
What I learned from watching my iPad's slow death - o_nate
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/06/magazine/what-i-learned-from-watching-my-ipads-slow-death.html
======
niftich
For what it's worth, PCs are subject to the exact same slow decline, even if
the author's romantic notions of repurposing an old machine ring true. While
they may be suitable for old games on an unnetworked, phone-activated WinXP,
or as a power-hungry Linux machine that will perform admirably as long as web
browsers aren't involved, both fates are the same: frozen in time, locked out
of the dizzying speed of evolution of online services and the portals through
which they are viewed. Stallman's right yet again: the offline programs will
run just the same, but the online programs are subject to change at a moment's
notice, from Apple shedding support of 32-bit hardware, to application makers
shedding support for old OS versions, to online backends forcing mandatory
updates.

It feels worse with the iPad because its marketing made an impression of a
sleek, "just-works" kind of device. Of course, its utility is tied exclusively
to applications from a captive marketplace, and often, to remote services
frontended by those apps or the browser, making its elegance a leaky
abstraction. Today's Chromebooks, another "just-works" device, will be in the
same situation in five years.

But with Chromebooks, or Android phones (if you're lucky), or x86 or x64 PCs,
you can replace the stock OS and repurpose the device on the hardware's own
remaining merits. An iPad is just stuck.

~~~
thekevan
"For what it's worth, PCs are subject to the exact same slow decline"

Maybe eventually, but not within 5 years. I'm currently typing on a 2011 Dell
with an i3 proc and 6GB of RAM, running Ubuntu. I have 19 other tabs open in
Chrome. It dual boots Win7.

I can use this 7ish year old PC for social media, email, HD videos and
streaming music with few annoyances due to performance, in either OS. Not so
with the 5 year iPad he describes. While I can do several of those things at
once, it seems he has trouble with even just one.

~~~
majormajor
Not anymore, but it's only recently that that's been spun as a good thing.

Tell someone around 2000 that a 7ish year old PC would be adequate and you'd
get laughed at. 1993 to 2000, for instance: You'd be comparing a Pentium at
60Mhz (some quick googling says 60Mhz was first hit this year) on the high end
to a 1Ghz Athlon. Probably >20x real performance improvement (the clock alone
is 16.7x).

Mobile devices will catch up and stagnate too, sadly.

~~~
thekevan
You say "recently" and then compare computers from 18 and 25 years ago. That's
just about a generation in human years. The comment I replied to said, "For
what it's worth, PCs are subject to the exact same slow decline". ARE subject,
not WILL BE or USED TO BE.

"Mobile devices will catch up and stagnate too, sadly."

Uh, if they catch up to my point, then they will still be useful at 5 - 7
years, thus the opposite of stagnant.

~~~
romwell
I almost typed up the comment that you responded to, probably for the reason
that 2000 is still "recent" in my mind :/

------
fitzroy
"a late-2012 iPad Mini, model number A1432, black, with 16 gigabytes of
storage. It retailed, at release, for $329."

So the cost of owning this iPad has been less than 20 cents/day over its 5
year usable life. That doesn't even factor in the slight energy savings vs
using a full laptop if you want to be nitpickey. Nor does it factor in the
current resale value. I just sold an original iPad 1 for $80 on Craigslist.
I'm sure this would be worth at least as much, if not more.

"I still use my old iPad for passive consumption: reading, watching videos,
checking feeds ...formerly easy tasks have become strained. Social apps have
become slow, videos take longer to load and Safari can’t seem to handle the
most important and fundamental services of the modern web."

This is all also true of my maxed out 2012 MacBook Air. Final Cut Pro X runs
more smoothly editing HD video than browsing Facebook. And, while I agree the
uses for an old iPad are limited (photo browser, music player / media
controller, eBook reader, kitchen recipe browser), they are more elegant than
keeping an old computer around.

The mixed blessing and curse of something like the iPad is that it still looks
beautiful and functional long after it isn't. I'm sure it would be easier to
part with the device if it was a 5-year-old $300 Celeron netbook.

~~~
qplex
No. It's not okay to make devices obsolete by software.

Arguing for the low cost of ownership per day is a strawman.

------
firasd
My Panasonic 'Smart TV' is from 2014 and its app marketplace doesn't have
Netflix. It's just not there. My laptop is from 2011, and since it runs the
latest Chrome browser, it can play Netflix just fine. Made me think: the fact
that laptops & desktops are consumer devices sold with hardware and operating
systems that do general-purpose computing is underrated.

