolescence". If on the other hand, Apple added a countdown timer right at the top of the screen that said something like "Only 43 days, 18 hours and 12 minutes left until this phone is utterly useless", some people would twist that into Apple protecting the consumer.
As for myself (just so I'm staying on topic), I'm in the middle. I don't believe for one second that Apple intentionally and deliberately sabotages things to make people upgrade. On the other hand, I can't imagine anyone at Apple Headquarters being overly sad if some random issue causes people to run out and buy more Apple products. I also can't picture anyone in upper management saying things like "But we HAVE to fix this ASAP or people are going to just run out and get newer hardware!". I can certainly see moves they've made that aren't consumer friendly. At times I question their reasons (like why can't they support older laptops/desktops with just some features removed rather than dropping support entirely). But when I look into the why (the older laptops need OpenGL which Apple is doing away with), there's always enough truth there to satisfy me. It doesn't mean I agree with them. It just means "I understand YOU feel there is a valid reason to make this change". Sometimes those excuses feel extremely flimsy, sometimes not. In my opinion, IF Apple is guilty of planned obsolescence, it's from not taking action where they should (such as not caring that older devices aren't performing as well as they could) as opposed to intentionally taking action that will worsen the experience for their users.
EDIT: I just wanted to mention one more thing. I'm a developer. Have been for over 30 years. And I have choices to make on an almost daily basis. Do I take the time to fix this thing correctly or do I get it working for 99% of the cases and move on to the next thing? The answer of course is that it depends on far too many variables to list here. My boss likes things fixed and fixed right. At the same time, she wouldn't be the least be happy if I took a full month to do an afternoon's worth of work because "I wanted to do it right". We LITERALLY have conversations like "We've wasted a lot of time on this and the only people who still have an issue at this point have valid work arounds, so is it really worth wasting another week on this when it will take the user an extra 20 seconds twice a year when she runs this?" We constantly need to choose between adding a new thing that will add value to the business vs. going back and getting older stuff running well, which ALSO benefits the business". But we can't always do both. These decisions aren't always as clean and easy as they might appear from the outside. And "Minimum Viable Product" (MVP) is a very real thing around here. Sometimes you don't have the time or shouldn't take the time to make it "perfect" because perfection is unattainable. One of the first questions asked for EVERY request is "what is the minimum we can do to make the customer happy?" That sounds horrible, but there are very valid and good reasons behind such a strategy. And believe it or not, it benefits them in the long run.
I'm only seeing one major difference this year and it's fascinating. In the past whenever a new beta was released for a major iOS update, people used the slowness and bugs as "proof" of planned obsolescence. This year some of those same people seem to be using the speed and overall stability as "proof" of planned obsolescence.
I've come to the conclusion that if Apple decided from here on out to simply give everything away until they went bankrupt, some people would twist that into "planned obsolescence". If on the other hand, Apple added a countdown timer right at the top of the screen that said something like "Only 43 days, 18 hours and 12 minutes left until this phone is utterly useless", some people would twist that into Apple protecting the consumer.
As for myself (just so I'm staying on topic), I'm in the middle. I don't believe for one second that Apple intentionally and deliberately sabotages things to make people upgrade. On the other hand, I can't imagine anyone at Apple Headquarters being overly sad if some random issue causes people to run out and buy more Apple products. I also can't picture anyone in upper management saying things like "But we HAVE to fix this ASAP or people are going to just run out and get newer hardware!". I can certainly see moves they've made that aren't consumer friendly. At times I question their reasons (like why can't they support older laptops/desktops with just some features removed rather than dropping support entirely). But when I look into the why (the older laptops need OpenGL which Apple is doing away with), there's always enough truth there to satisfy me. It doesn't mean I agree with them. It just means "I understand YOU feel there is a valid reason to make this change". Sometimes those excuses feel extremely flimsy, sometimes not. In my opinion, IF Apple is guilty of planned obsolescence, it's from not taking action where they should (such as not caring that older devices aren't performing as well as they could) as opposed to intentionally taking action that will worsen the experience for their users.
