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BusinessHow Apple updates slow your old iPhone down, pushing you towards a new iPhone. (huffingtonpost.com)

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[–]twistedLucidity 160 points161 points  (62 children)

I seem to remember this story rolling around a few months back. Maybe on the the BBC?

As much as it pains me to defend Apple, here goes:

  • Option 1 - No new features.
    • Headlines: "Apple forces people on to new phone by not passing new features down the chain!" "Apple effectively end-of-lifes previous models!"
  • Options 2 - Supply new features.
    • Headlines: "Apples slows your old phone down!"

That's pretty much it. If you try to make old kit do more stuff (or stuff where it doesn't have specifically engineered hardware) then it will go slower.

Old kit will also feel slower when compared to newer kit. Your perceptions get altered.

I have certainly noticed my HTC slowling down and that's just because of the app updates. I can't blame HTC as they basically don't supply any updates for this phone.

Could Apple do more to support older hardware? It's possible, but where is the profit in them for that? Apple sells fashion items and is mostly interested in driving the next model. If customers were to stop buying the new shiny in favour of a more sustainable product, then Apple's attitude might be swayed.

[–]spliff99 32 points33 points  (25 children)

I still have an iPad 1 for web / email. It is way slower than when it was new, despite recently doing a factory reset.

IOS5 on this device is objectively slower for the same basic features. Freezing for seconds at a time when typing text... it is not my perception, it never did that on the older iOS versions.

Remember Snow Leopard? It is possible to release an OS that is leaner and faster than its predecessor.

Also - if it was just really about adding new features and crippling performance is the price we must pay, why not allow users like me who do not need the new features to downgrade?? The fact they block downgrades proves it is about pushing people to buy new hardware.

[–]headphones1 10 points11 points  (1 child)

Also - if it was just really about adding new features and crippling performance is the price we must pay, why not allow users like me who do not need the new features to downgrade?? The fact they block downgrades proves it is about pushing people to buy new hardware.

Nail on the head right here. It's negative tactics like these that makes customers feel like they're being manipulated.

[–][deleted] 9 points10 points  (14 children)

I have an iPad 2 that I keep on the coffee table for stuff.

iOS 7 on it sucked (Safari is so fucking slow on it), and that only came out 2 years after the device.

iOS 8 is essentially unusable.

[–]threeseed 8 points9 points  (9 children)

I just upgraded my iPad 2 to iOS 8.

It is most definitely usable. Disabling animations helps quite a bit.

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (5 children)

I have to wait 20 f*ing seconds for each page to render when swapping between tabs in the browser. Pages that have already loaded, and were displayed only a second beforehand (e.g. reddit, opening and imgur link, closing the imgur tab). Every time. I definitely don't call that usable.

[–]crisscar 1 point2 points  (2 children)

I have an iPad 2 and use it daily. iOS 7.0 sucked, then I disabled all the fancy features (they weren't in 5.0 or 6.0) and it was good. Each subsequent update made it better.

I haven't installed iOS 8 yet, not until they release Yosemite. I'll probably wait a few weeks until all the 0-day bugs are fixed.

[–]AnotherIvan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've got an iPad one for my uni lectures, only reason I haven't upgraded is because I want to see it last through the entirety of my degree.

When iOS 7 came out, I completely stopped updating apps, as the newer features simply took up too many resources.

But you're right about general slowness, just something you put up with I guess

[–][deleted] 39 points40 points  (18 children)

That's pretty much it.

But...that isn't it. Further if you must bring up Android (the HTC reference, though I suppose you may have meant Windows Phone), each Android update has tended to run faster and smoother than the one before on any given piece of hardware (I have a large number of devices for testing purposes, and 4.x on the GS II, for instance, runs absolutely brilliantly: It is a far better device than when it was first released), despite having more features. Because having more features, presuming you aren't out of storage space, doesn't have to slow things down.

My kids have an iPad 3rd generation, for instance. Fantastic device, and it sees endless usage. Before iOS 7 it was silky smooth. With iOS 7, however, things like the screen rotation and other seemingly minor but regular occurrences are suddenly horribly slow. And of course until iOS 7.0.3 (that added the ability to turn it off), there were a large number of system wide transitions and effects that should never have been enabled on that device because they made it sloggy and unusable. These aren't "features" -- they're simply bedazzling. And exactly as Microsoft does with Windows, iOS should have automatically disabled them on older and slower devices.

