Early iOS thread?

[swamprock]

Since we are now addressing, to a lesser extent, early Intel 'books, I was wondering what everyone thinks about adding a thread dedicated to making early iOS devices useful in the modern age. I have quite a few of these- original iPod Touch, 2nd gen iPod Touch, iPad 1 and 2, and have spent some time hunting down apps, optimization techniques, ways to make old apps work again (I.e. YouTube, which now has a workaround for the old App Store version, not the bundled one), and other ways to make these devices useful today. With iOS 6 and lower, jailbreaking is pretty much a necessity these days.

We could also use this thread to share links to apps that are no longer available on the App Store for early iOS versions (I.e. Netflix, which still works and that I've backed up).

Thoughts?

(Posted from my original iPad using the AdBlock Browser for Chromecast)

 

[Amethyst1]

Owning an iPhone 4s running iOS 6, my opinion is to go for it.

 

[z970]

Great idea. Here's something I've picked up over the years owning an iPod touch 4...

Turn off Spotlight. Turn off Location Services (if you can). Have as little additional apps as possible.

It should be much faster.

 

[eyoungren]

Owning an iPhone 4s running iOS 6, my opinion is to go for it.

I've got a 4s with 6.1.3. Jailbroken.
[doublepost=1536181602][/doublepost]

Since we are now addressing, to a lesser extent, early Intel 'books, I was wondering what everyone thinks about adding a thread dedicated to making early iOS devices useful in the modern age. I have quite a few of these- original iPod Touch, 2nd gen iPod Touch, iPad 1 and 2, and have spent some time hunting down apps, optimization techniques, ways to make old apps work again (I.e. YouTube, which now has a workaround for the old App Store version, not the bundled one), and other ways to make these devices useful today. With iOS 6 and lower, jailbreaking is pretty much a necessity these days.

We could also use this thread to share links to apps that are no longer available on the App Store for early iOS versions (I.e. Netflix, which still works and that I've backed up).

Thoughts?

(Posted from my original iPad using the AdBlock Browser for Chromecast)

The only thing I think could happen with that (a thread on your topic) would be the mods moving it here: https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/ios-5-and-earlier.154/

 

[swamprock]

The only thing I think could happen with that (a thread on your topic) would be the mods moving it here: https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/ios-5-and-earlier.154/

I think it would be more focused here, rather than in a forum that has very little by way of more recent posts. Not my call, though. Would be a shame if it did get moved.

 

[z970]

Petition for the PowerPC Macs forum to be renamed to "Old Macs / iDevices".

 

[rafark]

Great idea. Here's something I've picked up over the years owning an iPod touch 4...

Turn off Spotlight. Turn off Location Services (if you can). Have as little additional apps as possible.

It should be much faster.

what os do you have installed? I have one running ios 5 with jailbreak and it's almost unusable. IOS 4 was buttery smooth on it.

 

[swamprock]

Petition for the PowerPC Macs forum to be renamed to "Old Macs / iDevices".

There are too many people here who frequent this forum, and I wouldn't stoop to try to get the name changed to satisfy my own desires. Perhaps we should just use the existing forum and see how many of us contribute to it.

 

[eyoungren]

Petition for the PowerPC Macs forum to be renamed to "Old Macs / iDevices".

The mods would then argue that it's already covered: https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/apple-collectors.6/

 

[bobesch]

To revive the old iOS devices with iOS-versions and Apps and JB-stuff of choice would be a great deal!
I'm in!

Kind of trying to save the needles off the haystack.
But nothing comes closer to "1984" than Internet and iOS.
(Wait ...who did dazzle people with that 1984-ad !? - There's obviously no alternative. The posse is following exactly the same path.)
What a shame - it's much harder to preserve old stuff, than to dump it and go with the flow ...

The first step should be collecting ideas about the essential Apps to make the old devices still capable to cope with currents tasks and/or exchange data with other devices.
It comes donw to the same essentials (most of them like with MacOS9):
web, IMAP, Office, PDF, FileSharing/ScreenSharing, Cloud/webDAV, music, podcast, video-streaming, maps. And choosing the iOS/JB of choice - back to the roots.

 

[z970]

There are too many people here who frequent this forum, and I wouldn't stoop to try to get the name changed to satisfy my own desires. Perhaps we should just use the existing forum and see how many of us contribute to it.

But it's not just your desires. There's a lot of early Intel, 90's Macs, and a general consensus of making anything old run well in this forum.

Though I'm not protesting, a name change would reflect a lot of what goes on during a daily basis here.
[doublepost=1536191181][/doublepost]

what os do you have installed? I have one running ios 5 with jailbreak and it's almost unusable. IOS 4 was buttery smooth on it.

iOS 6. How many apps do you have installed? That's usually the big culprit for a lot of people.