EDIT: I just wanted to mention one more thing. I'm a developer. Have been for over 30 years. And I have choices to make on an almost daily basis. Do I take the time to fix this thing correctly or do I get it working for 99% of the cases and move on to the next thing? The answer of course is that it depends on far too many variables to list here. My boss likes things fixed and fixed right. At the same time, she wouldn't be the least be happy if I took a full month to do an afternoon's worth of work because "I wanted to do it right". We LITERALLY have conversations like "We've wasted a lot of time on this and the only people who still have an issue at this point have valid work arounds, so is it really worth wasting another week on this when it will take the user an extra 20 seconds twice a year when she runs this?" We constantly need to choose between adding a new thing that will add value to the business vs. going back and getting older stuff running well, which ALSO benefits the business". But we can't always do both. These decisions aren't always as clean and easy as they might appear from the outside. And "Minimum Viable Product" (MVP) is a very real thing around here. Sometimes you don't have the time or shouldn't take the time to make it "perfect" because perfection is unattainable. One of the first questions asked for EVERY request is "what is the minimum we can do to make the customer happy?" That sounds horrible, but there are very valid and good reasons behind such a strategy. And believe it or not, it benefits them in the long run.
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Yes.
I work in a college with many Macs which although capable of running the latest OS unofficially do not run the official version so the only option is to spend £30,000 odd to replace them. At home I would do it unofficially but obviously can not at work.
So yes, pretty much forced to update.
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As long as it runs on the hardware why not support it? If a few devs without the resources of Apple can get it working, then Apple should be able to. But, then we wouldn’t need to buy a new Mac, and ultimately that’s apples goal.
If they were as eco friendly as they make out they would allow those macs capable to run the os for one or two years more, but it’s all about profits.
Yeah agree. Sitting here now wishing I had never updated my 7 from iOS 10, believe me!
Performance is good now, however my battery does seem to go down way faster than I remember it doing on iOS 10.
And 6 months of having an unoptimized iOS - plus bugs - was not pleasant.
And I can’t think what iOS 11 has given us off hand that 10 didn’t already have.
Big bold headers in most places? Count me out.
I guess being able to (partially) edit the control panel is nice.
New App Store. Ok.
Files app was ok I guess. But it still feels as if Apple doesn’t quite want to let Job’s dream of killing the file system go.
I struggle to think what else iOS 11 gave non X users. None of the new features that I can remember felt like must haves and none made up for the slowdown.
I think we’ll all be glad when iOS 11 is a distant memory. It’ll be the release that no one dares mention by name, ever again.
Why do those have to be on the absolute latest version? And if they do, why isn't that accounted for and is part of the expected lifecycle when the planning for product procurement happens knowing how the industry operates and what's involved when it comes to different manufacturers and companies, as any proper organization would do?
Perhaps it doesn't run up to the standards that Apple would like?
If that's Apple's goal, how would that work when you are in the situation that you are describing where you are really upset about needing to spend more money to upgrade, wouldn't you then really reconsider your upgrade options as far as going with a company that is supposedly putting you in that situation to begin with? How exactly does upsetting customers would lead to more of them staying with you?
I really liked your post. First of all, apologies for saying all this again. Anyway, I think your post offers a viable explanation from a business standpoint about why updates aren't always flawless, especially for older devices. I understand that simply it wouldn't be acceptable for Apple to spend so much time and resources to optimize the newest version of iOS for the oldest supported devices, when, as you say, they can get it working pretty decently for a majority (not 99%, but a sizable amount of people) are running quite new devices (not those at the bottom of the upgrade compatibility list). I found it. 73.16% (if my math isn't wrong) have the A9 or higher, while 17.18% are running iOS 11 but have a SoC less powerful than the A9. https://data.apteligent.com/ios/devices/
So, it is worth it to optimize to full for those devices? Maybe it isn't. But I ask, is it acceptable to screw their performance that much, especially when they are - as I said earlier - at the bottom of the compatibility list? It's not iOS 11-related, but I will illustrate this with an example: an iPod Touch 5G running iOS 9 that is in my household lags... When sliding to unlock to access the keypad to input the passcode. Is that lag so difficult to reduce/eliminate? (let me clarify: I'm not implying it's easy. I'm asking, because I don't know). Would it take a high amount of effort/resources? Because I found it incredible it struggled and sometimes it took 2-3 seconds to access the passcode screen. I thought it was too much.
As a comparison, my iPod Touch 5G on iOS 6 accesses the passcode screen with no delay whatsoever. That's why I thought, but is it really that time consuming to make it access the passcode screen just a little faster? Apologies for repeating this. I just thought about that example because I really remember noticing it and comparing. I could unlock my iPod twice while I barely unlocked the one with iOS 9 once.
I don’t trust the Update button
. Browsing these forums, you shouldn’t either.In 2018 it’s very easy to set your phone up as new. If people would rather run the risk of corrupted software, go for it.
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It’s still the max your battery can handle on the phone. Not really debating battery life per iOS version. My point is you run the risk of battery drain due to upgrading. Bad battery life on OS level can be fixed with a software update. Rogue battery drain cannot.