~~~
digi_owl
Beyond that, that nothing on the hardware side stops you from running any
software you want to.

Expect the PC to morph into something more akin to a tablet or "smart" TV if
the MAFIAA get what they want (and Intel and crew seems all too willing to
give in).

And that point your GPC will be relegated to a developer workstation that may
well require a verified employer and regular visits from an auditor to own.

~~~
TeMPOraL
Yup. Cory Doctorow warned us about it for years (Google keywords: "war on
general-purpose computing").

And the sad thing, I'm not sure we can escape that. MAFIAA wants it. Large
businesses want it. And to top it off, _computer security specialists want it
too_. Ideas like sandboxing, or trusted computing, or hardware crypto modules
- all provide security while simultaneously _taking control away from the
user_.

I seriously fear that soon, having a general-purpose computer connected to the
Internet will be considered a public safety issue ("because botnets!"), and
eventually you'll need a professional license to be allowed to work with a
Turing-complete language ("because langsec!"). I very much don't like it.

~~~
digi_owl
Yeah he followed it up with "civil war on GPC", where he basically started to
favor "DRM". This with the caveat that it was the owner of the computer that
would have control of the keys, and frankly i do not see that happening.

------
o_nate
My mother-in-law is in the same boat. She is not a demanding user. She
basically uses her iPad for 3 things: buying things on Amazon, looking at
pictures of her grandson on Facebook, and checking her stocks with the
Fidelity app. Well, the Fidelity app recently informed her that she could no
longer login unless she installed a required upgrade. It turns out the upgrade
is not compatible with the version of iOS that runs on her hardware. So just
like that her iPad became obsolete.

~~~
shdh
Have her try using the web applications instead of native iOS applications.

~~~
gruez
that's probably worse. non-updated ios => non-updated safari => 0days galore

~~~
brianwawok
You should be OK going to Fidelity.com

Not the deep web

Of course not easy to communicate to parents or grandparents who are less tech
savvy

~~~
o_nate
Given her level of tech-savviness, that's not as easy as it sounds. Also, it
seems more secure to have her just use the app - less possibility of phishing
attempts and the like. She already bought a new iPad anyway.

~~~
lostmsu
Can't you make a shortcut for Fidelity on the "desktop"?

------
cocktailpeanuts
One of my biggest fear nowadays is I will someday mistakenly press "OK" to the
annoying "Update to iOS 11" popup without thinking, and my iPad will be
practically bricked.

My iPad is a relatively recent iPad mini which I bought a couple of years ago,
but I know from my iPhone 6, I know upgrading to iOS 11 will slow down
everything, for example each app taking about 10 seconds to launch--including
Apple's own apps like Mail.app and Messages app.

Is there a way to completely block that upgrade to iOS 11 popup so I don't
make the mistake?

~~~
huebnerob
[http://www.idownloadblog.com/2017/12/11/block-ios-
updates/](http://www.idownloadblog.com/2017/12/11/block-ios-updates/)

Also, I marvel at how watered down the term "bricked" has become. From 'my
thing shows absolutely no signs of life' to 'my thing is a little bit laggy'.

~~~
cocktailpeanuts
Thanks, but I wouldn't say "a little big laggy". I am not exaggerating when I
say every app takes ten seconds to load.

I actually measured them and that's the average time it took for all apps to
load after I updated to iOS 11 (Before iOS11 it loaded immediately).

If you can sympathize with me because you have more recent phones, please try
to close your eyes and count to ten and imagine, hopefully that may give you
an idea of how frustrating it is for peasants like us.

~~~
NamTaf
Then there's something broken with your iphone 6, because until the 8 came out
I was using a 5S and it was observably slower but not '10 seconds for every
app' slow as you apparently describe without exaggeration. I had upgraded it
to iOS 11 before moving to the 8, too.

~~~
jannyfer
iPhone 5S isn’t subject to the battery-related CPU throttling.

My iPhone 6 took 10 seconds to load apps, but after a battery replacement it
takes me about 4 seconds. Also, I noticed that apps stay in memory longer
which means that I don’t have to do a fresh app load that takes 4 seconds.

~~~
cocktailpeanuts
isnt 4 seconds still slow though?

when i say it takes 10 seconds i mean the screen is blank white for 10
seconds.

I think it's not as ridiculous as 10 secs but 4 seconds of blank white screen
is not so much better...

------
peatmoss
I have a 3rd gen iPad that I feel like there should be a 3rd-party logic board
/ OS update for.

