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iceman45575

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 6, 2016
76
23
Silicon Valley
What do you use your iOS 6 device in 2020 for?

I recently found my old white 5 buried in a drawer and it had iOS 6 on it. I fired it up, put in my SIM, and have been using it the past few days. I'm loving it and it brings back tons of good memories. However, there are a couple of annoying things. For example, Safari sucks now and I can't find a good alternative. Also, of course the dwindling app support. I jailbroke it back in the day so I was able to fix some issues through Cydia tweaks.

Anyone else using iOS 6 in 2020, let me know! I'm curious what device and what you use it for!
 
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Jack_SB

macrumors member
Apr 12, 2020
77
79
I am using (sometimes) my 3GS with iOS 6.
I’m taking it with me if I go for a walk on the mountains etc, or anywhere that I don’t need (or want) a smartphone.
I can still make calls, iMessage, music, browse, check emails if I have to, but I won’t touch it if it’s not something urgent.
It’s a strange feeling that I like.
I don’t feel like I am completely off the grid (you can’t be if you have a family), and it doesn’t distract me cause I just don’t want to use it if there’s no reason.
 
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ThunderMasterMind

macrumors 6502a
Apr 29, 2016
543
521
I've basically stopped using iOS 6 on the regular. For a while, I used it for YouTube and games on my iPad 4, but now YouTube barely works and TubeFixer can't help it and I just haven't really felt like playing any games on it, so it just sits around flexing it's amazing standby time that no modern Apple device can achieve.
 
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MBAir2010

macrumors 603
May 30, 2018
6,433
5,920
there
I use the itouch G4 for music on a Bose speaker, taking kwik photos and 2 games. That is all i need
 

Boyd01

Moderator
Staff member
Feb 21, 2012
7,691
4,573
New Jersey Pine Barrens
I have one of the earlier generations of the iPod Touch, IIRC iOS 4 is the maximum that it supports. Still works but I haven't even looked at it for quite awhile.
 

cw48494

macrumors regular
Jun 17, 2015
172
46
iPhone 4s and 3gs. Still waiting for a work-around to get my iPhone 5 back to iOS 6.
 

R2FX

macrumors regular
Mar 25, 2010
233
385
iPad 4 for books and pdf - several purchased books from Apple crash on my new iPad Pro, Apple support was clueless.

I’m a bookworm and always love a full bookshelf ? Books app on iOS 13 is an abomination, worse than the Kindle app

iPhone 4S for occasional music and as an exercise timer... waiting for someone to release JB so I could patch GPS and perhaps make it more usable again

iPhone 3GS used to be my car podcast device but have changed cars and got SD card for that instead
 

EuroChilli

macrumors 6502a
Apr 11, 2021
528
535
Belgium
I still have an iPod Touch stuck on iOS 6, can't upgrade even if I wanted. To be honest, I haven't really used it in a while. When I last did a few months ago I was using it to stream radio plugged into my main Hi-Fi, but it developed buffering problems. My old iPhone 5 on iOS 10 is the new dedicated streamer. What my iPod has always done and still does is to just play music locally, something the original iPod was intended for :) Remember when Steve held it up? 1000 songs in your pocket. My iPod has about 6000.
 

OneGrit

macrumors member
May 12, 2021
65
47
Richmond, British Columbia
My blue iPod Touch 5 hasn't been updated beyond 6.1.3. I use it as an offline music player so it's perfectly fine where it is. I also have a slate Touch 5 on some version of iOS 6 but it's stuck with family in another country due to COVID so I can't go to retrieve it until things are under control.

I have several older iPhones and iPads on different builds of iOS 6 as well but I don't really use them. I can say that I own at least one of all four of 2012's "flagship" devices (iPad 4, Mini 1, 2x iPhone 5 and 2x Touch 5, unless the iPad Mini 1 doesn't count as a "flagship"), each running some flavour of iOS 6.
 

braddick

macrumors 68040
Jun 28, 2009
3,921
1,018
Encinitas, CA
I, too, am using an iPhone5 on 6.1.3 as my iPhone 12 Pro is being fixed. I am curious what jailbreak tweaks the OP is using to help with the lack of weather and iMessage. In the meantime, though, it is a time machine, and I do enjoy the animations and overall look of iOS6.
 
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braddick

macrumors 68040
Jun 28, 2009
3,921
1,018
Encinitas, CA
iPhone 12 Pro was returned to me- good to go. I have yet to pop the SIM out of the iPhone 5 and back into the 12. Other than a few apps that won't run on iOS6 I am not in any hurry. I'm kind of digging the retro experience (and the size!) of the 5.
 
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dysamoria

macrumors 68020
Dec 8, 2011
2,244
1,866
I’m still using an iPhone 4, running iOS 6.x as an iPod, mostly in the car.

It can run it, but I refused iOS 7. It still has the iOS 7.x update download on it because there’s no way to remove it, so that’s 3.5 GB of music I can’t put on it.

In fact, I used iOS 6.x on that device all the way up to when I got an iPhone 6s with 9.x on it.

Every time I use my iPhone 4, I am reminded just how beautiful the UI design used to be... and am sad about how ugly iOS is today. I hate the flat design fad, the 1990s clip-art graphics/icons, the colors, the whitespace... And since I’ve refused to update my iPhone 6s to iOS 13 (that would break Safari sync with my Macs, which are stuck on High Sierra), I cant even use dark mode to compensate for all the whitespace.

Just today, i went through my iPhone 4, deleting email & messaging service accounts to reduce any background wasted resources, and I’m trying to figure out how to stop it sending console logging to my MacBook whenever it’s on WiFi. I don’t even know how that started. It’s just that phone, not the other one or my iPad.
 
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cw48494

macrumors regular
Jun 17, 2015
172
46
Currently using my iPhone 5 on iOS 6.1.2 (for CommCenter* patch req to enable LTE).

I have all the useful apps working, aside from my banking ones obviously. Currently fiddling with YouTube to enable the search and subscription recommendation functions. Also, Amazon Shopping/Amazon video will need editing to enable me to login. My only gripe currently is with browser functionality, can't find any viable alternatives aside from Puffin Pro.
 

Avenged110

macrumors 6502a
I'm still using my iPhone 5 with 6.1.4 as my primary/only phone, but I also have a 5th gen. touch with 6.1.3 that I use when I want a Bluetooth music player and 2nd and 3rd gen. iPads on 6.1.3 I use as an alarm clock and video player, respectively. It'll be interesting to see what happens when T-Mobile shuts down their UMTS network in July – I'm banking on GSM/EDGE still working indefinitely as a fallback.
 
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