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Ask Slashdot: Is iOS 8 a Pig?
kyjellyfish writes I've been using iOS 8 for several days and aside from a few gimmicks and add-ons that attempt to achieve parity with Android, my experience has been overwhelmingly unsatisfactory. My chief complaint is that the vast majority of my apps are slow to boot and noticeably sluggish in operation. I want to point out that all of these apps have been "upgraded" specifically for iOS 8 compatibility. Previous operating system upgrades have been relatively seamless, so I'm asking whether other slashdotters have experienced this degraded performance.
I love it on my iPhone 4S. I can't use ApplePay so I may upgrade to a six, but honestly, my nearly three year old 4S works great and has great battery life. I haven't noticed really anything negative. In fact, it prompted google to upgrade their bad Google Voice app, so that in and of itself is a plus. FaceTime audio is also pretty great.
It would still be a problem because Apple shouldn't allow the upgrade to be installed on a device which can't run it properly.
Wanted to add - if you have 1700+ pictures (like my wife).... your phone will bog down. Make sure you have the space on your phone. iPhones do notoriously get slow when they start running out of space.
iOS 8 seems even faster than iOS 7 on my 5S. Haven't seen that happen yet after an update from one major iOS upgrade to the next. Very happy with it.
I've been running iOS8 since pre-beta on multiple devices, including phones and iPads. I've had no problem, nothing at all like you describe.
If you're so inclined, I'd try a fresh install and see if that makes things run better. You can always restore from backup later.
I assume there was nothing strange about your iOS7 install, like being jailbroken, right?
I don't have an iPad 2 but I do have an iPhone 4S and I've not noticed the battery draining faster. I haven't really noticed any performance degration either and I haven't turned anything off. I'm having a good experience, so I'm not sure what the issue could be. The iPad 2 didn't really match the spec of a 4S though. I'm surprised you can use iOS 8 on an iPad 2 even though the 4S and it are only 6 months apart. The iPad 2 has an inferior processor, that may be the difference. My mother in law still has an iPad 2 and I won't upgrade her.
Installed across my devices, it seems fine.
iPad 2, 4, air, iPhone 6, 5.
> My mother in law still has an iPad 2 and I won't upgrade her.
I am disturbed that you even considered it. You would consider divorcing your wife just because her mother won't get the latest iPad?
The lack of any mention of the device he is running it on strongly makes me suspect it is one with a A5 processor. Apple supports even very old devices because it helps the developers a lot having to debug for only a single version of the os, by contrast android development and the short support cycle is a complete nightmare as one has to support accross major and even minor releases. Android app reviews are filled with "It crashes at startup" comments, this is typically not the case for apple users the tradeoff being that their devices might slow down with each new release.
The iOS 8 app upgrades are pretty much for things like being able to target new/any screen sizes. If you're on an existing device, that doesn't mean much. I don't think there is anything in the new SDK that would imply a performance decline in apps that adopt it.
The X.0.0 upgrades are pretty well known for including slower/unoptimized drivers and code paths. Apple is usually in a hurry to get the release out the door and they don't do all the optimizations they should. Usually by X.0.1 or X.1 they get things cleaned up. So it doesn't surprise me that 8.0 is a little pokey. 7.0 had basically the same issues.
What did you load it on? An iPhone 1? A 4? An Osborne Executive?
Interestingly, I haven't seen any significant gnashing-of-teeth, complaining about slowdowns, etc. on the sites where a majority of the posters are actually iOS Users.
In fact, as per usual, I am waiting a few days to see if there are horror stories, particularly regarding my two iOS devices (iPhone 4s and iPad 2), which are at the bottom of the Compatibility List; but, other than one person with a 16 GB iPad complaining about slowness (and without others piling-on), this seems to be a very reasonable and stable Upgrade; especially considering how much has been added.
I've got it on an iPhone 5 and an iPad Air and both work very smoothly. Haven't had any OS crashes or glitches (a couple apps are a bit more crashy but I hope an update from them will fix that) and speed and battery life don't seem to have had any reduction.
So far the things that make iOS 8 really attractive (handoff, continuity, new document picker) are waiting for either Yosemite or updated apps so I wait patiently but am satisfied with the upgrade as far as it goes
Not picking a side. But it's kinda funny when you think about it:
* With an Apple device, you get regular updates to iOS, but your phone will continually become slower (planned obsolescence)
* With an Android device, the manufacturer outright abandons updating the phone the moment their next handset is on sale. (Samsung seems to be the worst about this, but, even Google has done it to stock Nexus phones.)