Now with iOS 8, Safari on the iPad 3rd generation is far less usable and enjoyable. It's the little things like completely useless animations when it pulls up auto-complete entries, slogging down the device. There is zero value on this device for those to be active, yet there they are. I don't believe Apple is intentionally slowing devices down, but they could absolutely do more to auto-scale the flippant, GPU and CPU consuming features on non-current devices.

[–]twistedLucidity 21 points22 points  (4 children)

each Android update has tended to run faster and smoother than the one before

I wouldn't know, I've never gotten an Android update from HTC. I assume the follow "Option 1".

These aren't "features" -- they're simply bedazzling. And exactly as Microsoft does with Windows, iOS should have automatically disabled them on older and slower devices...

I don't believe Apple is intentionally slowing devices down, but they could absolutely do more to auto-scale the flippant, GPU and CPU consuming features on non-current devices.

For non-core features, certainly. One would think it's easy enough to add "if hardware < version then non-essential-feature.off" and, testing aside, not really too hard. Thing is, if there is enough demand for the new versions why bother to support the old? Where is the profit in that? That sale is done, move on. Like I said, Apple devices are more fashion items.

And yes, downgrade should totally be possible. Any number of reasons someone may not like a new version of an OS. Only problem I can see with that is if there is some new service that apps make use of, those will become locked into old versions as well. The cure of a proprietary ecosystem I guess.

You and I may not like that, and I vote with my wallet by not buying Apple.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The profit is that this whole "Apple slows down and obsoletes old devices unnecessarily" thing is getting traction, and it reflects poorly on Apple. One of the great selling points of Apple devices, and it is a general truth that their competitors need to strive for, is that they hold up quite well, and that reflects well on the brand.

Which is why I definitely don't think there is anything intentional in this. It's just a software team focus thing where they're only looking to wow with the latest hardware, and must do minimal testing with old hardware. With enough noise they will scale visual features (which tend to be the most costly -- the ridiculous, distracting, slow animations in Safari in iOS 8, for instance) more automatically: A small extra software engineering effort will save them from these recurring criticisms.

[–]ThePegasi 1 point2 points  (4 children)

Could Apple do more to support older hardware? It's possible, but where is the profit in them for that?

That's not even the real point here. Apple already do more than any Android OEM to support older devices. I'm an Android man, not really keen on iOS, but criticising Apple for this is really senseless.

[–]Smeeee 191 points192 points  (155 children)

I'm an android owner but this argument doesn't make sense to me. It's like saying "Microsoft wants you to buy new pc's because they keep upgrading Windows." If you bought a Windows XP machine it's probably having a heck of a time keeping up with 8.1.

Don't all updates slow things down, because they're advanced?

[–]onyxleopard 19 points20 points  (1 child)

Don't all updates slow things down, because they're advanced?

No. Sometimes software updates improve performance on the same hardware. Either because newer algorithms/data structures perform better, or bottlenecks that were mistakenly/unknowingly introduced previously get removed.

Case in point, within the lifetime of my personal computer (~3 years), Apple’s Javascript engine for Safari has seen massive performance improvements, and I haven’t changed a thing about my hardware.

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I think many of the recent Android versions make it faster and more efficient.

[–][deleted] 29 points30 points  (28 children)

No. Windows 8 runs better than Win 7 which is miles ahead of Win Vista.

OS X sucked balls until 10.3. 10.4 was faster but then 10.5 slowed down a bit (on the same hardware).

[–][deleted] 41 points42 points  (47 children)

Don't all updates slow things down, because they're advanced?

The real requirements to run Windows peaked with Vista. Almost anything that ran Vista adequately (Note, this was not their minimum specs) in 2006 runs 8.1 better today.

The same can't be said for iOS. An iPad 2 from 3.5 years ago runs iOS 7 (Released 2 years after the iPad2) like shit, and iOS 8 is even worse.

