I'm not sure why so many people are having issues with iOS 7 performance on the 4S. I have iOS 7 running on my old iPhone 4 and it runs really well. Some of the animations aren't as smooth as they are on the iPhone 5, but still pretty good.
All those things can easily be explained as part of rushing out to get something fully vetted in a timeley manner. Perhaps putting in other memory chips into iPad and making room for that would have delayed some production or testing or something and Apples iPad wouldn't have released until some months later than it did. And what if someone released even a semi-decent tablet in that time besting Apple to being the first ones with actually a useful everyday everyman type of tablet? That's a huge huge difference there. So certainly perhaps some business reasons behind it, but doesn't have to be anything related to planned obsolescence or anything else conspiratorially sinister like that.iPhone's camera isn't the best, but it is not the worst. It gets the job done. Some comparison suggests iPhone's camera equivalent to Samsung Galaxy S4, which is pretty good. But iPhone's camera certain can be improve.
Qi: I tried cable-lss recharging with BlackBerry before and I saw the Qi wireless charging... I still found wireless charging is something useful and unnecessary at same time. You still need hock the charging pads with power outlet and you still need put your phone on top of the pad.... it is not truly wireless charing.
USB OTG: not happening... unless Apple stop wanting charge $100 for each storage upgrade... And beside, iOS has no file system, why would you even want external memory card/USB stick/HDD thing? Why not just hook them up to your computer and use file sharing?
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YES!
Well they are technically not pointing gun at you, but they will render your device rather useless and you have to buy the newest to get the latest feature.
Take iPad 3 as example: No AirDrop... I don't give a crap of hardware limitation. If Apple can put a capable wireless card on iPad 4 half year later, Apple definitely can put a capable wireless card on iPad 3... but no.... O
Take iPad 1 as example: Apple knows 256MB won't stay long until it became useless... Apple did it anyway....
iPhone's camera isn't the best, but it is not the worst. It gets the job done. Some comparison suggests iPhone's camera equivalent to Samsung Galaxy S4, which is pretty good. But iPhone's camera certain can be improve.
Qi: I tried cable-lss recharging with BlackBerry before and I saw the Qi wireless charging... I still found wireless charging is something useful and unnecessary at same time. You still need hock the charging pads with power outlet and you still need put your phone on top of the pad.... it is not truly wireless charing.
All those things can easily be explained as part of rushing out to get something fully vetted in a timeley manner. Perhaps putting in other memory chips into iPad and making room for that would have delayed some production or testing or something and Apples iPad wouldn't have released until some months later than it did. And what if someone released even a semi-decent tablet in that time besting Apple to being the first ones with actually a useful everyday everyman type of tablet? That's a huge huge difference there. So certainly perhaps some business reasons behind it, but doesn't have to be anything related to planned obsolescence or anything else conspiratorially sinister like that.
All nice ideas and conjectures, but hard to say what overall business risk they carried when compared to being first to market and all that came with it. Despite those kinds of drawbacks for some extra longevity, in the extremely fast moving pace of the mobile world, it could very well be that being able to deliver what they did and when they did and how they did was more instrumental to Apple and perhaps even the industry and this even the consumers.It indeed should. It's seriously lagging behind the competition.
It's still much more convenient - it lets you always charge your devices without hving to plug them in. I love it - it's REALLY useful. Too bad Apple didn't add it (either).
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Still,
1, they should have at least run some feasibility tests... they could have realized 256M was just too little even with iOS 3.2. For example, Web pages occupy 4-5 times more memory (in general, between 10 and 40 Mbytes) with an iOS device with an XGA memory; almost an order of magnitude less with a non-Retina iPhone. And the iPad 1 has the same amount of memory as the non-Retina iPhone - no wonder the latter crashes far less frequently when running apps / removes the contents of closed tabs etc.
2, the iPad was released just some 3-4 months before the 512Mbyte-RAM iPhone 4. I'm pretty sure they could have put 512M RAM in the iPad too.
Do simple research; they're obvious.
How about a notification LED Apple?
Now with iOS 7, it's no different underneath than iOS 6.
I think that tide is (slowly) turning. It's easy enough to justify handing down an iPad to a family member to help justify purchasing the latest one. But there may be a point when people ask themselves, "why pay for premium quality hardware when the OS and software will make it obsolete long before the hardware itself wears out?"The lifecycle of any device has definitely been shortened, the thinner they get the more disposable they are.
I just experienced opening my iPad 2 and it was a real mess when compared to an iPhone.
Anyway the software obsolescence is one thing versus the hardware one, in reality the processor found in the iPhone 4S vs the latest an greatest is night and day of difference.
That been said we have to understand if we really want it jump into the latest and greatest software running it on a hardware from more than two years ago is not going to be "snappier" unless there are some trade offs.
Tinker with your settings and you may find a better performance. Turn the iPhone off or do a fresh install. Sometimes simply closing all the open apps helps.
Maybe you iPhone is full and some of the free space isn't there for the iPhone to run smoothly.
Remember these are small computers and they need processor power and memory allocation to run all the magic behind them.
Sadly yes Apple is forcing us to spend more and more every couple of years onto new hardware.
Well, to be fair, that's a completely different LED notification system, and not the same thing at all.Well I did follow your advice and found a very nice explanation online in a macrumors forum post #21.