There are approximately a bajillion 3rd gen iPads out there. Imagine walking
into the local screen repair place, having them stick in a new Android board
that reuses the digitizer, screen, and case. Maybe they pop a new battery in
while it's open. Bam! Renewed iPad.

Given how cheep various SBCs have gotten, I have to imagine there is an
economic business model for _someone_ in retrofitting all these old,
homogeneous, plentiful devices.

~~~
gm-conspiracy
Please!

Somebody kickstarter this!

------
LocalH
The main issue with this is that Apple doesn't allow downgrading of iOS. Thus,
one might be able to maintain a device on an older version of iOS that is most
suited to it, but if anything happens that requires a restore, then that
device is effectively dead in the water. It seems to me that at the very
least, Apple should backport relevant security fixes at least one major
version, if not two (for example, a bug found in iOS 11 should also be patched
in iOS 10, should it be present), and they should sign the last revision of
one or two major versions back, so that these things aren't thrown out en
masse.

~~~
mrep
This part is so ridiculous!

The new version of IOS broke some of my apps so I went to submit feedback on
those apps that Apple broke their app with their new OS and it turns out that
providing feedback in the app store is also now broken!

I literally cannot do anything now because I cannot downgrade my OS nor can I
tell the developers that Apple broke their app with the new OS version.

------
pgrote
I have 2 original ipads that are in excellent shape. I spent a weekend looking
for some way to repurpose them into photo albums that sit there are cycle
through photos.

I couldn't find a working solution.

All the apps won't work properly and the browser doesn't work with things like
Flikr or Google Photos.

It is a shame since the display is still awesome.

Any ideas on what to do with them?

~~~
fenwick67
Hmmm... maybe make your own webpage that cycles through the photos? You
probably don't want family photos on a public URL though...

~~~
sli
They don't need to be public. A $5 RasPi Zero would be plenty powerful enough
to serve photos on a local network.

------
sdfjkl
I got my iPad in May 2010 and it still works fine, including (amazingly), the
battery. Except of course, the software has become useless. YouTube doesn't
work unless I do special URL mangling in the browser, which crashes every 2
seconds anyways. The latest OS release is so old it's from the days when Apple
had a YouTube app, which Google later shut off the API for.

I really feel it deserves a second life running some kind of alternate OS and
can think of several uses for it, but last I checked there wasn't much of that
happening.

------
scarface74
As a counterpoint. My first generation iPad released in 2010 can still be used
to watch Netflix, Hulu, Plex, and a few other services.

Spotify works as does iBooks, Google Drive (reading PDFs), Mail, Calendar,
etc.

I reset it last year and redownloaded old versions of all the third party apps
mentioned above.

Now Safari on the other hand, crashes constantly.

I do have the newest non-Pro iPad and of course it performs better.

------
anigbrowl
By way of contrast, I'm still using the PS3 I got 7 years ago (when it had
already been out a few years) every day and it runs speedily and mostly
smoothly - my sole annoyance with it is that it doesn't adjust for daylight
savings time automatically. That said I never use it for web browsing as the
browser has always been rather crap. Netflix and similar apps do need a few
seconds to load, but then they always have as it's using an actual hard drive
rather than a SSD.

------
foxhop
I actually felt this way about my Asus Android Nexus 7 2013 - I didn't use it
daily or even monthly, just enough to remember it. It largely collected dust
and now it longer gets updates.

I rooted it a few days ago and also installed lineage 14.1 and I'll have to
say, it's like a brand new device again. I was very surprised. I'm plan to
mount it next to my thermostat and use it as a "solar" dashboard for showing
consumption and production.

~~~
bitwize
You're lucky. I used mine moderately, then the SSD just up and went kaputski.
Couldn't reflash it or anything. Dead.

------
hollander
I have a 1st generation iPod Touch, still working as music player in an old
JBL dock. It's just for that, and that is enough for me. An old iPad like the
one described here is nothing more or less than an old laptop that's getting
too slow.

So what has changed? Nothing much except excellent quality hardware. That
hardware can still be used by the way, to display videos, play (old) games.
Great toys for little kids?

~~~
robocat
> old JBL dock

FYI the old iPhone/iPod docks can easily be upgraded to bluetooth for about
$10 by buying a bluetooth adapter (powered by the dock, so apparently a few
docks don't work).

------
oflannabhra
I'm not exactly sure what the chief complaint here is.

Is it that iPads are not upgradeable? Well, Apple has an entire system for
recycling and credit. Also, an argument could be made that an upgradeable iPad
would also cease to be as useful as an iPad, as it would necessitate some
level of form-factor change.

