It worked great 6 years ago, and it still works now. I'm not persuaded by the "updates" Apple keep trying to tell me to run; I think I'll lose more features and stability and battery life and USB sync, and not gain anything of any practical purpose to me.

If Android had USB sync, I'd consider converting. But swapping one cloud ecosystem for another just doesn't work for me, I want to keep my data offline.

E.g. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/07/broad...

Today I tried using an an old iPad 2 that was upgraded to iOS 7. It was literally unusable.

Uuuh,it does last time I checked. You can even create backups with debug enabled. Nobody uses it though because plugging the phone to the PC is annoying.

You are also not required to use the Google drive services for file syncing. Setting up an owncloud server gives you pretty much the same benefits and interactions that gdrive provides

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.icecoldapp...

I never think about it. If it's on my phone, it's on my PC.

It has, but last time I tried it (on Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.x), it was completely unusable. Transfers freezed and crashed all the time. I was unable to upload a single music album even after few tries.

I've never seen a phone where it isn't obviously somewhat impaired after 2 years, so what is it like on something that's 3 to 6 years old? Or do you get it replaced often?

I use a Third Rail case, so I can recharge easily. I don't use 3G, and all my apps work offline.

https://www.amazon.com/Third-Rail-Protective-Compatible-Rech...

One of the reasons I still like my phone is because of that case. I wish there was something similar for another phone. The external batteries also have microUSB in and out, so I can charge friends' phones too.

But replacing, not getting it replaced. At least on my 5 it is a few screws worth of work to swap.

For example in IOS 10 to enable night mode was -> "Swipe up, tap" done. In iOS 11 it now requires 2 swipes, a long press then a tap. Also minimizes the app in focus requiring another tap to get back to it. Why?

I'm currently on iOS 11 and the flow is still the same for me as before: "Swipe up, tap" done

I'm not seeing this "2 swipes, a long press then a tap"?

Actually had to look up how to do it which lead me to http://osxdaily.com/2017/10/01/access-night-shift-control-ce...

Over the last six weeks it’s felt like 2008 again - “no, I don’t know why they did that. Yes, it’s different. No, no reason”.

I’m not averse to change, but they’ve shifted bits of UI that habitual users relied upon, and done things are really inobvious to a neophyte - try getting your non-tech relative to save a pdf from safari on iOS - and as a corollary - power touch has given rise to a slew of blind mystery interaction. It’s just not as thoughtful as it was.

Then it's a matter of encouraging grannies and other tech illiterates to ask the obvious questions to the tool in front of them: "Where did the button to save episodes go?"

The thing with menu driven interfaces is while they're ugly, they do make functions discoverable. You don't need to remember what icon you want nor where it is, you just need to remember it is in the menu.

From a personal perspective, I still find myself hunting for common functions in Office even after years of using the Ribbon bar. I've found that to be the single handed biggest productivity killer to Office

For example, my wife, my daughter, and my sister are all really smart but not tech savvy. They love Apple, but the "upgrade" to iOS 11 is bothering them quite a bit. (Too bad Android isn't any better.)

My mom is still on Windows. She hates Windows 10 and really misses XP, but she can get by OK without too much help. She's 84. I'm thankful she never went to Apple, frankly. She would never talk to a computer. That is in the ridiculous range for her.

With audio, it will occasionally hiccup or skip. With video (especially Netflix), it will skip or become choppy for a few seconds. With Bluetooth, my car stereo will switch from another source to Bluetooth Input whenever I receive a text, then it will not revert to the original source input (CD, terrestrial radio, etc). All of this only started happening after the iOS 11 update, and all of the above issues persist across both devices, so it's not a hardware thing.

First, make sure you’ve got at least 1GB free space on the device. iOS starts thrashing when free space is low.

Second, tap Settings > Battery to see if any apps are excessively burning the battery (and by extension, the CPU)

Third: Settings > Privacy > Location Services and make sure every app is set to Never, unless giving that app location services has some benefit to you.

Fourth: Settings > Background Refresh. Turn off everything except apps you want to refresh. For example, apps that sync data via iCloud.

Last suggestion: back up via iTunes, restore to factory settings, restore from backup. In my experience, this is iOS’ dirty little secret, sometimes it gets into a state that can only be resolved with a wipe.

My point is that in the mobile landscape iOS and associated hardware, at least for me, work better than anything else out there.

(edit - I'm on iPhone 5 which doesn't get iOS 11 which may have saved me)

- Mavericks is old enough that it hasn’t received any security updates in over a year

- You’re falling way behind on emoji support (but maybe you haven’t noticed if you spend all your time on Hacker News, since apparently emojis get stripped out of posts here)

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/overcast/id888422857?mt=8