The feedback back is just from you and one other person failing to understand I was simply pointing something out. Being rude about it for the following several pages is saying somewhat more about you than about me
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
All iPads Still finding a lot of use for my old iPads, please keep yours out of the landfill.
- Thread starter DouglasCarroll
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I disagree that it’s “forced obsolescence”.
The closed ecosystem is a benefit for the vast majority of Apple consumers, I don’t expect Apple to change their tune on that just because… checks notes… tech gets old.
I also don’t expect them to support old devices forever, after all that requires software engineering resources, and eventually, even for a massive corporation like Apple, the money, time, and labor it would take to keep old iOS devices supported would just become too much for the minuscule benefit.
Just for a reference, that iPad2 from 2011 is just as old today as the latest power Macintosh G5 was when the first M1 MacBook Air released. Yet there are still people on this very forum still using G5s that still work just fine. Now, should we expect Apple to release macOS sequoia for the G5? Of course not.
Not only is that old iPad 32 bit, so completely different from what exists today, but it also only has 512 MB of RAM and 16 GB of storage. If Apple continued releasing updates for it, it wouldn’t be usable. Even trying to stuff every security patch that has happened since that iPad lost support would probably cause it to end up in even worse condition than it is now.
I also think that Apple‘s security releases are going completely underrated in this thread. The second generation iPad Air was released in 2014, 11 years ago, and received an iOS 15 security update just last month. Can you name any other mobile device from 11 years ago still receiving software security patches?
I said be careful when connecting insecure dices to the internet. If you wonder why, it’s easily researchable. If you don’t care, it’s easily ignored.
They make such good tech that it begs the question, that is all. I have a 2018 iPad Pro. It’s still just superb. Soon, they will stop supporting it, in all likelihood. I think it’s a pretty dire situation when a company released such a great product, that they have the say on when it’s done.
If another os could be installed on it, then the open source community could keep that working and secure for 10 more years at the very least.
It also doesn’t really matter anyway, seeing as every iPad released from 2014 and on, has still received security updates, even as late as last month.
That means any iPad released within the last 11 years is probably fine, even if you can’t exactly update them to get the latest features.
So much for “forced obsolescence”, iPads have literally been supported for over a decade now with security updates. Exactly how much more could you ask? I certainly don’t know of any 2014 android tablets still receiving security updates.
Given that the 2014 iPad Air second generation and the 2015 iPad mini just received a security update… Last month, your 2018 iPad Pro, which is still receiving the latest software updates, let alone security updates, should be fine for years and years to come.
It’s very likely your iPad will receive OS 19 and OS 20, and it’s likely both of those will receive at least three years of security updates.
You shouldn’t have to worry about it becoming “obsolete” until 2029 at the earliest, and even then it could continue going further, we just don’t know.
And even once it stops receiving software and security updates, you can still find uses for it.
If you’re uncomfortable with it being connected to your home network, you can manually synchronize it with a Mac or PC and/or use a mobile hotspot, and download any movies, TV shows, music, whatever you want to it.
Going back to my power Macintosh G5 example, plenty of people are still finding uses for it, 20 years later, even on Mac OS X leopard, which hasn’t been updated in 15 years. I’ve heard of people who still use them as music production machines because they prefer that older version of logic.
Point is, Apple isn’t stopping you from finding uses for older iPads.
It's the lack of knowledge and the ARROGANCE about said lack of knowledge that does it for me.
Russian military botnet discovered on 1000+ compromised routers — FBI deactivated Moobot by taking control of impacted routers
Russia's GRU military intelligence agency infected "well over a thousand" routers with malware
Not Apple, but there was a long time we didn't know about those routers either! That's how security vulnerabilities work, folks.
I disagree that all the recent iPhones and iPads are essentially the same - there are new versions with substantial improvements. People can make their own purchase choices without judgement by others.
Yep. I don’t blindly cross the road. Just like I don’t blindly ignore security on my connected devices.
No Apple are great at it. But nonetheless there are iPads and iPhones in the wild that no longer get security updates, and there will be many more so as time goes on. And on an Android tablet you can put a different OS.
I’m definitely going to speak openly about this, because I don’t support the current overconsumption culture where the same junk is released year after year with micro-changes and sold through marketing and fueling FOMO. If you want to call that judgmental, go right ahead.
What do you hope to accomplish by complaining about people doing this on a tech forum?
Fine, you're free to voice your opinion. "same junk is released year after year with micro-changes" - whatever, that's your view.
iPads and iPhones are on my absolute blacklist.
You just have no way to use them after Apple decides that they are obsolete and will not provide many apps on App Store. Since e.g Apple arbitrarily prevented me to use further maps on my 3rd G iPads, which where else perfect as GPS navis, with a really good hi-res screen, I have been forced to scrap them.
I will never again purchase an iPad !
You just have no way to use them after Apple decides that they are obsolete and will not provide many apps on App Store. Since e.g Apple arbitrarily prevented me to use further maps on my 3rd G iPads, which where else perfect as GPS navis, with a really good hi-res screen, I have been forced to scrap them.
I will never again purchase an iPad !
Well, that’s part of being careful going outside, which what I assumed your post was trying to get at. Roads are outside. I’m careful about crossing them. I’m sorry if that was too cryptic to understand. I don’t know how to put it in a more simple way.
