Any chance of reverting a OS upgrade on a Ipad 2?

[Blanky]

It's too bad Apple can't find a way to push security patches to devices without requiring a complete operating system update. I have to think it is possible. Imagine if you had to reinstall OS X or Windows every time they were patched. I guess that would lead to that dreaded fragmentation issue though.

I'm sure they could, but they don't want to. I bought an air 2 last year because the ipad 2 was a steaming piece of crap for even simply surfing large web pages. I have a relative who did the same thing for the same reason a week ago. Just simple things like loading netflix and surfing the net he could no longer do at an acceptable speed.

 

[Eug]

Surfing is slow but Netflix works OK. In fact, one the primary uses for the iPad 2 now is Netflix kids' shows for my daughter.

 

[Eug]

For the iPad 2 the best bang for the buck for the time being is iOS 7.1.2. Certain versions of iOS 8 are significantly slower. And iOS 9 is even slower, despite Apple's claims.

The only problems with this as mentioned is the lack of security updates, and just as importantly (if not more), is the increasing lack of app compatibility. iOS 7 is pretty good for now since most apps support it, but some apps are requiring iOS 8 or higher now already.

The iPad 2 in our household has now been relegated to being used mainly only as a kitchen recipe machine for my wife, or else a YouTube / Netflix / Infuse machine for my 3 year-old. Oh and as a babycam screen.

My wife and I both have our own iPad Air 2 each. With the 2 GB RAM and triple-core A8X, it ought to last a very long time, just like the iPad 2 did with its 512 MB RAM (double its predecessor) and dual-core A5X (also double its predecessor).

Well, there we go. I got heard back from firecore, and they said that Infuse 4 (which comes out in a few weeks) requires a minimum of iOS 8.

 

[maddogchen]

my friend stopped upgrading his ipad 3 at IOS 6 or something. It runs so much faster than mine 🙁

 

[Eug]

my friend stopped upgrading his ipad 3 at IOS 6 or something. It runs so much faster than mine 🙁

iOS 6 is kinda useless for a lot of people though. Lots and lots of apps don't support it anymore.

IMO the sweet spot for the iPad 3 is iOS 7.1.x... but even then it's becoming problematic now. I mentioned above that my favourite video player Infuse will require iOS 8 when it is updated to version 4 in the coming month.

 

[slag]

I don't know what to tell you. People bitch if Apple cuts off support for an OS, people bitch if Apple allows people to install a recent OS on older stuff.

Pick what you want to bitch about, but the FACTS are that running a more modern OS will consume more resources within your hardware. If your hardware runs out of resources, that OS will not function well.

Nothing we can do about this.

I think that what people want is the same experience as they have with IOS 7.x but with the security fixes that shouldn't slow down the user experience. It's not asking too much for something that should be simple for the programmers to do.

You can patch security holes in existing operating systems without having to load an entirely new OS. Many different distros and operating systems do this currently but for some reason Apple is behind the curve on that simple idea.

 

[JackBurton]

I think that what people want is the same experience as they have with IOS 7.x but with the security fixes that shouldn't slow down the user experience. It's not asking too much for something that should be simple for the programmers to do.

You can patch security holes in existing operating systems without having to load an entirely new OS. Many different distros and operating systems do this currently but for some reason Apple is behind the curve on that simple idea.

Microsoft will be stopping support for any version of IE lower than 11 on Jan, 26, 2016. That means no more security updates on IE 10, which isn't very old. There just comes a point in time where supporting an older platform becomes a money pit. In order to provide security updates on older iOSs, you'll need to have updates available for each iteration of an iOS update (i.e. iOS 8, 8.1, 8.1.1, etc). That's just a waste of resources. I'd much rather have Apple focus on making the latest iOS version the best it could possibly be and provide a uniform platform across all devices.

The fact is, iDevices are like how PCs were back in the '90s, where the software outpaces the hardware. Now with the Air 2, I think that is where the sweet spot will be for years to come. It has the hardware to keep up with software update for at least 3 years or more. Any device lower than an Air 2 will take a beating with every major iOS release.

 

[Eug]

The fact is, iDevices are like how PCs were back in the '90s, where the software outpaces the hardware. Now with the Air 2, I think that is where the sweet spot will be for years to come. It has the hardware to keep up with software update for at least 3 years or more. Any device lower than an Air 2 will take a beating with every major iOS release.