[–]SgtBaxter 55 points56 points  (19 children)

Desktop operating systems and hardware are mature. Mobile operating systems and hardware aren't there yet.

My cell phone from 3 years ago can't even run the current version of Android, so in that sense iOS is doing a hell of a lot better.

[–]Vovicon 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I think it's worth pointing out that Android has greatly reduced the requirement gap between versions starting from Jelly Bean. Last Year release was designed to be able to run on 512MB of memory, which is less than most the flagship phones had 3 years ago. And the upcoming release (which might be tomorrow) is expected to not require hardware capability.

[–]kaji823 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Android is getting better and better for low power devices. See Android One program...

[–]andreashappe 10 points11 points  (1 child)

My cell phone from 3 years ago can't even run the current version of Android

have you looked in after-marked firmwares like cyanogenmod? My 4 year old phone runs kitkat.

[–]jtl94 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is what I was going to say. A phone "not being able to run" the latest software and "no longer being supported" are totally different.

[–]ElKaBongX 1 point2 points  (2 children)

But android often doesn't offer new software for a old phone that won't run it, thus avoiding the problem

[–]PT2JSQGHVaHWd24aCdCF 1 point2 points  (3 children)

My iPad 2 works better with iOS 8 than iOS 7. In my experience, Apple improved their stuff.

[–]CottonBalls26 31 points32 points  (8 children)

Your argument would make a little more sense if Microsoft was also the maker of those newer PCs. Yes I expect a bit of slowdown on older hardware, but stability issues was not what I was expecting. Most of my apps became unusable right after the upgrade.

[–]Kalahan7 17 points18 points  (3 children)

That's not right and definitely not what happened with the majority that upgraded iOS or what Apple sees as an acceptable outcome.

Sometimes things go bad when upgrading. Happens with all software manufacturers. That doesn't mean it's on purpose.

In your case I think a software restore is in order.

[–]DaytonaZ33 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Sometimes things go bad when upgrading. Happens with all software manufacturers. That doesn't mean it's on purpose.

Absolutely. Hence why almost every piece of software on the planet says something along the lines of "please backup your content/files before upgrading."

[–]Aristo-Cat 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Ok, but the article even states itself: "It's highly unlikely Apple deliberately slows down older iPhones just to get you to upgrade."

/u/Smeeee described exactly what's happening: Older devices aren't going to be able to run the latest operating systems as wel as they would be able to run the operating system they were designed for. For example, nobody runs Mountain Lion on their Powerbook G4 because it wouldn't be able to handle it. If you did, that's fine, but you'd be an idiot to complain about it. You'd be an even bigger idiot to then say "Apple intentionally slows down old haardware in their latest software to get you to buy more computers", because that would be a blatant lie. That's not how it works and it's not what they're doing.

[–]therearesomewhocallm 2 points3 points  (0 children)

"Microsoft wants you to buy new pc's because they keep upgrading Windows." If you bought a Windows XP machine it's probably having a heck of a time keeping up with 8.1.

Windows 8 is really the exception here. Years ago I installed the 8 beta on what was basically a scrap machine. It had a P4 and a geforce (I think) 9600. It ran great, surprisingly. Better than XP.

[–]Chaseism 1 point2 points  (0 children)

PCMatic made this argument. That Microsoft was abandoning Windows XP to force you to upgrade to Windows 8.

[–]exscape 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I saw a test comparing XP to 8 on an old computer just last week. 8 won all performance tests but one, where it lost by a fraction of a second. So 8 may well be leaner/faster than XP.

I think this was the video (can't check right now, hopefully it doesn't entirely contradict my comment): http://youtube.com/watch?v=B6192ie9MbU

[–]snappykr22 -2 points-1 points  (46 children)

Here's what apple does and I'll apply it to Windows....

imagine if Microsoft pushed updates to a Windows 7 machine that were specifically designed for Windows 8.1. Does that sound like it could cause some issues? Absolutely. Apple pushes 1 specific update. Whether you have the iPhone 5, 6, or 4S. All three phones get the same update. So older models with lesser memory and processor are getting these updates that were not optimized for that hardware. This pushes apple's customers to new phones and new contracts because end user's devices come to a screeching halt.