And about the LED you can turn on Accessibility Settings and enable the LED flash for Alerts.
Planned obsolescence would mean not letting you upgrade to the latest version of iOS at all. Pretty sure you are thinking about Android
Do simple research; they're obvious.
How about a notification LED Apple?
That been said we have to understand if we really want it jump into the latest and greatest software running it on a hardware from more than two years ago is not going to be "snappier" unless there are some trade offs.
Apple's doing this with all of their products.
MacBooks now come with soldered RAM. iMacs have been stripped to nothing. Mac Pro doesnt even have a GPU option, let alone internal HD options.
Apple has successfully ipadified their entire product line and convinced the majority of apple consumers that this is a 'good thing'.
Noone forces Apple not to innovate. Just some examples of what Apple failed to add to their flagships:
- 1080p60 / 4K video modes (LG G2, Note 3 etc.) Worthless to 99% of the consumer population
- OIS (Lumia 92x, 1020, 1520, LG G2, Nexus 5) The iPhone 5s is the best smartphone camera out there, with perhaps the exception of the Lumia
- Xenon flash (Lumia 920, 1020) Again, iPhone 5s = best smartphone camera.....who cares if it doesn't have this SPECIFIC thing
- large sensor (Lumia 1020 or even the Sony Z1) See above.....Apple DID increase the sensor size in the 5s btw.
- wideangle lens (all camera Lumias and most Android flagships), particularly in video mode *sigh* broken record.....
- dual camera recording (LG G2, Note 3 etc) Ok? This may be something YOU want but I can't think of ANY instance in which this feature would be worthwhile.....certainly wouldn't consider this "innovation".....
- Qi (all Nexuses, several Lumias etc.) Talk to me when we have TRUE wireless charging that doesn't require a wired $60 pad I have to set my phone on.....
- flawless SlimPort-based HDMI (not the Lightning joke) AirPlay works better for me - no cables or wires.
- Wacom support (all Notes) Yes, because we all really want to be able to draw on our 4" iPhones - maybe for the iPad perhaps......I think it might be coming to a larger iPad "pro"
- f.lux (possible to do w/o rooting on most Androids) No clue what this is, which I'd gather means 99% of consumers don't know either
- USB OTG (Android) Nope - don't need more ports.....my Apple ecosystem takes care of any transferring of data wirelessly
- decent Bluetooth support (for example OBEX; Android, WP8) Funny - my iPhone connects without fail to my car's BT, yet my Android phones have always been somewhat spotty....but your right, lets add more protocols 99% of people know nothing about.....I'd also argue is utilizing BT better than the rest - iBeacons, BTLE....
- make their Wi-Fi unit much more sensitive (my Nexus 7.2 can operate over a much weaker Wi-Fi signal than my iPads and iPhones) Perhaps....though I don't notice any discernible difference between my N5 and iOS devices
etc.
Instead, some of their "innovations" are giving us back some previously removed functionality like antialiasing on the iPad 2 (present in iOS4, removed in iOS5, re-added in iOS7).
Just keep in mind that Windows 7 was "snappier" than Windows Vista, and Windows 8 actually runs on hardware that Windows 7 cannot run on. Apple could write software that runs circles on the 4s, they choose not to.
It's a deliberate choice on Apple's part to make older devices less useful.
Regarding your comment on restoring to clean up the cache - too bad Apple don't allow what you can do with any desktop OS (Windows, OS X, Linux etc.): restore (reinstall) the same OS version to speed up / clean the system. In this regard (too), they do force to upgrade.
They don't "OWE" any of us anything.
Intereresting......
At first I was pretty stoked about getting a new OS for my iPhone 4s but after the novelty wore off I realized how terrible it was. Sure it looks great but it seems pretty ridiculous for a company to force an update that significantly slows ur device, crashes apps more often and drains your battery without giving you an alternative OS.
One of the things I loved about my iPhone was its "snappiness" when going from app to app or just doing whatever but after updating to iOS7 that "snappiness" was definitely gone. Just opening my settings menu seems significantly longer.
As for my battery I never had an issue with needing a recharge in the middle of the day until i updated. Usually I would have more than enough battery life to last till I went to bed. Nowadays I gotta charge more often in my car just to make sure I can make it through the day. Thats with all possible extra iOS7 features turned off.
I know its a lot of complaining about a device that is considered "old" but I feel like apple could do a better job maintaining the functional integrity of older generation products. I've always been a fan of good design and things that just work, Apple happens to most of the time always fall within those categorizes and not to sound like a fan boy but I always defend or explain to family and friends why you have to pay a premium with Apple and why it's usually worth it. But after being forced to take iOS7 I can't help but think of the term PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE.
Also sorry to be so blunt but you sound like Corporate Americas wet dream, bro.
The point of this thread, or at least my point, is that older devices shouldn't be forced to update with any type of unnecessary features that it can't handle anyway. Keeping the iPhone 4 or 4s the way it was or at least retaining the option to stay the way it was would have improved its longevity and functionality. Instead this update was forced upon everyone. The result being more crashes, less battery and a slower device overall to those with older gens.
You clearly don't understand what is going on with this thread. People who are complaining about older devices that don't function the way they used to due to forced updates OBVIOUSLY haven't gone out and bought the latest and greatest iPhone.
Also sorry to be so blunt but you sound like Corporate Americas wet dream, bro.