iPad What would you do with an ipad 3?

[Homme]

iPad 3 was the first iPad with retina display (albeit with a severely underpowered GPU). iPad 4 is just the faster version with Lightning port released 6 months later.

More like underpowered CPU rather than GPU

 

[Yebubbleman]

Just got given one, along with an iPhone 4s. So with my recently acquired Mac Pro 2,1, I've gone from zero Apple to a small ecosystem inside a month.
Both devices were reset, so of course the App Store laughed at trying to install other apps, Netflix etc. I managed to circumvent this to a degree by getting apps via the Mac desktop machine, so both devices are now usable beyond the basics.
Anyone else using an ipad this old?

Any apps that are not stock with the OS will be a wash; though you might get lucky with some "last known compatible version" apps that still work for the services you are trying to access. Sadly, the same will mostly be true of the version of Safari that is on there. I'd use it for content consumption through Apple's own apps (i.e. iTunes Store, Videos, Music, iBooks, Podcasts. If you're reluctant to own anything through there, then I'd just use it to rent movies. I'm pretty sure the 4s and the third generation iPad both cap out at iOS 9. Just know that any app that is a client to a service will eventually stop working on whatever version of the app you can't go beyond on those devices. It's honestly the worst part about iOS and iPadOS as hardware platforms.

 

[rui no onna]

More like underpowered CPU rather than GPU

It really was mostly GPU. 4x pixels as iPad 2 but it only got 2x GPU improvement. I remember complaints about games being limited to 75%, etc. It was noticeably laggier than the iPad 2.

Granted, A5 (and ARM in general) was pretty weak to begin with compared to x86 at the time.

 

[Homme]

It really was mostly GPU. 4x pixels as iPad 2 but it only got 2x GPU improvement. I remember complaints about games being limited to 75%, etc. It was noticeably laggier than the iPad 2.

Granted, A5 (and ARM in general) was pretty weak to begin with compared to x86 at the time.

I agree with you but with iOS 8/9 ( and times 7) A5X struggled with 4x the pixels than iPad 2

 

[stinkhorn9]

Download Nanostudio v1 on it and start some music production It'll run pretty well.
Selling might be more sensible.

I still successfully use music-making apps on an iPad 2 (ok - one app at a time…)

More broadly speaking, it seems to me that I have tailored my creative use of old tech to fit its restraints - and so, not suffered too much (i.e. I’m not complaining because I can’t run a million things at once, or have a million things open in the background simultaneously - because I just *don’t*).

 

[Barsal]

I'm impressed.

Goes to show, yet again, that people who can least afford things get the worst deals. (Not their fault, just unfortunate.)

I have to say that I explained every single specification of the iPad, even though I felt a bit guilty after the guy who bought it said it was gonna be his first tablet... ?

 

[rui no onna]

I agree with you but with iOS 8/9 ( and times 7) A5X struggled with 4x the pixels than iPad 2

It does but that’s mostly due to GPU. Plenty of eye candy (transparencies, animations, etc) on iOS 7+ requiring faster GPU. Mind, even the iPad Air and iPhone 5s stuttered on iOS 7.

It wasn’t until the Air 2 (A8X/2GB) that they had hardware able to handle the new UI smoothly.