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Comment by wavephorm | Hacker News Reader

I don't care about new iOS features, or any of their iCloud nonsense, I know it won't support Siri (ipad1 lacked a microphone).

What I do care about is the web browser on my iPad not receiving any software updates... ever. That's a serious problem. Without any software upgrades ever, the iPad will become the future IE. In fact, this is worse because of Apple's closed system they also won't allow 3rd parties to upgrade the software either. That means no new web browsers, audio players, or any other new type of software which might threaten their platform.

Apple wants to pretend that software can't be upgraded because you're using old hardware, which not only is completely retarded, it defeats the purpose of software.

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Without any software upgrades ever, the iPad will become the future IE. In fact, this is worse because of Apple's closed system they also won't allow 3rd parties to upgrade the software either.

Huh? Citation needed. Apple didn't suddenly cut off App Store updates to iPad 1. Developers are free to support (or not support) iOS 5, just as they were with other iOS updates.

Furthermore, are you remotely surprised by this? iPhones prior to iPhone 3GS aren't supported by iOS 5.

Do you have the same issues with Android? There's a platform that's destined to be the "future IE". How many Android users are stuck on 2.2 or 2.3, with a horribly crippled browser?

Finally, Apple does allow other browsers, audio players and other new types of software. They don't threaten Apple's platform, the bolster it.

I'm not sure where you're digging up this FUD, but it's way off base.

I suggest we add Apple/Android criticisms to Godwyn's law. whenever anything negative is said about Apple, someone inevitably turns it into an Android bash instead. The same applies in reverse. In this instance, the grandparent was spreading FUD about Apple, so the usual Apple/Android digs have come out.

Apple doesn't allow third parties to upgrade iOS's built-in apps. If you're running Windows XP you can replace IE6 with a modern Firefox, but if you're running an iPad 1 it's WebKit version whatever for the rest of time. (The only "browsers" allowed by Apple are basically thin shells around the built-in WebKit.)

> How many Android users are stuck on 2.2 or 2.3, with a horribly crippled browser?

The answer is: most of them. ~90.2% are on Android 2.3 or below as of June 1, 2012[1].

[1] http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-ve...

"Do you have the same issues with Android? There's a platform that's destined to be the "future IE". How many Android users are stuck on 2.2 or 2.3, with a horribly crippled browser?"

You do realize that there are third party browsers on Android that have their own rendering engines that you can install right? You don't have to ever use the built in Android browser if you don't want to. I've found Firefox works quite well actually.

You could always install Firefox on Windows 2000, too. Didn't mean IE6 wasn't a major problem.

Apple doesn't pretend anything. You're just making reasons up. They didn't state any reason for not providing iOS 6 for the first iPad. They are a company. Common sense dictates that if they saw a viable reason to invest the resources into the first iPad, they would have.

iPad 1 does have a microphone.

The processor has to wavelet compress the audio and ship it off to Siri for processing. Apple might not be happy with the performance on the original iPad.

I recall that someone got it running on a jailbroken device. I don't remember how well it worked.

If other audio recording apps (I've never used any) work just fine then any excuses Apple uses to not support Siri the iPad is a load of bullshit.

It's not that simple.

Recording is easy. Dump the ADC output to a buffer and call it a WAV file. Or an AU.

Sending it to Siri requires chunking the audio into small pieces, compressing them with a wavelet table (I'm assuming here, my DSP knowledge is a bit dated), and shipping them off to North Carolina.

If this can't be done quickly, Siri appears to suck. Apple is religiously conservative about enabling features on hardware that might cause the experience to suck.

Audio compression was a slow thing on desktop computers when desktop computers had similar specs to the first iPad. I'm no authority, but this seems like a relevant detail to me.

The installed base for iPad 1 won't be anywhere near as large as that for IE6. It's a ridiculous concern.

I too have a first model iPad and it sucks, but I also kinda expected it. Other developers also don't seem that much surprised/disappointed. The problem is RAM: The iPhone 3GS and the iPad have the same amount of RAM, but the iPad has twice the resolution and almost 5 times the amount of pixels to push to screen. I suspect Apple and third party App developers will support the second Generation iPad exceptionally long, because it is still selling (obviously), it has much better hardware specs and it outsold the first Generation over 3:1. It makes sense to make the cut now with iOS 6.

iPad 1 has a microphone, I Skype on it all the time.

iPad 1 does have a microphone; I use mine for Skype calling at times.

Oops, I've actually never used it. So I guess Siri should be able to work on iPad 1 also. Anything Apple says about the hardware being incapable of using Siri sounds is probably a load of their typical bullshit.

They're still supporting the iPhone 3GS, aren't they?

If they had a viable reason to put resources into the iPad 1 and have it meet their performance and usability requirements, they would have.

They're still selling the iPhone 3GS.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iph...

The purpose of Apple software is to sell Apple hardware. In this sense, forced obsolescence works wonderfully... for them.

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