Only misinformed Apple fans have ever tried to claim that Apple couldn't better support older devices. I don't believe Apple have ever made that claim. There's probably internal pressures at Apple to add new features, and focus on the newer devices while they do, than to spend time on the older ones.
This approach has led to a lot of technical debt (as it's known), which ultimately means code that isn't as efficient or optimised as it could be. This is less of an issue for newer devices, which are more powerful, but older devices are left struggling.
The battery scandal was the result of this badly optimised code. Huge drains were made of the battery for simple, daily use, and older batteries couldn't sustain this and crashed the phone.
I have no doubt that the battery scandal is the reason for the sudden optimisation, but I'm very glad it's happening. It should have been happening all along.
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Only misinformed Apple fans have ever tried to claim that Apple couldn't better support older devices. I don't believe Apple have ever made that claim. There's probably internal pressures at Apple to add new features, and focus on the newer devices while they do, than to spend time on the older ones.
This approach has led to a lot of technical debt (as it's known), which ultimately means code that isn't as efficient or optimised as it could be. This is less of an issue for newer devices, which are more powerful, but older devices are left struggling.
The battery scandal was the result of this badly optimised code. Huge drains were made of the battery for simple, daily use, and older batteries couldn't sustain this and crashed the phone.
I have no doubt that the battery scandal is the reason for the sudden optimisation, but I'm very glad it's happening. It should have been happening all along.
Was that really what that was? Seems like it was more about sudden/spiked high power draws for peak performance that was needed at times and in those moments the more worn out batteries couldn't provide that sudden burst of higher power which led to a shutdown. Not exactly sure that's really related to badly optimized code necessarily, or to simple daily use type of things that somehow caused huge drains.
Unfortunately, certain apps require the latest update before they update.
Education is on a budget so it's not straight forward to spend 3-40k every year on new macs.
Sure, if the OS runs like garbage then sure, upgrading the mac is no problem, but when a mac runs absolutely perfect on an unofficial version for example, then it is obviously capable to running it. Macs are a premium product and depending on the spec can cost thousands so you would expect a decent upgrade cycle, especially when more than capable of running the OS.
Apple are a business, the more people upgrade the more money they make. From a business point of view, great! From a consumer, annoying and education, frustrating.
I have the throttled mode on my SE with 85% battery capacity.
The shutdown just happens when the cpu is at her limit and the battery around 20% of power or below, for example a badly coded website with lots of cpu demanding elements and third party content. This does not happen on 99% of all webpages.
It also happens (even with throttle enabled) when you shutdown the phone a 10% battery and restart it, then it gets in a loop of shutdown and restart until you plug it in.
I don’t realise a slow down when using the phone, what i notice is that since the throttle the last 20% of the battery drain faster when the phone is used.
I wonder what people do with their phones that they notice the the slow down? Apple found an elegant solution for this hardware problem.
And the problem is gone once you replace the battery. To be fair you will have to do this every two years.
But they did press the pause button because iOS 12 is the first release in a decade wherein a newer iOS has been proven on video to be faster than the older version in real world speed tests.
They intentionally run demanding features on older devices and do nothing about it so that it runs slow. They also ship throttles in update without telling anyone or warn their customers about defective batteries and as I pointed out above, the only real solution to a slow phone is a newer phone or a beta profile.
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I would pay more money than an iPhone 8 for a brand new iPhone 7 running iOS 10. They destroyed the battery on the iPhone 7 with iOS 11. It was barely lasting a day on iOS 11. Off the charger at 8 and zero battery at 4pm on iOS 11. On iOS 10 it would last till 10AM-12PM next day.
The battery was unacceptable for my needs. A bit more web browsing and I could exhaust it by lunch. Hence I upgraded to a newer model.
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iOS 11 drains more battery than iOS 10 which exacerbates the problem. Think about it, the iPhone 8 Plus lasts the same amount of time on iOS 11 as the 7 Plus did on iOS 10. A11 is more efficient than A10. This means iOS 11 demands more power than iOS 10
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What does that have to do what I mentioned? Just because something in particular related to the battery is brought up doesn't mean it then has to do with anything and everytbing battery related. Once again seems like we are onto intentional deflections.
Unoptimised code is also a reason for Throttlegate as iOS 11 demands more power than iOS 10 so if the battery is defective,more likelihood of shutdowns.
What corrupted software? You update the phone in the settings from one version to another why would the software be corrupted, that's a ridiculous invented myth just like the "re-indexing" of iOS for the first days.I don’t trust the Update button
In 2018 it’s very easy to set your phone up as new. If people would rather run the risk of corrupted software, go for it.
