Odd, because my old Apple devices still let me sign in and offer me the last compatible versions of a lot of software, something Google doesn't do.
At the time only Google supported devices more than 1-2 years. Every Android partner had zero support. The message was clear. Switch to iPhone if we wanted >1-2 years of support, so we did, and we've been happy since (~15 years).
That does not make me jump for joy. Instead it tells me that I don't wanna touch another Apple product.
Well if your argument is: “a perfectly good 10 year old iPad is held hostage by Apple because they don’t provide side loading” then isn’t that the same case with your perfectly good 10 year old Toyota? Or 10 year old Target Toaster oven or 10 year old Samsung fridge?
I think we will live in a strange world if we start demanding our refrigerators allow side loading YouTube.
Why does everyone on HN promote laying down and giving up when your manufacturer tells you not to do something that loses them money? It's like there isn't a living hacker left on this website.
A good 10 year old Toyota can have its head unit replaced and you can add new features if you so chose. When I was a kid it was a rite of passage to mod at least your speaker system.
> Or 10 year old Target Toaster oven or 10 year old Samsung fridge?
> I think we will live in a strange world if we start demanding our refrigerators allow side loading YouTube.
You set up a strawman argument. Who is demanding this of fridges and toasters?
It's odd that people will defend Apple for this, or laugh when you say that you want to use a 10 year old device, when on the same forum people applaud when someone blogs about getting their old Commodore / Sinclair / Toshiba 8bit to connect to the Internet. Wait, is the iPad too old to be useful, but simultaneously not old enough to be worth repurposing?
The iPad 4 has wifi, bluetooth, a retina screen and several days of idle battery life. If I could install a terminal and a VNC client, I could save this thing from e-waste for another 5 years. The way some people talk on here, it'll like they think that there's something wrong with that.
Do you really think that the web browser is going to load those pages? Try using a really old web browser on the web today and see how far you get.
> Well if your argument is: “a perfectly good 10 year old iPad is held hostage by Apple because they don’t provide side loading” then isn’t that the same case with your perfectly good 10 year old Toyota? Or 10 year old Target Toaster oven or 10 year old Samsung fridge?
Your fridge still keeps things cold. Your Toyota still drives. Your toaster still makes toast. What does a ten year old iPad do besides collect dust because all of the features you bought it for don't work anymore?
I'm in the same boat here. The AppStore endpoints have stopped being supported so I can't even sign in and forget about trying to update iOS.
Your are are hostage once Apple stops supporting your device, and it becomes officially impossible to install any software on it. Consider the case of a perfectly functioning iPad 4. If I wipe it and hand it to my nephew, there's nothing he can do with it. Nothing in the AppStore will install on it, and sideloading is impossible. Aside from chucking a perfectly working device into the e-waste, which I hate to do if someone else might get a year out of it, the only other options are complex, dubious hacks.