Same way I’m trying to instil the notion that bad security practices can lead to unintended consequences. What do you hope to accomplish by complaining about my doing that on a tech forum?
Do you understand the GIGANTIC impact on performance and battery life that iOS updates already have?
Imagine if Apple were to endlessly support them. They just wouldn’t work at all.
Screw security, I want the device to work properly.
Have you used a fully updated 32-bit iPad? Have you used an A5 iPad on iOS 9?
Have you seen how they work?
The security argument is pointless. You assume I care more about security than functionality itself.
The 10.5-inch iPad Pro has been reported to have appalling battery life on the latest iOS version, with some people only getting two or three hours of SOT. How much more degradation do you want?
Do you understand that iOS updates necessarily worsen performance and battery life now, with current iOS support? Do you understand that Apple disallows downgrading and that there is NO way back once you update?
You may want Apple to kill your devices for “security”. I’ll keep my iOS devices on original iOS versions.
But saying that devices can’t be used if they’re not updated is utterly ludicrous and has no basis in the real world. If anything, if they won’t allow downgrading, Apple should support devices less, not more.
I haven’t updated an iOS device since 2013. I prefer functional, practical devices rather than theoretically secure garbage. Claiming that Apple should support devices more with the gigantic impact that updates already have is ludicrous and inconsistent with the motivations of 99% of iOS users. We want quality first and foremost.
That’s why you see people upgrading their devices once they’re so updated that battery life is poor.
iPad 4th gen on iOS 10 was actually pretty decent performance-wise. Even battery was still decent. The OG Air on its last supported OS (12?) seemed much worse.
The iPad 2nd and 3rd gen on iOS 9 was painful though.
I used an iPad 4th-gen on iOS 7 (!!) and I wasn’t happy at all. In fact, that was my last willing iOS update ever. It was the update that triggered my long-standing policy of staying on original iOS versions. Battery life was decent though. A couple of hours behind iOS 6, but not too bad.
I tested a Mini 1 on iOS 9, extensively. Don’t even get me started. I cannot understand how that piece of software garbage ever passed round 1 of Quality Control. I tested a 2nd-gen iPad on iOS 9. Like you said, another piece of garbage.
My 9.7-inch iPad Pro is rather mediocre in terms of both performance and battery life… on iOS 12! Four versions behind and only three major updates from the original. It’s… fine I guess, but way below iOS 9. As you know, Apple forced me out.
I tested a 6 Plus on iOS 12. If the OG Air was bad, the underpowered, RAM and GPU-starved 6 Plus was unusable, too. The 6s has non-existent battery life on iOS 15. The history is long.
I will have to update an iPhone 11 from iOS 14 to iOS 18, perhaps tomorrow. I’ll try it and see how it goes.
Like I said on my post, I agree with using devices for as long as we can. I detest the idea of throwing them into landfills. But currently, the devices that we call truly old (not those that are merely slightly outdated by MacRumors standards) are not usable. Truly old, as in, I have to find an alternative usage pattern, I’d call those that were dropped with iOS 12 and earlier. None of which I’d call usable. Go newer (iPadOS 15 and 16) and battery life seems non-existent for those iPads.
Have you tried some of the more recently dropped models? Have you tried a 6th-gen iPad on iPadOS 17? If so, how is it? I’ve tested one extensively… but it has been running iOS 12 since day one.
My brother uses a 6th gen regularly for Twitch and YouTube.
It’s way too slow for modern web browsing for my liking so I never touch it unless necessary.
Agree with you totally. This is what I plan to do with my iPad mini4 and iPhone SE (1st gen), both of which are turning into bricks, thanks to Apple no longer offering support and also because I can't update a lot of the apps. Plus a lot of websites no longer respond to these older products. The one saving grace of these two i-devices is that they work beautifully with my Bose Soundtouch speakers (which have also been made obsolete by Bose, but that's another whole gripe).Hi Everyone,
Nothing special just a quick observation of mine.
I find it interesting how useful older iPads still are in spite of them being massively out of date. For example, in my kitchen I have an old iPad 3rd generation running version 9.3.5 of the iPad OS. The iPad lives in my kitchen in an Apple iPad Dock (Model A1381) with the audio out attached into my Apple iPod Hi-Fi speaker and the power to the wall to keep the iPad charged. This setup gets used every single day for streaming Pandora and other compatible audio apps to the speaker. I also have recipes stored on the iPad for cooking and I occasionally use it for reading materials I've stored on it from various places and sources. In other words this thing is great and extremely useful for me. The best part is I got the iPad and the iPad dock free when I found them discarded in a recycle bin. Shockingly the battery still also holds a great charge and I've never had any issue when I un-dock it for reading....the battery seems to just go and go. Anyways I really find it disturbing when I see article on all of the e-waste in the world and especially how it's dumped in developing parts of the world and it's really something to be able to usefully continue the life of my older "obsolete" electronics and not have to really compromise what I use them for for as long as possible.
Anyways, just my 2 cents about this subject.
Thanks everyone.
I am some what p*ssed at Apple because I took a deep breath and paid the steep price for these things in the belief that the higher price was justified due to their better build quality and (presumably) longer service life than the Android & Windows stuff that I had been tossing out at regular intervals. Since that isn't the case, I'm probably returning to the evil Google world for my next phone and tablet. And the Dell desktop that might have been replaced with an iMac will be succeeded by yet another Dell.
