joehel2 Loc: Cherry Hill, NJ

Is it my imagination or do my Apple devices, I Pad and I Phone, always perform noticibly slower when Apple introduces a new tablet or phone. Has anyone had a similar experience? Now I am shopping for an I Pad Pro just to maintain my sanity.

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

No, it is not your imagination and it is not just Apple. Over the years I have observed that both Apple and Microsoft expand their software's capability, but the tradeoff is that the programs become larger to accommodate those new capabilities. The more code a program needs to execute, the slower it becomes and the more memory it takes to both contain and run the program.

Mike D. Loc: Crowley County, CO.

I would guess that it has more to do with excess stuff in the brain bucket rather than a clandestine effort on Apple’s part to slow the older devices.

Much like The Windows OS the addition and deletion of programs and data leave things behind that eventually slow things down. Just my theory mind you but I seen it happen with Win-based computers for decades and it has happened with several iPhones that I have had.

Maybe a flush of the OS would speed things up but I have no idea how that happens on Apple products. At least Microsoft built in options to refresh things...

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

To help you understand, let us take a short look at computer history. In the 60's and 70's the cost of computers and cost per KB of memory was very high (thousands). In addition, the technology limited a storage device to only KB's, not MB's or TB's. Also, the software was primitive. Programs were written in Machine and Compiler Language, which required each line of code to be written by the programmer in octal or hexadecimal code. Because of the space limitations of the storage devices, there was of necessity an emphasis on minimizing the number of lines of code necessary to perform a function.

As time went by, cost per KB went down and storage size went up. That drastically reduced the need to conserve program size as program capability exploded. For several years now those constraints are no longer deemed necessary. As companies have competed to provide more (often unneeded) bells and whistles in their software, size no longer matters.

The hardware no longer matters as much. I remember in the original IBM PC days when I had to change computers every two years like clockwork to keep pace with software and storage capabilities. I am writing you this on a six year old iMac that still has all the capability I need. I will be upgrading to a new iMac or iMac Pro next year, but that is out of ego, not necessity.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Yep, I’m guessing it’s not intentional, but the larger, more compute, I/O and memory-hungry SW. it’s a classic computer evolutionary story - faster, more powerful HW is developed, and the SW designers create more powerful and higher level SW to use the capability.

I will say that Apple’s recent IOS 11.x OS release is by far the buggiest I have yet seen on my two IPADs. I installed the latest 11.1.1 patch (listed as a bug fix) yesterday, hoping it would fix the issues, but no joy. It’s bad enough that Safari now has this strange behavior that it briefly pops up the last page before loading the new one, and it now takes multiple seconds for some pages to load; but the most annoying one is to be typing a response and have the last few lines just disappear, often after typing a numeral. This all started with the “upgrade” to 11. Unfortunately, like some other OSs, there’s no easy way to backrev to IOS 10.x (please post if you know a way). And people think Windows is buggy? 🙄

nicksr1125 Loc: Mesa, AZ

After the iPhone 6 came out, Apple pushed an update out to iPhone 4's that killed the battery rendering them unusable. I have an iPad Air 2 and Samsung Galaxy S4. Based on past Apple practices, I doubt I'll ever get an iPhone.

Mike D. Loc: Crowley County, CO.

I understand more than you give me credit for. I've been playing with computers for over 4 decades and while what you say is true enough, the registry is Windows is prone to not flushing things after you delete things so after time all of the garbage that is no longer necessary will also slow things down a bit.

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

I remember that from when I principally used PC's. I had to buy 3rd-party software to keep the RAM flushed, optimize the hard drive and clean the registry. Apple has spoiled me in those regards. I thought that Microsoft would have resolved those issues by now. I do have a cheap Windows laptop that I occasionally use for only one program that allows me to program two-way radios (the program is not available for Apple). I upgraded it from Windows 8 to 10 a few months ago and have had nothing but problems. Half the time, I can't even get a cursor.

Windows 98 and XP solved allot of the problems, but since then every version of Windows has taken a dive in reliability and user friendliness. I can't believe how many security, bug fixes and updates tie up the laptop for a long time every couple of months when I turn it on. I had to let the laptop run overnight and into the next day in January while 54 updates were installed. By contrast, although updates and fixes are more frequent when there is a major upgrade on my Apple computers, within a few weeks the updates come about once every month or two.

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

I do not know allot about how to go back on the iPhone or iPad, but on the Mac computers, you can save your old versions of the OS on an external hard drive or memory stick and boot from the older versions. I have four friends in our Mac user group that are independent contractors and are certified Apple technicians. All four of them have several bootable versions of the Mac OS on hard drives that they use for working on both new and old Macs. Whenever I upgrade the OS on my computers, I always do the same. It is good insurance.

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

My short experience with Apple is that after Job's death, the OS releases have gotten more sloppy. They are less seamless, more buggy, and they have more updates to fix crap that goes wrong. Mac's OS is still superior to Windoze but it's suffering from the same malady, lack of care.

I wish they'd get back to their roots, "it just works" and forget about all of the fluff and getting the next big OS out the door.

berchman Loc: South Central PA

Maybe it's the "cheap laptop" that's the problem rather than Windows 10 which has never given me a problem.

Fotoserj Loc: St calixte Qc Ca

No it’s not, they push us into buying a latest model and we, the nerds, do exactly that.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Agree that you can do this on an IMac, and I could be wrong (and will research further), but I don’t think there’s a way to do that with either an iPad or IPhone. The simplicity that makes these devices appealing to so many also limits how far you can get into the internal structure or memory/file layout. Very convenient when sitting in a recliner or sharing photos with my grandchildren’s parents, but for real work and computer management, I need better internal access. If it wasn’t for the photo sharing, I’d have already traded the IPads for tablets where I have more control over both the machine and the internal applications (like mail, where the search function is poor). The day doesn’t go by when mine doesn’t drop half a paragraph I’m writing or unexpectedly close a page on my wife’s in the middle of a written response. This isn’t an Apple vs PC rant (waste of time), but my frustration is growing daily as the IPad’s robustness just gets worse with each new release, which actually occurs more often now than my Windows 10 updates. Despite other user’s occasional comments, my 3 Win 10 machines are rock solid and the updates execute perfectly and transparently.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Boy, is that true! I have an iPad 2, and it just creeps along now. I did a complete reset a couple of times, but it didn't help at all. Rather than encourage me to buy a new iPad, this would have me looking at a new Samsung.

I'm sorry to see that their sneak tactic worked on you.

Mike D. Loc: Crowley County, CO.

Joe, I think the real plot is to coerce the public into upgrading the processors once in a while. It seems to be working.