I once had a 4S on iOS 9 that had so many apps on it, it could barely display any motion on the screen, let alone respond to touch input. Just being idle was too much for it. After managing to painfully delete every app one after another, life began to return to it. It got snappy again.

So for my philosophy, on devices running their last supported OS, it's a great rule of thumb to keep the number of installed apps close to the default amount, and turn off any background services you can to keep CPU/RAM usage as down as possible.

Another thing you could try (besides updating to iOS 6, which is better than 5), is in System Preferences, switching Mail from "Push" to "Manual", so Mail only gets updated when you refresh your inbox in-app. This way, the system isn't updating your mailbox on the sly while you're trying to browse Safari.

Turn off automatic downloads, open up the multitasker (double tap Home) and close open apps, and don't fill your device's storage to the brim. Leave about 10% or so free.

Reset your device once in a while (Power + Home until Apple logo appears) also.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head right now, but as a result, I've got an unjailbroken iPod touch 4 on iOS 6, and I have no complaints about its performance.

And that means a lot coming from me, because I'm a performance freak.

 

[AphoticD]

I have a 1st gen iPad running 5.1.1 which my kids play on and they use the last version of Chrome to watch YouTube. I have v49.2623.109 backed up in my Mobile Applications folder; This may be the final version.

YouTube crashes the browser every now and then, but otherwise, this seems to work fine and didn't require jailbreaking. I have a bunch of "vintage" games from the era which they like to play. For the most part I've removed the 1st person shooters and other overly violent games to keep it as kid friendly as possible.

It still holds a decent charge and looks practically new. I find it useful as an eBook reader for myself. The versions of Kindle and iBooks apps are still able to connect to my libraries and last I checked, Dropbox and Evernote synchronized fine.

 

[rafark]

But it's not just your desires. There's a lot of early Intel, 90's Macs, and a general consensus of making anything old run well in this forum.

Though I'm not protesting, a name change would reflect a lot of what goes on during a daily basis here.
[doublepost=1536191181][/doublepost]

iOS 6. How many apps do you have installed? That's usually the big culprit for a lot of people.

I once had a 4S on iOS 9 that had so many apps on it, it could barely display any motion on the screen, let alone respond to touch input. Just being idle was too much for it. After managing to painfully delete every app one after another, life began to return to it. It got snappy again.

So for my philosophy, on devices running their last supported OS, it's a great rule of thumb to keep the number of installed apps close to the default amount, and turn off any background services you can to keep CPU/RAM usage as down as possible.

Another thing you could try (besides updating to iOS 6, which is better than 5), is in System Preferences, switching Mail from "Push" to "Manual", so Mail only gets updated when you refresh your inbox in-app. This way, the system isn't updating your mailbox while you're trying to browse Safari.

Turn off automatic downloads, open up the multitasker (double tap Home) and close open apps, and don't fill your device's storage to the brim. Leave about 10% or so free.

Reset your device once in a while (Power + Home until Apple logo appears) also.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head right now, but as a result, I've got an unjailbroken iPod touch 4 on iOS 6, and I have no complaints about its performance.

And that means a lot coming from me, because I'm a performance freak.

In my case, it may also be that I have a lot of filesystem trash (from ifile). I'm actually surprised you got it working smoothly on iOS 6, I remember installing it when it came out and it was not smooth at all. Maybe a clean install may do the trick.

Regarding the number of apps installed, yes, I've noticed the performance difference, however, currently most apps are not easy to get and backing them up on the mac gets messy.

I'll add a tip to your list that I used to use:

• If you want to browse the web, turn off JavaScript from system preferences. JavaScript makes it almost impossible to even google anything. There are some sites that work ok with JavaScript on, like YouTube. This trick may also work with similar devices like the original iPad. Oh, and only use safari, Apple cuts third party web browser performance by half I believe.

 

[z970]

In my case, it may also be that I have a lot of filesystem trash (from ifile). I'm actually surprised you got it working smoothly on iOS 6, I remember installing it when it came out and it was not smooth at all. Maybe a clean install may do the trick.

Regarding the number of apps installed, yes, I've noticed the performance difference, however, currently most apps are not easy to get and backing them up on the mac gets messy.

I'll add a tip to your list that I used to use:

• If you want to browse the web, turn off JavaScript from system preferences. JavaScript makes it almost impossible to even google anything. There are some sites that work ok with JavaScript on, like YouTube. This trick may also work with similar devices like the original iPad. Oh, and only use safari, Apple cuts third party web browser performance by half I believe.

When you clean install it, make sure to do it from iTunes via cable. Do not do OTA.

It's not messy if you use iTunes.

I don't turn off JavaScript because 70% of the web is unusable without it, though its use and practicality may depend on your browsing habits and your sites of choice, so user discretion is advised. Regardless, I have no problems with web browsing on my iPodT4, again, with JavaScript on.

