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There is zero chance of this happening. 6s yes, but 7, 8 no. And the performance of all of these is just fine in iOS 15. Not great, but fine. (I had both an original SE and an 6s which I finally sold last year.)
6S almost certainly will be dropped, 7 a very good chance too, 8 less likely but not impossible, stranger things have happened at tbh it is 5 years old now so is old in technological terms
 
Are you actually kidding? It’s been supported since 2015 for heavens sake, that is literally unheard of that longevity

Frankly I’d like to see them drop support for everything pre X and just finally no longer support the 6S/7/8 which have overstayed their welcome
Lol. Why do you have to punch down like that? It’s no skin off your nose if some older phone owners get another year or two of support.
 
There is zero chance of this happening. 6s yes, but 7, 8 no. And the performance of all of these is just fine in iOS 15. Not great, but fine. (I had both an original SE and an 6s which I finally sold last year.)
It all had to do with what the hardware supports. We been guessing age, memory, specific ARM SoC, but iPhone7 is Bluetooth 4.2 still. Comparably Bluetooth 5.0 (2016) requires less power, longer range, twice the speed, IoT devices supported. If you use Bluetooth connectivity a lot wouldn't you want Bluetooth 5.0 minimum now with iOS 16?
 
I think most people have iOS update burnout and couldn’t care less about iOS 16 or beyond. They just want their phone to work, be bug free, and stop nagging them all the time.
Absolutely agree.
Bug free, get rid of incessant nags , and bring back iOS13 Mail app GUI.
 
Per WIKI


I don't know why some people keep looking at the updates for HomePods and Apple TV as ecosystems separate and removed from iOS. So if Apple changes the support for what will run on iOS 16, its a given it will trickle to other products.

That's because historically, sometimes, an SoC loses support on the iOS/iPadOS side of things, but keeps support on other devices that they're in. There is a precedent for it happening.


There is zero chance of this happening. 6s yes, but 7, 8 no. And the performance of all of these is just fine in iOS 15. Not great, but fine. (I had both an original SE and an 6s which I finally sold last year.)

The chance of it happening is absolutely nonzero. You keep insisting that there's an established pattern and yet Apple IS CURRENTLY BREAKING THAT PATTERN (they also have a history of breaking their own pattern when people least expect it).
 
That's because historically, sometimes, an SoC loses support on the iOS/iPadOS side of things, but keeps support on other devices that they're in. There is a precedent for it happening.
As I pointed out, you have both the limitations of past products utilizing Bluetooth 4.2 and only having 2 GB of Ram, that will matter more then some older ARM being supported as we go towards iOS 16. Apple also seems to make iOS 15.5 have a enough changes for products being cut off to be useful for a few years IMHO.
 
As I pointed out, you have both the limitations of past products utilizing Bluetooth 4.2 and only having 2 GB of Ram, that will matter more then some older ARM being supported as we go towards iOS 16. Apple also seems to make iOS 15.5 have a enough changes for products being cut off to be useful for a few years IMHO.
The point of yours that I was replying to said that you don't know why people are assuming different loss-of-support dates for Apple SoCs across different platforms. My reply to you was that this has been known to happen from time to time and that it's not so unusual or out of the norm. Apple probably won't need to drop the A8 in the original HomePod at the same time that they drop support for it in the iPad mini 4. Hell, the iPad mini 4 might lose support before the fourth generation Apple TV (HD) does!

iOS 15.5 is not going to influence which devices do or don't get supported in iOS 16.

Bluetooth 4.2 vs. 5.0 will only matter if Apple decides that it matters (they probably won't).

Apple deciding which SoCs get continued support is not insignificant and is often based on architectural differences as well (and not just RAM). Furthermore, there are plenty of substantial feature changes between A8 and A9 (i.e. the entire storage subsystem moving from eMMC to NVMe), A9 and A10 (i.e. big.LITTLE), and A10 to A11 (i.e. 32-bit instructions dropped, custom Apple GPUs instead of PowerVR, and the neural engine) that all it takes is for Craig Federighi to decide that one of these things matters relative to the entire OS for that to become the cutoff point.
 