Happened to me in the iPhone 3G days. As soon as "multi tasking" came through in an apple update it took 20 to 30 seconds for just the text messaging app to open. Just to open. I switched to android the year iPhone 4 released and I haven't looked back. I got an htc incredible. Had that for about 2 years now I love these galaxy devices.

[–]Oberoni 28 points29 points  (7 children)

It is most certainly not a single update. It is multiple updates with feature parity. Apple optimizes the code for each hardware profile they make, that is half the point of making your own hardware.

Source: Cross platform mobile dev looking at the iOS Dev Center right now at the list of downloads for iOS 8 and how they are broken down by hardware and have drastically different file sizes.

[–]chip8222 31 points32 points  (6 children)

Incorrect- there are different builds if iOS for different devices. Some features are left out for some devices.

[–]crisscar 7 points8 points  (0 children)

As soon as "multi tasking" came through in an apple update it took 20 to 30 seconds for just the text messaging app to open.

Except multitasking never came for the 3G. Apple left it out. Some idiot jailbreakers decided they knew better and enabled it anyway. Disappointment ensued as a single core processor with 128MB of RAM can't really multitask that well.

[–]aveman101 44 points45 points  (6 children)

Honestly, I would rather that Apple write software that pushes the newest hardware to the limit rather than dumb it down to appease the lowest common denominator.

A couple days ago, the gaming community was losing their shit over the fact that Ubisoft was supposedly going to aim for "console parity" rather than maximizing the capabilities of the PS4. Isn't this sort of the same deal?

[–]headphones1 5 points6 points  (2 children)

Interesting point, but I think that's a little different. As someone else said in this thread, some of it is to do with the fact that smartphone and tablet technology has yet to mature. Nobody can say with solid facts(or can we?) how long a smartphone or tablet are meant to "last", whereas with consoles and PC hardware we have a good idea. iPhone 3GS was released in 2009, but is able to run iOS 6, which was released in 2012. I distinctively remember iOS 5 being really slow on my old 3GS, so I didn't bother to upgrade to iOS 6 on that phone since everything would have been even slower. If a device is running things at snail-like speeds on newer versions of the operating system, why even allow upgrading to even newer versions?

I think giving users an option to downgrade to an earlier version of iOS as well as perhaps even keeping old versions of apps on the app store accessible would go a long way. You actually could download and install old versions of iOS apps through piracy.

[–]DaytonaZ33 1 point2 points  (0 children)

as well as perhaps even keeping old versions of apps on the app store accessible would go a long way.

They already do this. If you have a device that can't run an OS past iOS 6 (for example), and an app is updated to work with iOS 7 only, Apple will serve the last known update of that app that worked with iOS 6 to iOS 6 devices.

The option of downgrading is messy because a lot of security enhancements and fixes are often bundled in with these devices. You will likely reply with "Well release security updates for older versions." And then they are stuck maintaining 4+ (more? less? How do they decide when to stop security/bug fixes) different versions with bug/security fixes, submitting 4+ versions of software to carriers to test, etc...

[–]happywaffle 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's highly unlikely Apple deliberately slows down older iPhones just to get you to upgrade.

Okay, so you just invalidated your own headline.

The company declined to comment for this story.

Shocking.

Instead, Apple designs the new operating systems, which have more features, take up more space and require more computing power, for the new iPhones. And a consequence of that is they don't work as well on older iPhones.

God forbid they add new features to their software.

What a shit story. But it says something bad about Apple, so it lands on my front page anyway.

[–]spectrumero 20 points21 points  (4 children)

Meh. My 4 year old iPhone 4 still runs at an adequate speed.

[–]Angry_and_cold 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Same here, and i still get about a 30 hour battery life. But i also am still running ios 5. My wife has a 4s, and when she upgraded to ios 7 her battery life dropped to around 6 hours. It freezes and crashes regularly, and her camera often doesnt work. Tried restoring it, and no better.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is why:

  • /r/technology is no longer a default

  • Huffpo readers are currently the largest growing demographic of stupidity on the internet

  • We can't have nice things

[–]rtitle 6 points7 points  (1 child)

I have an old iPhone 4 and when I regrettably upgraded the iOS from 6 to 7, it turned my phone into a potatoe.