Pick your poison. Slow, or quick. ....then get ready for your next pill.
Why can't all fpga/microcontroller manufacturers just release free optimizing compilers???
I put it on my iPad 3 and it's noticeably slower. The big thing I'm seeing now that I never saw before is typing lag. That is annoying. I've also seen extra delay in some cases with the screen realizing it needs to rotate, and a bug in one specific app with keys on the keyboard disappearing entirely. On the performance end it's not that impressive in any way.
That said, having extensions in Safari has been nice, keyboard swapping is handy, and the family sharing feature is really great. So I'm not going to be rushing to roll it back, but I really don't understand how simple things like typing could get so much slower on the same hardware.
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
I updated my 64 gig 4S on Friday, and it's been stable and crash-free. I especially liked the Health app as it's accessible from the lock screen, assuming emergency responders know that it's there and how to get to it. I have an immune disorder so this is of interest to me, obviously not to everyone. I really like the one motion swipe delete for mail, and the Siri voice dictation in real-time is pretty cool. The funny thing is that I had more trouble upgrading my new iPad Mini Retina than I did my 4S. One other thing that was interesting, and I need to verify this: I was listening to some podcasts yesterday and when I got home, before syncing, they were already marked as played on my iMac. I'm not sure what's up with that as I try to have my phone to only sync music and podcasts via cable.
Issues: first and biggest, battery life. I noticed this yesterday when I got up and last night when I went to bed, I logged that my battery was at 66%. Eight hours later, 54%ish. I already turned off most of the background stuff that eats juice that was posted when iOS 7 came out, so I'm not sure what's up. I'm going to try putting it in airplane mode when I go to bed tonight to see if that stops whatever is eating it. Also, I'm still pissed at the way they screwed up the podcast app when 7 came out last year. I need to get back to studying Objective C/Swift and write my own.
When you sympathize with stupidity, you start thinking like an idiot.
I think you mean "Cojones", it means "Balls" as in "Testicles".
"Cajones" on the other hand, means "Drawers", as in "Desk drawers".
Not picking a side. But it's kinda funny when you think about it:
* With an Apple device, you get regular updates to iOS, but your phone will continually become slower (planned obsolescence)
* With an Android device, the manufacturer outright abandons updating the phone the moment their next handset is on sale. (Samsung seems to be the worst about this, but, even Google has done it to stock Nexus phones.)
Pick your poison. Slow, or quick. ....then get ready for your next pill.
Umm, no. Nexus devices are supported for 18 months as they specifically say:
https://support.google.com/nex...
I've owned nearly all the Nexus devices and cannot think of one that didn't get an update to the latest OS within that time frame.
I have an iPhone 4S since october 2011. I installed iOS8 last week and everything is fine. No slowdowns that I noticed yet. Apparently, it takes 2 more seconds to boot, but I don't really care as I reboot it less than once a week.
Prior to that I had an iPhone 3GS, updated always to the latest versioon. I've never had to complain about Apple's software upgrades, except on one occasion (I don't remember but I think it was iOS4). This was quite horrible in terms of performance and an update came a couple of weeks later and fixed most of it. Another update came two month later and fixed the rest.
YMMV, but all in all, Apple's support for old hardware is miles and light-years ahead of everyone else. Bar none.
Write boring code, not shiny code!
Android is a toss-up. If your phone has an easily unlockable bootloader and is fairly mainstream, then you likely can get unofficial updates or a CyanogenMOD version which will be supported for quite a while. You also might be able to find other ROMs people have made for the device, some with a more recent version of Android, some not.
If you get a model that has a locked bootloader, the company won't unlock it, and it isn't a popular enough model to get the mainstream developers to look at it, then it will probably need to be tossed.
So you can't afford the Apple lifestyle, get a better job you fucking hippie.
* With an Apple device, you get regular updates to iOS, but your phone will continually become slower (planned obsolescence)
I don't think that "planned obsolescence" means what you think it does.
What you have with iOS on older devices is the race between Moore's Law and "Feature Creep". That is not "Planned". It just is.
It would only be "Planned Obsolescence" if the user was forced to install an iOS Upgrade. But they aren't; so it isn't.
So, it is not a matter of "picking your poison". Apple attempts to offer its OS Upgrades as far back as they can, even if some of the oldest devices may, in some cases, and then, only for some users, suffer a bit.
That is why the prudent iOS User with hardware > 1 Generation "back", waits a few days/weeks to see if they should Upgrade. After all, all it takes to not Upgrade, is to, well, not Upgrade. You iOS Device will continue to work exactly as always.