6S series had a solid F'in run. Seven years is better than some computers and gaming consoles lol. I still maintain its the best phone Apple made, in terms of longevity. Of course, that can be dethroned here as newer models age. If seven years becomes the norm, I am certainly not complaining.
I would submit the original SE in its place, since the 5S design was in my opinion the best that Apple has ever put forth, and they use the same SoC, making them equal in longevity.
 
I don’t think the iPhone 7, iPad (6th generation), and iPod touch (7th generation) will lose support. If the iPhone 7 were to lose support for its 2 GB of RAM despite having an A10 chip, the iPhone 8 should lose support as well. And the iPod touch (7th gen) has the same A10 chip and 2 GB RAM as the iPhone 7, so I’d expect it to lose support at the same time as the iPhone 7 (I’m thinking they would in iOS 18), unless Apple decides to pull an iPod touch (4th gen) getting iOS 6 while the original iPad with the same A4 chip and 256 MB of RAM didn’t.

If iOS 16 drops support for devices, I expect those to only be A8/A8X and A9/A9X devices with 2 GB of RAM. These include:
  • iPad Air 2
  • iPad mini 4
  • iPhone 6s / 6s Plus
  • iPhone SE (1st generation)
  • iPad Pro 9.7-inch (1st generation)
  • iPad (5th generation)
I’m not exactly counting on the 9.7-inch losing support, but the original 12.9-inch iPad Pro should stay due to having double the RAM of the devices I just listed.

No way they will drop support for the iPad mini 4, despite its 2 GB RAM. It wasn't discontinued until 2019.
The iPad mini 4 came out in 2015 and it has the A8 SoC, which came out in 2014. The iPad Air 2 has an A8X, so I would expect the iPad mini 4 to lose support earlier if not at the same time.

My iPad Mini 4 is dog slow under iPadOS 15 and I can't imagine it handling 16 at all. Honestly wish I'd stopped updating it several versions ago. The thing felt quite fast and smooth when I first got it but now it's so laggy I kind of hate to even use it.
I agree that the mini 4 is a little slow on iOS 15, but I don’t think it’s as unbearable as you make it out to be. Mine is on 15.0 (I plan to keep it there so I can jailbreak it later) so maybe being on an earlier version makes it faster?
 
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I agree that the mini 4 is a little slow on iOS 15, but I don’t think it’s as unbearable as you make it out to be. Mine is on 15.0 (I plan to keep it there so I can jailbreak it later) so maybe being on an earlier version makes it faster?
Maybe so. I tried resetting it back to default settings and it didn't do much. One weird thing is that I can no longer get the Disney+ website to play videos at all, even after totally erasing all content and settings and starting the thing basically from scratch. This is a relatively recent problem, so I have a hunch one of the more recent iPadOS 15 updates broke something.
 
I don’t think the iPhone 7, iPad (6th generation), and iPod touch (7th generation) will lose support. If the iPhone 7 were to lose support for its 2 GB of RAM despite having an A10 chip, the iPhone 8 should lose support as well. And the iPod touch (7th gen) has the same A10 chip and 2 GB RAM as the iPhone 7, so I’d expect it to lose support at the same time as the iPhone 7 (I’m thinking they would in iOS 18), unless Apple decides to pull an iPod touch (4th gen) getting iOS 6 while the original iPad with the same A4 chip and 256 MB of RAM didn’t.

If iOS 16 drops support for devices, I expect those to only be A8/A8X and A9 devices with 2 GB of RAM. These include:
  • iPad Air 2
  • iPad mini 4
  • iPhone 6s / 6s Plus
  • iPhone SE (1st generation)
  • iPad Pro 9.7-inch (1st generation)?
  • iPad (5th generation)
I’m not exactly counting on the 9.7-inch losing support, but the original 12.9-inch iPad Pro should stay due to having double the RAM of the devices I just listed.


The iPad mini 4 came out in 2015 and it has the A8 SoC, which came out in 2014. The iPad Air 2 has an A8X, so I would expect the iPad mini 4 to lose support earlier if not at the same time.


