To be fair that first gen iPad is too slow to browse the web at all unless it's a really lean site like HN.
I really do not want this machine to fail because use it often. It would be lots of work recreate the convenience and familiarity of use if all the failed was a 50 cent button.
(PS it is on the net on my IOT "don't trust the IP stack" "vlan" of my home network [3 dumb router style DD-wrt units] in case it does get hit by a site attacking 10 year old iPads. I have my TVs, DVD players with apps and Guest access on it. May I will get another dumb router for the guests)
If I could be emperor for a day I would just mandate that when they drop support an old device, they have to provide a way for users still owning that device to have unlimited ability to load and run any software on it. That way if you really want to keep using your first-gen iPad then you can support it yourself. But it doesn't seem right to mandate that someone else continue to spend effort supporting idiosyncratic choices of all users.
Everything else I buy for my home (except for things with obvious wear items that physically wear out), I expect to function forever exactly as the day I purchased it, or be repairable. I have hand tools that were made 100 years ago, inherited from my grandpa, which work exactly as they are supposed to. Yet, we're expected to accept that software "wears out" after a few years.
This is a subtle point about older devices that doesn't get enough attention imo.
In order to have an app I purchased with the features I purchased on an older device that I purchased, I must:
- Jailbreak the device
- Extract the iOS app and externally save it
- Turn off automatic updates for apps
- Be signed in to the Apple account that purchased that app
- Have that account be valid and not revoked
At some point, Apple may:
- Remove the app from the App store entirely
- Allow an update to the app that changes or removes the features that I specifically wanted
- Insist that the app does not support that older version of iOS (even if the version you purchased was fine, and only a later version removed support for older iOS versions)
In order to restore access to the app in that case I must:
- Jailbreak the device
- Sign in to that Apple account
- Copy the backed-up version of the app to the device
- Risk losing any data in that app, especially if it was updated and I'm now downgrading to a version that might not support the newer data format
The first let-down was Orphion: when I purchased the app it was amazing, but they used the finger touch API in a way that Apple did not agree with. They were forced to remove that API call in an update, and the app has not been the same since. Unfortunately I did not get a copy of the original version, and so I lost access to that specific experience that I paid for.
If we (society) don’t make the choice to actively support those rights, we are making the choice to let them die on the vine.
"THIS IS A REALLY BAD IDEA AND DOING THIS VOIDS ANY WARRANTY OR GUARANTEE WE MAKE FOR THIS DEVICE. AND IF YOU INSIST ON DOING THIS YOU WILL PROBABLY EITHER GET HACKED OR LOSE ALL YOUR DATA. SO PLEASE DON'T DO THIS UNLESS YOU ARE 100% SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. AND IF YOU THINK YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING YOU ARE PROBABLY WRONG."
And if you sign that you can download a tool to jailbreak your iPhone.