Is it that software keeps moving forward? Well, that is not new, and is not
unique to an iPad. A five year old computer running a recent browser will also
struggle with new websites.

Is it that the author can't give the iPad to someone else who could use it and
wouldn't be as frustrated? I fail to see how that is the case.

I'm sure using a five year old computer can get frustrating. But I think the
fact that an iPad is still quite functional after five years of use is rather
remarkable. No one writes op-eds in the NYT lamenting the slowness of their
five year old netbook, because those devices are even more disposable than an
iPad.

Edit - that is not to say that there is not an issue with aging iOS hardware.
I just don't think the article makes a clear argument, or even statement, of
what that issue is.

~~~
wambotron
> A five year old computer running a recent browser will also struggle with
> new websites.

My _gaming rig_ is 5+ years old and still runs new games fine. I don't even
know where you came up with this. My wife owns a 2012 Macbook Pro and it still
runs everything fine, even the newest OS and MS Office applications.

~~~
oflannabhra
sorry, I should have said "low end laptop," "netbook," or "chromebook." Those
are all in the same class as an iPad, with the same portability requirements,
etc.

~~~
lione
I've been using my $300 Acer c720p chromebook for almost 5 years. Keys are
falling off, it has quite a few cracks and smudges, and the battery is less
then half of what it used to be, but it still boots up in about 8 seconds, and
there's no new noticeable lag. Right now sounds like my Chromebook was a
better decision than a iPad.

------
omginternets
I have a first-gen iPad sitting around. Is there something like postmarketOS I
could install?

Hell, I would even settle for using it as a headless box ...

~~~
compiler-guy
I feel like old ipads would be useful as the head to another box, rather than
a headless box. They have decent screens, and would work well as, say, an
extra screen to a movie player for kids on trips.

It's unfortunate that there isn't an easy way to do it.

~~~
miskin
I use 1st gen iPad as client for Plex it runs ok there. It can also play
(correctly prepared) movies and YouTube, so it is really ok for kids use.

------
upbeatlinux
The (original) iPad I received as an Xmas gift in 2010 is still alive and
kicking. In fact it is the most robust piece of ("mobile") hardware I've owned
since 2010; outlasting various iPhones, Nexus devices, laptops and other
electronic devices which have been purchased or received as gifts.

Then again it's only used to stream movies, read news and light browser based
activities. Amazingly and to the delight of the kids most games are still
playable.

The only other portable electronic devices I own with similar resilience are
the original Raspberry Pi and potentially a 2011 Mac Book Pro. Though having
to replace the logic boardonce and battery twice probably disqualify the MBP.

------
acqq
My parents have an iPad 2. It's still in good condition, battery still very
good. But they can't use it anymore for Skype: Skype delivered always slower
apps as the time went on, and now the last version of the app is too slow to
be used at all: when somebody calls the app gets so big lag that it just
fails.

Also, some app writers make the app compatible with every iOS. Not Microsoft.
Even newer versions of Skype aren't for iOS 9. But the last for iOS 9 was
already too slow.

From this perspective, the biggest problem are the companies which decide not
to test on the older hardware and which don't want to support older iOS
versions.

------
GeekyBear
What we've seen in the tablet space over the last decade is a yearly boost in
hardware specs that has not been seen for some time in the PC marketplace.

Consider that the original iPad only had 256 megabytes of RAM and a single
core ARM Cortex A8 CPU while the current entry level iPad has 2 Gigabytes of
RAM and a dual core Apple Twister CPU.

If you go back to the days when PCs still saw that sort of repeated yearly
performance advances and try to run Windows Vista on a machine built to run
Windows 95, you're going to run into the exact same sorts of problems.

------
scrumper
My first-gen iPad Pro, the big one from 2015 or '16, is getting really slow,
particularly with Safari, and it gets all the updates. Having some trouble
understanding what's going on here.

~~~
tomc1985
Your first-gen iPad Pro is still new compared to what this dude is packing.
There's an iPad from 2012 sitting on my desk that stopped receiving updates
and, for getting any kind of work done, the thing is useless.

~~~
r00fus
You're using a 5 year old tablet for work? That thing is financially
depreciated 2 years ago. For security reasons alone you shouldn't be using it
to do work.

~~~
tomc1985
It is literally sitting on my desk, doing nothing

------
cyberferret
I bought my first iPad primarily as a music creation device. I purchased
almost every keyboard, recording and guitar amp sim app that came our for the
first generation iPad, and had a ton of fun with them [0][1].