I agree that the mini 4 is a little slow on iOS 15, but I don’t think it’s as unbearable as you make it out to be. Mine is on 15.0 (I plan to keep it there so I can jailbreak it later) so maybe being on an earlier version makes it faster?

iOS/iPadOS 13 was the last time that the minimum system requirements changed. At that point, anything with less than 2GB of RAM was dropped from support. Before than, iOS 11 dropped any device (or app) that wasn't 64-bit. Then iOS 10 dropped any device lower than 1GB of RAM. If we're rolling with the idea that every three iOS releases is when Apple ups the minimum RAM requirement, then we're due to see that raised to 3GB. But, it's also the case that Apple CAN and HAS upped the minimum requirements for iOS/iPadOS for things other than RAM.

They have perfectly sensible reasons to completely eschew A8/X (eMMC storage instead of PCIe/NVMe). They have perfectly sensible reasons to completely eschew A9 (no big.LITTLE). And they have perfectly sensible reasons to nix anything that isn't A11 or newer (A11 introduced Apple's own in-house GPUs and the neural engine). Incidentally, raising the minimum RAM requirement to 3GB is not out of the realm of possibility because, if trends mean anything here, it's time.

I do think that A8 will remain supported for the Fourth Gen/HD Apple TV and the original HomePod. But only because those OSes don't change drastically enough to have it really matter. Though, I could just as easily imagine Apple dropping those too.

Also, it's highly unusual for a device's final major iOS release to get much worse between its initial and final version. A little worse, sure. But to the point where you're holding out on iPadOS 15.0 on a mini 4 because you're worried about 15.5 or 15.6? Seems like if you've already gotten to 15.0, the worst you'll get are bugs introduced since (and not further performance degradation).

Maybe so. I tried resetting it back to default settings and it didn't do much. One weird thing is that I can no longer get the Disney+ website to play videos at all, even after totally erasing all content and settings and starting the thing basically from scratch. This is a relatively recent problem, so I have a hunch one of the more recent iPadOS 15 updates broke something.

I'd do a DFU restore. Erase all Content and Settings doesn't do anything to the OS, it just wipes user content.
 
As long as my iPhone SE (2nd gen) can run it, I'll be happy, even if my 6th-gen iPad can't. (My iPhone is my most frequently-used iOS device anyways.)
 
As long as my iPhone SE (2nd gen) can run it, I'll be happy, even if my 6th-gen iPad can't. (My iPhone is my most frequently-used iOS device anyways.)
Safe bet that the second generation iPhone SE won't have any problems. It's possible that the sixth generation iPad will be fine too. It all depends on where Apple draws the line.
 
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Safe bet that the second generation iPhone SE won't have any problems. It's possible that the sixth generation iPad will be fine too. It all depends on where Apple draws the line.
Id actually sue Apple for discontinuation of my iPad 6th Gen. iPhone SE2 owners would also do that.
 
I think most people have iOS update burnout and couldn’t care less about iOS 16 or beyond. They just want their phone to work, be bug free, and stop nagging them all the time.

I think the yearly OS updates are some of the most fun aspects of owning Apple devices, you get new stuff, a fresh coat of paint, new backgrounds…
 
Apple Memo Says Original iPad Pro and Strangely the 'Apple TV HD' Will Become Vintage Products Next Month

Apple is planning to add the first-generation iPad Pro to its vintage products list at the end of June, the company announced this week in an internal memo distributed to Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers.

Oddly, multiple sources advised MacRumors that Apple's memo says the "Apple TV HD" will also be classified as vintage at the end of June, despite Apple continuing to sell the device with 32GB of storage.
 
Now having seen where the line was drawn, I kind of get why they drew it at A11 for iPhones. But I have zero clue as to why they didn't draw it at a similar location for iPadOS. I'm not complaining; A9/X and A10/X iPads live to fight another day. But I wonder if this is mainly because Apple didn't port most of iOS 16's new features to iPadOS 16 and that the only crazy new feature is one that won't even apply unless one has an M1 iPad.
 
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