Really!! That's a very manipulative, Google-like stunt to pull! Where did you find that out? Are you most sure third-party apps don't just use different, slower engines, and are not as naturally optimized as Safari is?

I'll look through my settings to give you folks the full rundown of what I changed.

 

[rafark]

When you clean install it, make sure to do it from iTunes via cable. Do not do OTA.

It's not messy if you use iTunes.

I don't turn off JavaScript because 70% of the web is unusable without it, though its use and practicality may depend on your browsing habits and your sites of choice, so user discretion is advised. Regardless, I have no problems with web browsing on my iPodT4, again, with JavaScript on.

Really!! That's a very manipulative, Google-like stunt to pull! Where did you find that out? Are you most sure third-party apps don't just use different, slower engines, and are not as naturally optimized as Safari is?

I'll look through my settings to give you folks the full rundown of what I change.

Really, no kidding. Mobile safari uses webkit as its engine, and Apple only allows third party browsers to use this engine. All browsers on iOs are the same with a different paint job. This is the reason fire-fox took so long to release their ios app (they realized they were losing market share). Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft edge, all run the same trimed-down engine on iOS.


http://www.iphonehacks.com/2015/01/...due-to-significant-technical-limitations.html

 

[swamprock]

Really, no kidding. Mobile safari uses webkit as its engine, and Apple only allows third party browsers to use this engine. All browsers on iOs are the same with a different paint job. This is the reason fire-fox took so long to release their ios app (they realized they were losing market share). Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft edge, all run the same trimed-down engine on iOS.


http://www.iphonehacks.com/2015/01/...due-to-significant-technical-limitations.html

I believe that Opera Mini, while using Webkit, may use its own rendering engine. It's a crap browser on 5.1.1, though. The best browser that I found was Adblock Browser for Chromecast. However, I had to install the virtual memory hack to keep it up and running, due to it's use of resources. UCBrowser is decent as well, and renders sites like archive.org just fine (if a bit slow) whereas other browsers croak on the site.

Attached are an optimization PDF for jailbroken devices, and the files needed for them. I've tried most of them on the original iPad, but the virtual memory hack (64mb one) was the most useful.

There are some now-useless launch daemons that can be disabled/removed from iOS 5.11/6.x, outlined here: http://www.ijailbreak.com/how-to/ho...rease-speed-battery-life-disk-space-part-two/

Here is a screenshot of a Twitter post on how to get the YouTube app (the App Store version, not the built-in dead app) to work again under iOS 5.1.1 and iOS 6. The issues listed at the bottom do not apply to iOS 5.1.1 and everything works just fine. I havent tried it with iOS 6 because the app seems to work fine without this hack:

I would also avoid installing Grayd00r. It seems to do more harm than good, with some apps not compatible with the theme and just crashing. Hulu is just one such app, as well as iBooks. In fact, I don't theme my iPad 1 at all (yeah... me, who themes everything!).

 

[z970]

Here's the full list.

First up, Wi-Fi. For your home network, manually input your IP, Subnet Mask, and Router. For DNS (and I recommend doing this on all web-connected computers come to think of it), enter "1.1.1.1, 1.0.0.1". (check it out. https://1.1.1.1/)

Turn Bluetooth off if you aren't using it. Saves battery.

Take as many applications out of Notification Center as possible. Banners will still alert you, but they just won't be stored.

In General, Usage, Storage, delete any overly-large apps you don't use. And as previously mentioned, deselect everything in Spotlight. When you have precious little resources, you can't afford background processes.

Keep brightness down to save battery life.

Again, turn off Location Services, especially if your device is most always at home.

Back to the main screen. Under "Mail, Contacts, Calendars", in Fetch New Data, turn Push off, and set Fetch to "Manually".

Then, go into iTunes & App Stores, turn off Automatic Downloads.

That's about it. Reset your device for good measure. (Home + Power 'till Apple logo)

Your iPod should be much smoother now. This will go for any newer devices too.
[doublepost=1536346767][/doublepost]Even though it isn't Apple, I wish we had a Symbian forum. We have a special brood of people here that know how to tweak, optimize, and rejuvenate abandoned technology like no other, and that would have been a fantastic trait to have in a small community centered around an already incredibly resource-light mobile OS last touched in 2014, running on hardware at least six years old that's currently having all kinds of trouble with staying relevant, that just like the G5, was shortchanged out of having a proper, respectful final stretch of support, and was dropped like a rock instead. Surprisingly enough, Symbian and PowerPCs have a lot in common.

Too bad it had such a minuscule presence in the U.S... Damn us and our superficial social media, apps galore requirements...

 

[AmazingHenry]

Looking to have some fun with my iPhone 2G... any ideas anyone?

 

[z970]

The post above you may be of some use.