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Comment by lostgame | Hacker News Reader

You know what would help shit like this?

Letting us downgrade iOS.

I get it. It means potential security exploits.

But at least let us make the choice wether we’d prefer those to shiny new, and different issues that seem to be growing in number.

Please? No?

Fine, I’ll wait for the jailbreak and collect the goddamn SHSH blobs or whatever, if that’s how far you’ll make me go.

My, how lucky you are that GarageBand iOS has no peers (namely its integration with Logic), or I’d downgrade to a dumb phone and start carrying a palm pilot again.

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This comment is written on iOS 10. I just wish there was a way to turn off the upgrade nag screen. Nothing better than asking for your passkey in a modal while you're trying to get shit done.

You can delay it a little by going to Settings > General > Storage & Cloud usage > Manage storage and delete the downloaded update. It buys me about a week until it downloads again and starts spamming me to upgrade.

Tip: fill up your phone storage. Seriously, my ios 11 experience was so bad that I don't want to even have the possibility of apple automatically installing it here (or me accidentally updating it, since the update popup is extremely deceptive and screams dark ux).

Thanks, but the point is, the OS shouldn't get in the way of you getting stuff done. That's against Apple's intent which was "making technology disappear so that you can focus on what you're doing, not tweak the tech at your hand".

It's absolutely with the apple ethos of making you upgrade their crap when you don't want or need to. In this case if you have to upgrade AND they can cross sell you, up sell you product you don't want and then also sell access to you to third parties it's the apple living their dream. User experience, that's just bait, surely you've noticed that before now?

Security patches need to be entirely separate to performance degradation patches. You should be able to say no thankyou to your vendor gimping your product without them holding the "no security for you" gun to your head.

When you buy a device, security patches for that OS for 5 years should be a requirement for the device being fit for purpose.

Not sure why you're being downvoted. I entirely agree with everything you've said.

For anyone not aware, Apple is extremely hostile to device longevity and 3rd party repair [1]. They have had issues with hinge design in MacBooks as well as the Bendgate crisis for the iPhone 6 series.

They bricked phones when people had other repair shops fix their home buttons (Touch ID sensors).

Apple wants to control everything, sell you a device with a short lifespan, and then force upgrades.

1 - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=26cNHSilikI

Install the tvOS beta profile and it’ll never ask you again.

Do you happen to have a link - sounds pretty cool if that will work.

The original link is down.

https://github.com/TheMultiplix/OTA-BLOCKER-FOR-IOS

usual caveats apply, make sure that mobileconfig is really the mobileconfig you're looking for.

This comment is written on iOS 9. Still don't feel like I'm missing anything.

This comment is written on 8.4.1... If I need to use a hammer I don't want to have to upgrade it... And when I do upgrade it I don't want the head to fly off or the handle to break when I'm trying to drive a nail.

This comment is written on iOS 6.1.3 on my iPad 2. It might not be able to run most new apps now, but at least it doesn't lag. Plus, the OS actually looks nice.

You’re kind of right. Trouble started with iOS 7. That’s when the focus went from usability ( which, btw, includes performance) to shiny and disturbing animations nobody cares about.

And now i can’t even modify text properly because the drag n drop interfeers with cursor positionning.

I regretted upgrading my iPad 4 to iOS 8. Then I upgraded it to iOS 9 and regretted even more. Hopelessly - and wishing iOS 10 will solve the problems - I then upgraded to iOS 10.

Now there's no JailBreak for iOS 10.3.1 32 Bit devices, and the OS lags like never before. Really miss iOS 6...

Just to be snark, this comment written in w3m/0.5.3.

Yay, a pissing contest on who runs the most old unpatched iOS version. Full with local and remote exploitable holes in the web browser and what not. How can you possibly be proud of such?

6 was the absolute peak of their mobile design

What the hell is this???

A hammer analogy?

If it ain't broke don't "fix" it.

Car analogies only please.

(Ironically "if it ain't broke..." doesn't apply to Apple)

I use tools to fix problems in my life. Hammers are one of the simplest tools in existence. When breaking down complexities in my life and looking for solutions I find it helpful to employ design principles which are really just different philosophies to the test possible solutions. Ultimately in an attempt to gain some measure of control over possible emergence. My phone is a tool. It allows me to make and recieve communication events from people I value. In addition it has a number of other features that I find helpful in solving additional problems. That these additional solutions fit within the same small light weight device is of great convenience and subsequently value. However my phone is a tool. The worst thing for a tool to do is for it to fail during use. Tools break and require maintenance. To fail during use however is a serious problem for any tool. Injury and death are likely possible outcomes. More likely are losses potentially very serious losses that in turn could lead to injury or death. For most people their phone failing is of no grave consequence. I imagine these hypothetical individuals are not placed into positions of much responsibility. That however and not too sadly is not my situation. I seek stability, reliability and robustness in any solution I employ. I don't engineer or design with duct tape... I try not to at least, sometimes it fun though. However for critical systems any solution is not just another brick to be added to the solution super structure stack, every solution in fact becomes foundational. We tend to forget all the problems we've encountered so as to bring us to this particular point in time. As such we happily go along fixing problems or whatever and thinking the world has always been that way... Up until something breaks! I live light and move fast, my phone is part of a set of tools that I use to allow me to do what I do. Upgrading it is too much of a risk and time drain to be of much value. The cost of upgrading vastly over shadows the reward and every new shiny feature that breaks something I depend on just makes it that much worse.