But then, the inevitable happened, the keyboard synth algorithms, multi track
recorders, convolution reverbs etc., all improved and became more complicated,
to the extent that the processor on the old iPad simply couldn't keep up any
more. So I pretty much HAD to upgrade.

The old iPad is _still_ in service though - my wife is a portrait artist and
uses it to display reference pics next to her easel that she can zoom in and
scroll around in. As the author of the OP has said - no problem with its
aesthetics or reliability, we just reverted to using the apps that still work
within the confines of its processor and memory limits.

[0] - [https://soundcloud.com/cyberferret/in-a-bad-
moog](https://soundcloud.com/cyberferret/in-a-bad-moog)

[1] = [https://soundcloud.com/cyberferret/industrial-ants-
wav](https://soundcloud.com/cyberferret/industrial-ants-wav)

------
bondolo
The iPad I use for watching cartoons in bed is a minimum spec 1st generation
iPad. It runs iOS 5.1 and hasn't updated in about 5 years. Most of the apps
are no longer supported. I can still use NetFlix, Amazon Prime Video and
Crackle. I am not sure about Hulu, CBS, or HBO Go as I am not currently
subscribed to these. I can watch YouTube and some other video sites in Safari,
which frequently crashes because it runs out memory.

Originally I used to charge it every 10-14 days. Now I must charge it every
3-4 days.

As a video watching device it is still fine. I would be happier if the utility
degraded a little more gracefully. I can't think of a good reason why
AdultSwim or CartoonNetwork shouldn't be supporting legacy iOS versions for
their video players. Their target audiences are more likely to be using older
hand-me-down devices. On the other hand, this device is also now the only
device I can use to still play older 32-bit AdultSwim games like "Monsters Ate
My Condo" and "Mole Attack" that no longer run in iOS 11.

------
fmsf
iPad mini 1 are selling on ebay for 80£, I wonder if there isn't anyone
exploring the business opportunity here for corporate software, were instead
of buying 300£ iPads to show the schedule of a meeting room, you can just code
against an old version of IOS and supply your software with hardware at a high
discount. edit: had 30£ before, but was a bid not a buy now

~~~
thinkythought
Anyone doing this would be opening themselves up to a world of liability, and
probably a lot of customers who would say no. I know my work is dumping older
ipads even though all our integrated software for meetings etc works fine just
because it _could_ be exploited and isn't receiving updates. Even the
possibility of that isn't worth it to a lot of places. It doesn't matter if
it's connected to a "closed" network, it still has radio(s) on.

And since so many places are so slow to upgrade, this is a known attack
surface. Once you exploit that old-ass iOS, you have a compromised machine
with radios sniffing inside your environment.

------
Decabytes
Ipads where never meant to be computers. I mean just look at the new Ipad
commerical with the little girl. This is made worse by the fact that it's
completely locked down. You have no way to fiddle with it. If Ios was free
software people could develop for the ipad so it could continue to do the
things people expect of it, but it's not.

------
Symbiote
I took a broken hard drive to the electronics recycling bin in the basement
last month. It's not often emptied, as it takes a long time to get even half-
full.

Inside was a Macbook Air, a 2012 iPad, an iPod Touch, two 8GB iPods and an
iPod Shuffle.

All except the Macbook are in full working order, but the iPad and iPod Touch
were frustratingly slow to use.

------
arx1422
Curious how old the author is. Those of us who had computers in the 80s and
90s remember how 3 years or so was what you got before obsolescence set in.
Mobile devices are still developing at that kind of rate. Desktops and laptops
last so long because for 99% of needs they maxed out on necessary specs many
years ago.

------
ddebernardy
iPads age better if you disable javascript st some point.

\--

Sent from a 1st gen iPad.

------
credo
My older iPad (yes, first gen iPad from 2010) is eight years old and it works
great (from my perspective :)

Yes, I can't download most new apps, but last year, I released an update for
'Economy for iPad' (#1 Finance app for several weeks in 2010) and that app
continues to support the original iPad and iOS 5.1

Generally, the best way to keep old devices running well is to keep the old
OS. (Old major version at its latest minor version e.g. 10.3). There is a
slight risk of not being able to pick up security fixes that didn't make it
into 10.3, but made it to 11.0. However, as a developer, who tests apps on
older OS versions, I keep old test devices with old OS versions on them.

Btw I should also add that Netflix runs perfectly on my old iPad with iOS 5.1
:)

------
cdelsolar
I bought a refurbished PC in 2007 for around $400 and I recently put Linux on
it and gave it to my mom. It's definitely fast enough for her to check email,
watch the occasional Youtube video, and surf Amazon/Craigslist/etc.

------
fumar
After all these years, I finally picked up an iPad. It is an iPad Pro 10.5
with the smart keyboard. I like the device, its fast and has good utility for
photo editing, like Affinity photo. Should I expect the device to slow down
with each iOS update? Does the whole OS slow down or is it specific apps? Is
this article accurate? What is the average lifespan of iOS devices, given
hardware is taken care of? This is my first iOS device.

Edit:

Has there been a change in how older devices are impacted? For example, iPads
before iPad Air are more likely to be impacted by updates. Any iOS device
after the A7 chip is now less likely to be impacted.

