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Apple Commits to at Least Five Years of iPhone Security Updates
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No.
iOS 18 is not going to be released publicly before September.
I can tell you this phone is still going strong and could be good for a few more years if I reeeeeeally needed to save money. I already upgraded to a 12 and later to a 14 Pro though. Just kept the XR for development.
in other news iphone camera gets support for ZERO days. and these days camera is mostly driven by software. even pixel 1 got some features from the latest phones.
In fairness Google only updates the camera after 6 months or even longer but u will eventually get every new feature if u wait long enuff.
and if u ever do a side by side of older pixel and older iPhone photo quality u will feel cheated .
also Google used to do camera updates within 2months about 5yrs back so they have slowed them down diliberately
In fairness Google only updates the camera after 6 months or even longer but u will eventually get every new feature if u wait long enuff.
and if u ever do a side by side of older pixel and older iPhone photo quality u will feel cheated .
also Google used to do camera updates within 2months about 5yrs back so they have slowed them down diliberately
Here is what Amazon does with the Kindle:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=GF3LDHSB5YM9BYF7
2019-2022 products good until at least 2028!
Everyone should be as generous.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=GF3LDHSB5YM9BYF7
2019-2022 products good until at least 2028!
Everyone should be as generous.
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Sure wish Apple just compile the security only updates to all devices that initially supported that iOS version rather than forcing an upgrade to the latest major iOS version in order to get the security updates.
When has Google not respected their promised software support commitments? Commitments they made public in a very clear way.I will believe Google’s claims of 7-year support when I see it.
We are at Pixel 8, the 8th generation of Pixels, so is there a time in these 8 years when Google didn't provide the number of updates they promised for any of their Pixels? If I remember correctly they generally provided more updates than they initially promised .
It's felt like they have security updates for about 5 years after they stop selling a model as of recently anyway before making it official.
This feels like confirming what we already knew.
This feels like confirming what we already knew.
They've been providing security updates for longer than 5 years for a while now according to my own experience. They just had to formally declare this per new UK regulation. People are whining about nothing.
Since Europe is now forcing Apple to do things, they should force them to allow downgrading. Infinitely more useful than this.
Apple releasing out-of-band emergency updates for older devices is not even remotely the same. Plus, it's been widely documented that Apple only provides comprehensive patching for their latest OS releases. For macOS, while it is true that one and two year old versions do get security updates, Apple isn't as comprehensive for patching those as it is its latest macOS release. For iOS and iPadOS, you're given security coverage for the major OS version immediately prior to the current version for its first two releases, but that's it. Past that point and the only updates you'll get will be for major security vulnerabilities (likely limited to zero day exploits) and that's it.
And mind you, that's only the security element. I can run most current versions of Android apps just fine on Android 6.0.1 or later. No problems whatsoever. Obviously, it's better if I'm on something closer to 14, if not 14. But if I am stuck on a device that is capped at, say, Android 10 or 11, I can still USE MY DEVICE. I can still run a current version browser. I can still run stock apps (which are also still updated). I'm not left with an outdated paperweight. Grab anything with an A7 or most things with an A8, and you will find that you are not as fortunate.
I get that an Android device that far behind isn't great for security. But if you're solely using it for Netflix and/or are not loading it with personal information, you're at least still able to use the thing. iOS and iPadOS devices (and honestly, I'm sure this extends to pretty much any Apple device that isn't a Mac), eventually become useless paperweights because Apple forces developers to update their apps for newer OSes, which require newer devices and folks stuck on older stuff are left with a paperweight. Score one for mother nature!
Sonoma will only run on hardware from 2018 and newer (your only exception to this being the iMac Pro). If you're talking about security update support (wherein Macs from 2015 can still run Monterey and still get security patches until this fall), then I'll grant you seven years. But for iPhones and Macs and for current releases, it's five years now. One could theorize that this is for Apple to (a) aggressively cull support for Intel Macs and (b) get rid of SoCs that don't have a more prominent Neural Engine (which, given that A12 is now the minimum for iOS 17, arguably has happened already).
But yeah, considering Microsoft supports its fixed lifecycle operating systems for ten years, only supporting macOS releases for 3 years while pushing more Macs to the e-waste bin seems lame.
This is both Apple and developers’ fault. I’m sorry, but I can install Telegram on iOS 5. And it works. Developers make versions unusable, and Apple doesn’t help in that regard.
WhatsApp has no reason to discontinue iOS versions in the way they do, yet they do it anyway. They support something like Android 4 or 5. It’s their fault, too. Apple doesn’t force them to discontinue iOS support.
So it’s a combo in which every single relevant player chooses to screw older iOS versions over, and there’s nothing users can do.
Apple could play their part: if they didn’t obliterate performance and battery life through iOS updates, this wouldn’t matter as much. It would still matter for older, unsupported devices (because they’d be unsupported), but imagine if an iPhone 6s on iOS 15 had the battery life and performance of one on iOS 9: then a device would have a lot of useful life instead of users just wanting to upgrade in the middle of the iOS update cycle because the device is already obliterated.
Another ridiculous aspect: you can’t install an app for an older iOS version if it’s the first time that Apple ID purchases the app. You need to “purchase” it first on a compatible device and then it will allow you to install an older version. Why not just allow an older version of it’s the first purchase? Apple shenanigans, that’s why. Pointless.
Every single relevant player, like I said, deliberately goes against device longevity.
Five years is better than no years but isn’t that a bit on the low side for Apple considering it’s very easy to see people use 6 year old iPhones in the wild?