In addition,I like my hammer comment for exactly the response you gave. It triggers an almost visceral response in people who are tech literate. Call it subtle trolling if you will, but it's trolling designed to make someone think.

Also, I'm not always a fan of "if it ain't broke don't fix it" it has it's place though. More importantly for me is to have well designed solutions that are easily maintained that work. "Iiabdfi" usually only applies to duct tape systems and it surely is a principle to remember when encountering them.

Yes, especially the last version of the last major branch. I would love to go back to iOS10.

I'll probably never update my phone to a new major iOS version until it's been out at least 6 months. If iOS11 is ever reaches the point where it's as good as iOS10 was, I'll install the tvOS beta config and prevent updates. At least until I'm able to take the time and research if the latest version of iOS12 is in good shape for most users.

An even better idea, and what I'm probably going to do, is to only update from and to the last version of each major iOS. Then you don't have to time anything at all and do any research/guesswork. Your device just works as well as it can, for the longest period of time. Everyone else beta tests Apple's software for you.

I really wish I were on 10.3.3 and had the tvOS profile right now. Never again.

I'd been an Apple fan and happy iPhone user for ~8 years until I updated my iPhone 6 Plus to iOS 11. My phone went from snappy to crappy. Apple support told me I couldn't go back to iOS 10, so I figured it was time to buy a new phone. My Pixel 2 came Friday.

My Pixel 2 XL comes tomorrow! Shipped a week early.

Nice! I am very happy with mine.

Are there any operating systems that offer an seamless, out-of-the-box downgrade option? When I first upgraded from windows 7 to 10 I remember wanting to go back and finding out that it was an incredibly convoluted process. Although I guess with iOS you just can’t downgrade, period.

Some Android manufacturers provide "factory images" allowing you to completely wipe your phone and reinstall any version supported on the hardware. Google is probably the best, maintaining an archive of every version released for the phones they sell.

You actually can downgrade iOS but only if you are inside the "grace" period that is about 1 month from the first release. After that point you can't downgrade anymore. In my case I always wait before updating because I have been burnt in the past, but this means that I'm outside the grace period. Even extending it to something like 6 months would be great.

When I upgraded a laptop from Windows 7 to 10, and then it wouldn't resume from sleep anymore, I told Windows 10 to revert and it took a long time but worked perfectly.

I can reinstall windows 7, xp, heck 3.11 just fine thank you

GNU/Linux

You can downgrade through iTunes. Download the IPSW and put phone in DFU mode and then Alt + RightClick on Update iOS in iTunes when it you plug the device in.

Only to the iOS versions currently being signed, which doesn't provide a huge selection. https://ipsw.me/ provides a nifty way to see what is available.

FYI, ipsw.me has been having some troubles lately, and the reported signatures might not be accurate.

@lostgame: Out of interest, what device size are you running GB on?

Want to upgrade my old phone to take advantage of GB's Logic integration, but I can't decide whether to get an iPhone 8 Plus or the standard model... Does screen size make a big difference on that app? (do you know...) Thanks

Nothing beats the iPad Mini / LTE model’s form factor and screen, and I use VOIP anyways.

iPhone 5s does. Not too big, not too small. RIP. Reaching the top corner on this 8 is horrible and I’m large, tall person.

I am not sure if I follow. The iPhone SE has the same form factor as the 5s, but mostly the innards of the iPhone 6s. Rumors are that there will be a new SE in the first quarter of 2018.

I am using an SE, because I dislike larger phones (though the 4.7" may still be ok).

I had this issue, but there's a hack called Reachability:

https://9to5mac.com/2014/09/09/a-look-at-apples-reachability...

For GarageBand? I think you’re misunderstanding the question.

Why didn't you get an SE instead?

When you keep your phone for 4 years each time, you need to get one with good specs, and I’m not certain that the SE is going to last as long as an 8. The camera is a huge factor too.

If you're willing to carry two devices, is there a reason you can't just have a dedicated GarageBand controller device (an iPod Touch or an iPad would do), and then get whatever dumb old devices you like?

The point is I shouldn’t have to, when my device used to work just dandy before I finally gave in to its incessant nagging to update.

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