Apple Releases iOS 12.5.5 Update for Older iPhones With Fix for Zero-Day Exploit

[oldmacs]

Apple's strategies on iOS and Mac are in such contrast to each other. On the Mac side the support cutoffs have become completely arbitrary and really only explainable by planned obsolescence / cost reasoning. On the iPhone side someone actually seems to care about supporting older devices.

iOS and MacOS support spans have almost converged, it seems like pretty soon iPhones will be supported for longer than Macs which cost twice as much or more.

Yeah it's odd. Huge amount of arbitrary cuts offs happening on the Mac side. Given 3rd parties can enable both Big Sur and Monterey onto pretty much all post 2012 Macs, Apple really should be supporting them as well.

I've said it time and time again, but recycling is all well and good, but extending the useful lifespan of devices is also hugely important.

It's insane that a 2014 iPad Air 2 can run iPad OS 15 but a 2014 MacBook Pro can't run Monterey..

 

[dysamoria]

Irritatingly, this update is not available to anyone who CAN update to iOS 15, but don’t want to (yet, or ever).

I’m on iOS 12.4.1 and haven’t updated because it would break Apple’s ecosystem with my Macs stuck on High Sierra (and one of those only has High Sierra because of DosDude1’s hacked installers and patches).

 

[redheeler]

Yeah it's odd. Huge amount of arbitrary cuts offs happening on the Mac side. Given 3rd parties can enable both Big Sur and Monterey onto pretty much all post 2012 Macs, Apple really should be supporting them as well.

I've said it time and time again, but recycling is all well and good, but extending the useful lifespan of devices is also hugely important.

It's insane that a 2014 iPad Air 2 can run iPad OS 15 but a 2014 MacBook Pro can't run Monterey..

It's great that the unsupported install options exist, but sad to be forced to be so reliant on third parties just to run a current OS.

Seems like Macs don't hold their value as well as they used to because of what Apple is doing. Makes sense as regardless what Apple does, Windows and Linux PCs will continue to receive updates for 10+ years.

 

[aibo82]

Does it enable the kill switch to kill off the old stuff? 😉

 

[oldmacs]

Seems like Macs don't hold their value as well as they used to because of what Apple is doing. Makes sense as regardless what Apple does, Windows and Linux PCs will continue to receive updates for 10+ years.

That being said, Windows 11 has crazy high requirements which cut off a huge number of machines..

 

[poematik13]

muh structured obsolesence

 

[AppleTO]

That being said, Windows 11 has crazy high requirements which cut off a huge number of machines..

I was quite surprised about that, but at least Microsoft has guaranteed Windows 10 security updates for a while (for what it’s worth).

 

[fredrik9]

Updating my old and currently my kids’ original iPad Air. Bought it in 2013, still receiving updates which is quite nice I must admit.

 

[NewUsername]

Yeah it's odd. Huge amount of arbitrary cuts offs happening on the Mac side. Given 3rd parties can enable both Big Sur and Monterey onto pretty much all post 2012 Macs, Apple really should be supporting them as well.

I've said it time and time again, but recycling is all well and good, but extending the useful lifespan of devices is also hugely important.

It's insane that a 2014 iPad Air 2 can run iPad OS 15 but a 2014 MacBook Pro can't run Monterey..

It’s about the same though. About seven years support for latest version of iOS/macOS + about two years of security updates.

Support for older computers in macOS is quite bad, but given that Windows 11 drops support for about all PCs pre 2018, it doesn’t seem so bad anymore.

 

[HackMacDaddy]

I wish they made a "light" version of iOS for older models to bring it up to the speed they once had. My iPad Mini 2's became slower and slower the higher the iOS version got.

 

[bankshot]

Sorry to go off the important topic of which phone is pictured in the article, but presumably this includes similar fixes to 14.8, addressing the Pegasus vulnerability? I was wondering if Apple would backport it to iOS 12. I have an iPhone 6 still in use for secondary purposes, so this is really nice to see!

 

[lagflag]

Android could never.

This is the first reason I bought my first iPhone ever in 20 years! I am done with Androids lame updates system

 

[citysnaps]

This is the first reason I bought my first iPhone ever in 20 years! I am done with Androids lame updates system

Welcome aboard!

 

[needsomecoffee]

Excellent news for those committed to doing everything to minimize our environmental impact. Hopefully it foreshadows Apple's release of its own Fairphone product line, and later its take on the Framework laptop. Fingers crossed Tim is working on these as a long-term strategy for the brand and the environment. Happy to take today's small win for footprint reducers. (Note to the "new and shiny" lovers: these would be ALTERNATE product lines for consumers willing to make tradeoffs for footprint reduction. Will get flamed anyway, but wanted to add this to mitigate the heat some.)

 

[shadow puppet]

I have to admit this is a welcome surprise for my iPhone 6 and original iPad Air. Very cool.

 

[mannyvel]

No patch for my iPhone 1?

 

[winxmac]

I wish they made a "light" version of iOS for older models to bring it up to the speed they once had. My iPad Mini 2's became slower and slower the higher the iOS version got.

We do not get a technically light in resources iOS version that is similar to Windows vs Linux distro resources usage or Linux Mint XFCE vs Linux Cinnamon/MATE...

What we do get is an iOS version that is light in features... All of the features are available on the iPhone released the same time the iOS version was released... Full feature set iOS 15 for iPhone 13 series and limited feature set on iPhones older than iPhone XS/XR...

And what Apple should have done is:
iPod touch 5th gen - iOS 6.x
iPod touch 6th gen - iOS 9.x to iOS 10.x
iPod touch 7th gen - iOS 12.x to iOS 14.x

The iPhone and iPad counterpart should be as close to what I mentioned above...

 

[winxmac]

iOS 12 was 1 year feature and security updates [2018-2019] and 2 years security only updates [2019-2021]

I think like how they are retiring the updates for macOS 10.14 it will be the same for iOS 12 and iOS 12.5.5 may be the last update ever...

 

[jagfan]

Happy for my backup 6!

 

[Lerten]

Yeah it's odd. Huge amount of arbitrary cuts offs happening on the Mac side. Given 3rd parties can enable both Big Sur and Monterey onto pretty much all post 2012 Macs, Apple really should be supporting them as well.

I've said it time and time again, but recycling is all well and good, but extending the useful lifespan of devices is also hugely important.

It's insane that a 2014 iPad Air 2 can run iPad OS 15 but a 2014 MacBook Pro can't run Monterey..

It really might not be insane when you look at it from the perspective of being in a sprint to get rid of Intel support as soon as possible 🤷🏼‍♂️

 

[Paddle1]

I thought they might've finished up with iOS 12 and moved to 14 and 15 only. Not quite yet it seems.

 

[BigMacLover]

It was still showing 6S when we initially commented... Seems they have updated the image now to iPhone 6...

Yes, Mrs. Kravitz. We know you saw something strange. Now why don’t you lie down and rest. 🙄

(Hopefully you understand the reference and know I’m kidding.)

 

[Morod]

Available update on my iPad Mini 3. From 2014. Thanks Apple!

 

[Hexley]

These are largely 2013 iPhone 5s & 2014 iPhone 6/6Plus. 8yo and 7yo phones

 

[oldmacs]

It really might not be insane when you look at it from the perspective of being in a sprint to get rid of Intel support as soon as possible 🤷🏼‍♂️

I think that's an absolutely horrible move.