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It’s still the max your battery can handle on the phone. Not really debating battery life per iOS version. My point is you run the risk of battery drain due to upgrading. Bad battery life on OS level can be fixed with a software update. Rogue battery drain cannot.
Actually there is no button to press because Apple never engage in planned obsolescence as in the meme. iOS 11 was faster than, iOS 10 was faster than iOS 9 was faster than iOS 8.
Battery life in iOS 11.4.1b1 is stellar.
Apple simply never intentionally sabotaged it’s devices to spur future sales.
So you’re saying Apple shouldn’t have done what they did on iOS 12?
I don’t get it. Apple decided to focus on performance and fixing issues in iOS 12. I think that’s a good thing. No need for for some conspiracy thoughts.
When Apple puts features that cause old devices to be slow because they have difficulty supporting it: OMG they should have released the update without those features for old devices! PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE!!!
When Apple releases an update but some features are not on older devices: OMG those devices could run those features! PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE!!!
When an update makes an older device run badly: OMG it was fine on last OS, they should have retired it instead of giving it one update too much! PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE!!!
When Apple retires an older device while it still works fine with its latest supported OS: OMG it's still working fine on its latest supported OS version, they could have given it another year! PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE!!!
Apple releases update full of features that bring lots of bugs: OMG they don't optimize on purpose! PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE!!!
Apple releases update based on performance and optimization: OMG now they optimize to repair all the bugs of last OS! They clearly do PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE!!!
I could go on and on with opposite scenarios that somehow all lead to planned obsolescence accusations. Anything Apple does has become linked to planned obsolescence, just like the "Apple is dying" thing. If they release a buggy features update, they are dying, but if they release a performance update, they are also dying because there's not enough new features. I'm not saying Apple is perfect, they are not. For all we know, there might really be planned obsolescence, but we have no proof of that. A device slowing down is not proof of that. It doesn't mean with certitude that they slowed it down on purpose. iOS 12 being faster is not proof of that. Bugs are inevitable in an OS, and with iOS 11 and its numerous big problems throughout the year, Apple probably realized that they needed to optimize it better this year. Just like any good company that releases a buggy OS would do. I think the reason the planned obsolescence accusations are not taken seriously anymore and are easily dismissed is because every scenario possible has been turned to mean planned obsolescence.
Also, on the subject of Apple Watch S0, when WatchOS 5 comes out, it will have been 3.5 years since it came out, which is pretty much what I expected its lifetime would be considering it was already pretty slow at that time and battery barely lasted a day. Also, why would you consider upgrading a watch that you still think works fine for what you use it for just because it can't have the latest OS, if you are also not interested in newer models and OS features?
When Apple releases an update but some features are not on older devices: OMG those devices could run those features! PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE!!!
When an update makes an older device run badly: OMG it was fine on last OS, they should have retired it instead of giving it one update too much! PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE!!!
When Apple retires an older device while it still works fine with its latest supported OS: OMG it's still working fine on its latest supported OS version, they could have given it another year! PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE!!!
Apple releases update full of features that bring lots of bugs: OMG they don't optimize on purpose! PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE!!!
Apple releases update based on performance and optimization: OMG now they optimize to repair all the bugs of last OS! They clearly do PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE!!!
I could go on and on with opposite scenarios that somehow all lead to planned obsolescence accusations. Anything Apple does has become linked to planned obsolescence, just like the "Apple is dying" thing. If they release a buggy features update, they are dying, but if they release a performance update, they are also dying because there's not enough new features. I'm not saying Apple is perfect, they are not. For all we know, there might really be planned obsolescence, but we have no proof of that. A device slowing down is not proof of that. It doesn't mean with certitude that they slowed it down on purpose. iOS 12 being faster is not proof of that. Bugs are inevitable in an OS, and with iOS 11 and its numerous big problems throughout the year, Apple probably realized that they needed to optimize it better this year. Just like any good company that releases a buggy OS would do. I think the reason the planned obsolescence accusations are not taken seriously anymore and are easily dismissed is because every scenario possible has been turned to mean planned obsolescence.
Also, on the subject of Apple Watch S0, when WatchOS 5 comes out, it will have been 3.5 years since it came out, which is pretty much what I expected its lifetime would be considering it was already pretty slow at that time and battery barely lasted a day. Also, why would you consider upgrading a watch that you still think works fine for what you use it for just because it can't have the latest OS, if you are also not interested in newer models and OS features?