~~~
huebnerob
This is a red herring, the real reason why we even get to have this
conversation is because Apple provides full OS version updates to devices for
_much longer_ than any other mobile platform. Your 6 year old iPad is a bit
slow on the latest iOS? Uh, my 6 year old android tablet hasn't seen a new OS
in 5 years.

~~~
izacus
5 years isn't all that long in the world of computers (and Apple is trying
really really hard to market iPads as computers).

Any proper computer will be upgradable for way longer than 5 years when
running Windows or Linux. iPad won't be because you're not allowed to install
your own OS.

~~~
huebnerob
Not really a fair comparison when you consider that PCs have been plateau'ing
in performance for at least that long, while the tablet/mobile market still
delivers large performance gains year-over-year.

------
Kajayacht
I have a 4th generation iPad from early 2013 that I use all the time.
Ironically, it wasn't until about 2 years ago when my wife got me a bluetooth
keyboard case for it that I really started to get some use out of it.

It definitely isn't as snappy as it used to be, and the battery reports that
it has lost 20% of its original capacity, but I use it all the time.

I primarily use it in meetings to take notes with OneNote, I also use it to
SSH/RDP/VNC into other computers to write some code and such. I also have some
means to work on code using a git app and Textastic. Yes, there are such apps
available for iOS.

GarageBand and iMovie get some usage when I'm feeling "artistic" though I will
admit they are starting to get too sluggish (GarageBand especially).

As far as games go, I mostly stick to the knockoff bargain-brand versions of
big-budget games by Gameloft; Order and Chaos 2 (Guild Wars 2), Modern Combat
(Call of Duty), Gangstar (GTA), Minecraft Pocket Edition, and retro game
collections (Atari, Activision, Vectrex). I have a number of Bluetooth
controllers that are compatible with those retro game collections that helps.
I used to have my iPad jail broken and would play tons of emulators on it as
well.

The main thing that's nice about something like an iPad with a keyboard is
that with a bit of work it can completely take the place of your laptop and do
it better. When I go away for a long weekend, I inevitably have to ask myself
if I want to take my laptop or my iPad. It always boils down to how much I
think I'm going to have to work, and usually it's the iPad I take. It does 90%
of the day-to-day things I need to do, still has a relatively great battery
life, and it's the size of a notebook even with the keyboard-case. And if
things come down to it, I can still access my work computer or my webserver at
home and do the whatever else I need to do (albeit in a less than ideal
manner, but I've never had to say "sorry, I can't look into this right now
cause I only have my iPad").

I will admit, it's the addition of a physical keyboard that really does it for
me on the iPad. But keyboard or not, even within the Orwellian App Store I can
be extremely productive with my 5 year old iPad.

And yes, I wrote all this on my iPad.

------
IronWolve
I've been using my nexus 7 2012 model, and work commissioned a bunch, so I
ended up with 4 of them.

So I hit xda, grabbed slim OS 4.4.4 and lineage 7.1, both run fine. Gave my
extras to my kids, runs youtube at 720 fine, browse fine. Only had to buy 2
batteries for 12 bux each.

We had an old Ipad gen 1 that because totally useless with apples market.
Doesn't appear Apple handles older versions like the Google market, showing
files that are supported by your version. Kinda sad.

~~~
coldtea
Not sure what you mean.

iPads command better resale prices.

iPads are usually faster than the competition (CPU/GPU wise for the money for
equivalent high end models)

iPads usually get more OS updates than Android tablets get (tons of which are
left with the same OS that they came out with).

~~~
izacus
iPads also lose app support significantly faster if you don't upgrade to
slower newer version of iOS - app developers drop support significantly faster
than they do on Android.