When will supposedly tech-savvy Slashdotters actually get that? Seems like "Willful Ignorance" to me...
Meanwhile though, iOS devices typically get 3 major OS updates. That is, 3 full years of support. Some iOS devices (iPad 2 for example), get as much as 5 years of updates.
Features don't come for free. But really Apple could avoid this whole problem if they didn't block downgrading. Let people try if they think it'll run fast enough on the oldest supported device, then let them change their minds If it doesn't.
But the problem is they want to prevent jail breaking and as a consequence downgrading is rare.
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Google's lack of long term support was one of the two reasons I just switched to iOS. I've seen a couple 4S (the oldest supported by iOS 8) that are still working just fine. However, Kitkat on my Galaxy Nexus? "No way man... that phone phone is like 18 months old man." Kitkat even lowered the memory needs of the OS.
I fail to see how Apple offering long term support on their devices is somehow planned obsolescence versus Android devices which are just flat out abandoned by those unwilling to install custom roms.
You think there is something funny about this?
At least he has the cajones to admit his mistakes, with his username, COWARD.
I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
Apple devices "degrade" with OS updates in the same way that Windows updates do on PCs, gradually. But even after an Apple starts no being upgradeable to the latest OS release, it stays useful for years to come. My mother is still using my hand-me-down 2002 desk-lamp iMac, which has the old PowerPC processor.
Prior to releasing an iOS, the focus on development is implementing the shiny new features.
Post release, the focus on development is to fix bugs and make the iOS work faster.
In each of the past few versions of iOS released you saw within a month a 0.01 version increment that got rid of bugs and made things noticeably faster.
You therefore have the choice of jumping on the band wagon, or waiting until the incremental release.
Windows Phone 7.x was abandoned very quickly though by hardware as well as MS and developers. They burnt a lot of potential loyal customers pre 8.x on devices like Nokia 900 lumia so trust was lost there from an already very precarious situation.
Umm, no. Nexus devices are supported for 18 months as they specifically say
You're trying to argue but I think you just proved his point. Considering that most phones in the USA are
still sold with a 24 month contract, having only 18 months worth of support is a complete joke. 48 months
should be the bare minimum but even then it's hard to argue against the fact that both sides are doing their
own version of "planned obsolescence". Some of this will happen naturally as newer systems are faster
but it's annoying when you are forced to upgrade just to maintain status quo. I had an older android
phone and eventually had to upgrade because many of the apps stopped supporting my phone.
The iPad 2 is 29% of the iPad market share. I expect IOS 8.1 to fix any lingering issues just as IOS 7.1 did.
Well, that's not quite true. You can do that basically only on Nokia phones and this does not proceed from the new ownership.
Disclaimer: I have an "intimate" knowledge about the product.
The WP ecosystem is affected by fragmentation in an Android-like fashion because of how the operating system is rolled out to the devices.
MSFT said that Windows Phone 8.1 will be available to all the WP 8.0 capable devices.. and they meant it. It is 100% true.
However, the most important part of the equation was not mentioned at all: in order to install the 8.1.x version, you need a firmware to support it.
Who develops the firmware? Manufacturers.
That's why all the HTC and Samsung users are still waiting for the 8.1 update and the HTC 8X/8S are not even able to install the latest 8.1 Update 1 Developer Preview.
On top of that, using the developer preview without an adequate firmware, causes dramatic battery drains and performance issues.
Looks like the problem is not who develops the operating system, be it Apple, Google or Microsoft, but who develops the firmware of the phone.
That's why Apple can afford to keep their phones constantly updated.
As Alan Kay said, "people who are really serious about software should make their own hardware"
Features don't come for free. But really Apple could avoid this whole problem if they didn't block downgrading. Let people try if they think it'll run fast enough on the oldest supported device, then let them change their minds If it doesn't.
But the problem is they want to prevent jail breaking and as a consequence downgrading is rare.
While I agree that it would be nice if Apple would make a provision to downgrade on older h/w to the Revision - 1 (only); the truth is, it is enough of a pain to modify existing data-structures that I would bet that you would be hard-pressed to name any Mobile OS that allows a clean and simple "downgrade" without completely wiping the device.
And you are right; it does leave the door open to Jailbreaking>
But for most Android owners this isn't an issue; because they almost never get an Upgrade anyway...
I have an Ipad Mini Retina. I honestly don't notice any major slow-downs (a wee bit longer to launch an app -- and noticeably longer to boot the device). However, some apps no longer worked (awaiting an update) -- and this is somewhat minor.