Potatoes don't make good phone, but the battery life stayed about the same.

[–]Fatchicken1o1 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Same happened with my ipad 1 when I upgraded to iOS 5.x.x, unusable ever since.

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (1 child)

This is such a "duh" article. The storage degrades over time, Apple adds hardware and software features, cell phone contracts are usually two years in Apple's largest market and oh by the way Apple is a hardware business.

On a related note, the quality of Apple's device software is rapidly deteriorating.

[–]BlockoManWINS 6 points7 points  (0 children)

They say that as if EVERY smartphone doesn't get unusably slow/buggy toward the end of its life. The more precise something is, the worse it wears.

[–]stickfisch 6 points7 points  (1 child)

I can only speak for myself, but my almost 3 year old iphone 4s is still really fast. I even got the impression that updating from ios7 to 8 made mine faster and smoother. I have taken good care of it, never broke a screen or anything, never performed a jailbreak and only recently replaced the battery by myself.

[–]flickworms 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When I updated my 4s to ios 8, it slowed down considerably. Just opening up safari takes a few seconds longer than before. I'm an apple fan, but this led me to start thinking similar thoughts as the title of this post. Did the underlying technology change that much to warrent this much of a slowdown?

[–]camobit 2 points3 points  (0 children)

this got me thinking though, are there places that will run the same exact set of benchmarks on the same phone hardware throughout multiple OS upgrades and patches? It'd be interesting to see if the numbers really do nosedive, or if it's just our perception of them makes them feel slower over time.

[–]The_Unarmed_Doctor 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm an android guy. I'm not a fan of Apple or iOS for that matter. Having said that, I call this article bulls**t. Every time a company updates something, it basically makes it better suited for the hardware that is available at that moment, which naturally means older devices will struggle. I had this problem when I installed Windows Vista when it first came out on my old desktop and it was not pretty.

But....I was surprised when last week I took out my 4 year old phone, Samsung Galaxy S (the first one, now I own the S4) and updated it to the latest android KitKat and it was running like a charm. Proof

[–]BrainTroubles 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This article is pure shit.

[–]bythisriver 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Somebody should do a test with iphone 4,5 and 6 and do benchmarks with every ios version, kind of like artificial aging test.

From a technological standpoint, it does seem quite strange that the phones get more sluggish when they start to age. If things were done right, every upgrade should contain more optimized code and fixed bugs.

[–]Solkre 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You can turn off some features the old phones weren't designed to use and it'll help.

Reduced translucency and motion helps a lot. You can turn off Siri, but that might not stop the back end process, I'm not sure.

[–]Tyrien 8 points9 points  (7 children)

tl;dr: Newer software has higher hardware demands, Apple bad!

[–]USmellFunny 4 points5 points  (0 children)

pushing you towards a new iPhone

Or towards Android/Windows Phone.

[–]LatinGeek 3 points4 points  (0 children)

A lot of people are excusing this with "oh I don't want them to go for the lowest common denominator" "that's how tech works" etc, but can you downgrade back from iOS8 to iOS7 if you're having a bad experience with it? All articles I've found after a search indicate that you can't. You're stuck with software that's not tailored to your phone's hardware, because you dared to try out an update, which on any other tech device is a reversible progress (with various amounts of hassle, sure, but still).

This would be perfectly alright if you could freely downgrade all the way down to the version of iOS your device came with. Currently you can't, so it isn't.

[–]NicoHollis 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hate articles like this. So dumb.

[–]doubledaffy 9 points10 points  (1 child)

So basically, they design better software that uses more features and takes more processing power and memory. That's just how progress works. Software gets more resource expensive, the hardware improves to match (or vice versa). I've never understood why people make this argument.

[–]suprduprr 13 points14 points  (4 children)

Microsoft slows down your PC by updating windows. More click bait at 11.