------
fmsf
For the more tech savy this is where an open source operative system would
make the difference (iAndroid). Though Apple should provide some sort of
alternative for the less tech savy. One thing is saying that we don't support
your browser because it sucks and you have alternatives, the other thing is
saying "the 500£ you spent 5 years ago are gone, we don't care the hardware is
in good state just buy a new one"

------
rwallace
The author mentioned repurposing old computers for non-frontline work. Can't
you do that with old tablets? Load a bunch of PDFs, pictures or whatever into
internal storage, take the tablet offline, use it like a bookshelf in the form
factor of a single book?

~~~
terminalcommand
That's basically what I'm doing. But even for pdf browsing it feels sluggish.

I mainly use my ipad as a third screen, placed on a dock to read through pdf
books/documents. It feels more natural to read on it compared to the computer
screens.

Old ipads can definitely be repurposed as book readers, mp3 players (without
spotify) or movie players (with older movie formats)

Maybe I should do a clean install.

------
ChuckMcM
I have an "iPad with Retina display" in the same boat. It is my media player.
I use it to play locally hosted songs. It makes me wonder if I can configure
XCode to target it any more (its on IOS8 or 9, which ever was last for that
version).

------
theseanz
While I was reading the article, this appeared in my inbox:
[https://i.imgur.com/FbaML9A.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/FbaML9A.jpg)

Retargeting? I did sell them an iPad mini a few months ago.

~~~
ggg9990
They probably saw that a New York Times article mentioned them and emailed
their customer base to catch anyone who was reminded by the article.

------
neolefty
Will an iPad from today last longer or less long? If the hardware is
stabilizing, maybe they'll have more longevity (due to easier iOS
compatibility)?

~~~
larkost
The hardware is not really stabilizing, if anything the rate of change in CPU
and GPU has been accelerating. Those two things are probably the largest
contributers to the treadmill of obsolescence.

Apple has tried to keep the connectors standard, but Lightning will eventually
go away. But since they have not moved to USB-C yet (on the iPad side), there
is a chance that they will skip that and we will have Lightning until the next
major change (probably to USB).

------
mixmastamyk
Our iPad2 is now useless, mostly because the old models were severely memory
constrained. If the mic still worked we could use it for calls however.

~~~
notanote
What I did for my iPad2 was to disable js on safari, which makes a big part of
the web fast and usable again, in combination with reader mode. I had Brave
istalled for using websites more interactively, and for sites like youtube. It
has adblocking without any hardware requirements. If Brave still supports ios
9, you could try that. It will still lag, and certain apps were simply
unusable for me (protonmail), but I increased its useful lifespan this way.

~~~
netsharc
Some services (like Opera Mini) basically rendered web pages server-side
(including Javascript), and served them to low-end phones. I wonder if one can
just make the iPad a dumb display/input device, using a PC on the local
network to handle all the logic...

------
personjerry
TL;DR comments in this thread: People use their own anecdotes as proof that 1)
PCs don’t suffer the same decline, 2) Macs don’t actually decline that badly

YMMV

------
hzhou321
What did the author learned?

------
gargravarr
I kind of understand the author's point, but at the same time, there comes a
time when any kind of technology becomes obsolete. I still use my 2012 Nexus 7
- awesome tablet when it was released, and it was an entry-level model even
then, so to have eeked 6 years of life out of it is pretty impressive. I know
the OS is no longer maintained and it's stuck on Android 5.0; this is the
price you pay for embedded systems. You own the hardware, but have zero claim
over the software that runs on it. I still have up-to-date Firefox, for the
time being, but I know at some point I'll lose that and more, and my device
will be unsafe to connect to the internet.

In much the same way you wouldn't try to play 4k video on a computer made in
1995, at some point the device's processing power maxes out. It's difficult to
strike the balance between power, battery life and cost; Apple like to play
the Rolls-Royce card of 'it's enough for you' in this regard, giving you a bit
of room to expand in the future, but it's in no company's benefit to make your
device last forever. With a device that cannot be upgraded, the best approach
for them is to sell you another one.

I think the field of computing is particularly skewed by Linux, how most
hacker-types will dig through their box of parts every so often, slap together
enough components to build an old-generation system and install Ubuntu on it
and voila, a second (third, fourth, tenth) lease on life for an old machine.
And that's mostly true; Linux doesn't much care what it's running on, the OS
can be adapted to run on anything. But at the same time, the _applications_
running thereon will quickly prove why the hardware is previous-generation;
sure, you might get the latest Ubuntu running, but what then? Add Chrome and a
few tabs and it's going to start to creak; a few things running in the
background and eventually you'll give up. Embedded devices are much the same;
at some point, you will reach the limits of the hardware through no fault of
your own. It's questionable how much by-design this is, with Apple admitting
they silently force the CPU clock down as the battery ages, but even with
fresh batteries, application developers will be taking advantage of newer
hardware features that don't work efficiently or at all in previous models.
Some of it may be progress for progress' sake, but try running a machine with
full-disk encryption on a Core 2 Duo, without the AES engine - the new
hardware makes a lot of difference.

It is a shame that the device doesn't visually age and when powered off has no
indication of its age, but such is the way of the industry; it isn't Apple's
way to make devices that last longer than their release cycle, and few
companies have ever made much profit that way.