The MAJOR issue I have (and it's appearing a lot on the apple forums) is 5ghz wifi. For many users it's pretty much unusable. I had to switch down to 2.4 (my router has up to 4 SSIDs, 2 for each frequency). I don't LIKE 2.4 because it gets a fair amount of interference, but it's a suitable work around. I'm hoping this gets resolved in the next update.
My main complaint is (and I kick myself in the butt over it) *THIS* complaint was registered while IOS8 was in beta by many users. I SAW those complains and figured they were resolved before they released the update. I should have known better. I had enough sense *NOT* to update my phone (iphone 5).
That said, I don't notice much of ANYTHING worthy of real "hoopla". 'Hey siri' is neat, but I'm still unsure if I will find actual utility from it once the novelty wears off. Certainly not enough "new" stuff to warrant it's size and bulk.
Only you are, if you ever need to wipe your phone and reinstall then you are only able to install the latest version of iOS, unless you've previously jailbroken and cached the previous versions - which isn't officially supported by apple.
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The iPad2 has an A5 1GHz vs the iPhone 4S having an A5 at 800MHz. They both have 512MB of RAM. So no, the iPad2 isn't inferior to the iPhone 4S, it is actually faster.
References:
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/I...
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/I...
Write boring code, not shiny code!
The Fandroid talk starts in his first sentence:
You could of course say the same thing about every Android device evah while pointing at the very first iPhone, save the screen size of the Galaxy.
Zombie Jobs isn't holding a gun to your heads. Just try buying what you want, that does what you want, without pretending that your personal product preferences came carved on tables sent down by God.
18 whole months!
The 3GS was released in 2009 and got a security update 2/2014
The iPhone 4 was released in 6/2010 and had the latest OS until 9/2014.
Every iPhone released since 9/2011 can be upgraded to the latest OS.
What's a Mac Mini Retina?
Since the Mac Mini doesn't come with any sort of display, I'm assuming you just plugged the display port cable straight into your own retina.
Humbug! Let Apple recommend whatever it likes, but let me make the final call. It's still my device, remember?
Nope. My Galaxy Nexus, purchased new from the Google Play store in November 2012, was no longer supported in October 2013 with 4.3. That's less than a year, and the reason I no longer use an Android product.
The World is Yours.
Nope. My Galaxy Nexus, purchased new from the Google Play store in November 2012, was no longer supported in October 2013 with 4.3. That's less than a year, and the reason I no longer use an Android product.
The Galaxy Nexus was released in November 2011. So you bought an old phone that was current at the time of purchasing.
However there are a metric ton of easy to install community ROMs if updates matter that much, the ability to do what you want with your device was one of the cornerstones of the Nexus project. Compare that to buying last years Iphone, want to do something where Apple says NICHT, you're shit out of luck. That is why I dont own any Apple products.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
My 4 year old Galaxy S is running Android KitKat 4.4.4 and it actually runs faster with KitKat than it did with Gingerbread 2.3 and has more features. Of course Samsung didn't upgrade it but at least someone who was willing to tackle it was able to.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
18 months, huh? you think that's long enough?
I still have my N1 phone and its still in nearly new physical condition. bugfixes and security updates stopped several years ago. should I throw it out? even CM is not updated for this phone.
otoh, I have pc's that are more than 10 yrs old, STILL SECURE and STILL able to be updated.
fuck google. they are children with a short attention span. they make linux look like something worse than MS or apple (even MS and apple give more updates than google does on older hardware.)
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Do you realise you are actively spreading a lie, one that I have yet to figure out whether you are doing it purposefully or accidentally. Google most emphatically does not support Nexus devices for 18 months. They only support devices 18 months after initial release. Meaning you can purchase the device brand new 17 months after the initial release and only get one months support. So they provide only depreciating support regardless of purchase date, based upon initial product release date and guess what, you get zero discount for that reduced support.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
So you bought an old phone that was current at the time of purchasing.
It seem he bought a current phone at the the time of purchasing. Because... that's what was currently available.
The warranty starts from the date of purchase, not the date the design was handed over to manufacturing.
If Google supports a phone for 18 months, then they have to support it for 18 months from the date it was last officially on sale.
You must have serious amounts of spare if you think it's an acceptable solution to go looking around an online community for solutions like this. I don't have the time nor inclination to do this with every device in my household. Maybe once because it's interesting, but that's pushing it. It's a phone or table device FFS, I just want it to work and spend my time more usefully.
Furthermore, if the device was current at the time it was bought, it's irrelevant how long it was since the original release date. It's reasonable to expect a useful support period. What the grandparent post described is totally unacceptable.