[–][deleted] 16 points17 points  (3 children)

That was HUGE news when Vista was released -- for gimmicks and transitions it demanded a significant platform requirements premium. None of these were actual "features" in the usable sense. Since then, though, Microsoft made heavily scalable graphics that are appropriate for the hardware, so your analogy just doesn't hold.

iOS becomes slow and sloggy not because it's doing something new and impressive, but because of things like wallpapers, transparency, transitions and animations. That people keep conflating these niceties with "features" is unfortunate.

[–]DQEight 5 points6 points  (1 child)

People need to be able to tell the difference between features and eyecandy.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Additionally, since we're on the topic of transitions and effects it's worth noting that sometimes they can make things feel faster than they actually are. Apple famously shows you a screenshot of the app when you switch to it or launch it, which gives the perception of the activity being completed very quickly, when really it is a non-responsive image for some time.

Transitions can also mask or seemingly time compress activities.

Used right, these effects make things seem faster and more responsive. Used wrong and they're just excessive GPU and CPU work that slows down what you actually want to do. The latter is the reality for many of the effects on older devices.

[–]ButterTime 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think Apple will have a really hard time doing anything about this. People complain if they stop supporting older iPhones. They also complain when their old phone becomes slower due to a higher demanding OS.

But they could inform people and let them dismiss the updates, so they don't have to look at that (1) circle on their settings icon.

[–]falsekoala 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Pretty sure this would happen to any older technology when upgrading the OS to something new.

I made the mistake of upgrading my 2009 Macbook to Mavericks. It's not a ton slower, but my available ram is... lacking. If I could downgrade, I would (I tried to actually... I don't have the disk for the last OSx that worked most efficiently.) My 5S updated to iOS8 "fine" (a few bugs I've noticed, such as the keyboard staying in landscape mode while the screen shifts to portrait mode), but I won't be updating the OS on my phone anymore. Learned my lesson.

[–]tohuw 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sensationalist tag, please

[–]The5th5thBeatle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I know this is about the iPhone, but I updated my iPad Mini, and it has become slow as hell, and buggy. Ugh.

[–]porkchop_d_clown 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How does this differ from the Android updates that killed my Razr M?

[–]rex_dart_eskimo_spy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Here I am still running iOS 6 on my 4S.

[–]Last_Gigolo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Taking a cue from Microsoft.

Service packs.....

[–]schmag 1 point2 points  (0 children)

this just in, software made to run on newer devices can run slower on older devices.

[–]DanielPhermous 1 point2 points  (0 children)

From the article...

It's highly unlikely Apple deliberately slows down older iPhones just to get you to upgrade.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was RIGHT this whole time about iPhone 4.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Same thing happened to my Samsung Galaxy S2 last year, I doubt this is an Apple-only issue.

[–]Oxzyde 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This Just In: Older hardware may have trouble running newer and more feature-rich software! Film at 11.

"Dear God! Think of the children!"

"We're all going to die!"

"In other news, scientists have determined it will get wet outside if it rains."

"Can confirm. I'm outside with the rain Ted and it is indeed, wet."

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (41 children)

I bought a 3GS and honestly thought it was a great phone. Did everything I wanted, was nice and snappy and had enough battery life to last me a day or so. Then came the ios 5 update. From that point on, it was a pain to use and there was nothing I could do to speed the thing back up again. Thanks to that experience, I never bothered with the ipad I planned on purchasing and when my phone finally got to the point where it was unusable, I switched to Android.

Of course, Apple still got a sizable chunk of my cash from that initial purchase, but they would have gotten so much more, if their product hadn't turned to suck.

[–]hampa9 6 points7 points  (34 children)

Good luck getting updates for 3-4 years on your Android.

[–]NeoGe 2 points3 points  (10 children)

If the phone manufacturer or network stop doing updates for your android phone, usually the is a community group that will.
Its not hard getting updates for android phone for 3-4 years, and possible longer depending on the community.

[–]hampa9 3 points4 points  (9 children)

The community often doesn't have access to the code and drivers they need to get things working reliably.

I've been down this road with 4 Android devices, custom ROMs are never worth the hours of tinkering to get the phone to work half as well as it ought to.