~~~
Mediterraneo10
> Some of it may be progress for progress' sake, but try running a machine
> with full-disk encryption on a Core 2 Duo, without the AES engine - the new
> hardware makes a lot of difference.

I have been running full-disk encryption on my Linux boxes since 2003, and the
performance hit has never been significant. With an old computer, the most
important thing to do with your hard disk is replacing an old hard disk with
an SSD. That alone will significantly boost performance, and compared to that,
encryption isn’t a significant factor.

~~~
peatmoss
Don't some new drives support encryption in hardware? Presumably that would
offset any performance issues associated with disk encryption as well.

------
killjoywashere
Maybe it's the battery?

------
petraeus
its called planned obsolescence

------
digi_owl
And in the end he didn't learn a thing.

~~~
CaptSpify
I dunno. He seemed to catch onto the fact that Apple's business model likes to
screw over their users via planned obsolescence. That is more than most people
learn.

~~~
panglott
Why pick on Apple here? Are there any Android tablets from 2010-2012 that
still see regular use, get software updates, and new/updated apps? Is anyone
still using their Blackberry PlayBooks from late 2010? It looks like the
Galaxy Tab 2 from 2012 can only be upgraded to Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean,
roughly as current as iOS 5.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_Tab_2_10.1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_Tab_2_10.1)

~~~
izacus
Why NOT pick on Apple here?! There the most successful tablet manufacturer
pretty much leading the direction of industry. Why are you so interested in
deflecting their blame? Why do you think it's ok if others do it to?

~~~
panglott
I think it's clarifying to look at tablet manufacturers as a whole. The
reflexive complaint of Apple is that their system is too locked-down and
limited by their approach to software. However, at the same time, there were
Android tablets being made in the same era, and it appears that they also
suffer from some similar problems (being only limited to Jelly Bean). If so,
perhaps the commonest complaints about Apple's approach to software is off the
mark in this case.

All hardware products will suffer tradeoffs, and I don't necessarily find it
reasonable to think that tablet computers should always be hardware-
upgradeable, if it is at the expense of handle-ablity. The author's lament is
that the iPad went obsolete before it broke. The PlayBook went obsolete nearly
as soon as it was released. How did those Galaxy Tab 2s do? If the problem is
that "it went obsolete before it broke", that's infinitely better than "it
broke before it went obsolete".

~~~
CaptSpify
The problem is that it went obsolete artificially in a horribly short
timespan, with no alternative way of keeping it going. If Apple didn't lock
down their systems, we could keep it going quite easily. I have plenty of
Android phones that, while they don't get updates from the manufacturer
directly, still get patches by running LineageOS or one of the other variants.

I'm not saying Android is great here, I think it's a terrible system, but it's
not nearly as artificially hampered as Apple's stuff is.

------
45h34jh53k4j
I think something that is missing from this is that it is no longer safe in
this time to use old software. It is an existential threat to your own
information, which is increasingly linked to your personal device like a phone
or tablet. You will be hacked by a drive by exploit, or a mutant ad network.
Its no longer about risky behavior, simply existing today online with old
software can put you at grave risk.

How long should apple support these devices? 5 years seems reasonable, and
very few vendors of hardware offer anything like this.

I agree it sucks, and there is no reason a 5 year old ipad needs to be dead --
but in context this is fine. If you had a 5 year old car that allowed random
drivers to stab you in the face remotely, people would replace their cars and
not complain that this was a problem.

~~~
tomc1985
It is no longer safe to use old _browsers_. Old software works as well as it
ever did, subject to your OS being able to run it. There is a world of offline
desktop software that surpasses the cloud in features and functionality.

~~~
45h34jh53k4j
Cool, please let me know how i can update safari on my ios8 (ipad mini).

You can't -- and in this age the OS and the applications are an
indistinguishable blob.

~~~
tomc1985
Only on mobile. Apple and MS are trying damn hard to make that so on PC but
they will never win that war.

You should really be blaming the rapid pace of updates that we have all come
to expect.

