Hacker News Reader

Comment by panglott | Hacker News Reader

Why pick on Apple here? Are there any Android tablets from 2010-2012 that still see regular use, get software updates, and new/updated apps? Is anyone still using their Blackberry PlayBooks from late 2010? It looks like the Galaxy Tab 2 from 2012 can only be upgraded to Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, roughly as current as iOS 5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_Tab_2_10.1

View on HN

Why NOT pick on Apple here?! There the most successful tablet manufacturer pretty much leading the direction of industry. Why are you so interested in deflecting their blame? Why do you think it's ok if others do it to?

I think it's clarifying to look at tablet manufacturers as a whole. The reflexive complaint of Apple is that their system is too locked-down and limited by their approach to software. However, at the same time, there were Android tablets being made in the same era, and it appears that they also suffer from some similar problems (being only limited to Jelly Bean). If so, perhaps the commonest complaints about Apple's approach to software is off the mark in this case.

All hardware products will suffer tradeoffs, and I don't necessarily find it reasonable to think that tablet computers should always be hardware-upgradeable, if it is at the expense of handle-ablity. The author's lament is that the iPad went obsolete before it broke. The PlayBook went obsolete nearly as soon as it was released. How did those Galaxy Tab 2s do? If the problem is that "it went obsolete before it broke", that's infinitely better than "it broke before it went obsolete".

The problem is that it went obsolete artificially in a horribly short timespan, with no alternative way of keeping it going. If Apple didn't lock down their systems, we could keep it going quite easily. I have plenty of Android phones that, while they don't get updates from the manufacturer directly, still get patches by running LineageOS or one of the other variants.

I'm not saying Android is great here, I think it's a terrible system, but it's not nearly as artificially hampered as Apple's stuff is.

Oh, I completely agree. Apple is far from the only bad actor here. The only reason I singled them out was because the article was about them.

Hmm if we're talking tablets, at least an apple tablet will be useful for some time starting when you buy it. Can't say the same about many android tablets...

What's frustrating though is that I can pick up a 20 year old general purpose computer from the trash, set it up with software from that time (never mind the legalities) and play around with it.

Not so with the one iPad 1 I keep around... I think you can't install any new apps if you try now.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com