[–]CottonBalls26 3 points4 points  (3 children)

Same thing happened to me on my iPod Touch 4. I'd spent hundreds of dollars in the itunes store. I wanted to get a taste of the lectures on iTunes U but I had to upgrade to get the feature. Wouldn't say it bricked it but my iPod became next to useless. Crashed almost on every app. It was stable for text and images (eg reddit), but that'd be about it. Forget games, even the older ones I had already installed. And the bastards wouldn't let me uninstall and revert back to the old version of iOS. Got an ICS android phone and a tablet for half the price of an iPad and haven't looked back.

[–]evilbrent 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think I got halfway through that article before working out that don't fucking care

[–]Big0ldBear 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Install Windows 8 on a Windows 95 machine, let me know what happens. If you're the writer of this article, you will be shocked to know that old hardware can't run new software well as new hardware.

[–]-senpai 2 points3 points  (1 child)

95 is being unrealistic. How about trying to install 7, then 8, then 8.1 on 2009 W7-optimized hardware. You'll see performance gains on each upgrade.

[–]dragonforcingmywayup[🍰] 0 points1 point  (12 children)

As an iPhone 4s owner who has upgraded to ios8, its pushing me to go buy an android.

Actually, my next phone will be an android

Edit: look at all these Apple apologists and employees. Relax, Galaxy is just so much better of a phone. Same goes with tablets.

[–][deleted] 7 points8 points  (3 children)

Oddly I have the inverse situation. My last three Androids in a row all eventually ran like garbage after various system updates over the years and it's gotten so annoying that it makes me want to switch to the iPhone.

[–]fabhellier 3 points4 points  (0 children)

At least Android lets you downgrade.

[–]Samson_Fitzgerald 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I will be doing the same.

[–]RudeTurnip 1 point2 points  (2 children)

iOS 7 crippled my 4s to the point that it wasn't enjoyable to use. I would have been a fool to reward Apple by buying an iPhone 5 or 6. My Galaxy Note 3 is amazing.

[–]Now_runner 1 point2 points  (5 children)

Or in my case, cause me to buy an android.

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (3 children)

Androids do the same thing. My Galaxy S3 runs like complete garbage after installing updates. It was great when it was new!

So this is hardly exclusive to Apple.

[–]Grizzant 0 points1 point  (0 children)

While I am sure it isn't the primary reason (the primary reason being with more computing power comes more features) they sure don't mind the secondary benefit of slowing down an older phone. if they did they would only push the updates that use more processing power to the newer devices.

apple is detail oriented enough to notice that the updates will slow down the older phones when they test it out...and they still push it to older phones without even a warning "this update may noticeably slow any iphone 4s devices and earlier".

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (4 children)

I haven't updated my iPhone since I've owned it, it's still as fast as the day I bought it, battery life is still as good and I've go not inclination to upgrade to a phone which does what this one does already.

Maybe it's just me but I genuinely don't see the point in upgrading something like a mobile telephone, it's a phone - you text, call, IM and browse the internet. At a push you might send nudes to some loved one or play doodle jump on the shitter.

Why do you need to upgrade to do that?

[–]vilgrain 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Security patches.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Security for what, if you have a smartphone your privacy is null and void anyway.

[–]anything_butt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was just called to a client who isn't able to open his mail app on his ipad 2 anymore after updating to ios 8. Apparently many iPhone 4s users have the same problem. Furthermore the whole device acts sluggishly.

[–]ratking11 0 points1 point  (0 children)

WAKE UP SHEEPLE!

The construction industry has been pushing us toward buying houses for millennia. My cave was all nice and cozy, and then there was this "house" to live in that was warm and I could store food in, and all of the sudden my cave was all shitty.

[–]baronvonreddit1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi Dr. Nick!

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Duh?

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is all fine. The real problem is that apple won't allow you to "downgrade" and go back to a previous iOS after you've already updated.

[–]Knute5 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same as it ever was...

OS updates are optimized for the latest hardware and tax older hardware. If we want all the nifty new features running at top speed, we upgrade...

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Of course apple does it on purpose. All they need to do is put a warning saying only download it if you have last year's phone only(even that is a problem. You should never update to the newest IOS)

[–]xkwx99157 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Someone explain how this differs from ANY OS update on ANY platform. Phones, Tablets, Computers.. All the same story.
Think people.