Yes, and not just like PCs in the 90s, but Mac laptops in the '00s. Esp. in the PowerPC era, all consumer Mac laptops shipped with way too little RAM, and OS updates quickly made those machines uber slow. However, the benefit was one could upgrade RAM after the fact, although some machines like iBooks and iMacs were problematic since the max RAM configurable was so low.

iPads have been following that trend of shipping with low amounts of RAM, but the problem now is that RAM is not upgradable or even configurable. This is a big reason why after the iPad 2, I've avoided every iteration of the iPad until the iPad Air 2 with 2 GB RAM... and then I bought two of them. They should last a while. The 1 GB RAM in the iPad Air was a real disappointment in an otherwise solid release. Those who were seduced by the external beauty of the iPad Air are already suffering the consequences, with features in OS 9 not being supported.

But all of that said... the benefit of the Macs is you can install whatever OS you want on them, security updates be damned. When I discovered my 10.5.8 installs were too much for my 1.25 GB G4 Macs, I downgraded to 10.4.11 no problem. However, on my 2 GB G4 iMac, I put it on 10.5.8 which worked decently well.

The ironic thing though is I have the opposite problem for my 2008 MacBook. I'm stuck on 10.7 Lion on that thing, because Apple won't support it for anything past that. 10.11 El Capitan works just fine on my 2009 MacBook Pro though. The two machines have the same 4 GB RAM, and the 2008 MacBook actually has a faster 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo, compared to the 2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo of the MacBook Pro. The difference is the MBP has a discrete nVidia GPU while the MB is stuck with an Intel GMA X3100.

 

[Midwayman]

If they're used to iOS, I wouldn't get them an Android tablet. I'd suggest a refurbished Air 2, or if they're short on cash, a refurbished Air... with the caveat that the Air is already out of date spec-wise.

Why would you ever buy a refurb when the air 2 is on sale for $100-125 off pretty regularly now? Best buy has them for $125 off right now (or did yesterday anyways.)

 

[Eug]

Why would you ever buy a refurb when the air 2 is on sale for $100-125 off pretty regularly now? Best buy has them for $125 off right now (or did yesterday anyways.)

I don't follow the retail store sales in the US as I'm not in the US. Locally the Air 2 isn't on sale right now. I bought my second Air 2 for $100 off but that was months ago. Mind you, locally the Air 2 isn't available as a refurb locally right now either.

 

[Elixer]

Microsoft will be stopping support for any version of IE lower than 11 on Jan, 26, 2016. That means no more security updates on IE 10, which isn't very old. There just comes a point in time where supporting an older platform becomes a money pit. In order to provide security updates on older iOSs, you'll need to have updates available for each iteration of an iOS update (i.e. iOS 8, 8.1, 8.1.1, etc). That's just a waste of resources. I'd much rather have Apple focus on making the latest iOS version the best it could possibly be and provide a uniform platform across all devices.

Eh, the difference here is that IE isn't an OS, and people can use FireFox or whatever else and *gasp* still have a fully functioning computer, running just as fast as it always did.
Heck, even though MS did stop OS support for XP, they didn't cripple it to the point of it being unusable.

If Apple was in charge, they would release a OS for those computers that would make it run 1000% slower, make it impossible to use any other OS, and call it a day, and wait for people to buy new hardware to "fix it".

 

[Eug]

Eh, the difference here is that IE isn't an OS, and people can use FireFox or whatever else and *gasp* still have a fully functioning computer, running just as fast as it always did.
Heck, even though MS did stop OS support for XP, they didn't cripple it to the point of it being unusable.

If Apple was in charge, they would release a OS for those computers that would make it run 1000% slower, make it impossible to use any other OS, and call it a day, and wait for people to buy new hardware to "fix it".

Actually, they don't. It's just the opposite strangely enough. It's often a heluvalot easier to install an old OS on Apple computers than it is on Windows. In fact, you can simply clone an install from one computer to the next, regardless if it's a MacBook or Mac Pro or iMac, etc., as long as that Mac existed when the OS came out.

Your complaint is specific to iOS and iDevices, but is not true at all for desktops and laptops.

 

[TheStu]

Heck, even though MS did stop OS support for XP, they didn't cripple it to the point of it being unusable.

Without getting into the pros and cons of the approach... iDevices are non-upgradeable. And it's incredibly unlikely (bordering on impossible) that a system that shipped with Windows XP, and never received a single hardware upgrade, would still be smooth and usable at the end of XP. That's what we're talking about.

And it's not like Apple includes "Kill_Older_Hardware_Especially_Elixer's.dat" in the update. They cram too much stuff into the update, especially for hardware that didn't have a lot of hardware breathing room.

 

[Eug]

People always say that Apple's iDevices do more with limited RAM than Android devices. Well, that may be true, but that doesn't change the fact that iDevices are still limited for RAM. I believe the main reason for the slowdowns from OS updates is due to RAM limitations.

That's why I tend to wait for RAM upgrades: eg. iPad Air 2 last year, but not iPhone 6. iPhone 6s for the wife this year. (I'll get an iPhone 7 next year probably, although I suspect that will still only have 2 GB RAM.)

 

[Elixer]

And it's not like Apple includes "Kill_Older_Hardware_Especially_Elixer's.dat" in the update. They cram too much stuff into the update, especially for hardware that didn't have a lot of hardware breathing room.

If only is was mine...I would open it up, and see if it could be flashed to a different OS, I am guessing that is how they do it at the factory?

 

[Elixer]

Anyone know if the ipad mini 2 suffers the same fate on OS 9.x?
They saw some at walmart for $199.

 

[Eug]

Anyone know if the ipad mini 2 suffers the same fate on OS 9.x?
They saw some at walmart for $199.

iPad mini 2 is mostly fine on OS 9.x. However, it has only 1 GB RAM. The iPad mini 4 is much nicer with TouchID and 2 GB RAM, if you can pick one up on sale or something. The problem mini on OS 9 is the iPad mini (original). That has the same innards as the iPad 2.

BTW, the iPad Air 2 was on sale for $125 off in the US last week. Dunno if it's still on sale this week. (I don't usually follow US sales, since I'm not in the US, but this one made the mainstream Apple news.)

 

[Elixer]

Ok, thanks for the info, will pass it along.

 

[ultimatebob]

I still have an original iPad, which is stuck on iOS 5.1. You can pretty much forget getting new apps for it at this point.

I've been impressed with how good Android updates are on the Nexus devices. My Nexus 7 has gone from 4.4 to 6, and 6 works great on it.

Anyway, Did you try these instructions to downgrade it?

http://www.gottabemobile.com/2015/02/16/how-to-downgrade-ipad-2-to-ios-6-2015/

 

[Eug]

A relative has an iPad 2 and iPhone 4S still on iOS 7.1.2. Seeing I'm on iOS 9.2 on all our iDevices he asked me if he should upgrade the OS like it keeps bugging him to do.

I was like No! No! No! No!!!!!1

I was playing with that iPhone 4S for a while and it is actually just as fast on iOS 7.1.2 as I remember it to be. Very nice. If not for the mediocre camera, I could use it full time.

 

[Elixer]

I still have an original iPad, which is stuck on iOS 5.1. You can pretty much forget getting new apps for it at this point.

I've been impressed with how good Android updates are on the Nexus devices. My Nexus 7 has gone from 4.4 to 6, and 6 works great on it.

Anyway, Did you try these instructions to downgrade it?

http://www.gottabemobile.com/2015/02/16/how-to-downgrade-ipad-2-to-ios-6-2015/

No, since I wasn't sure if they could install newer stuff or not.

I'm back! 😉
After more bitching about how slow it is, I tried to do a factory reset on the iPad, thinking that could bring back some performance.
It didn't. In fact, is actually seems even slower. I left it alone for 6 hours, thinking it might be doing something in the background, but, that didn't really fix anything.

Whenever you get the keyboard to type, the character display lags way behind your input, and things open slowly, and it is downright painful to try to look at any current web site like Amazon, assuming safari doesn't crash on the content.

I am beginning to think that the above link might be the only option, however, the apps they really want, how can I be sure that the appstore would still work with what they need?
Is there a way to clone the tablet, and if the above flash doesn't work out, just copy the clone back to the iPad?